KOCHI: When the likes of K K Kuruvila, Mancheri Ramakrishna Iyar, Abraham Salem, Swami Sivaprasad, Pandit Rishi Ram and Muhammad Maulavi shuffled into view of the frame, not only did it make for a great photograph, the moment also made history.
There, standing on the banks of the Periyar in Aluva in the summer of 1924, these men, representing various faiths, pledged to work together and within their communities to break societal shackles and strive for the greater good of humanity.
In the centre was Narayanan, a name that even nearly a century after his death, is not uttered without the honorific Guru — Narayana Guru. He was a revered social reformer and spiritual leader who pioneered the development of a modern society in Kerala.
Sensing a rift between communities, it was Guru who sent word about a grand conference of all faiths — the first event of its kind in India. The photograph taken is emblematic of the bond that was forged that day.
TNIE examines the context that led Guru to call the all-faiths conference, the messages conveyed at the event, and what likely went wrong over the years. But first, a primer on what religion actually means. Especially, in the Indian context.
The definition of religion
Today, the word ‘religion’ is used very casually and often, its very utterance invokes negative associations. Many view it as a hurdle to progress, a warden against personal freedoms. They are not entirely wrong. Religion has been that and many things in the past, especially in the West.
There, in the Enlightenment Age, buffeted by the leaps made by Science, the public began to question and oppose the hand-in-glove supremacy of religion and monarchy. This stoked revolutions and societal reforms, ultimately shaping modern Western society.
It is safe to say that, to a great extent, religion exists outside the public and government spheres there. We have a word for this: Secularism. It is a principle that promotes the idea that religion should be a private affair and should not dictate or limit the rights of others.
“However, in India, religion takes on a primal form,” says K M Anil, director of the Ezhuthachan Padana School, Malayalam University. According to him, it comprises two elements: a link with nature and a connection with fellow beings or brotherhood. “If that is indeed the case, there has not been a time without religion in India, and there cannot be one either,” he adds.
This is perhaps why Gandhi once remarked, “To abandon religion in politics is to render it without soul.”
Indeed, the primary idea of the 1924 all-faiths conference was how religions could “co-exist and be medicine to treat a wounded country. Its mission was to bridge people of all communities,” says Sunny M Kapikad, a writer-activist.
The background
Similarly, the conference’s context cannot be understood through a colonial lens. India was considered a land accommodative of all — people, cultures and traditions. But the British, who had a foothold in the country at the time, used the existing faultlines, be it caste or religion, and made many borders and boundaries more rigid. To wrest control, they started to manipulate the existing socio-political divides.
“In fact, the first freedom struggle of 1857 was thwarted by sowing conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Since then, the idea of the ‘Muslim other’ became prominent,” says Anil.
Closer to what is now Kerala, the 1921 Malabar Revolt, initially an agrarian uprising against the British, was later portrayed by colonial rulers as a Hindu-versus-Muslim conflict. Amidst these divisions, rampant religious conversions further fuelled tensions.
“Many from marginalised castes saw converting to another religion, especially Christianity, the religion of their colonial overlords, as a way to break free from the oppressive caste system of India. The suppression of these conversions also led to riots,” says Anil.
It was against this backdrop of unrest, both in India and Kerala, that Narayana Guru called the all-faiths conference. “The context of the riots underscored his famous saying: Whatever the religion, it suffices if it makes a better man,” Sunny adds.
An epistemological practice
While many dismiss Guru as a proponent of religion (a Hindu saint), he was more. He saw religion as an epistemological practice, a vessel to gather and understand profound truths about existence, meaning and the universe.
The 1924 conference exhorted this message. Swami Satyavardhan, Guru’s disciple who gave the welcome speech at the event, said, “There are tensions in all corners of the world. Like how philosophers, scientists, economists, politicians and poets are working to assuage this atmosphere of fear, religion, too, has a part to play”.
“However,” Satyavardhan added, “Religion alone can’t solve everything. Experts from all spheres must work together, towards greatness, for a world of compassion.”
“The conference didn’t seek to put religion on a pedestal but portrayed the fields of philosophy, science, economy, statecraft and arts as equally important. The event’s slogan read: Not to argue and win, but to learn and inform,” says M K Sanoo, a Malayalam literary luminary.
It also flayed the idea that to have faith means to sit in a cave and pray or adhere to strange rituals. “Guru had always seen religion as a solutions vehicle. The aim of his conference was also to spread this message, to redefine and free religion from the vestiges of its past,” Sanoo adds.
Several key themes emerged during the event as part of this discussion: universal brotherhood; ethical life guided by truth, non-violence, compassion and justice; social reform, starting with the eradication of caste-based discrimination; and finally, spiritual enlightenment.
A miscast figure
Guru was also a big advocate for progress and promoted education and industry. “He organised the first all-India industrial and agriculture exhibition (in 1905 in Kollam) and opened a school at Aluva in 1913 that taught Sanskrit, a language reserved for the higher castes, to all sections of society,” recalls P Balan, former director of Akashvani Kochi.
A wayward departure from a religious figure, you might think. But Guru was never that to begin with. He was miscast as one, experts argue. In fact, if you dissect his whole life, you can see that his guiding principle was not religion, but the tenets that guide all religions.
“He was a humane, progressive thinker and a radical, charismatic moderniser with a penchant for humour,” Sunny says. He understood the importance of religion and saw how the public found refuge in it, “but his ideas about society were far too progressive to be resigned within the confines of what religion was at the time,” says Dr Rekha Raj, a writer and social activist.
He likely used religion as a means to connect with the public and as a tool to guide society. His famous saying thus goes, “One caste, one religion, one God for all.”
He also understood the importance of laughter and wielded it on several occasions to good effect, “both to dissolve the tensions that needlessly rose or to undermine the grandiose and vain actions of his followers,” Sanoo says.
Way of the world
However, the great tragedy of our times is that the very messages that Guru propagated have now taken the form of a ‘religion’, and “despite the universality of his actions, he has been relegated as the leader of a particular section in society. A member of the ‘other’,” Rekha points out, adding, “This trend is dangerous.”
In fact, replicas of his frame, now encased in glass boxes and established at various strategic locations in Kerala, have him without his characteristic smile. “Only a blank face stares at us. It is as if the very man has been forgotten, never mind his messages,” Anil says.
The reasons for this fallout are several, says Sanoo. “Call it the way of the world, if you will. But today, as we grapple with the terrors that spring from a widening gap among communities, we can only hope and wonder if someone like Guru would be amidst us.” However, Vinod Kumar, the head of history department at Maharaja’s College, argues that Kerala cannot detach itself from Guru and his legacy. “He has shown us the path, his messages are clear: it’s up to us now.”