KASARAGOD: The Thiya Mahasabha has come out in support of Kuniyan Sree Parambath Bhagavathi Temple’s committee that banned a poorakkali exponent from performing in the temple becuase he has allowed his son and his Muslim wife to stay with him. The committee’s decision had triggered an outrage, more so because the temple is situated in Kannur district’s Karivellur, considered a cradle of Communism and progressiveness.
In a press conference in Kasaragod on Monday, leaders of the Thiya Mahasabha said the rituals and customs of Thiya places of worship should not be disrupted in the name of progressive thoughts and liberal ideas. “We are taking this attempt to destroy the community’s customs seriously,” said Thiya Mahasabha state president Ganesh Aramanganam.
The temple committee gave the poorakkali exponent, N Vinod Panickar, 57, the option to stay in his mother’s house close by so that he could be part of the ritual. “But he refused,” said Ganesh. Thiya community temples are more than just a place of worship, they are also centres of community governance that fulfil several social responsibilities, he said. These unique places of worship play an important role in maintaining religious harmony and community co-existence in the general society of Malabar, he said.
“But in the past few days, there has been an organised attempt to portray these places of worship in bad light before the people of Kerala,” the Thiya Mahasabha president said. The latest example of this is the controversy surrounding the Kuniyan Sree Parambath Bhagavathi temple, he said.
“Unnecessary interference by a political party has affected the social cohesion and insulted the temple of Thiya community,” the Thiya Mahasabha said. There is a big intrusion into the cemeteries of the Thiya community, the organisation said. “The Thiya community cemeteries, which have acres of land, are being made public, and traditional funeral rites are not being allowed to be performed, it alleged. “Kannur’s Payyambalam is an example of this,” the organisation said.
Thiya weddings have become a hotbed of obscenity and anarchy in many ways, it said. The latest example of this is the bomb blast at a wedding at Thottada in Kannur, it said. The Mahasabha said the soul of several political parties in Malabar is the cadre system inherited by the Thiya community. “If that spirit is lost, it will not take long for society in Malabar to descend into anarchy,” it said. The press conference was also attended by Thiya Mahasabha leader Chandran Puthukkai and others.