The exquisite engraving of a Greco-Roman she-sphinx recently unearthed at the Pattanam archaeological site near Kodungalloor is estimated to belong to the 1st century BCE –2nd century CE. It reminds us once again how far back in time lie the roots of Kerala’s long journey to its tryst with a progressive consciousness. Certainly, progressiveness is not unique to Kerala in the larger Indian picture. Every culture in India has its own history of the emancipation of the mind from blind beliefs and customs and its engagement with change and progress.
The lady-sphinx of Pattanam represents what is perhaps unique to Kerala among other Indian states in the evolution of a progressive society. This small but beautiful artefact, preceded by several from Pattanam itself, again highlights Kerala’s maritime history which, according to historians like A Sreedhara Menon, could go as far back as 5000 BCE. In recorded history, it finds a place from 5th century BCE – in the writings of Roman historian Herodotus.
But even centuries earlier, Kerala’s Arabian Sea coast had become the arena of a vigorous international trade in spices – pepper in particular. The traders came from all over: Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, Israel, Greece, Rome, Arabia and China. Climate and flora had created Kerala’s new destiny as a receptacle of cultures. It had become open to some of the most advanced civilizations of the time.
And there ensued not only the exchange of information and ideas but also, as recent genetic studies show, the inevitable admixture of races which played a part in the evolution of the Dravidian people who lived on this narrow stretch of land which eventually came to be called Kerala. Their global horizons widened in an extraordinary manner for those times and their future willy-nilly acquired new and refreshing genetic textures.
Religion had a role in the next phase of growth of Kerala’s progressive destiny. Kerala received its first increment of organised religion when Jainism arrived, followed by Buddhism and a nascent Hinduism, all circa 3rd century BCE. None came with swords. Nor did the ones that followed: Judaism (circa 1st century CE) and Christianity (circa 3rd century CE) were the faiths of believers fleeing Roman religious persecution.
They were doubtlessly led there by experienced traders who knew Kerala was a safe haven. (Local faith, deep-rooted but historically unsupported asserts that apostle Thomas brought Christianity to Kerala in the 1st century CE.) Islam arrived circa 8th century CE via the familiar Arab traders now turned Muslims. Some settled down in Kerala for business convenience. Kerala thus came to have an early start in religious togetherness and harmony, the hallmark of progressive societies anywhere. Alongside, Malayali genes had acquired further racial complexity. And the mind began to see the world from divergent and multiple viewpoints because each religion had brought its own world-view — right or wrong.
History had, thus, resolved early that religious and cultural accommodation and tolerance will be the new normal in Kerala. Later vicissitudes, such as Tipu’s military adventures, might have shaken but did not destroy this foundation. Malayalam language acquired a clear identity and became a tool of multi-layered expression in the hands of Thunchath Ezhuthachan, the Father of modern Malayalam, in the 17th century. The 19th century saw Kerala crystallizing its progressive vision, building upon the information and knowledge that English education brought. Science, political thought, philosophy, history, literature, news of the world — all began to reverberate in Kerala’s feudal society.
By 1873, Raja Ravi Varma, one of the boldest and earliest modernists of Indian painting, had held an exhibition in Vienna. Sri Narayana, the great spiritual master who set in motion Kerala’s modern-day journey towards an enlightened society, made his declaration of a casteless, creedless spirituality in 1888. Ayyankali, the legendary rebel and reformer from the ‘untouchable’ class made his first claim on ‘untouchable’ public space in 1893.
In 1912, ‘Swadeshabhimani’ Ramakrishna Pillai, the father of modern journalism in Malayalam, published the first biography of Marx in any Indian language. ‘Kesari’ Balakrishna Pillai, the intellectual colossus who inaugurated the progressive era in Kerala’s literature, arts, historical studies and journalism to name a few, was propagating modernity by the 1920s.
Gandhiji and the national movement had a profound impact on Kerala’s progressive impulse. The 40s and 50s heralded the arrival of two foundational campaigns that changed the outlook of mid-20th century Kerala: the library movement and the scientific awareness movement led by stalwarts PN Panicker and PT Bhaskara Panicker. A pivotal step was the execution of land reforms, a process that began in 1957 and culminated in the Land Reforms Act 1969.
Progressive, grassroots interventions in universal literacy, public health, and education earned wide praise as the Kerala Model of development. Democratic innovations like Kudumbashree, the women’s livelihood initiative and Janakeeyasootranam, the democratic decentralisation project were highly successful. The above is a very inadequate pointer to a grand project that involved, down history, thousands of enlightened minds, a multitude of creativities and great sacrifices — and, doubtlessly, considerable political will. What matters to Kerala is that the progressive consciousness and its corollary the secular, democratic and humanist spirit, have endured.
The core of sanity is intact, though the society is under siege. Amity and harmony prevail despite calibrated and unrelieved onslaughts upon them. When viewed against today’s India, the Kerala model of tolerant co-existence gains some significance because it is an established fact that social harmony is crucial to growth. Recently, the Public Affairs Centre, Bengaluru, a think-tank headed by ISRO former chairman Dr K Kasturirangan adjudged Kerala as the best governed Indian state. Perhaps, it points to truths that do not go well with the dominant narratives of the day. But it is a point to ponder
paul zacharia
Award-winning fiction writer paulzacharia3@gmail.com