The closing of a society

Communal amity seems to be a thing of the past as religious fundamentalism slowly spreads everywhere. Kerala, God’s Own Country, was kn...

Communal amity seems to be a thing of the past as religious fundamentalism slowly spreads everywhere. Kerala, God’s Own Country, was known for communal harmony in olden times — it welcomed one of the apostles of Jesus, embraced Islam well before the religion was known to any other parts of this subcontinent and propagated monism though Advaita, the greatest philosophies of all times propounded by the Adi Shankara — seems to be the latest victim. The recent killings in Marad near Calicut were a shame to civilisation.

In this context it is pertinent to point out some exceptional customs that prevailed in Kerala.

On October 1, 2002 a 2000-year old Narasimha temple near Tirur in Kerala was set on fire by miscreants. The district administration realised the seriousness of the matter and rushed to prevent clashes. But they were surprised to see that everything was normal. They were greeted by a peaceful hartal by the local people of all religions to protest against the mischief. Tirur is a Muslim majority area but there was not a single untoward incident. An all party meeting was convened by the district collector for the reconstruction of the temple. A prominent local Muslim leader volunteered to meet all the expenses of the reconstruction.

There is a well known temple in Kannur district, the Muchilott Bhagavathy temple. It is customary that during temple festivals, the vessel to carry water for temple ceremonies is given by a Muslim family staying nearby. The tradition goes on. Similarly, lotuses for the famous Guruvayur temple are supplied by a Muslim, Karakkada Abdurahiman of Malappuram from his tank.

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Another classic example of Hindu-Muslim unity could be seen in the famous Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, which attracts millions of devotees, of all religions. A Muslim saint, Vavar, is part of the temple deities. Every pilgrim, irrespective of his or her religious background, worships Vavar before Ayyappan. That proclaims the singular truth ‘‘tatvam asi’’, meaning ‘‘Thou art It’’. If one realises this truth, then there is no dichotomy between beings, leave alone human beings.

Recently there was an attempt by some vedic scholars to chalk out ways and means to open Hindu temples for worship for non-Hindu believers. What a revolutionary idea! To discuss and formulate the modalities for this purpose, a meeting of various Hindu community leaders was convened. The main agenda was ‘‘unification and reformation of Hindu temple customs to permit the entry to all devotees, including non-Hindus to the temple’’. Unfortunately nothing concrete has taken place at the meeting.

Let us pray to God to open up the eyes of fanatic leaders of all religions to the reality that all human beings, irrespective of their religion, are equal. As Swamy Vivekananda once said, ‘‘what we require is not religious tolerance but religious acceptance.’’