Kerala, whose historical acceptance of beef, drew a faux national outrage is again in the crosshair of India's Hindu right. An article in RSS' mouthpiece, Organiser, has an essay by an M Surendra Nathan, who identifies as a Mumbai-based lawyer, that assails Kerala's first chief minister, EMS Namboodiripad who led state's first Communist Party government; the proclivity of several cuisines of the state for beef and, most bizarrely, alleges human rights lawyer Indira Jaising as somehow being responsible for a popularity in live-in relationships in the state.
Unsurprisingly, condemnation and ridicule from Twitter was swift.
Hilarious read from the Hindu Jihadist RSS, bemoaning the fact that #kerala is too secular thanks to Communism :D
— Arun Nambiar (@aruns_nambiar) November 12, 2015
Found the article in Organiser condescending, not sticking to facts. CPI(M) has called it RSS's war cry on Kerala https://t.co/AJn66sT0Nb
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) November 12, 2015
RSS mouthpiece 'Organiser' describes Kerala as a Godless country. The Article spews venom against Keralites pic.twitter.com/Izq0XSVoJ7
— Arun M Advaid (@Advaidism) November 11, 2015
The essay's weakness lies in that it passes off several assertions as true without any citations. Here are some of the most egregious ones:
Thus, Kerala is Bharat’s cent percent literate state while at the same time it has the history of the highest number of political murders; it has the highest number of suicide rates compared with the rest of Bharateeya states; it has the highest number of people afflicted with mental ailments and various psycho-somatic disorders (all the mental hospitals in the State are burst at the seams); it has the highest number of divorce rates amongst its married people
Fact: Kerala's literacy rate is 94% and though has a worrying suicide rate is only second in the country after Sikkim.
It has the highest number of youths of opposite sex living together without marriage ever since the UPA-Parliament enacted the legislation, viz. “The Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2004” which for the first time in Bharat introduced the concept of living without marriage known as “Live-In-Relationship”, which was the brainchild of militant feminist and Bharat’s foremost communist ideologue, Indira Jaising, who is an iconic woman amongst the college-going girls of Kerala.
Fact: Kerala has registered a sharp rise in divorce please over the last few years, but there is no inter-state comparative data available. Indira Jaising....where do we even begin?
it has the highest number of Rationalist NGOs who attack everything dear to Hinduism and its faith system, branding them as ‘superstition’ and such Rationalists NGOs regularly carry on street activism like the “Mangalsutra Burning”, “Beef Festivals”, etc. in total defiance of the sentiments of the majority citizens of the country.
Fact: The ministry of home affairs doesn't segregate NGOs as rationalist or irrationalist.
The State is regarded as the nursery of Islamic fundamentalism, financially and logistically supported by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
There have been instances of radicalized youth from Kerala being involved with Islamic State or LeT terror outfits but a nursery is a stretch. Commerce and migrations from the Middle East (and then Arabia) into Kerala predates the existence of Islam.
It is these realities that the food preference of Muslims writ large in the State, which totally engulfed the vegetarianism of Kerala propagated by Hindu Saints.
The 'Hindu saints' never propagated vegetarianism but rather endeavoured to remove untouchability. While 40% of the state's population, who are Muslims and Christian, have been consuming meat for centuries, caste inclusiveness helped mainstream meat into the broader Hindu diet.
I had to study the life of Hindu saints, warriors and Kings like Raja Harish Chandra, Shivaji, etc. whose lives were centered around human nature of compassion, love, spirituality, nationalism, moral philosophy, vegetarianism, etc. However, those studies were removed from the syllabus of educational institutions funded by the government and in their places books pertaining to the life and time of public prostitutes [like “The Autobiography of a Sex Worker” By Nalini Jameela); the life and time of notorious thief (like “The Autobio-graphy of Maniyan Pillai, The Thief”) etc
Thaskaran, or the autobiography of Maniyan Pillai, is a pulp biography of a thief. While not iconic such as a Shantaram or even an Oliver Twist it isn't part of textbooks. Yet.
Nathan also goes on to say that Malappuram district is "a miniature of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" where one can find "cow slaughter houses at every nook and corner" and that late Muslim League leader C H Mohammed Koya was "a hard-core Muslim fundamentalist".
CPM politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan said that the RSS has challenged the history, culture and self-esteem of the state through this article. "For a long time the Sangh Parivar has been targeting Malappuram. It is suspected that they are planning a communal riot in the district," he said in a Facebook post.
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