Sacred Kerala — A Spiritual Journey by Dominique-Sila Khan; Penguin; Price: Rs.275; 233 pp
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The southern littoral state of Kerala (pop. 31.8 million) has a unique population mix. A little less than half of its inhabitants are Hindus, of various castes. The rest are Muslims and Christians, in roughly equal number, sprinkled with a minuscule population of Jews.
In contrast with most of north India, inter-community relations in Kerala have always been harmonious, although the situation is beginning to change today. At the popular level, economic and social ties and the interdependence of Kerala’s diverse religious communities have given birth to a strong sense of Malayali identity which transcends communal boundaries. This has been facilitated and strengthened by the use of the Malayalam language by all communities, as well as a long-standing tradition of religious overlapping or shared identities, which is what this fascinating book is all about.
The author, a Romanian Jew born and raised in France, married to a Rajasthani Muslim and deeply interested in India’s ‘folk religious’ traditions, herself exemplifies the notion of shared religious traditions that defy neat categorisation. Her location in India, she says, led her to undertake a series of journeys to Kerala to explore the state’s live legacy of popular religiosity that binds people of God’s own country which, to compound its religious multiplicity, also hosts a strong communist movement.
The central argument of the book is that as demonstrated by Kerala, the belief that communal identities are neatly bound, homogenous and clearly set apart from, or even in contradistinction to other religious particularisms, is erroneous. Textbook definitions of Islam, Hinduism and Christianity, which describe them as wholly independent creeds whose followers are distinct from each other, conceal a vibrant historical tradition of overlapping religious customs and identities, or what for want of a better term, can be called ‘syncretism’ or ‘liminality’. Shared religious traditions and religious spaces, contends the author, contain the seeds of universal spiritualism.
As an ethnographic account of religious syncretism in Kerala, this book excels. Khan describes several common ceremonies and practices that bind rural Hindus, Muslims and Christians throughout the state. She narrates stories of generous land grants made by Hindu rajahs to Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities to build their mosques, synagogues and shrines. Cults that have emerged from such shrines continue to survive, bringing together people of different creeds in common worship and celebration. At the annual Chandankulam festival in a remote Kerala village, devotees of all faiths gather in a Catholic church, proceed to a Bhagvati temple and finally congregate in a mosque. Similarly Hindus undertaking the arduous pilgrimage to the shrine of Ayyappa at Sabarimala, first visit a mosque, and, after their devotions, often pray at the shrine of a Christian saint. Ayyappa, one of the major Hindu folk deities of Kerala, is believed to have been a close friend of a Muslim named Vavar, as also of a Christian priest. Consequently Hindu festivals often involve prayers and contributions at Christian and Muslim shrines.
Sila Khan travels the length and breath of Kerala to uncover dozens of such shrine-based religious traditions that, taken together, present a vastly different picture of inter-communal relations from the conventional image of religious exclusivism in terms of belief and practice.
Nevertheless while lauding the syncretic traditions of Kerala, the author doesn’t sweep the reality that in recent years India’s most literate state has witnessed the emergence of a number of right-wing communal and religious fundamentalist movements — Hindu, Muslim and Christian. These movements have had a major impact on Kerala society, and have succeeded in reviving communal particularism. Nevertheless they are a fundamental departure from Malayali tradition, says Sila Khan, who argues that the essential trait of the people of the Malabar region is that they are open and inclusive, although she is also cognizant of deep-rooted caste discrimination in Kerala.
Yet the worth of this work of deep research and valuable insights is that it tells a fascinating story of alternate, more tolerant and accomodational interpretations of religious, spiritual and communal identities. It recounts the spiritual history of vast numbers of ordinary people, whose voices are unheard but who keep alive and practice harmonious spiritualism, which is a negation of the politics of religious exclusivism that threatens the unity of the Indian state.
Yoginder Sikand