An event in the history of Malayalam television

Sashi Kumar

Tomorrow, September 30, marks the 25^th anniversary of  Malayalam television channel Asianet’s first news telecast.

That, incidentally, was also the first live newscast by any private Indian channel. 

Promoted by Sashi Kumar, former chief of Press Trust of India’s TV division, Asianet began telecasts in August 1993. It was the first private Indian channel to go on air.

Sashi Kumar had conceived Asianet satellite operations as a PTI project. But the owners of PTI, who are all newspaper owners, rejected it. He then quit PTI and promoted it, not in the original form, but as a Malayalam satellite channel project.  

The government did not permit uplinking from India at that time. Sashi Kumar got over the problem with his uncle and co-promoter, Reji Menon, a Moscow-based businessman, making arrangements with an outfit at Subic Bay in the Philippines to uplink the programmes and with a Russian agency to pick up up the signals and make them available in India.

At least two private satellite channels, Zee in Hindi and Sun in Tamil, began telecast of news bulletins before Asianet did. In the absence of uplink facility, they recorded the bulletin ahead of the telecast time and  transmitted it through VSNL to the uplink centre.

Sashi Kumar was of the view that a news bulletin must be live. So he decided to send Asianet’s news readers to Subic Bay. The bulletins prepared by the desk, based at Thiruvananthapuram, were telexed to the studio at Subic Bay.

After a brief inaugural ceremony at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, P.M. Saeed, switched on a television a set and the face of A. Pramod, who was at the Subic Bay studio, appeared on the screen.

 Left: Screen image of A. Promod reading Asianet's first news bulletin on September 30,1995. Right: A recent picture of Promod, now Coordimnating Editor of Manorama News. ( Images Courtsey The News Minute)

The 25 years that have passed since then have seen the birth of many more channels and the death of some.

Reji Menon ousted Sashi Kumar and took control of Asianet only to sell it to  Rajiv Chandrasesskhar, a Bangaluru-based businessman turned politician. He in turn sold to Murdoch’s Star group all but the News Division.  He is now a BJP MP and its official spokesman.

Sashi Kumar went on to establish the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai.

A. Pramod, now better known as Pramod Raman, is Coordinating Editor of Manorama News.

Sree Narayana Guuru

Unmaking of Kerala’s Renaissance

This is a sequel to “The Pioneers of Kerala’s Renaissance,” posted here on September 2.

Efforts to undo the work of Sree Narayana Guru and Mahatma Ayyankali began in their lifetime itself.

In keeping with the Guru’s all-embracing approach, membership of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam was open to all. But its functionaries by and large enrolled only members of the Ezhava community, in which the Guru was born. It thus soon took the form of a caste organization and limited its activities to promoting the interests of that community.

The Guru disapproved of this approach and stayed away from it. Subsequently he made a public announcement that he was removing the Ypgam from his mind.

He said that because he was born in a particular caste and religion, some people think he belongs to that caste and religion. He had left caste and religion behind, and did not now belong to any caste or religion.

The concept of transcending caste and religion of birth was something small minds nurtured on sectarianism  could not even comprehend.

Eminent Malayalam poet, N. Kumaran Asan, who was the first General Secretary of the Yogam. wrote a poem deifying the Guru. In many Ezhava homes his picture found a place in the prayer room.

After he dissociated himself from the Yogam, the Guru devoted attention mainly to Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham, an order of sanyasis, which he set up to continue his mission. He enrolled in the Sangham members of all castes. They included several members of the  Nair community, a Sudra group on which the Brahmins had conferred upper caste status in recognition of its collaborative role in enforcing the caste system in Kerala society, which bore the imprint of Buddhist and Jain traditions, , probably around the 10^th or 12^th century. One of them, Swami Sathyavrathan, was the Guru’s choice as his successor.

Sathyavrathan’s story is similar to that of St. Paul who was a persecutor of Christians before he accepted Jesus as the saviour. Sathyavrathan had led Nair brigades against Ezhavas seeking to assert their rights, but had a change of heart and became a disciple of the Guru.

Dalit boys from around his Ashram in Varkala were among those whom he admitted to the order.

Casteism raised its ugly head in the Sangham too. Disillusioned with it, he went away to Tamil Nadu but was persuaded by his followers to return to Varkala.   

Most of his life the Guru wore white dhoti and white upper cloth. He switched to ochre robes in his last days.

Dr. P. Natarajan, who was a lay disciple in the Guru’s lifetime, wanted to join the Sangham but was not accepted. He then formed a new order, styled as Sree Narayana Gurukulam. It was from Nataraja Guru, as he came to be known, that I learnt why he switch from white to ochre.

The Guru had a lot of property in his name, all gifts made by devotees and admirers. He wanted the property to go to the Sangham. He was told that only if he was recognized as a sanyasi would the property go the Sangham. There were court judgements laying down criteria for determining if one is a sanyasi. One of them says a sanyasi is a habitual bearer of ochre robes.

Early stalwarts of the Yogam like T.K. Madhavan and C. Kesavan became leaders of the Congress as it emrged as the spearhead of the freedom movement.  After the Guru’s passing, the Dewan, C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, weaned the Yogam’s leaders as well as those of the Nair community’s Nair Service Society away from the Congress to bolster the position of the Maharaja’s regime. When freedom came, realizing they are on the wrong side of history, the NSS and the Yogam withdrew from the political arena, leaving it to the Congress to look after their interests.

C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar damaged the Dalit movement too. Ayyankali’s Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham was not a caste organization, but, as its name suggests, a platform of all poor. His son-i-law, T.T. Kesava Sasthri, whom the Dewan nominated to the State Assembly, floated a caste organization, Pulaya Mahasabha. When Maharaja’s rule ended, it too switched allegiance to the Congress.

When the Communist Party of India, recognizing the influence of the caste organizations, deputed its members to capture them for the party. E.M.S. Namboodiripad, who was tasked to woo the Yogakshema Sabha of the Malayali Brahmin community, became its president. P. Gangadharan who was sent to capture the SNDI Yogam failed in the mission.

While first the Dewan and then the Congress won the loyalty of the leaders of the caste parties by offering loaves, the Ezhava and Dalit masses, who were radicalized by the Sree Narayana and Ayyankali movements, did not follow them. They lined up behind the Communist movement, which they presumed were more likely to usher in the ideal society envisaged by the renaissance leaders.

The CPI’s coming to power in 1957 in Kerala represents the high point of the renaissance movement at the political level. The land and education reform measures of the government appeared to fulfil the expectations of the marginalized sections.

But that was not to be. Even before the two measures could be implemented the government was brought down by an agitation in which the leadership of caste organizations joined hands with the Congress.

In 1958, Namboodiripad, as Chief Minister, made a daring frontal attack on reservation in the services, which was a major gain of the renaissance movement. (Note that reservation was introduced in the princely states before India became free, before the Constitution was gramed, and of course before the Mandal Commission was even thought of.)  An administrative reform committee with Namboodirpad himself as the chairman came out with a report against reservation, saying it destroys efficiency. (Note that this was after the Constitution provided for reservation for socially and educationally backward classes of people.)

The rank and file of the CPI was unable to raise its voice against Namboodiripad’s championing of caste supremacists’merit theory. But he could not go ahead with the mischievous idea after K. Sukumaran, Editor of Kerala Kaumudi, the only newspaper which  was friendly to the Communist government, blasted it in Namboodiripad’s presence at a public meeting.

Sukumaran pointed out that the Namoodirpad committee, which made the recommendation against reservation, did not have any one from the main OBC groups (Ezhavas and Muslims)  or the Dalit community.

After the Communist Party split, as leader of the CPM, Nambiidiripad came up with the idea of economic reservation to vitiate the system of reservation which was aimed at addressing social and educational backwardness.  The CPM accepted his line at the all-India level, and it is now in force in Kerala. 

The eligibility criteria laid down for economic reservation lay bare the mischievous intent of the government. If one’s family earns up to Rs 4 lakhs in a year and owns up to 2.5 acres (in a village) or 50 cents (in a city) one is still an upper caste poor! For all other purposes, one is reckoned as poor if the family’s monthly income is below Rs, 1,059 (in rural area) or Rs.1,286 (in urban area).

 

 

Sri Narayana Guru

Mahatma Ayyankali 

The Pioneers of Kerala’s Renaissance

Today, the fourth day of Onam, is the birth anniversary of Narayana Guru, the tallest figure of the renaissance movement, which put Kerala ahead of the rest of India in terms of   social development.

On this day in 1855 Nanu, who in the fullness of time came to be revered as  Sree Narayana Guru, was born in a backward class family on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram.

Eight years later, also during the Onam season, a Dalit boy, Ayyanhali, was born at Venganoor, another village near Thiruvananthapuram. He came to be hailed by Kerala’s dispossessed as a Mahatma.

After receiving a traditional education, Nanu opted for a life of asceticism. At the age of 33, he sent shock waves through the citadels of orthodoxy by picking up a stone from a river bed, consecrating it as a Shiva idol and installing it in a makeshift temple at Aruvippuram. While entry to temples under the control of the Maharaja’s regime was limited to those in the higher echelons of the caste hierarchy, this one was open to all, regardless of caste and creed.

He hung a handwritten placard with these words on a tree nearby: “This is a model place where all live in fraternity without caste differences and religious hatred.”

It later gained recognition as the objective of the evolving Kerala renaissance.

Priesthood challenged his right to consecrate an idol. He dismissed their objections, saying, “This is our Shiva”.

Later he built more temples at various places in response to requests from people, whom caste supremacists kept out of their temples.

Over the years he spelt out the cardinal principles of his model state in a few aphorisms:

--Ask not, Say not, Think not Caste.

-- One Caste, One Religion, one God for mankind.

-- Whatever the religion, one must be a good human being.

-- Caste, religion, dress, language - these should not divide human beings.

He explained the ‘one religion’ concept by pointing out that the essence of all religions is the same.

He urged the people to get enlightened through education and prosper through agriculture and industry.

At the instance of Dr. P. Palpu, a qualified medical professional who joined Mysore government service after being denied a job in Travancore on grounds of caste, he set up the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, with himself as President, to propagate his ideals.

A special feature of the Yogam’s second annual session held at Kollam in 1904 was an industrial exhibition, said to be the third after those held in London and Paris in the 19^th century.   

In the Census Report of 1911 the Travancore government acknowledged the beneficial results of the Guru’s social activities.

Yogam leader T.K. Madhavan was instrumental in persuading the Congress at its 1923 session at Kakinada to organize a satyagraha to press the demand for throwing open the roads around the Mahadeva temple at Vaikom to all. Members of the so-called lower castes were not allowed to use those roads.

Gandhi visited Vaikom during the satyagraha. On that visit, he also called on Narayana Guru at Varkala. They spoke with the help of an interpreter.

The conversation began with Gandhi asking if the Guru knew English, and his saying no. The Guru then asked if the Mahatma knew Sanskrit, and he too said no.

With large-scale conversions to other faiths in the region in his mind, Gandhi asked whether the Guru did not consider Hinduism sufficient for attaining salvation.

“Any religion is sufficient,”  said the Guru.

After Gandhi repeated the question twice, the Guru gave him the answer he was angling for. “Hinduism is also sufficient,” he said.

While addressing a public meeting at the Guru’s Ashram, Gandhi offered a facetious justification for inequalities in society. Pointing to the leaves of a tree, he said, “Look at those leaves. They are not all of the same size.”

Speaking later, the Guru said the leaves of all size will have the same taste,

 At Vaikon, for months three satyagrahis, one Caste Hindu, one OBC man and one Dalit, courted arrest each day. The Maharaja’s police and the temple high priest’s goons belaboured the OBC and Dalit satyagrahis.

The Akali Dal ran a langar at the satyagraha camp.

The satyagraha ended without a formal settlement. Once it ended and the police and the goons left, the ban died a quiet death. 

Ayyankali had no formal education, for there was no school he could go to.  

In 1893at the age of 30, he threw away the loin cloth the Dalits were required to wear and started dressing the way members of the so-called upper castes did.

He bought a bullock cart and rode in it through public thoroughfares defying the rule that barred members of his community from using a vehicle.

At a time when there were no political parties or trade unions, Ayyankali oganized a strike by Dalit farm workers in support of the demand for educational facilities for their children.  

Caste supremacists burnt down a school set up for Dalits. When the Dewan ordered that Dalit children be admitted to government schools, Caste Hindus threated to pull out their children. The Dewan then instructed the teachers to continue work with only Dalit students.

Ayyankali told Gandhi he wanted to see ten graduates in his community.

The Naharaja’s government nominated Ayyankali as a member of the State Assembly.

First-hand accounts of foreigners testifying to the extremely cruel and oppressive conditions under princely rule in the 19th century are available. Women of the so-called lower castes were forced to go topless in public. The socially disadvantaged groups bore the brunt of the tax burden. There was a breast ax on women and head tax on men.

The first woman martyr of the campaign for social justice was Nangeni of Cherthala who cut off a breast and flung it at the tax collector.

With the spread of modern education, largely due to the efforts of Christian missionaries, campaigns against atrocities began. They became widespread under the impact of the movements of Narayana Guru and Mahatma Ayyankali.

The period also saw reform movements among Christians and Muslims.

The Kerala renaissance movement was essentially the coming together of reform movements to create a progressive society.  The political parties came later.     

Thanks to the early gains of the renaissance, Kerala provided the only Dalit woman member of the Constituent Assembly, the first Dalit President and the first Dalit Chief Justice of India.

Like the Bengal renaissance, which is sometimes referred to as the Indian renaissance, the Kerala movement was sparked by the spread of English education. But, unlike in Bengal, reform movements did not begin and end with the so-called upper castes in Kerala.  On the contrary, the movements originated among the lower strata of society and travelled upwards. Within the Hindu fold, the first stirrings started with the founding of Sri Narayana’s and Ayyankali’s organizations. The Nairs and the Namboodiris mobilized themselves later, realizing they would be left behind if they did not change their ways.

Today the Kerala renaissance is in reverse gear. How that happened deserved to be dealt with at some length.  So it must wait. It will be the subject of an article to follow.