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It’s the same old story of struggle for power. The actors involved and the timing make it significant. The Sivagiri Mutt, established by the 19^th century social reformer, Sree Narayana Guru, is witnessing an unseemly struggle for control between two groups of sannyasins, and an even more unseemly bid to fish in the troubled waters by the Sangh Parivar.

To recap: Sree Narayana Guru (1854-1928), considered to be the fountainhead of the Kerala Renaissance, initiated a unique social reform movement that successfully weeded out the caste-based hierarchical social structure in a State where not only the upper castes, but also lower castes like the Ezhavas played according to its divisive rules. Whereas the Ezhavas were required to maintain a distance of 64 feet from the Nairs, the same Ezhavas insisted that the Pulayas, further down the social ladder, should maintain at least 100-ft distance!

Back to the present: Efforts are on to portray Narayana Guru as essentially a Hindu sage. It exposes a complete lack of understanding of the specific context of the time when caste, and not religion was the most oppressing factor. Noted journalist Arun Shourie, for instance, proclaims in his book, Worshipping False Gods, that Narayan Guru was a reformer who operated within the Hindu temple culture. The statement, taking Narayana Guru out of the historical context, may sound true, too, if viewed against the fact that the saint had established some 100 temples in a period in which the construction of temples was the prerogative of the upper castes and entry into them was denied to the lower castes.

But consider what the same Narayana Guru observed in a statement issued in 1917: ”Now temple construction should not be encouraged. The main temples should be the schools. Money should be collected to build schools. Temples cause only an increase in caste awareness.” Even the objectives of Sivagiri, which attained the status of a pilgrimage centre in 1933, clearly illustrate Narayana Guru’s priorities: education, hygiene, faith, organisation, agriculture, trade, handicraft, and technical skills.

Attempts are also being made to label Narayana Guru as a Vedantist whose work was aimed at spreading Hindu philosophy. Which, again, is a fallacy, as a cursory look at the lives of the three Vedantists – Ramana Maharshi, a Brahmin; Chattambi Swamikal, a Nair; and Narayana Guru, an Ezhava – would make abundantly clear, Whereas Ramana Maharshi confined his Vedanta to the tapas he was undertaking at the Arunachalam Hills, Chattambi Swamikal said that Sudras also could recite the sacred Vedas. And Narayana Guru, who belonged to the lowest caste among the three, advocated: One caste, one religion, one God for humankind.” So it was the will to translate Advaita into the service of the society that made Narayana Guru the distinctive Renaissance leader – he went on to establish Sree Narayana Dharma Pariplana Yogam (SNDP) in 1903 to disseminate his teachings.

Narayana Guru’s movement was also more radical in its content. In neighbouring Tamil Nadu, E. V. Ramaswami Naickar’s Dravidian movement, built on a strong anti-Brahminical ideology, may have been more rationalist in nature, but Narayana Guru’s call for progress through education actually changed the lives of the lower castes for the better and should be credited for Kerala’s enviable quality of life indices.

The saint’s ideas inspired numerous mass socio-religious movements in other communities and castes, too. Explains P. K. Michael Tharakan of the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthpuram: “During the 1930s and the Great Depression, all castes and communities unedrwent eocnomci polarisation, leading to greater impoverishment among the already underprivileged groups.

The socio-religious reform movements and various caste organisations failed to re-orient their mobilisation efforts to address the aspirations of the under-privileged in general… Meanwhile, the vast sections of the socio-religious reform movements for the under-privileged sections shifted their political allegiance to socialists and communists, who under various names started espousing the cause of agricultural and industrial workers.”

Curiously enough, the SNDP movement decayed into a pressure group of the powerful liquor lobby, against whom Narayana Gureu had focused much of his energy. The Communists thus became the natural inheritors of Narayana Guru’s movement. They organised vast sections of the society, making the beginning of the second phase of the Kerala’s democratisation process.

It culminated in the Communists being voted to power in 1957. The Ezhavas, who form about 20 per cent of State’s population, have always been the electoral mainstay of the Communists. And, ironically, the Nairs and the Ezhavas found a place in the higher echelons of the Communist parties, relegating the more oppressed sections, like tribals and fishermen, to the sidelines. So the battle continues. Only, old survivors keep seeking newer martyrs.  

Indian Express (Sunday Magazine)

11  January 1998