Today is the first day of Onam – and MB Manoj reminds us about other histories of Kerala and other Malayali voices than those of the dominant Nair community.
The interview is entirely in Malayalam. But here’s a short account of what Manoj says in both videos below:
Reading Onam through the eyes of Dalits, the festival loses its “natural” association with the Malayali identity. In fact, in the words of Manoj – “Onam is a black day for Dalits, a day of murder, even as it is a day of happiness for the upper castes”. The coming of Onam also marks the coming of the caste system and slavery in Kerala. Manoj talks about Dalit cultural life in Kerala and its relation to Onam. There are folk songs which criticise the upper-caste nature of Onam and its vegetarianism. Similarly, there are songs which criticise the temple entry proclamation of Kerala. There is a realisation among Dalits that Onam is a celebration of the murder of their king by the upper castes. As part of this realisation, Dalit movements, and especially the Indian Dalit Federation, have observed hunger strikes during Onam days. Manoj reminisces participating in one of these hunger strikes in Idukki town in Kerala during his college days. Manoj stresses that most Dalits, tribals and backward castes eat meat during Onam and their culture fall outside the cultural milieu of Onam. Therefore, for the lower-castes, Onam is neither a cultural nor a national festival, but a festival of the upper-castes.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
i am a malayali but never noticed this casteist aspect regarding onam because i never witnessed one rather thought it might unite all. and the murder of the dalit king is totally ridiculous and caught out of contest because everyone of us considers him with reverence and high regard. this cynic thought will only lead us to our own downfall
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Ammaye thalliyalum randundu bhagam every one is free to express his or her view
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I can understand what Manoj is trying to say. Personally, I do not remember having Onam
with all the lavishness which is associated with it. Because there are two distinct aspects to
the myth of Mahabali whose annual visit to his lost kindom is the period of Onam. This aspect is intimately interwoven into the Hindu lore of 10 incarnations pf Vishnu and therefore Vamana is venerated in the form of Trikkakarayappan, The floral decorations,
the giftgiving of new clothes and the multicourse banquet, the diffeent forms of merry-making, etc are the accompaniments that go with religious, retualistic part of the festival.
Of course, in recent times it has taken on a populist garb making it an occasion, especially
for the Malayalee diaspora, to reminisce the green paradise back home, Plus, the
period falls during the dry spell after the rains and the first harvest after the lean months.
Let us remember that before the fist Leftist regime brought about agrarian reforms, the
tenants ( renting either paddy fields or cultivable lands like orchards and small plantations)
were obliged to offer an Onam gift to the landowner, who were invariably uppercaste hindus. I remember my peasant father carrying bunches of bananas (poovanpazham or
golden-ripe bunch of plantains) on Thiruvonam Day. Some landowners reciprocated the
gesture with a small sum or some new clothes as gifts. The offering of the peasants’
produce was ceremoniously called Onakkazhcha. With the merchants and traders taking
over the arena, Onam today, like any other largescale festival, has become an occasion to
make the maximum sales return!.
But at its origin, the Mahabali story seems to me a story of wanton treachery and shameless landgrab as we will call it today. It narrates so explicitly what happened when
the two races met, when the Aryans schemed to sujugate the indigenous Dravidians. Any
means was good and Mahabali was without any malice that he accepted the humiliating
dethrownment. According to the chronology of Dasaavatara, Parasurama came after
Vamana, reclaimed Kerala from the sea(?) and established several brahmin families across
this newly acquired territory, though by cheating, The paradox is that it is Vishnu the prote-
ctor who brings about the end of Mahabali’s benevolent, welfare, state!!! A pertinent question: does the lord Vishnu incarnate to establish dharma(dharmasamstapanaaya) or
perpetuate adharma?
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@ Inasu, why do you consider mythological figures as historical figures? Do you really believe that Lord Vishnu and his ten incarnations really existed?
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“But at its origin, the Mahabali story seems to me a story of wanton treachery and shameless landgrab as we will call it today. It narrates so explicitly what happened when
the two races met, when the Aryans schemed to sujugate the indigenous Dravidians”
“There is a realisation among Dalits that Onam is a celebration of the murder of their king by the upper castes”
Aryans/ Dravidians ? Murder of their king by the upper castes ? ? What are you smoking really ? Please can you pass me some? Looks like it is Idukki gold !!! Can you please stop looking at everything from the point of view of Dalit discrimination ? People definitely have a lot more on their mind than coming up with ways to discriminate against “Dalits”, you really dont belive people are that jobless do you ?
Some of the things you guys come up with are laughable. Come on left wing “intellectuals”, some intellect for a change would be nice.
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Difficult for non dalits to accept the dalit point of view – it angers them and makes them ridicule it like Trivikram above. It would be good , instead if more non dalits engaged and empathised with these issues nd worked with the minority of non dalits to bring about a more equitable society.
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Sajan Venniyoor has taken the trouble to transcribe the videos for the non-Malayali audience. Thanks, Sajan.
Dalit Movements and Onam
Interviewer: Onam is celebrated as the state festival of Kerala. What are your views on Onam?
MB Manoj: Where Kerala is concerned, ever since the 10th century (A.D), the dominant classes have established many myths as history. The first myth is that Kerala was created by Parasuraman. This is a great myth in itself, a legend… a blind legend, a fable. They turned this fairy tale into history, so that the origin of Kerala is itself narrated as a fable.
The origin of Kerala is one the foundational myths of India, most of which were established by the upper — Brahminical — castes. According to this myth, Kerala was even then a nation state, with its own great festivals of which Onam is one.
There are two ways in which Dalits see Onam. For one, it is the day on which one of their kings — Mahabali — was murdered. Both in Dalit and tribal folklore, the Dravidian king known as Mahabali was their king. He was a good king, who strove for equality and fraternity among his people. For an Indian king to establish equality, fraternity and liberty… he could only have come from the Buddhist tradition. But as a consequence of Aryanization, in the struggle for Aryanization, many kings like Mahabali were slaughtered.
So you have this folk narrative among Dalits, among tribes — the folk-songs of the adivasis in Wayanad, for instance — that their king Mahabali was killed by Vamanan (a dwarf brahmin).
As far as Dalits and adivasis are concerned, Onam is a Black Day, the day their king was murdered, a day of mourning. But for the upper castes, it’s a happy day, a day to celebrate, the day their power was entrenched. With the murder of the most powerful king in the land, they had nothing left to fear.
Having killed the king, they brought the natives, the tribes, into the lowest level of their caste system. They intoduced slavery. Onam marks the age when slavery and the caste system were introduced into Kerala, an age which began with the killing of Maveli (Mahabali).
The historicity is very evident. Mahabali is an Asura, Vamana is Vishnu. Mahabali, the Asura, treated all his subjects as equals but Vamana, the avatar of Vishnu, came and stamped Mahabali into the earth.
So the Dalit’s question is, how can we celebrate as a ‘festival’ the day our king was murdered? How do we celebrate the death of our forefather? For us, it is a day of mourning, not for festivities. But the Brahmins, using their power and influence, especially over the media, have suppressed the real history of Onam and turned it into a festival for all Keralites.
Interviewer: What’s the response of Kerala’s Dalit movement to Onam? What’s their relationship with Onam?
MB Manoj: Take a look at the folk songs of Kerala. There’s one that goes, “Little one, little one, Onam has come, little one / The swing, the swing! There’s a swing for Thiru Onam”, and the song ends, “Fish curry, fish curry – there’s fish curry for Thiru Onam.” Here’s a song that says, among other things, “We want pappadam, we want payasam…” and then goes on to mock the caste-ridden nature of Onam by saying, “We want koori (fish) curry”. Fish curry is never permitted in the Onam feast, which consists only of vegetarian food like pappadam, payasam, bananas etc. The folk song is critical of vegetarian food itself.
Folk songs belong to a very old tradition, and Dalits, it is clear, fall outside the Onam tradition. Another example which shows that Onam is not part of the Dalit tradition is the Temple Entry Proclamation. There’s another song that mocks the Temple Entry Proclamation. It’s about Dalits going to the temple – “Let’s go to the temple. We can touch the Lord and pray to him. There’s the Lord of the Wheel. The Lord smeared with holy ash. See the flower growing from the Lord’s navel.” There are many songs that are critical of Hindu gods like Vishnu, which say that temple entry is not what we need, songs that are critical of Hinduism.
These are not just folk songs. These are the lived experiences of Dalits, their cultural life.
There are many such myths about Onam, but these myths are not celebratory. Rather, they are about how our native king was deceived and killed. In fact, the older members of the Dalit community don’t say that Mahabali was pressed into the ground (by Vamana); they say he was killed and thrown into a mud pit. The traditional image is of Vamana placing his foot on Mahabali’s head and pushing him into the earth. Our Dalit elders say that when he (Mahabali) was sitting in prayer in his palace, his enemies took away his weapons, killed him and got rid of his body, burying it in some unknown place. That is likely to be the actual event on which the myth is based. We come across many such anti-brahminical events and stories.
The Dalit movements from the 70s to the 90s, especially the Indian Dalit Federation and its founders like Kallara Sukumaran and Paul Chirakkarodu, observed Onam as a day of mourning, as the day on which one of our forefathers was murdered. We sit in fast (hunger strike) on this day in town, with posters and banners. This is a fairly common occurrence in Kerala. When I was a pre-degree student in my native Cheruthoni, I too sat on a day’s fast organized by the Indian Dalit Federation and other Dalit groups. This is a major form of resistance to the idea of Onam.
In fact, Dalits and backward communities eat non-vegetarian food on Onam. Even today, 99% of Dalits, backward classes and tribe will eat fish, beef etc. I think it’s the middle and upper classes – the Nairs, the Nambuthiris (Kerala brahmins) – who eat only vegetarian food during Onam. Everyone else eats non-vegetarian food. They don’t consider Onam a festival. At the same time, the government as well as political and cultural hegemons create many artificial festivals using tools like TV, films and magazines and, technically, they co-opt the others into it.
But for this, they (Dalits and backward classes) don’t give any importance to Onam. They don’t see Onam as their state festival, neither historically nor in practice.
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“For an Indian king to establish equality, fraternity and liberty… he could only have come from the Buddhist tradition. But as a consequence of Aryanization, in the struggle for Aryanization, many kings like Mahabali were slaughtered”
Wow talk about a condescending comment and you need to look no further than this quote. For MB Manoj- a man from the “supressed” class to say something like this is so hypocritical. So a hindu king cannot strive for equality, fraternity and liberty ? He has to be a buddhist ? What a load of bunkum. By the way I have a query for MB Manoj who talks so much about evolution & principles of hinduism and not to forget the founding of the great state of Kerala – What exactly is your expertise ? What makes you think that you are some sort of an authority to comment on Hinduism and Kerala ? Hope your answer is not that “I am a dalit born in Kerala and have been discriminated against for ages”
Mr Manoj: If you honestly believe that the mindless attrocities perpetuated upon vulnerable sections of the society by the rich and powerful have any sanctions in Hinduism or its scriptures then you are so wrong. If you say that some of the hindu literature is being misrepresented to authenticate these attrocities then I second you strongly. Either which way I am I am on the side of Hinduism and Dalit emancipation. It is not an either or choice.
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You can never be on the side of Hinduism and Dalit Emancipation at the same time, for Hinduism has its its very core the inferiority of lower castes (born of brahmas feet). Social subjugation of Lower castes is sanctioned by religion. Please stop being so naive and read the Hindu texts. You can start with the ORIGINAL Manusmriti.
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What about the Shambuk vadh in the ramayan, Trivikram?
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Here is a poem on Onam I wrote long back:
Maveli was dark and daring
in his kingdom of goodness and plenty
he was his subjects’ dear darling.
But alas he fell under the spell
of a chanting dwarf, fair and scheming,
asking for shelter a three feet plot
to house his kinsmen and cousins.
The king said yes and the deal was done!
When the white scheming foreigner
came to claim his promised land
he took his form of world conqueror
and took away all the land
from under the bewildred king’s feet.
Landless and crownless
Maveli sought a place to savour his defeat
and earn a living with dignity.
The white scheming man then said with a glee,
“Go West where the weather is all dust and heat
Or go North where the air is icy cold like death,
toil and sweat to eat your daily bread.”
The hapless king then begged for a favour,
“Grant me visa to visit my folks one a year
Break the news of my coming as Onam for ever
Ask my people to revel in my memory.”
The new coloniser, as always white and scheming,
droned, malice in his eyes, “yeah, it’s granted!”
—————————–
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In kerala state or the geographical/cultural space that defines “kerala/malayali” we don’t have a singular dominant onam. onam is already a scattered experience that has its own dilemmas,it is problematic as the categories known as “kerala””malayali ” and the secular space of kerala.i believe that the only possible way of participating or celebrating onam is NEVER that of subordination.onam means many things to dalits that never comer under the dominant discourses of onam.exaggerating the dominance of the elite onam culture and undermining all the forms of dalit participation is nothing but patronizing.there is that rational position that denies “myths” any place in the modern world and the “history” becomes only legitimate form of speaking about the past . can we neglect the myth of pottan theyyam in which a pulaya questions Adi shanakara or myths of pakkanar that questions brahmanic power? here i felt that the critique of onam in the video is too simplistic.
according to pakkanar myth maveli comes from the north-from paalaringam.pakkanar follows.the places pakkanar passes by flourishes.who cares whether onam is a “national”festival ?it always has variety of local versions and community versions.
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Very interesting response. To be human is to be creative. There are continuing creative response from all castes, classes. There is creativity in it.
The emotional responses that essentialize, racialize, and taking puranic claims as history actually happened- are indiscriminate reductions. Often such arguments are presented for others’ consumption- to radicalize others!
Simplistic cause-effect theories built upon puranic stories do not explain anything. Such works are not either serious or academic. Non-serious works are superficial and often they are counter productive to the claimed causes!
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The Sanskritisation of the pre-Aryan people in India is a fairly established historical fact if you read your history including Romila Thapar and L K Jha etc. It was a natural process of a race coming into the sub-continent and settling down. and breaking down the existing order, murdering the existing king is also part of the process. Let’s put this in context – this happened in about 900 BC I would imagine around the period that the Aryans were settling down.
To the Dalits and the non-Brahminical castes I can see how it would be a day of sorrow and memory of subjugation but its been quite a few hundred years since then. India is independent and free. Social mobility is limited only by poverty (which I admit is a big deterrent) and your imagination. Should you not move on now?
To the Brahmins, time to respect the past and respect the feelings of those who have these memories and stop denigrating the past or pretending it did not happen. Pretending it did not simply insults the memories and history… and risks us having to repeat it.
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i tend to agree with Ajith Kumar. While there is no way one can miss the upper-caste contours of the so called ‘proper’ onam celebrations, there is really no singular way in which Malayalees celebrate Onam especially when one considers the fact that they no longer live exclusively within the geographical space of Kerala. Non-vegetarian onams were certainly known, and in fact no just among the dalits — but again, these were every bit reinforcing of feudal indignities as are vegetarian onams. I am personally in favor of efforts to reinvent onam as part of the efforts we definitely need to make as we struggle of live together as distinct communities and make space for non-malayalees who live among us now. We just had a lovely celebration at Centre for Development Studies — when the thirty Assamese and Bengali workers who are now constructing for us a new hostel building joined us in the sadya. This was the first time, and next time we will perhaps think of how we can change the sadya menu to suit all of us better! Also, the Onam dates are no longer as important; the season is. So also is ‘public onam’ in kerala which we ought to seize and transform. About Manoj’s take on Onam, I am not sure if mahabali himself can be viewed as entirely outside the brahmanical order — and i am also not sure whether the left’s effort to change the narrative of Onam such that the figure of Vamana from its centre was utterly useless.My discomfort with Onam has always been around the hypocrisy it demands. To keep Maveli comforted, we pretend to be an egalitarian utopia … sometimes this sort of play-acting, it seems, appears almost genetically-ingrained in us …
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Some news papers have reported that alcoholic drinks worth more than Rs.200 crores were sold in Kerala during just two days of Onam. It seems that both vegetarians and non-vegs equally enjoy alcohol. Turely mavelinadu!!!!!
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The myrh of dasaavataara, some say, is the story of how life evolutioned on this planet.
Historians who scanned this may please come to enlighten us. The dethrownment must
have taken place and the king disappeared mysteriously just to reappear once a year. All
that sounds so contemparary, as we read in the history of conquest and colonisation and
neo-colonisation going on today. Looking at Onam and its causal myth in this way is no
left rhetoric. This is simply how human history has been shaped and reshaped across the
ages. That need not prevent the Malayalees from celebrating this festival, commemorating
the annual visit of the benevolent king, with increasing joy and merrymaking. One only wishes that this august occasion be a day when all Malayalees all over the world feel proud
of their land and feel as one people despite the differences. Happy Onam to all!!!!!!
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Ravi Dasa was killed by brahmins by cutting his chest and Brahmin Hindus had propagated that Ravidassa had showed his golden Janau by tearing his chest and same time God Ships arrived and Ravidassa sat ang gone to haven .Dalits and Hindus can not live together .120 million daits have to annihilate the hinduism and donot waste your time in annihilating the caste.Mahabali and Ravidassa story are same and both were killed by Hindus.
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Onam is the day the king comes back. No one celebrates the day he was sent to pathalam. It is a bit like saying easter is the day Christ was crucified, simply wrong. there is no proof whatsoever that mahabali was dravidian. asura was not used to denote dravidians by aryans. asura was the term used to signify iranians. the parsis still call their god as ahura mazda. the ahuras are the reigning divinities in zoroastrainism and the devas are the opponents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daeva. there is no proof whatsoever that bali was a dravidian king . infact there are very similar stories in pakistan of the return of kings from the underworld among the kalash .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalasha_%28religion%29#Religion. check the festivals there is one called chawmos involving a king called balimien. proof whatever exists says that most of the modern hindu gods are infact dravidian gods. statues resembling kali and shiva have been found in the indus valley. both the words krishna and rama mean black in sanskrit. it seems the aryans who came to indus valley found a superior culture and assimilated into it. precisely like what the mongols , the visigoths and the huns did in other countries
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Exposing festivals is good. Brahminazism must die. Quickly.
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I am a Tamilan I accept the truth about braminism.maveli was old chera king who was cheated and slaughtered.in the name of god.I dont belive in the avathar of krishna.This story was framed by the bramins and regarding lord krishna he is a dravidian god in black complexion.He was said to be mayon or kannan in sangam texts like Tholkappiyam.Once i saw the interview of present travancore royal family uthiradom Thirunal raja.He said the every one is saying that mahabali as asura but he was smart and man of good disposition.This is the testimony given by the descendant of royal family of chera dynasty.any way festival is celebrated to remember the maveli mannan.even in ancient days onam was celebrated in Tamilnadu also.It is the festival of dravidians to welcomeback the Great king maveli who thought that all are equal ……….
valzhga maveli udaya pugalzh……..
with regards
Arunpradhap Natarajan
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