Sukumaran Nair on Mission Resuscitation

Social transformation has a curious history in Kerala. The state had practised some of the meanest and most barbaric traditions in the form of untouchability which quickly degenerated into unapproachability, where people of lower castes were grouped into hierarchical levels according to the distance they had had to keep themselves away from people of upper castes. Any breach of the rule resulted in ceremonial impurity, so the lower castes were not even allowed to walk on public roads for fear of polluting people of higher status. The rules were so elaborate and so brutally enforced that Swami Vivekananda once remarked that Kerala resembled a lunatic asylum. The darkest hour was probably early 19^th century, and it was the moment at which a switchover from feudal economy founded on barter system began to give way to a financial system founded on money introduced by the British. This helped a few lower caste people to amass a fortune by diligent use of the means of production at their disposal. When that century was drawing to a close, we find social reformers, most notably Sree Narayana Guru, emerging from the depressed classes, supported by the numerical strength of the poor majority and financial muscle of the affluent minority of those communities. The uprising came at the right moment since all parts of Kerala were under British dominance for at least a half-century before. Malabar directly under them after Tipu’s defeat in 1799, with Travancore and Cochin under their sphere of influence soon after.

The demands of the downtrodden were just, timely and pragmatic. No enlightened individual could have ignored them. So we find most of their requests being met with surprisingly little opposition. They were given representation in legislative assemblies, reservation in government jobs and the right to temple entry. However imperfect, land reform measures redistributed surplus land among the landless. The backward castes undoubtedly benefited the most from this reform. With the rapid spread of education and socialist ideals emulated from the erstwhile Soviet Union, interdining made a quick entry in the social milieu. Intermarriage was the only thing not practised, which continues still.

Perhaps because of the ease and peace with which revolutionary transformations such as the above materialized with so little effort must have caused a sense of complacency among the lower castes and a feeling of resignation to the inevitable in the upper castes. The reform process lost steam around the middle of 20^th century, after running full throttle for about five decades. After a cooling off period of 20-25 years, we find retrograde practises raising their ugly heads again in society. By 1980, almost all sections of society eagerly sought astrologers for fixing such innocuous moments like the time of marriage, house-warming and other auspicious times. Horoscopes began to be cast as soon as a child is born. In extreme cases, child birth was delayed or preponed by medical means so that it is born at the most propitious instant. Such practises which were common among the higher castes were imitated slavishly by the lower castes in a vain bid to upward social mobility. Offerings to temples and costly symbols of belonging to the temple multiplied many times among the backward communities. Often they cheerfully sunk to the depths of ridiculousness in proclaiming their devotion to Hindu deities, in a curious case of being more loyal than the king.

Kerala relapsed into a great slumber as far as social reforms were concerned. Muslims and Christians didn’t lag behind at all – with introduction of purdah with a vengeance, charismatic renewals and meditational healing. The state seemed to be limping back to be worthy of Swami Vivekananda’s depreciatory epithet again.

Enter Shri. G Sukumaran Nair, General Secretary of the Nair Service Society (NSS) with his proclamation that people of his own caste will be employed as officiating priests in temples run by their own organisation. In fact, there was nothing fundamentally new in this – the temples instituted by SNDP Yogam, the leading lower caste organisation had routinely employed people of all castes as priests right from the beginning. But the idea hadn’t gained momentum since Nairs, the most populous and influential upper caste didn’t support it and stoutly held on to the age old custom of availing the services of Brahmin priests only. It is the last ramparts of orthodoxy that is cracking under the thunderous declaration by Sukumaran Nair. Though sure to be opposed with tooth and nail by Brahmin sympathisers, the move is assured of wholehearted support from the lower castes. The only thing we eagerly look forward to is whether Shri. Nair would hold fast or buckle under pressure from regressive circles in his own society and from the uppermost castes like Brahmins. We also hope that Sukumaran Nair would not renege on his historic opportunity to resuscitate Kerala’s reform movement which is in limbo and is bringing out laboured breaths as the first symptoms of imminent death.