Brute Majority of Minorities in Kerala

(An abridged version of this blog appeared in the New Indian Express, Kochi, on August 12, 2006. The portions deleted by the editors are shown in red colour)

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore was ranked nineteenth among world’s universities in scientific research last year, ahead of IITs and all Asian universities. When we exploded the atomic device in Pokhran this institution won the distinction of being blacklisted by the US. This great institution known as the academic birthplace of space research in this country was started by Jamshedji Tata, a distinguished citizen belonging to a miniscule minority community in India, namely the Parsis. Even today, decades after the institute was dedicated to the Nation and handed over to the Government, this is “Tata Institute” to the local populace, a towering monument of minority communities’ contribution to higher education in India.

It was neither an accident of history nor any political compulsion that prompted the founding fathers of our Constitution to make (made) adequate provision to safeguard the rights of minorities. They did it consciously and deliberately to protect the unity and integrity of this secular nation. It is possible that they were guided by two historical reasons: Firstly they were under the illusion that the nation of their dreams with equality and social justice would be born on the day of independence. Secondly, it was a conscious effort to avoid in independent India, the kind of inequities and indignities meted out to the non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan. The thoughtful safeguards in the constitution were to enable minorities to protect their cultural identity and rights to worship. Our leaders went ahead one more step to provide special rights to establish and maintain their own educational institutions- a right unavailable to others.

In the course of defining “minorities” a hypothetical “majority” came into being by default, like an arithmetic residue. This fictitious majority consists of a multitude of disjoint communities holding infinite number of religious beliefs and practices, speaking languages and dialects unknown to one another and distributed over the entire subcontinent from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari. “Hindu” was a convenient name to call these people for another reason in history: This Persian word “Hindu” (not seen in any Indian scripture) was used from time immemorial by Persians to indicate the inhabitants of the Indus valley and the land east of it. There was no such thing called “Hindu Religion” because the concept of structured religions with a prophet, clerical hierarchy and a well defined line of authority was absent here unlike in Semitic religions. Yet, the rest of India was dubbed to follow a nonexistent “majority” religion. Even if Hinduism is considered to be a religion, it is, at best, an agglomerate of a multitude of beliefs, practices and philosophies without cohesion or commonality. (It is interesting to note that most of the village deities of Tamil Nadu and Kerala are unknown in the adjacent district and never heard of in the northern states.). Thus it is by default that the burden of majority was bestowed upon the arithmetic residue which itself is a collection of minorities consisting of disorganized castes and tribes. These castes and tribes were thus positioned at the giving end of all concessions.

If a few Dalit citizens decide to uplift their community by starting an engineering or medical college they are thoroughly mistaken. That is the fate of Nambuthiris, Nairs and Ezhavas also. None of them are minorities; they all belong to what is known as the “majority community”. Muslims and Christians are the two powerful minority communities of Kerala. Only their colleges and establishments enjoy the constitutional right and special privileges. Constitution dictates they need more protection than Dalits.

In Kerala the so called Christian minorities have, traditionally been more advanced than any Hindu community in education, economic power and social stature. Muslims, despite their backwardness in education are far ahead in trade, industry and consequent financial power. The unity, diligence, wealth and clout of these minorities are reflected by the enormous number of self financing professional institutions they have sponsored. Thirty six out of forty nine engineering colleges and six out of nine medical colleges in the self financing (private) sector are owned by individuals or groups belonging to these communities. Many among the rest of the colleges are run by secular organizations like banks, while one or two are owned by the “majority community” (This euphemism in Orwellian Newspeak refers to any small faction- an obscure caste or tribe- of Hindus).

The Government of Kerala introduced the new Act on self financing colleges to bring about a social control on the managements who have been exploiting students extorting money in the form of Capitation fee. While the managements swear by Supreme Court judgments on minority rights they shamelessly gloss over the order that has banned Capitation fee in any form. The easiest way to continue their exploitation is to hide behind the “minority rights”, and go scot-free under the safety and protection of Law. In Tamil Nadu there was an interesting instance of a Hindu Gounder converting to Christianity (Hail Jesus!!), changing his name from Palani to Devasahayam to get minority status for his college. He really got it, and made mountains of money. In those days a popular pun on minority was “moneyority” in Shatri Bhawan, New Delhi. Robbery under the cover of minority status is carried out equally well by religious organizations and Charitable Trusts. Founding fathers of our Constitution must be turning in their graves at the sight of how “protection” given to the weak could wreak havoc by promoting exploitation, infringing upon the educational rights of the poor.

The brute majority of minorities and their unfettered right to extort are closely linked to the “vote bank politics” of Kerala. Religious leadership has always supported and safeguarded the interests of the wealthy in the name of religion. The secular parties, in their eagerness to placate religious leaders flout all secular values and assist minority pressure groups to occupy higher echelons of secular establishments. Minority politics and vote bank politics work exactly like the organized sector dictating terms to the vast numbers of disorganized ordinary people. The disorganized “majority community” has no option but to succumb to the blackmail of the well organized capitalists working under the cover of special privileges and enjoying the patronage of religious leaders and political parties. The residual population or the “majority community” need not hope for anything better. The days are not far when they are reduced to tourist attractions like the American Indians.