The State of Kerala came into being in 1956, and Hindus then comprised 61.5% of the population. In half a century, this has swiftly declined and reached barely 55%. Meanwhile, the two other minority religions, contrary to the general trend of population growth, have grown drastically. The negative growth of Hindu population is a continuing phenomenon, and cannot be treated as an inadvertent phenomenon. Several factors can be seen behind this fall, political, religious, economic, and so on.

Christians are taking advantage of the existing political situation through their stratagem of ‘mission of education and open-ended proselytism’ that marginalized Hindus economically and numerically. On the other hand, Muslims are spreading their net of annihilation of Hindu life in Kerala through ‘petro-dollar, hawala money, aggressive proselytism and Talibanization’ of the State. They are supported by the self-styled ‘cultural-cum-intellectual magnates’ functioning as the tails of CPI(M), who patronize all fundamentalist-cum-extremist activities in the State under the guise of human rights. 

For instance, one Malayali, Javed [before conversion to Islam he was Pranesh Nair], a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba team of four who masterminded the plot to assassinate the Gujarat Chief Minister, was killed in a police encounter on 15 Nov. 2004 at Ahmedabad. The cultural magnates tried to portray this as a fake encounter and exalted Javed as a fallen hero. But the recent shooting of Malayali terrorists by security forces on the Kashmir border had them scuttling into deep burrows.

Kerala’s history of Talibanization goes back to the days of Moplah Riots of 1921, but Left historians and coalition politics connived to conceal its fanatic disposition and projected the incident as agrarian rebellion. Moreover, the state conference of the CPM (February 2005) at Malappuram officially declared the fanatic Wariamkunnathu Kunjahammed Haji, leader of the notorious Moplah Revolt who killed thousands of Hindus including innocent women and children in cold blood during 1921 Khilafat agitation of Malabar, as a martyr of the Communist Party! Even Muslim League is reluctant to make this bigot their Badar. 

Islamic fundamentalism tightened its hold over the social, economic and political scenario of Kerala in the post-independence period; it was constantly appeased by the Communist Party. In 1946, one Unnian Saheb [1] and his family of Perinthalmanna, Malappuram district, Malabar, returned to the Hindu dharma. Enraged, a Moplah mob [2] brutally exterminated Ramasimhan [Unnian Saheb] and his family as an admonition to all wishing to return to purva dharma. At that time, all political parties, particularly the Communist ‘vanguard’ Party under self-styled revolutionary leader EMS Nambudiripad, attempted to misdirect the police investigation and save the culprits from the law [3]. Kerala political parties even today continue this minority appeasement...
  

The anti-Hindu approach of the Communists drove a sizable number of Hindus to desert the party fold during the 1960s, leaving the Communist Party free to adopt an open policy of minority appeasement. The immediate result was the birth of an exclusive Muslim district, Malappuram in 1968 – its layout conforms to the Muslim League demanded Mopilastan of 1946. Today it is the hatchery of all anti-national and terrorist activities in Kerala.

The State Government acquired 24 acres of land for the Aligarh Muslim University Centre at Malappuram district, which was later decided to be enhanced to 1000 acres. Sources suggest that the proposed land will comprise the Elemkulam Mana, the household of veteran Marxist leader and first Communist Chief Minister EMS Nambudiripad. It is a shortcut for the CPM to secure the benevolence of the Jamaat-e-Islami in the forthcoming general elections. The district already hosts Calicut University; hence the attempt to open a centre of Aligarh Muslim University is not logical. Kerala is today a haven for terrorists operations. Its 580-km unchecked coastline is a major attraction for terrorist outfits.

Subsequently, a Christian district carved out, a political decision that legitimized the communal divide of Kerala. The Communist Party’s history of minority appeasement goes back to the days of its inception in Kerala. First, it glorified communal riots masterminded by Muslims as revolutions; then it shared political power with Muslim and Christian communal outfits; now the bigot Abdul Nassar Madani is dear to it. This is a ‘suicidal compromise’ as far as the national mind of Kerala is concerned.

In the 1980s, several cinema halls were set ablaze by fundamentalists in Malappuram district; police remained inactive due to political pressure. To this day it remains lukewarm towards terrorists; more than a dozen bomb blasts have taken place in the northern districts during the past decade. No one was booked for the blast at Bepoor Port, thanks to the blessings of the ruling party.

The Talibanism of Malappuram is now a serious threat to the nation and Hindu values. Bangalore city witnessed a series of bomb blasts on 25 July 2008. Recently, the Karnataka police booked the culprits of this incident - all nine were Malayalis from Malappuram. The brains behind most of the recent blasts in our metro cities hail from Kerala; besides Malappuram, most Malabar districts face fundamentalist threats. Hence the police failed or was ‘forced to fail’ to book the culprits of the Thrissur train blast on 6 December 1997.

The Thrissur blasts were followed by Coimbatore blasts on 14 February 1998, which took the lives of 50 persons and injured over 150. The target was L.K. Advani who escaped miraculously, and the prime accused Abdul Nasser Madani, presently a respectable icon to Marxist and Congress coalitions of Kerala. His henchmen hijacked and set fire to a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus from NH 47 near Cochin demanding his release. The police have registered a case, but its destiny is still mysterious. 

A strategy of ethnical cleansing is now in operation on the Kerala coastline, to make the 580-km coastline safe for ISI-sponsored activities. Currently, from Ponnani to Beypore, a length of 65-km coastline, no Hindu fishermen hamlet can be seen; all were cleansed by conversion or by threat. A few Hindu fishermen hamlets survive north of Beypore, such as Marad.

On 2 May 2003, ISI-sponsored terrorists [NDF] conducted an ethnic cleansing operation here. Eight Hindu fishermen were brutally killed by terrorists. They reputedly prepared for a communal riot aimed at total annihilation of Hindu fishermen community from the coastal regions, but the alertness and restraint of Hindu leaders foiled their plans. Recently, the special trial court awarded life terms to 65 accused in the case. 

On 10 March 2005, NDF assassinated Aswini, RSS district leader; police were helpless to nab the actual culprits because of political pressure. It is a convention among Muslims of northern Kerala to insist Hindus to keep business establishments closed on Fridays, not go for fishing on Fridays, shut down of hotels during Ramzan; those who disobey pay the price. Police under political pressure are becoming inactive on every instance of Talibanization of Kerala. Santhosh of Mathilakom police station area of Thrissur district violated the above fatwa and opened his shop on Fridays. On 9 August 1996 he was brutally killed by terrorists, and money power and political power became victorious in this case, as usual [4].

Another Taliban experiment is the extension of Islamic wedlock to non-Muslim girls; a one-way traffic. In 2001, one Balakrishnan of Kasargod fell in love with a girl named Raziabanu and got married. Some time later, he was brutally slaughtered; the police and political parties together depicted this homicide as a political murder. They fabricated a story that the murdered Balakrishnan was a Congress worker of Kasargod and the police, Congress and CPM unanimously found that the culprits behind the murder were Marxist workers! The story doesn’t end here. With the meaningful silence of the authorities, the chief accused in the case absconded to a foreign country, as in the case of the abduction and butchering of progressive Islamic theologian Chekannoor Maulavi.

According to Kerala Marxist’s conceptual framework, for a person to be recognized as a progressive or revolutionary, he has to be fundamentally anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim/pro-Christian. Those who talk in a broader national perspective may be called ‘saffron’ or renegade. In short, Marxist, Missionary, Muslim-dominated Kerala is terrorist-friendly.

In the hilly districts of Kottayam and Ernakulum, the banned jihadi organization SIMI conducted all-India terrorist training camps. The public brought the matter to the attention of the authorities, so police rushed there and arrested all on petty charges and released them on bail! Political intervention forced the police to close the file without further investigation.

Recently, those who participated in the terrorist camps were arrested from different States of India. Kerala police and ‘cultural magnates’ were reluctant to accept that the jihadis shot by security personnel at the Kashmir border were Malayalis.

Converting non-Muslim criminals to Islam is a new technique in Kerala. Several such convert-criminals were killed in police encounters in different parts of the country. Further, terrorist organizations in Kerala frequently change their names to maintain the façade of a secular organization. Once SIMI was tainted, it changed its name to NDF. So now NDF has become a watchword for subversive activities in Kerala. Likewise, half a dozen organizations camouflaged as NGOs are at the forefront justifying talibanism (these include the Forum for Ideological Thought, Karuna Foundation, Islamic Youth Centre, Minority Rights Watch) [5].
      

Talibanism flourished in the economic front, under the euphemism of “Hawala”. In a decade, the economic disparity between Muslims and Hindus widened unbelievably. The weekly “Malayalam” in its editorial warned of the inherent danger of this imbalance between Hindus and minorities. “While examining the records of the registration [land] department, it is evident that in several districts 70% of the lands were purchased by the above said [Muslims] communities… In certain specific districts the purchase of land is the exclusive right of a particular community. The intermediaries in these land deals are also their religious institutions.” [6]

For generations, Hindus have been worshipping cows. Only one state in India legitimizes cow slaughter – Kerala, due to the impudence of minority religious groups. Government official data states 5,00,000 cows were slaughtered in the State during 2002 and 2,49,000 tonnes of beef sold [7]. The real statistics will be much higher. Medical science advises people to refrain from the consumption of beef, yet the minority religious leadership insists on continuing this cruelty to humiliate and hurt Hindu self-esteem. 

Talibanization of Kerala’s cultural scenario began around the 1970s. In the State School Youth Festival, art forms like Moplah Song [Muslim] and Margamkali [Christian] were introduced as events of competition by Muslim education ministers [8]. A traditional Hindu art form, Kolkali, an event of competition in the youth festival, was transformed into an Islamic one through introduction of a new dress code - the Moplah dress like green colour lungi, belt and banyan [vest] – was made the event costume. Finally, all non-Muslim students were forbidden to take part in the State Arabic Youth Festival.

Muslim League Ministers holding the education portfolio call the ceremonial lighting of lamps as un-Islamic, though Muslim ministers of other secular parities light lamps without hesitation. People’s representatives who took their oath of allegiance contrary to the constitutional directive, i.e., in the name of Allah and Infant Jesus, continue as ministers, MLAs and MPs. If a Hindu took an oath of allegiance in the name of his personal deity, it would be termed a “gross violation of the stipulations enshrined in the Constitution of India.” The Kerala High Court’s decision of 3 March 2003 in the case against Umesh Challiyil [MLA 2001-06] is an example to this embargo.

The erection of the statue of Tunchathu Ezhuthachan, father of Malayalam language and literature, at his birthplace Tirur, now Muslim-dominated, proved problematic. It was resolved by erecting a symbolic representation of ‘an inkpot and brush,’ the official emblem of Jamaat-e-Islami. It is true Ezhuthachan used only stylus and Palmyra leaf for writing, never pen or ink, but the compromise was pure political appeasement.

Kerala Muslim society was more national until the 1960s, but has been steadily alienated from the mainstream, thanks to uninterrupted hawala money from the Gulf reaching fundamentalists. In dress code and social gatherings they are forced to keeping away from the mainstream. Only 10.3% of the older generation ladies used purdah; now 31.6% of the new generation have adopted purdah [9], which certainly suggests fundamentalist compulsions.

On 6 November 1999, Pope John Paul II in a sermon at Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi, stated, “Just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted on the soil of Europe, and in the second on that of the Americas and Africa, we can pray that in the Third Christian Millennium a great harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast and vital continent [Asia]”.

In the light of this ambition one should view Hindu antipathy to the minority approach of en masse dismemberment of a community and culture. This proselytism is suicidal so far as a civilization is concerned.

Under the guise of charitable service, a Kenyan national, Brother Bernard, on a tourist visa, and some nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, engaged in conversion through allurements in an economically backward Hindu settlement. They were opposed and blockaded at the entrance of the hamlet by some youths hailing from all non-communal political parties. This news is being vocally debated in mainstream Kerala newspapers. The police pressed charges against those who protested the conversion agenda of the Kenyan missionary, but recently the court acquitted all the accused in this case.

Three years ago, an American citizen, Rev. Joseph Cooper, on a tourist visa, publicly ridiculed Hindu gods and goddesses [10] at a Christian convention at Kilimannoor near Trivandrum. The public gave him a proper response, but the state government and opposition front provided him an escape route, even though he had violated visa norms and, like Brother Bernard, engaged in conversion of Hindus.

Hindu society faces multifaceted attacks from all anti-national forces. They must protect this nation from another division, and they must, above all, save the dying Hindu community of Kerala.

Notes
1] After his conversion to Hinduism he received the name Ramasimhan.
2] Muslims of this region is called so.
3] See EMS’s Selected Works, [Mal], Vol. VII, pp 356-57
4] Deepak Dharmadam, Keralam Feekararude Swantham Nadu, pp 59, 60.
5] Mangalam Daily, Kottayam,9th February 2009
6] Malayalam Varika, Editorial, Vol. VII, No. 12, 25th July 2003.
7] The New Indian Express, Kochi, 13 August 2003.
8] Not ignoring the fact that in the 53 years of Kerala’s history, for 49 years the portfolio of education is controlled by the minority religious parties or a person from a minority community who represents the secular parties.
 9] Dr. K. P. Aravindan [ed], Kerala Padanam, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, Kozhikode, 2006, p135
10] He uttered that Lord Krishna was the first AIDS patient.
11] Malayala Manorama, daily, Kottayam, dtd. 19th March 2005
12] Keralam 2000, State Language Institute, Trivandrum, pp 908, 909

Dr. C.I. Issac is a retired Professor of History, and lives in Trivandrum. The article is based on the First P.A. Ramakrishnan Memorial Lecture delivered in Chennai on 8 March 2009