A NORTH - SOUTH DIVIDE? SORRY, I BEG TO DIFFER !!

                           

Being a Malayali, born and raised in Bombay, I grew up amidst a delightful concoction of religious beliefs and surprisingly unorthodox points of view. Today, these very beliefs and perspectives are being severely tested, as scepticism and doubt on the one hand come face to face with violence and bigotry in the name of religion. We live in dangerous times indeed.

Like many of my peers, I too have been thrown into a quandary over all my earlier philosophies. I constantly question myself, and the answers are not easy to come by. My state of mind notwithstanding, when I received this piece that has been doing the rounds on Whatsapp for months, for the fourth time today, I decided to add my two penny worth on the subject in question.

First of all let me transcribe the article I received.

“Ramachandra Aluri is Associate Editor of the mass-circulated Mathruboomi Daily & outstanding literary figure in Malayalam.

He is a devout Malayali Hindu.

Every Hindu should dutifully read & digest what he writes...”

"Certain ignorant fundamentalists now in power should understand this before targeting Malayalees for their defiance against myths of Akhand Bharat and the beliefs of north. We Hindus of Kerala don't worship cows as mothers. You will rather find bulls in Shiva temples here as stars. For us Sabarimala and Guruvayoor means a lot more than Haridwar or Ayodhya. Our major festivals are Onam and Vishu, not Diwali or Navaratri. We don't celebrate holi, bhai dooj, karwa chauth or rakhi. Christmas and Eid are pretty much part of our lives. Some ardent religious Keralites are vegetarians and a few others by choice. Most of us eat beef, chicken, mutton, duck and all sort of other meats. Fish is essentially a part of Kerala cuisine. Just because, some Northies worship beef, don't expect us to give up beef.

Buffalo meat is not banned anywhere in India. So it was a planned plot in Delhi and well executed by some Hindu Sena to hurt Keralite defiance. Malayalam is our mother tongue and so we are Malayalies. Neither Hindi nor Hindutva means anything to us. Islam and Christianity grew here peacefully and those who believe in those religions are a part of our multi-cultural society. In Kerala you will find churches, temples and mosques standing tall close to each other in peace and some of them are thousands of years old. Keep the sobbing stories of Mughals and other invasions of the North to yourselves. The oldest mosque in India built in 629 AD is right here in Kerala at Kodungallur.

We had trade relations with Jews, Arabs, Chinese and many South East Asian kingdoms for over two thousand years (i.e. during B.C.). We defeated the Dutch in Kolachal.

Travancore and Kochi were not part of British India. They were pretty much independent princely states. Travancore had its own elected people's assembly here in Trivandrum before Indian independence. RSS and other regressive forces should know that we won't bow before your Hindutva agenda, we joined the Indian Union, which is a Secular Federal Republic, and will never be a part of any Hindurashtra".

A Proud Malayali Hindu.

My Reply to Mr Ramachandra Aluri

Dear Mr Aluri,

Like you, I too am a proud Malayali Hindu, although I was born and raised in Bombay. Having carefully scrutinized all that you have written, I find myself quite unable to empathise with your views.

Let me explain.

At the outset, the very tone and tenor of your piece smacks of the typical, blustering, aggressive tendency that so defines our clan. Your attitude is insulting and supercilious. Taking a perverse pride in cutting yourself off from the rest of the country will not serve to make you independent of the ‘Northies’ as you call them.

Unless you think fish, coconuts and spices are sufficient to live on, please adopt a little more humility in your speech. You need the ‘Northies’ a little more than they need you. Instead of boasting “Keep the sobbing stories of Mughals and other invasions of the North to yourselves.”, say a silent prayer at Sabarimalai, or the temple of your choice, for never having known such intrusions. Perhaps they may have served to rid the Malayali psyche of its ill famed arrogance!

One glaring defect in your testimony is your apparent craven fear of Muslims when you speak of 'other' meats. You studiously avoid the mention of pork, which is such a popular and delicious meat eaten by both Hindus and Christians in Kerala. Are you appeasing your Muslim readers?? Worrying about hurting their sentiments, while your ride roughshod over the ‘Northies’?

 As for living together in peace, that was true years ago when the tolerant, mild-mannered Hindus were the majority, and ruled the roost. You live in a fool’s paradise if you think that still holds true. Like the proverbial ostrich, you have your head buried in ‘coconut husk’!

Muslims have aggressively multiplied and taken over the narrative. Kerala Hindus have, sad to say, cowed down in submission. They dare not open their mouths in opposition because Muslims won't think twice before hacking them to pieces, as they did during the communal riots years ago. (my mother, who was from Cannanore, witnessed it first hand).

They still do it, as news stories out of Kerala aver. That the Communists have had a huge hand in the mess that is Kerala is another matter altogether, and fodder for another cannon perhaps.

The truth is Kerala Muslims are joining ISIS and other Muslim Brotherhood organisations, and are being radicalized at an alarming rate. There is an entire Muslim village which has been segregated from the 'Kafirs' (yes, Hindus like you and me), and where Shariah now rules, unhindered and unobstructed. Yes, sir, its true!

Had I read your piece a few years ago I may have felt proud to be a Malayali. However, today your views, and indeed your  style of writing, only makes me sick! And to add insult to my grievous injury, is the sad fact that you represent an old and esteemed magazine like, ‘Mathrubhumi’, a magazine to which my late father made such erudite contributions. He surely must turn in his grave to read this misrepresentation by you.

 The tide has turned, Mr Ramachandra Aluri, and its time we Malayalis woke up and smelt the filter coffee we are so famous for!