Author: Dr C.I. Issac
Publication: Organiser
Date: October 31, 2004
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=48&page=30
Now the minority institutions are
possessing enormous wealth. At present, the minorities or their religious
institutions possess key places in all cities and towns of Kerala. The
leadership of the minorities fears the proposed census of their religious
institutions, because their exact economic status will get published. At
the same time the census of Hindu institutions are completed without any
protest from the respective community. Why are the minorities objecting/
fearing the census? The present economic situation of Kerala is much worse
than the eighteenth-century France. Then, in France, 20 per cent of the
wealth was in the hands of the commons/bourgeois. Now 55 per cent of Hindu
population of Kerala controls 11.11 per cent of the state's bank deposits.
On the other hand, the 19 per cent Christian community commands 33.33 per
cent and 25 per cent Muslim population retains 55.55 per cent. This immense
disproportionate wealth of the minorities has been generated through their
organised bargaining power and undue influence exerted in the politics
of the state. But their counter argument that this heaping of wealth happened
through expatriate remittance is baseless vainglory because all communities
of Kerala utilise foreign opportunities. This economic disparity is due
to undesirable means that are employed by the minorities under their organised
leadership at various levels of governmental structure. With undue preferential
treatment received from the administrative machinery they were able to
encroach forestlands, able to bid various contract works under government,
able to harvest from the commercialised education, etc. that made them
a fast running section in the contemporary society. In short 90 per cent
of the economic scenario went into the hands of 45 per cent of the minority
communities. All this happened through any magic? No, it is the outcome
of the power of their vote bank and coercive strategies.
The education scenario is one of
the major sectors where the organised strength of the minorities is used
in a covert manner. In this sector the majority community as well as the
government altogether controls only 11.11 per cent, on the other hand the
church controls 55.55 per cent and Muslim religious organisations 33.33
percent of the total institutions. At present the professional education
sector of Kerala is somewhat under the full control of the minorities.
About 12,000 engineering seats and 300 medicine seats are in the minority
institutions and they are fully controlling the admissions. At present
60 per cent of the seats of the paramedical courses are controlled by the
organised minority religious leadership. The minority managements deny
the organisational freedom of teachers and students. Behind this undemocratic
exercise, is there anything other than organised minority leadership's
haughtiness? In this situation here, the successive governments are functioning
as meagre onlookers.
In the 48 years of the formation
of Kerala state, who controlled the portfolio of education? For 25 years
it was under the control of the Muslim League and for another 10 years
and three months in the hands of the Catholic-controlled Kerala Congress.
National and secular parties managed the portfolio only for 10 years and
in this duration only four years and three months were the share of a Hindu
minister. Is it not really shocking information to a nationalist? In fact,
without any intermission, from granting of pension to mullahs and peons
(mukris) of the madrasa to the indiscriminate establishment of Arabic colleges,
all were carried at the expense of the state exchequer. Several posts of
Arabic high school teachers were created in the aided and government schools
and illiterate Muslims were appointed as teachers on the basis of the certificate
issued by mullahs. In the state school youth festival, inferior religious
art forms like Mopila song (Muslim) and Margamkali (Christian) were introduced
as events of competition by the Muslim Education Ministers as part of their
Islamisation of education. Then another traditional Hindu art form, Kolkali,
an event of competition in the youth festival, was transformed into an
Islamic one by introducing a new dress code, i.e. the country Moplah dress
like lungi, belt and banian (vest) as the costume of the event.
Those Muslim League ministers of
the state who are even in charge of the educational portfolio of the state
are counting lighting of lamp as an unIslamic or a haram ritual. Muslim
ministers of other secular parties are lighting lamps without any hesitation.
Those people's representatives, who had taken their oath of allegiance
contrary to the constitutional directive, i.e. in the name of Allah and
Infant Jesus, are continuing as ministers, MLAs and MPs. A Hindu if he
takes the same oath of allegiance in the name of any one of his personal
deities, then it would be termed unconstitutio-nal. All sorts of impertinences
that are based on religion mentioned above are the outcome of the coercive
tactics employed by the organised minorities in the state over the years.
No doubt, this sort of unchecked wantonness that is still being enjoyed
by the minorities of this state is due to the unorganised condition of
the Hindus.
In all the 25 years (as Education
Ministers) the Muslim League followed the policy of filling ups of all
posts in the educational department with Muslims. Now it has begun to bear
fruits. A year back, the state Education Minister had appointed 100 Muslims
in the state open school without considering any qualification criterion.
A short while ago an exclusive lot of Muslim high school teachers were
deputed as additional chief superintendents under a special instruction
from the Education Ministry for conducting tenth standard public examinations
at the centres of Middle East countries causing some controversy in the
state. All the district coordinators of the state open schools are Muslims.
It did not happen accidentally. It is interesting to see that certain key
posts in the education department are left vacant due to the absence of
qualified Muslim hands. Minority consciousness is effectively functioning
even when considering the issue of Sanskrit learning. When the government
had appointed special officers at district level in order to promote Urdu
and Arabic languages, the cause of Sanskrit has been bypassed. The latest
trend of the Muslim League ministers is to fill all posts in the department
which fall under their portfolios. In recent times, the state Public Works
Department comes under the Muslim League portfolio which has appointed
Muslims exclusively as its engineers to let the lamp of controversy brighten.
The issue of the erection of the
statue of Tunchathu Ezhuthachan, father of Malayalam language and literature,
at his birthplace Tirur, now a Muslim-dominated area, has once again proved
the Muslim difficulty in stomaching an idol, as it is un-Islamic. Finally
the issue was settled with the erection of a symbolic representation of
an inkpot and brush, the official emblem of Jamaat-e-Islami, instead of
his statue. It is true that Ezhuthachan, in his efforts at the poetical
composition, used only stylus and palmyra leaf for writing on, he never
used a pen or ink. What is the mental inclination behind this fanaticism?
No doubt, it happened so because of the ever-growing muscle power of the
minorities in Kerala.
In the sixties of the last century,
82 per cent of the instructions in language text-books of the schools contained
lessons relating to puranas, epics, etc. Now it is only 16 per cent. It
would be wrong to imagine that in the near future, as it is in Bengal,
they will introduce the word 'Allah' to teach 'Aha', instead of 'Aha' for
'amma'? The works of the bhakti poets like Ezhuthachan, Poonthanam, Cherussery,
etc. and satirists like Nambiar were reduced as far as possible from the
language syllabus of the schools because their works are unique paradigms
of our national culture. In this exercise our minority community Education
Ministers have shown their intolerance very well.
In the minority-aided educational
institutions they are appointing staff arbitrarily without considering
the merit of the candidate or reservation norms. The main criterion for
appointments and admissions is the thickness of the purse of the candidate/parent.
But the government is forced to swallow the burden of salary and pension
in their appointments. The minority managements are invariably violating
the government norms. Two years back there were about 12,330 schools functioning
in the state, out of which 506 are self-financing (unaided). A lion's share
of these aided schools is under minority management. Recently the government
granted aided status to 35 unaided schools and Muslim management runs 90
per cent of these schools. While at a time when the government is facing
a severe financial crisis, it has compelled the government to bear the
burden of new aided schools due to the Muslim pressure tactics.
The minorities, particularly the
Catholics, have been using their educational institutions as a weapon against
the ruling governments of Kerala since the forties of the last century.
Whenever they were in confrontation with the ruling governments, they used
to shut down their educational institutions as a retaliatory measure and
create social problems. During the 1958 liberation movement against the
first elected communist ministry and in 1971 to defuse governmental attempt
to exercise social control over colleges, the Christians used the same
weapon effectively against the democratic governments. The self-styled
Messiah of the minorities, the Marxist Party, a short time ago ransacked
the Catholic Medical College at Thiruvella. In retaliation against the
Marxist highhandedness in their Medical College, the Catholic church reacted
with the same age-old weapon of shutting down all education institutions
under their management.
Above all, the Catholic churches
declare unauthorised holidays in the state-aided educational institutions
under their management; this has now become a customary affair. In the
name of the mythical hero Saint Thomas's arrival in India, church festivals,
first Fridays, etc. are common holidays given in the Catholic-run or aided
schools. The government of the state and related authorities remain as
mere onlookers before the minority impertinence. Festive days of every
religion in Kerala are getting only one holiday each but the Muslims have
been getting more than one day since the last three decades. Is it justifiable?
No doubt, all these extras enjoyed by the minorities are improper and complement
their organised bargaining power.
In a word, may I seek your reaction
to the controversial statement of the former Chief Minister? In the name
of secularism and vote bank we cannot refute these realities. The more
we delay to realise and react to these problems the more our socio-economic
problems will complicate. Don't delay; awake, arise, and react properly.
(The author is Head of the PG Department
of History, CMS College, Kottayam, Kerala and can be contacted at Chavanickamannil,
Vadavathoor P.O, Kottayam, Kerala 686 010.
