Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, should be the last bastion of the country to be conquered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The pro-Hindu party has, by hook or crook, made inroads into every state and region so far, in its quest for electoral gains — Ab Ki Baar 400 Par.
When will it achieve this, is anybody’s guess?
So far, the BJP has not been able to feel the pulse of Malayalis in Kerala. The BJP top brass would like to believe they have cracked the code, so far as the state’s Hindus are concerned. Now, only the Christians need to be caught in the net, because the Muslims anyway do not count in its scheme of things.
This may be a gross misunderstanding of the situation in Kerala.
Whether Hindus or Christians or for that matter anybody in God’s own country, barring the odd exception, are an educated lot and raised on modern values like secularism and tolerance for the other.
It is difficult to treat any section of Malayali society as a single vote bank, unlike elsewhere in the country.
Take, for example, Christians. They are divided into multiple sects/rites. (Read this three part series to understand the origin of Christians in Kerala) There are Catholics, Jacobites, Orthodox, Marthoma, Church of South India (CSI), and a plethora of Pentecostal groups.
The first three form much of the population. They are the elites of Malayali society. The CSI is primarily concentrated in the Central Kerala region. Pentecostal groups are far and few between and not so visible.
All of them put together are well entrenched in the all-pervasive politics of groupism in the state. You can literally find a hundred Ram Vilas Paswans in Kerala. They have their own party, are well-established locally to get one or two legislators elected and are always ready to bargain with the government of the day for their pound of flesh.
They may also form the local branch of a national party that has no presence in Kerala (like Janta Dal United), get a representative or two elected, and then bargain.
These types of legislators wield considerable power in a coalition government and can get things done for their constituencies, which ensures they survive to fight another election. (A classic movie starring Biju Menon named Vellimoonga is a must-see to know more about this phenomenon).
However, this brand of politics may be on the wane with the older generation of politicians making way for newer, smarter versions of themselves — so, the bargains may be sophisticated over time.
Most influential Christians in Kerala now have a grouse against the Muslims for taking away their share of flesh in almost all spheres. All major business entities, once dominated by Christians, are now dominated by Muslims. Most institutions and development work meant for their regions have shifted to Northern Kerala where a majority of Muslims live.
The LDF and UDF governments are seemingly soft towards Muslim organizations like the SDPI or PFI and BJP has taken full advantage of this situation. That may be the reason behind their 12% vote share in the last election.
Christians in Kerala may perceive the BJP as an alternative, but this is more out of rivalry with the Muslims. The influential sections of Christians, especially in regions like Pala, Trichur and Pathanamthitta, may be doing this just to teach the Muslims a lesson. The masses, regular Church-going folks, are averse to this tactic.
The BJP is faltering this time by ignoring the plight of Christians in Manipur and elsewhere in the country, where they face persecution at the hands of hardline Hindu groups. Add to that the Sangh parivar’s open support of movies and social media discourse against Kerala. All this isn’t going down well even among the Chrisanghis, a term used for Christians who share the common hatred of Muslims.
The BJP may be able to rope in a prelate or two, like in 2014, when a bishop of Malankara Orthodox Church from outside Kerala was purportedly invited by then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for his swearing-in as the PM.
The bishop promptly issued a statement praising development work in Gujarat. Interestingly, it turned out that there was no such invitation extended to him. He was merely doing PR for Modi.
The educated Malayali understood the game well.
The prelate merely wanted to move into the good books of the new regime to get a parcel of land he had invested to build a school cleared of litigation. He went on to campaign for the BJP candidate in Pathanamthitta.
But the voters gave a big thumbs down to the BJP, and the land continues to be mired in litigation.
The top leadership of the Church continues to make a beeline at the BJP’s gates for their selfish motives, not for the betterment of their community. The prelates in Kerala are beginning to be perceived as hypocritical because their privilege has come from the same parties in the state they are opposing now.
Unlike Muslims in Kerala, Christians lack strong political outfits. They are divided among the left and centrist parties. They used to be staunch Congress supporters once. No more.
To make amends, the laypeople are forming community associations and also encouraging social media influencers who raise issues like love jihad, narcotic jihad, halal controversy, etc. While sharing graphic videos (mostly fake) from Islamic countries about the persecution of Christians, these influencers conveniently ignore their plight in their backyard.
One reason for this may be that Kerala Christians believe their brothers and sisters in other parts of the country do not have the same lineage, going back 2000 years, predating even European Christians. Indian Christians in other parts can barely trace their faith origins to 300 or 400 years.
An intricate caste system has existed among Kerala Christians due to the wrong notion that the first Apostle, Saint Thomas, converted Brahmins. This has been proven wrong as mentioned in this article. But most Syrian Christians continue to carry their caste elitism on their sleeves. They refuse to accept anybody else as Christians so no question of protesting persecution happening elsewhere in the country.
Muslims in Kerala also are least bothered about the persecution of their co-religionists elsewhere. But at least they continue to vote for the Congress and the left. Most of them are traditionally not IUML (Muslim League) voters as perceived to be.
But having developed a strong Gulf connection over the decades, there is a perception that Malayali Muslims are increasingly importing Arab culture to replace their own. The army of fundamentalist preachers and violent outfits like PFI add to the fodder.
Historically Islam has had strong roots in Kerala. While it may be the Mughals and other invaders who brought Islam to northern India, in the case of the Malabar coast it was the influx of pre-Islamic Arab trading networks that ensured the Islamic roots date back to the time of the Prophet.
Malayali Muslims (mostly Sunni) have their own culture just like Christians, which carries a distinct local flavor.
The BJP’s main problem could be they cannot be rest assured of Hindu voters in Kerala. It was they who elected the first communist government in India in 1957. The fortunes of these landless and small land holding lot, which were at the receiving end of the feudal caste system, have transformed with the communists focussing on education and healthcare.
It was not an easy task to become the Scandinavia of Asia in less than seven decades.
Still, there is a section of people who believe the BJP will make its presence felt very soon in Kerala. After all, it was the Malabar rebellion of 1921 that caused RSS to be born, they say. So, the seed will find its way back into the Kerala soil, sooner than later.
This section of people also argues that the LDF and UDF haven’t been able to usher in enough development and ensure jobs in the state, resulting in a mass exodus of highly educated youth to foreign countries or other developed states.
This needs to change with the party at the centre, New Delhi, coming to rule Kerala. They cite the way Narendra Modi is taking all investments to his home state of Gujarat after becoming the PM. None of the leaders from Kerala could do this when Congress or a coalition party was in power at the centre.
The BJP could be the future alternative if the state were to sustain itself as a job generator rather than depend on migrant remittances. But for that, this collective aspiration needs to translate into votes. And to tap into it, the BJP needs to have its own intelligentsia and deserving candidates from its stables. Putting up borrowed candidates won’t help.
The Kerala intelligentsia, despite repeated invitations, has so far refused to share the stage with the rabble-rousers from the Sangh outfits.
So, the BJP will have to wait a little longer. May be another decade or two.
Edited by Anosh Malekar
