MUSLIM MALBAR – PART 2

this may or may not be considered as a follow-up to the first article ” muslim malabar – history” . here i would like to focus on the present condition muslim women.

as i mentioned earlier the muslims of malabar were the most backward among the three major communities of the state at the time of independence,  the gulf boom in the 80s and 90s brought them to the forefront of the socio-economic life of the state. though at present the community is more dynamic than the hindus  still they lag behind the mainstream by a generation or two . this is most evident in malappuram which could be called the defacto capital of muslim malabar where the community is plagued  by  social evils like gender inequality and  child marriages  .

muslim women would be the worst of their sex with respect to any social indicators in this state , which is known for its achievements in this field . the oppression of women is so widespread in the community that it would be hard to find working muslim women brisking to work during the peak hours in any major towns of malappuram , this inferior status of women is so deep-seated in the muslim psyche that once while taking case history when i asked a man whether his wife worked he looked at me in contempt and never replied. many of my lady friends doing bds  considers ( rather forced to consider) this degree as a means to get a good husband and 80% of them would not practice it  after getting married . if this is the case with well-educated and comparatively free women the condition of the underbelly of the society is better not described . this attitude towards the social status of women will come as a shock to anyone from outside the community , which was the case with me .

child marriages are so common in the community that no one ,how rich or poor are immune from it . nearly all muslim women gets married before 23 and would be pregnant by the next year , they have no choice in postponing this as the appropriate marriage age for a muslim woman/ girl is set at  18 . nearly 10% of the muslim students in my batch were married by first year and another 20% either got engaged or got married by the next.

one perfect example for this is that of one of my closest friends who got married in the second year , the marriage was basically a love marriage with blessings of both the families   and the husband is an MBBS doctor  . the girl got pregnant the next year and took a years leave , we must remember the fact that this girl repeated the entrance exam  to get into the course in the first hand , she want to continue her study but her husband and the families are against it , as of now its unclear whether she would continue or not.

marriage is the most relevant and discussed topic in the college campuses of malappuram whether it be boys or girls their basic aim in life  is to fall in love / get married before they are old( over 21 years in case of girls) . being a minority in my college the majority expects me  to be like them , so one of my friends asked me when am i going to get married – at 20 marriage was the least of my concerns but i answered 28 or 30 ( as my dad got married at 29) , he was shocked to hear my answer. then came nearly half an hour of lecture about how a man is to get married when his organs are at the height of their activity ( which is supposed to be 24) and how i will end up with an old lady ( aged 24 or 25) if i married ” late” . i still remember his emphasis on “pleasure” and “virginity” .

this article was never intended to hurt the sentiments of the community , but was written from first hand knowledge by the author who is  trying to cope with a world which to him is “stranger than fiction”

MUSLIM MALABAR – HISTORY

Islam constitutes about a quarter of the population of the state of Kerala ,their population is unevenly distributed with the bulk of them concentrated in the districts of malappuram and kozhikode.Islam came to the malayali shores through trade like anywhere in the indian ocean region, a few of these arab traders took malayali wives(mappila = groom), settled here. for centuries they were the trading class that constituted the spice trade in malabar,being concentrated in the towns with no representation inland. like christians or jews who propagated their religion before them they also wanted to distinguish themselves from the rest of the populace , so they  developed vocabulary with introduced arabic words ( for eg:padachavan for god which was adopted from jewish malayalam) , had customs like tying the mundu to the left and eating food on the dorsum of the plantain leaf. for nearly a thousand years islam was a minority religion just a few thousands in their number grew slowly with converts . the difference between the muslims of kerala and the north was the lack of forceful conversions , they lived in harmony with the society but largely confining to themselves with little or no interaction culturally with others. the local rulers never considered them as the sons of the soil but just as some foreign implants like the romans and jews before them.but surely there were exceptions like the arakkal royalty which embraced islam.

the community was forced out of  its cocoon of isolation by sword-  the invasions of hyder ali and tippu sultan.as they marched down from mysore through wayanad or through the coast down from mangalore blood flowed like rivers , neither tippu nor hyder were fanatics to the degree of  their north indian counter parts but the shear objection of slavery in malayali minds made them to revolt. there were reports of revolt in the malabar under tippu on a regular basis the only way to suppress it was brutality. then came the age old method of suppression killing of men, raping women and taking slaves. the nairs who spearheaded the revolt were declared as the lowest of the casts their tharavads looted men and women  given choices either to convert or die.thousands opted the first. so the muslim population in malabar multiplied a thousand fold. with the  defeat of Mysore in british hands many families who took refuge in travancore came back to take their possesions. many of the major aristocratic families who stayed back had taken islam . the british took over their properties  and distributed it  among the returnees. many wanted to return to hinduism but the returnees objected as they would have to give back the property they took from the neoconverts. this frustration and helplessness  made the converts to embrace their new religion with ferver.this resentment brew below the surface till the 1900s when it exploded as the mopila rebellion, the anger they felt for generations was let loose conversions ,killings and rape followed especially in valluvanad and eranad.this could be seen as the first sign of muslim upheavel or their first attempt to get back the dignity they lost with conversion.this time also saw the consolidation of muslims politically with setting up of many islamic fronts.

the malabari muslim identity hence forged was the unique combination of arab coastal communities and the nair and ezava heartland of eranad , valluvanad and kolathirinad. this is what the malayali muslim is – a unique blend of arab ethos with malayali values.

NRI’S CAN VOTE

while addressing the  pravasi Bharatiya divas prime minister manmohan Singh hinted about allowing the non-residential indians to vote in the next general elections. this is a very ambitious plan which is certain to have its ripples felt in the political corridors of Kerala.

malayalis are known to be politically aware whether he be a residential or non residential.the first thing a malayali does is to glance through the day’s newspaper (which are nothing more than tabloids) , then discuss the days politics at work or street corners(whether employed/not) and in the evening fight with his wife and kids to watch some news channel.though he is unaware about things happening outside the state he would be a phd in state politics.

nris make up about 3.6% of the population of the state mainly men in their prime.though politically aware and active they could not vote as they were outside the state. if they are allowed to vote the election they will be a significant force who may decide the outcome like a swing vote bank. this will be more profound in the Malabar. in districts like kannur and kasargode .

demographically speaking muslims constitute the biggest chunk of the nrks from malabar, if they are allowed voting rights their vote is expected to  go the udf way. but the twist in this tale is the fact that irrespective of the religion a person returning from gulf will be having a right-wing mentality.my observation may be controversial but if you take a sample survey among the nris in the gulf majority of the hindus would be discontent due to the curtailment of their religious rights and the muslims , due to the interactions with the brethren from else where would have adopted the hijab way.so a hindu is more likely to swing towards the bjp and a muslim – away from the iuml.this muslim votes may go to pdp or other right wing parties . so bjp and pdp will have the final bargaining power.they may switch allegences.as bjp is not in a place to win in kerala its vote will be a deciding factor in districts like kannur,thrissur and palakkad. the pdp factor will be more visible in malappuram,kozhikode and kasargode which as of now will go to the cpm.

but we all know the politics of kerala. by the next LS elections congress will be in power, there must have been some scandal before the election and there will be a pro ldf wave that will bring the udf tally back to single digits. but if the regular cycle gets interrupted by any chance and the nris are allowed to vote the bjp and pdp factors must be king makers.

MEDIA JUSTICE

the problem with the  indian english language media is that if it gets a news it feeds on it for weeks. this time the  media have re discovered its passion long forgotten since the jessica lal case – “fighting for justice for the north indian urban upper middle class”.

the ruchika murder/suicide and the following cover up was one of the shameful incidents done in the confines  of our system, which boasts of equal rights for all. its pity that the police officer who is said to have molested the girl got a minisculest verdict that he deserved . it’s the duty of the media to fight for justice and we must all fight against such inherent problems in our system and try to make it perfect.

my point here is that the so-called third eye of the society fights its battles only for a particular strata . the criterion are -

1.the victim be  from the punjabi north or  goa( tourist or catholic native). who can fluently speak english.

2. from upper middle class , that is who can tweet,use face book et al.

3.the perpetuator from a powerful background.if  politician the best. so that they can chant all the anti politician slogans.

4.the family/friends of the victim able to conduct rang de basanti type candle light vigils.

some of you who chance up on this article must  have gotten hyper by now so for them I like to give an example for the injustice of media justice.

in kerala there were two such cases involving rape(even serial rape) and murder . that too of girls of the same age as ruchika’s. one of them anakha- a brahmin girl from poor background was raped by people who were having connections with many prominent politicians in kerala. the girl and her family committed suicide that is how the whole story came out in open. the malayalam media was very active in finding the truth but their smaller reach meant smaller effect. the story slowly died down , no one except some scape goats were arrested.the other case is  of shari ,with some of the same people involved.

had anakha or shari be born to some rich punjabi family their justice would have been done by now. in anakha’s case the culprits killed a whole family,is anakha’s justice less important than ruchika’s , why isnt the english media taking up its arms for the victim? or asking the home minister of the country(that too for a state matter) the all important “questions”. the answer can be found in the above mentioned criteria.

there are many unheard anakhas or sharis in other parts of the country the culprits in their cases may not be big guns , they may be a zamindar or a petty police constable. so the media must widen its area of vision to incorporate all of india, not just focussing on one core group. the middle class anger against the system must be also be diverted to the fight for justice of these poor lads too .

the ctn I started must be taken up urgently or we as people will fail these hundreds of unknown ruchikas .

ODIYAN

our valluvanad was one of the final frontiers of western civilization.a land of immense beauty lived upon by mysterious people with strange  traditions and practices . where kalari was a way of life for the menfolk and their women the most liberated of their contemporaries . that world which existed till forty years ago now lives in the stories that grand mothers tell kids , many of them renegated as fables.

odiyans were the assassins of the time. they were hired by the nairs of rival families , mainly hailing from panar,pulayar and choklear communities, were feared for their extreme physical stamina and powers which could be matched only by mantrikans(powerful magicians).

the powers

the odiyans used to apply an oil obtained from the a killed human fetus  on their ear and assume shapes that they desired. they never changed into that object but the person seeing them had such a perception. they would assume shapes of bulls , cats , even rocks and when their victim approaches he would be killed instantly. but here there was a problem, if they took the shape of an animal like a bull ,the bull  appeared three-legged or tailless so that a person who is careful could understand what he was seeing and act accordingly. there is a story about a mantrikan who once returning home at night saw two bulls,he soon realized the trap and tied the two together and took them to a riverine and washed their ears  . the next second he saw two naked men standing in front of him.

the oil

the oil the odiyans used was made from unborn fetuses. their targets were women in their first pregnancy.during the day they would give some signs while working in the houses of their victims and in the night these women would walk unconscious in their sleep to the odiyans , who would split them open with sharpened knifes made of bamboo and took the fetus out. the women walked back home as  nothing happened only to die in their bed. in the morning everyone would assume the cause of death to be natural as the wounds in the belly would have gone by then. the fetus was hung from a pole so that a special fluid would be drained from it.the amount was so small that it would last only for a handfull of odi tricks.

what happened to them

with the modern education, the western lifestyle and more importantly the emancipation of panars and pulayars there were no takers for this tradition.so it died out without revealing many of its secrets like many other Indian traditions.

NATIONAL LANGUAGE

the topic of national language have always been a raging topic especially here in south for the past century or so.the imposition of an alien language or a culture is always detested by those on whom it is imposed . the world outside the hindi heart land is no exception. hindi which is our national language is spoken by 40% of the population,which again is of different dialects and sub languages.hindi in its present form is one of the youngest languages and in literary content one of the least developed,but many of the regional languages like Tamil or Bengali is rich both historically and in language.even the youngest of the regional languages – Malayalam had evolved into its standard form centuries before Devanagari was adopted for Urdu. the imposition of such a language over these well established ones was one of the greatest mistakes done by the post independent india.hindi after splitting from Urdu started to adopt words from Sanskrit so that it can mask its persianness .but the hindi used in daily life was more or less same as Urdu which is alien to most parts of the country.

english on the other hand is the language of the world.every one needs to study that to succeed in life,its like the modern persian. but the adoption of english as the national language will affect india’s future position as a global power. our use of english as a medium can only make us inferior to the Anglo saxon power block. their  attitude towards india is more evident in the british media and legalization of english can only legitimize their colonial mentality.

in this scenario i would like to propose the use of Sanskrit as the link language between the indian populace .it is the bed rock of all languages including the three of the four southern languages.moreover every one need to learn a second language and there will be a level playing field for all.even tamil have 20-30% of its words from Sanskrit.the use of an indigenous language can act as an advantage when india develops and can act as its soft power as english is doing for america.the use of sanskrit can decrease the fear of extinction or inferiority that may languages face as they can flourish in their own ways.

the religious tone of Sanskrit is the main disadvantage of the language. this can be overcome by developing the language in the secular front , new secular literature can be written in Sanskrit or many of the best secular literature of other languages could be translated to it. this can give an added advantage as people in different parts of the country can get to know about each other. think about this – parts of thirukural being studied in a school in Punjab  or geetanjali taught in Kerala, that too  in Sanskrit.

there will be oppositions to my view but adoption of english can only make us colonial puppets and that of hindi will be a crime done to other  languages which have a huge literary history.

FALL OF DUBAI

Dubai is the word synonymous to the middle east in malayalam.millions have pulled themselves out of poverty from the money sent from there. but the latest news out of the emirates have revealed the skeletons from its sultans closets. the world have always asked for transparency in their  balance sheet but it have always remained a mystery until now when the govt told the creditors to freeze its debts.

Dubai world and nakheel which are the investment arms of the government have gone under a debt of 80 mill dollars. its sultan who wanted to diversify the economy invested the oil money elsewhere but when the housing bubble burst everything went south the effect was doubled by the falling oil prices.dubai splurged its money in building some outrageous world wonders like’ the palm’ and ‘the world’.

i think this is just the tip of the iceberg , more secrets of the royals will be out soon.poor kerala govt which counted the Dubai for the ambitious smart city project.the chief minister recently said that he is reviewing the whole project an a new partner will be selected soon.reports from the emirate says that the Dubai govt is to be bailed out by its good neighbour abudhabi.any way my uncle(who was an expat in Saudi)used to say that one day arabs will come to clean up the cow dung of our cattle as we do with their camel waste ,i thing that day wont be far away.

GLOBALISATION OF HINDUISM

hinduism is one of the oldest traditions of the world dating back to the indus valley civilisation.one of the major characteristics of this religion is the fact that it is not a religion but a way of life.that means anyone who follow the ‘indian’ way of life can be considered a hindu.this interpretation of hinduism gives scope for millions of different beliefs and traditions,so a malayali like me or a punjabi or a gujrati are hindu though our beliefs and most importantly gods vary.even the epics we hear may vary from one another this is the beauty of being hindu.

but after independence and especially from the 80s due to the vigorous efforts of some vested interests particularly from the north the religion or the hindu beliefs have begun to get homogenised.we in kerala started to get more into the rama and krishna cult and started abandoning the traditional gods and godesses.more importantly the ancestral worship which was an important aspect of our tradition is slowly dying out. the ‘adianthiram’  which used to be a yearly affair is now  observed once in two or some cases in three years.’adiyanthiram’ is a ceremony that is conducted in these parts to honour the dead , the day is marked by special pooja conducted by a priest who is nonbrahmin not to any idols but to a ‘peedam’ or a small wooden stool and a plantain leaf.this ritual is supposed to feed the ancestors who are represented by the stool for one year.the ritual also involves sacrifices (cock) and offering of toddy or alcohol to appease the ancestors. this tradition is slowly dying out mainly due to the aforesaid homogenization of hinduism,where the northern beliefs are forced on us and we  are made to abandon our tradition.

another of such case is the ‘naga pooja ‘and’ puluvan pattu’ ,where the snakes are worshiped.kerala have a long history of snake worship and every home used to have sacred grooves called’ pambin kavu ‘or snake temple. the naga poojas seldom happen these days and the sacred grooves are destroyed.the art form of puluvan pattu associated with this is also dying out.

the problem of homogenizing hinduism is felt in every community which have traditions different fro the north indian ones.i have read about’ balinese hinduism’ and its dilemma whether to adopt this new brand of hinduism or stick to their traditional ones. the propagators of this phenomenon must understand that diversity is the character of hinduism that differentiate it from other religions and this diversity is the only reason why it have stood the test of time.

RAIN INTENSIFIES

malampuzha dam

the rains which have been continuing for the past few days have intensified.the situation is related to the depression that developed in the Arabian sea and which is heading north towards Gujarat as a cyclone.at the mean time north east monsoon is wrecking havoc in tamilnadu killing at least 50 people.all this h

ave contributed to a rise in water levels in the malampuzha and the kanjirapuzha dams,forcing the authorities to open the dams.the alert issued yesterday still remains valid to the areas adjoining bharatapuzha and thoothapuzha.

met department predicts heavy rains in the coming 24hrs .

UDF SWEEPS BY-POLLS

UDF candidates have won all the three seats in the by poll conducted on November 7th.according to the latest reports the UDF candidates A.A shukur ,A.P Abdulakutty and Dominic presentation won the Alapuzha,Kannur and Eranakulam seats respectively.this is a serious blow to the ruling LDF coalition especially taking into account the high-octane election campaigning it did  .Kannur saw the fiercest of fights where the defeated candidate Mr E.P Jayarajan is a stalwart of the CPM.

the poor performance of LDFcan be attributed to various factors like anti incumbency,infighting in CPM,the corruption allegations against many CPM leaders and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

bjp which have lost its hope of bagging any seats in the state came a distant third in all these seats

the results are more or less on expected lines as Kerala politics have become so predictable.the power always alters between the two fronts which are virtually undifferentiable from each other . people do not have a choice and this was mirrored in low percentage of votes polled in urban areas(kochi).the results are in line with expectations as an overwhelming majority  is predicted for udf in the coming elections.

the margins of victory in various constituencies are

KANNUR 12043

ALLAPUZHA 5701

ERANAKULAM 8630