Three matters

Archery bloodline

The Kerala State Archery Championship was held yesterday. It is named after Thakakkal Palottu Chanthu. His archers (men and women) of the Kurichiyar community fought the British bravely for Pazhassi Raja, the Lion of Kerala. That is part of history.

Though two hundred years have passed since the valiant man passed on, members of Chanthu’s family still dominate the archery scene in Kerala. For years the family’s A Team and B Team have been clashing in the finals. Eight men and four women from Palottu took part in this year’s championship. A family member won the  men’s individual championship as well.

Last year the Palottu women’s team was the runner up, but they were pushed to the third place this time. Perhaps the reason was that their star could not take part. She, PK Jayalakshmi, is a Minister in the Kerala State Government, in charge of Welfare of Scheduled Tribes, Youth Affairs, and Museum & Zoos. She did not go to the place in Cochin where the championships were held, but was following the event through telephone.

Congratulations, Jayalakshmi.

Trigger happy Italian marines

A fishing boat named St. Antony from Quilon, Kerala, went out sea a couple of weeks back as usual to catch fish.  Out at sea, the boat was fired at by marines on the passing Italian oil tanker Enrica Lexie. Two poor fishermen aboard St. Antony died. This was on the 15^th of February. The tragedy took place in an area where thousands fishing boats roam almost around the clock. The nation was shocked.

In some countries the State lends its navy men for a fee to safeguard merchant ships from attacks by pirates. That is fine. But the uniformed men so deployed should be sensible persons and follow laid down procedure. Warnings were not given as required while confronting pirates. Neither the Captain nor the others remembered that Kerala coast is not pirate infested. The ship did not inform the Indian Coastguard or Navy or police about the incident but tried to carry on quietly. On information from the boat which was attacked, the tanker was apprehended and brought to Cochin.

The Italians involved were arrogant from the beginning and have told apparent lies which they are still holding on to. The biggest falsehood is that it was a pirate boat that they shot at and there were five armed men in it. (There have been no pirate attacks from the Kerala coast in known history.) None of the people on St. Antony that day is unlikely to have handled a gun in their lives.  

St. Antony’s owner driver and rest of the crew, I believe, were Catholics. Did Italy try to take advantage of that through Mar George Cardinal Alencherry (Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church) who was in Rome to receive his Cardinalship.  A Vatican news agency, Agenzia Fides, published on their website a statement in the name of the new Prince of the Church. It indicated support to the Italian stand and that the Church could influence the Indian/Kerala Government through Catholic Ministers in the Cabinet.

The Cardinal denied that he had made such a statement. The agency published new interview, but did not apologize for any wrong reporting earlier. Anyway, this incident has created quite a bit of damage: 1) those on St. Antony are Latin Catholics and do not come under Mar Alencherry and this has caused a suspicion that the Syrio-Malabar Church did not support the Latin cause, 2)  at least some Syro-Malabar Church members believe that the Cardinal did make the statement that originally came out and question his capability to be the head of the Church, and, 3) the Catholics have lost face.

The matter is before the Kerala High Court and we can be certain that justice would be done. And let us pray for the families of the dead fishermen. I like the answer the 17 years old Derrick, the son of one of the dead men gave when an Italian scribe asked what the boy wanted the Italian Government to do for his family. According to The Hindu the youngster said do what Italy would have done if the incident had happened in that country and the victim was an Italian. He added that there was no hatred for Italy, but the marines should get no mercy.

Let the grains rot

This is the season for harvesting the punja rice crop in Kuttanad. But instead of paddy in their granaries, the farmers are likely to get tears in their eyes. (Kuttanad, a weeping beauty.)

The problem is how to harvest. There is no labour. I am told that when 250 harvesting machines are required, Alleppey District has only 25. Because of the Mullaperriyar issue, renting the equipment from Tamil Nadu is not easy.

Does anyone remember the Communist theory of not mechanizing, so that more people would get jobs!

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An album of hibiscus flower photos

Click on photos to enlarge.

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Photos: Beautiful leaves

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Comrade Jesus Christ, CPI (M)

The State Committee of the Kerala unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is in session at the State capital, Trivandrum. Several All-India leaders are taking part.

A few days back a Kerala leader of this Party, who is undergoing a contempt of Court case, made a rather sensational remark – Jesus Christ and Prakash Karat, the All India General Secretary of the party are alike. One thing that I am sure of is that Karat will not be crucified.

The criticisms that some people might raise against Karat – perhaps trying to prevent Jyothi Basu from becoming the Prime Minister of India, withdrawing the support to the Congress during the last Parliament so that the government could implement the policies the Marxists opposed, and administratively reducing the Party to the district sized Tripura. None of this requires crucifixion in democratic countries.

But Karat is facing a major problem. He heads a party which has no manifesto. That is not his fault. Initially there was Russia for money and methods. Then it was China. VS Achudanandan, former Chief Minister and present Leader of the Opposition in Kerala State was, it is said, demoted from the Central Committee of the Party for donating blood to the Indian Army when China attacked India. But the Asian neighbour is now becoming a capitalist country. I don’t think that anyone would claim that N.Korea and Cuba are democratic countries and their systems can work in India.

But some Latin American ideologies could give a bit of hope to CPI (M). Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14 June 1928 –9 October 1967) was a combination of many things – medical doctor, intellectual, Marxist revolutionary, writer, military theorist and diplomat. There is Venezuela as well. Reportedly, the Indian Marxists are trying to form a manifesto on Latin American model, with some changes to suit India.

I wonder how many Indian Communists know the name MN Roy (1887 - 1954). He was the most intellectual and the only internationally accepted Indian Communist leader. He and Vladimir Lenin worked together. He formed the first Communist Party outside Russia, in Mexico. He then organized the Communist Party of India October 17, 1920 at Tashkent. When Joseph Stalin started transforming Communism into dictatorship, MN Roy left the scene.

The Oxford University Press has published four volumes of MN Roy’s writings. Because the Project Editor died in 2008, further publications have stopped. CPI (M) could go through the ones that are available and hopefully get some ideas for their new manifesto.

Back to Jesus Christ. Even before the CPI split in 1964, the Party quietly revived utsavams (festivals) in several Kerala temples. This provided them a great propaganda opportunity. In the 1950s and 1960s, the most appreciated entertainment in Kerala was the left oriented dramas by Kerala People’s Art Club (KPAC). The songs from those plays could be heard everywhere.

In the 1990s the Christian churches were targeted. The operators assigned for this were mostly Pulaya converts to Christianity who were actually loyal to the left. They started getting into the Parish Committees which manage the church affairs. The priests could not have been blind to this development. In my parish when a party and church committee member died, to start the last rites, the priest had to wait outside the man’s house till the Communist leaders left after their procedures.

Well, at the State Committee meeting the CPI (M) exhibited a picture of Jesus on Cross, along with those of the Communist revolutionaries. Different leaders praised Christ as a great revolutionary. One even quoted Fidel Castro saying in 1971 that there are 10,000 similarities between the Bible and the Communist dogma based on dialectical materialism. I suppose that nobody would bother to count.

Jesus Christ Super Star? Or should it be Lal Salam (Red Salute), Jesus Christ?

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Memories are history

What prompted me to write this post were two recent articles in KR Dinakar’s blog Mysorean Musings. The first one is Earliest memories of watching a movie. This gives details about the cinema theatres in Mysore city during the 1960s and the movies that were being shown during that period.

The second one is about what I think was India’s first sports magazine, A magazine called Sport and Pastime. I used to be fan of this well brought out publication from The Hindu Group. On the cricketing side they used to have correspondents like Neville Cardus, Jack Fingleton and Norman Yardly. Apart from their deep knowledge of the game, the English that they wrote was beautiful. They could nearly match the famous American sportswriters Grantland Rice and Red Smith. Unfortunately, the publishers discontinued Sport and Pastime.

The point I am trying to establish is that the observations and memories of a person form part of history. If someone wants to do a study of the history of cinema houses in Mysore, Dinakar’s article would be an invaluable document. But not many people record their experiences. The regular excuse is “I can’t write”. That is not correct. Anyone can write if he has a pen and paper.

Unfortunately, even what is recorded is not always carefully preserved. I have seen moth eaten pieces of ancient olas (dry palm leaves on which documents were written before paper became common). That was so sad. Only recently people are becoming aware of the importance of conserving old writings and drawings.

Details of historical events are often passed on from generation to generation verbally. These are known as oral traditions. They have an important part in history. But the problem is that as generations pass by, some parts of the original story might be forgotten, or the narrator would add something new to suit his views. An incident which is unpleasant may be dropped. Therefore historians are very careful in accepting oral traditions.

It would be a good practice to note down the oral traditions that we hear. And that should be done without any bias or slant. I am not a historian but have great interest in the subject. I have done quite a bit of study about Kerala Church history. Initially there was only the Malabar Church consisting of people converted by St. Thomas the Apostle and about 400 Syrians who migrated under the leadership of Thomas of Cana.

The Portuguese domination of the Malabar Church changed that. The locals rebelled against the Westerners and there were divisions and subsequent divisions in the ancient Church. Now each denomination has its own history books – or rather books which murder history. Details are twisted and coloured and modified to establish the views of each group.

Coming back to oral tradition – Appan. (my father) used to tell me during my young days that Portuguese ships used to come to our place to load spices and that there was a shipping channel  in our Olavipe Lake. This also connected to the inland water pirate Lebba Moosa story. (See A unique prayer.) No historian would take it. That tradition would have died a natural death. But recently, quite by accident I came across a quoted Portuguese writing about their ships moving from Cochin into interior locations like ours. Also a well-known historian has confirmed that Lebba Moosa is mentioned at least thrice in Dutch documents. This is one occasion when an oral tradition is in the process of becoming credible.

I feel that each of us should realize our own importance to history. If I had not started this blog the things that I know or have heard of would have gone along with me. It is my requests that everyone, whenever they have the time, note down their memories and observations and events they participate. The importance of such records would be judged by future historians.

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HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY 2012

 Red Fort, Delhi

Republic Day stamps (below)

Shown below are half rupee and annas coins

which were in circulation when India became a Republic.

And, here is a message for every Indian:

(All images from Wikimedia Commons. The message on the
last picture is written by me.)

 

Keep on saluting Gen. VK Singh?

The current Chief of the Indian Army, Gen. VK Singh has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to declare that he was born in 1951. Of course he has every right to take such an action as a citizen of India.

It is said that Gen. Singh, in his application for admission to the National Defence Academy, has written in his own handwriting that his date of birth is May 10, 1950. Well, it could have been a mistake. In 2006 when his promotion to Corps Commander came up and for subsequent promotions, 1950 was accepted as his year of birth though it seems that in the Adjutant General Branch there is some paper which mentions 1951. Is the large Indian Army (1.13 million?) in the arms of a man who does not know his own date of birth?

But Gen. Singh reportedly says that the issue is one of integrity and honour and that he is tackling the matter in organisational interest. Can we blame citizens if they doubt that the reputation of this great army is safe in the hands of the man who ignores his own handwriting? (That is, if the report and Army records are right.) Or does he want one more year in service?

For determining age there are several ways which includes inspection of teeth. We can be sure that the Supreme Court would decide on the appropriate method. There would be an acceptable and unquestionable verdict.

But what would happen if the decision is that Gen. Singh was born in 1951 and not 1950? Nothing alarming. His appointment as Army Chief was based on the date of birth of 10/5/1950. That tenure ends on May 31, 2012. If the Supreme Court finds that Gen. Singh was born in 1951, the man can be posted for the rest of his service in the Ministry of Defence to recommend a plan for the future of the Indian Army. Or something of that sort.

The honour of the Indian Army cannot be compromised by one man though he has taken part in the 1971 War.

Also please see:

France: The sound of Indian military boots again

Sapper caste, ‘doopta’, Cotton Maha Prabhu.

Delannoy: Dutch sea captain, Maharaja’s army chief, people’s Valia Kappithan.