God’s Own Country: Kerala Under Islamic Threat

There are many Indian States which are clearly in deep trouble…in the sense that they have been allowed to drift away from the mainstream India. The mainstream India which aspire for development and growth, a strong sense of nationalism and belonging, is somewhat lacking in this state. These include Kerala, Tamilnadu, West Bengal and the North-Eastern States. Kerala, the God’s own Country at some time of history, is on its way to become a Devil’s state. The erstwhile most educated state in India is increasingly showing behaviour which are of uneducated. The empathy of the land is fast becoming infested with cruelty. The peace prevalent society is fast giving way to fear. The land of our traditional Ayurveda is diseased with the cancer of communism and radicalism.

Why is it called God’s own country? Since when did such term come? Did this term come after English or was there similar term in local contemporary or ancient language too? Several such questions run through the mind. Let us examine the true facts.

In the present days God’s own country refers to Kerala’s natural beauty that it possesses without artificial denominations. The term is mostly used in term of the Tourism, to indicate the natural charm…of its Enchanting Silvery Beach Lines, of Backwaters, of the natural vegetation incl rare flora & fauna, of Chain of ancient temples and above all some exceptional traditional arts beyond the recall of timelines.

According to prevalent mythology, Kerala was created by Lord Parasurama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu by throwing his axe across the sea to create new land for his devotees to live peacefully away from the ire of demons. Thus, Kerala was God's own creation, hence it is called God's own country…BUT…does the mythology match with history or the geography? Surely not. If only the Kerala land was carved out by Bhagwan Parashuram, it should have stood alone as especially carved out territory but it is not. It is continuous with the remaining subcontinent with a single partial demarcation line, the Himalaya. So on that basis the entire sub-Himalayan stretch of the land should have been Gods own country…possibly with some other name…in Sanskrit perhaps…because English language is of reasonably recent origin. However, there is no mention of such history anywhere. Did lord Parashuram strike it so hard that the entire Indian tectonic plate moved northward colliding with the others ones so hard as to create entire stretch of Himalaya? Not really. Because Himalaya with Mt Kailash existed much before Lord Parashuram who had worship lord Shiv at Kailash. There is some mythological mention about Mt Kailash that it was created by the creator Brahma himself especially for Lord Shiv. So all these stories do not really make to the geographical lines.

Next in the lines could be ample numbers of temples, many without known timelines. Even the present Kerala govt website mentions that as late as the 4th century, it was the inhabitation essentially by the Brahmins with numerous temples and Gurukuls. Ayurveda is understood to have taken a strong root here. The entire atmosphere was filled with divine recourse. Yes. It was a possible theme of being God’s own country. Even in the 20th century, there were as many as 2167 renown temples in Kerala. Some among these like Guruvayur are >5000 yrs old. This is despite the Islamic rulers having destroyed many temples…sheer out of their hate and bigotry…way back in 15th to 20th century. Most of these temples stand on its own ancient foundations because of periodical renovations. However, none of these temples are counted among the Supreme Holy Land…the four “Teerth-sthana”. So, does that qualify it the worthy of the title? Not sure. However, if this was the reason, the title could have been in the local language or Sanskrit…may be “Dev-stanam” or the likes of; but we are unable to find in any of the known literatures.

So divine would have been the aura at the land that Christianity in India got its foothold here. Christians believe that the Apostle Thomas—the one who so famously questioned Jesus—visited here in 52 AD and baptized their forefathers. Historians surmise that the diverse, rich trading center of Kerala may well have drawn this Palestinian Jew of the Roman Empire who wished to preach the Gospel. The Roman Catholics came here much later…in 15th century. The beauty of the Christianity was that it assimilated in to the Malayali culture. Score converted indiscreetly without being perceived of any wrong-doing. It was only after the Roman Catholics came, that divisions, identity crisis started within their own sections.

The rise of Islam in Kerala has been on a different note, unlike the brutal imposition of Islam by the rulers in north India. The Muslim clerics landed in Kerala in 7th century and tried to assimilate with the Malayali culture…but with a different objective…to spread Islam...as directed by their masters in the Arab world. They adopted a reformist approach, adopting several Hindu customs of the temples and also participated in some of the Hindu/Christian rituals…unlike the orthodox and the radicals who would not tolerate such practices. They were well to do traders, educated, who avoided being radical whether in living style, socio-cultural practices and so on. However, after the Islamic invasion and dominance in the medieval India, there were change in the approach of Kerala Muslims too. Mujahidin culture started and struggle for dominance to some extent. Muslims were discouraged from learning Malayalam or Urdu by their clerics and fundamentalist leaders. They were asked to study Arabic instead. Radicalism and intolerance were apparent when they were advised not to celebrate Onam or Christmas, considering them anti-Islamic.

Kerala has been long known as a cultural hub of tolerant India. As explained above, the two alien religions took root here fully assimilated in its soil. The literacy in this ‘Brahmin Bhoomi’ had been traditionally high. Christianity undoubtedly added their own brand of western education. Even the Islamic clerics had good adherence to literacy. The Arabs sent plenty of Islamic funds to Kerala to set-up several Arabic institutions. It was all goody-goody till factionalism started initially in Christianity followed by Islam. This started affecting the cordial living. The educated lot saw the logic in religious amity hence, fairly good assimilation took place. Cordial interfaith Matrimonial relations were common till the Muslims started discriminations…refusing to let their women wed others. This tendency kept growing with the formation of Muslim League and so did the Islamic radicalism…but much lesser scale than other parts of India. These tendencies continued in independent India too.

Occasional frictions of radical Muslims started against both Hindu and Christians but it never conflagrated in independent India. However, the rapid increase in Muslim population became a ringing bell for both others. A gross look at the Hindu, Christian and Muslim population rise in Kerala is frightening. From 1951 onwards, the Hindu population has been decreasing from 61% at that time to 54.4% in 2011. Similarly, the Christian percent population too has marginally dropped from 20.9% to 18.4% in 2011. However, Muslims in Kerala have grown from 17.5% in 1951 to 26.6% in 2011. In north Kerala, the situation is even more frightening where Muslims have become almost 43.5% and 69% in Mamallapuram. This is a troublesome situation for non-Muslims. Christians possibly don’t mind much being consummated by the Muslims. They have tolerated their excesses and decimations in Iraq, Pakistan, the middle-east and they may not mind in north Kerala also. As Muslim decadal population growth is near 150% of Hindu and Christians, census of 2021 could show a rapidly growing Muslim population and severe reaction by the Hindus is expected.

There were nearly 2 times of Muslim population growth over Hindu & Christians in Kerala since 1961 to 1981. Thereafter, Muslims started increasing more than 2 times since 1981 to 2001 and at >5 times since 2001 (as per census reports) as shown in the table opposite. This will rapidly dwindle the population of Hindu and Christians in Kerala. At this rate, Muslims will become majority in north Kerala by 2021 itself and by 2051 in the entire Kerala state. Christians in Kerala who were in majority in 2 sub-districts and having around 40% population in other 38, will become more vulnerable to regression at their present 1.38% of decadal population growth against 12.84% of Muslims…almost 11 times higher. Presently only isolated incidence of violence and rioting are taking place but as the percentage of Muslims increase, situations will become grimmer. There will be a struggle for survival for the Christians & Hindus.

Till now, we have only talked of simple increase or decrease in the population. Think of a catalyst which greatly influences or enhances the equation…like Jihadist element taking hold over the moderate Muslims. We know only 5-7% Jihadists are in Kashmir but their violent acts and terror suppresses the remaining 95%. A similar factor has started working in Kerala. In the 2000s, more and more Muslims have aligned with radical factions. In the last 10 yrs or so, Muslim league has firmly aligned with the SDPI and PFI…the two most radical groups. The Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS), the youth wing of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama marching on the streets of Mallapuram calling for ‘Sharia law’ in Kerala has already sent shock waves all over India but our thick-skinned politicians feign aloof, ignorant and unaware of it. They had forced the govt in 1990s to pass Sharia Law which had to be repealed by the union govt. The happening of such incidents amply indicate the Islamic dominance in the years ahead. Radical and Jihadist eliments have started indulging, by frequently taking away the women from other communities, a term called 'Love Jihad'.

There is some similarity in the rise of Islam in Kashmir (late 1980s) and Kerala (late 1990s). They slowly started threatening the other communities. Christians in Kerala have strong institutional support but Hindu ‘non-unity’ has put them at severe threats. The radical Muslims in Kerala have increased luring away the Christian and Hindu girls. Now they abduct them, rape them and marry off to the rapist…something being termed as “Love Jihad”. This was alleged by the Christian missionary first. Hindu too have been reporting it increasingly, since 2009 but apparently no action has been taken. Some of these girls are also being radicalised in ISIS trap. Several Hadiyas are being prepared in the process. Even the present CM Pinarai Vijayan had to marry off his daughter to a Muslim boy for whatever reasons. As long as this is consensual, there is no problem. As and when she faces the axe of Talaq, as is the case with numerous other high profile Hindu girls, Pinarayi will have to take a call. It is a fact of the day that non-Muslim girls/women of Kerala as well as in other Muslim dominated parts of India have been marred with Love Jihad. This is a highly emotive issue and no community will take it lightly. If not stopped, there will surely be repercussions that the Muslims will have to face.

Hindu and Christians have no such violent Jihadist-like groups. The RSS is one socio-cultural group comprised of mostly Hindus sensitive to such happenings but if any Hindu family is approached by the Hindu groups (like RSS), they are threatened or even attacked. At present, it seems that Hindus and Christians in Kerala will be living on the mercy of the Radical & Jihadi Muslims…just like what is happening in the Islamic nations. The Union Govt seems to have closed their eyes to this problem.

There is one more very serious factor in Kerala. The socio-political fabric of Kerala is being increasingly eroded by the Communists. They apparently dislike religious fervour. However, there are fairly large numbers of Muslims in their ranks who are aligned to Islam. Their radical acts continue in Communism too. In the past, most of the attacks on BJP, RSS or Hindus of Kerala have been indulged upon by the matchet-wielding Communists, Naxals in their ranks and the Muslims in their cadres. The Hindus, the RSS and a few VHP offices continuing Kerala are under increasing Islamic attacks. Their attacks are spilling over to Christians too. God's own country is under severe threat of being overrun by the devil characters.

It is unfortunate that the erstwhile Gods’ own country has been cursed with Communalism of Islam and the violent ideologies of Communists. The religious cordiality of Kerala is a subject only of the past. The cancer of Islamic Jihad and the cunning politics of Communists have cast long shadows on this state. What was once a most cordial and tolerant State of India, is turning into a troublesome land. There is a clear threat of change in religious demography in which Muslims are proliferating uncontrollably (some equate it like cancer cells) at the cost of the depleting Hindu and Christians…and then, the history will repeat in itself… like in any other Muslim majority state, where non-Muslims will either flee or vanish in thin air. The class-intolerance of Communism is creating a violent society in Kerala. Political deaths are becoming routine. Here Jihadists are increasingly taking control of the law & order, any Hindu group worker will be vulnerable to be murdered by both Communists and Jihadists. This is the hard facts of Kerala today…God’s own Country.