Beyond slogans: Understanding Hindu diversity in Kerala

Since the two cultural organisations serving as joint hosts had BJP links, it should have been easy to conclude that the tepid response had nothing to do with political sympathies. What the politician from Delhi did not seem to understand is that the slogan does not come easily to the tongue of Malayalis. A reluctance to raise it most certainly does not stem from any abhorrence for Hindi. In today’s Kerala, a person might not be able to get a haircut, order a meal or get house repairs done without some knowledge of the national language. Hindi fanatics seem unable to understand that the use of their tongue is spreading quite nicely in the country without their efforts. Their hammering away on the theme slows down the process.

This assumption that people of other cultures have to be coerced into subscribing to yours follows from another: That your culture is superior. In this particular context, the more basic assumption stems from the belief that both cultures are part of a greater matrix within which yours stands on a higher plane. This entire belief structure is absurd.

Presumably most, if not all those involved in the Kozhikode incident were Hindus. Or at least the person who first raised the slogan thought they were all Hindus who would be amenable to repeating it. From that starting point, she seems to have further assumed that the Southerners needed to be taught the proper ways of Hinduism by the “truer-to-the-creed” northerners. It is redolent of an ignorance-induced disdain that can cut both ways.

When I started attending college in Delhi in the 1970s, I was appalled at the abysmal dearth of knowledge about Hindu lore displayed by my friends from the Hindi belt. They knew the broad theme of the Ramayana probably because they had watched Ram Leela presentations since their childhood. Even so, they seemed largely unaware of the nuances — of the moral and strategic dilemma surrounding Ram’s choice of Sugriva over Vali; or about the internal struggle Khumbakarna endured in fighting for a brother he believed had sinned horribly.

About the Mahabharata, they seemed to know even less. Five against a hundred with a dice game in between and Krishna enunciating the Gita on the battlefield was about the sum of it. During hostel quizzes, questions relating to the identity of Veda Vyasa’s father or the names of the generals of the seven Pandava divisions had to be diverted away from Odiya and Madrassi students because they would have otherwise piled up easy points. All of us who grew up reading C Rajagopalachari’s adaptations for children had a fair grounding in the epics.

In later years, one learnt that there are and have always been great scholars of the Vedas and the Shastras in every nook and corner of the country. Also, that any effort to eradicate Sanatana Dharma is tantamount to the destruction of something precious. My caste identity and lack of training preclude me from conducting domestic pujas let alone complex rituals. But even a nodding acquaintance with a “somayagam” and an “adhirathram” has left me awed by the austere majesty of Vedic practices.

At the same time, staunch Sanatanis also need to appreciate the validity of other mores. From where or when has the notion come that Hindus must all be vegetarians; that our forefathers did not hunt and that they did not eat the game they had hunted? Didn’t Dasharatha get cursed while he was hunting? Were Arjuna and Siva (as Kirata) vying for archery medals when they simultaneously shot the boar?

Over those years, one has learnt that Hinduism encompasses the full range of communion with the Mighty One — from quiet secluded meditation to praying at grand temples to treating work as worship and so on. Its most unique feature perhaps is the lack of force. You don’t have to force yourself into internalising beliefs or performing acts. You learn that the forcing of yourself or others to do so defeats the purpose. That is why Hinduism does not have one centre, one doctrine, one set of rituals. To change Hinduism into what it is not is ridiculous. Hinduism seeps into you and it finds its own level in each person.

The writer is former editor of Mathrubhumi.