Leave It to the Gods

Mythology, history, tourism, faith and commerce are jumbled up in the theories about how Kerala came to be known as ‘God’s Own Country’. Lord Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, is supposed to have thrown his axe out into the sea to create a strip of land to settle Brahmins there to atone for his sin of having killed many to avenge the death of his father. Naturally, Lord Parasurama’s land became God’s own. More recently, Travancore, which forms the greater part of Kerala, was handed over by one of the maharajas, Marthanda Varma Anizham Thirunal, to Lord Padmanabha, the presiding deity of the ancient temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital, and ruled it on His behalf till India became independent. Though ruled by a human, the country became God’s own.

Tourism promotion demands telling slogans and it is believed that some copywriter literally copied a slogan used by New Zealand tourism and stealthily sold it to Kerala tourism on the ground that New Zealand and Kerala had similar landscapes. Truly, Kerala looks like an unkempt and untidy New Zealand and deserves to be God’s own country. For some mysterious reasons, New Zealand does not seem to have protested. The last theory is about the explosion of faith in Kerala in recent years. The skyline of Kerala changed dramatically in the last 20 years with huge temples, churches and mosques everywhere the eyes could see. Those who could afford to build new houses of worship, did so, while others built massive gates to miniscule places of worship. In a single trip to Kerala, anyone can see the millions of Hindu gods and many images of the single God worshipped by many. Not surprisingly, the visitors began calling it God’s Own Country!

I had suspected that the appellation ‘God’s Own Country’ is an escape route from human responsibilities. One can always take the line that God alone can resolve Kerala’s problems and that there is nothing that we can do about them. We tend to consider human beings of astounding achievements as avatars, as we, ordinary mortals, do not need to strive to emulate them! This has become more evident with the advent of Covid-19 and the consequent lockdown. And much happens which are illegal, unethical and unacceptable to a democracy, but there is no action, only investigation. The sense of resignation goes with the trust in God that He will settle matters in due time.

In the case of natural calamities, there are certain factors beyond human control and it is only natural to see them as God’s fury. Floods are an annual feature in Kerala and they cause death and devastation, which are taken for granted. Many plans are made to prevent floods the subsequent year, but it is cheaper and easier to leave such matters to God Himself. We celebrate the heroism of the fishermen who save the people and recommend Nobel Prize for them, but take no action to keep the waterways free or the dams strengthened. A special offering to the gods is a better insurance than anything that Life Insurance Corporation can offer.

Alcohol remains a major challenge in the state; very close to the situation in the former Soviet Union, which collapsed not because of Glasnost or Perestroika, but reduced production of vodka under Mikhail Gorbachev, according to some experts. The belief is that if prohibition is introduced across the board, the state will collapse economically and many will die after taking spurious liquor. If a daily wage worker does not spend half his earnings at the bars and the beverages corporation outlets, the government will not be able to supply rice at a subsidised price and the families will starve. The authorities can, therefore, leave the issue to the gods.

Gold is next only to alcohol as an opiate of the people. Today, a highly explosive mix of honey-trapping, gold smuggling, bureaucratic bungling, terrorist funding and complicity in all this of a diplomatic mission is rocking the state, but all the action is in the media. Central sleuths of various hues hover around and give bits and pieces of news each day to feed the evening debates on TV channels. The height of irony is that repatriation flights meant for those in distress are being used for gold smuggling and some say that the chartered flights were financed by smuggling gold. Private holding of gold per capita is the highest in the world in Kerala. God also goes with the gold in Kerala as the most famous temple in the state has the largest collection of gold and gold ornaments and precious stones in the world. What the gods love, the devotees love too.

India used to take pride in the fact that no Indian citizen had joined any of the international terror groups, but now there is evidence of Keralites disappearing and then surfacing as terrorist warriors. Many take up jobs by terrorist outfits as a livelihood—with the additional perk of the heavenly abode after life. But the shocking thing is that there is no general revulsion to such an approach. The society provides them safe haven and does not ostracise them because they too seem to be doing God’s work.

In the initial days of the lockdown, there was a sudden dip in crime and traffic accidents, but they picked up in no time, first domestic violence and then heinous crimes. The most inventive method of murder was committed in Kerala when a husband got a cobra and let it out in his own bedroom to bite his wife. It is a mystery as to how the cobra bit the wife and not the husband. Serial killings of families with poison is becoming common and parading the unrepentant criminals is a common sight on television screens. The compulsory mask has come in handy to hide the identity of the criminals. Unending investigations and court cases drag on in the belief that justice will be done by the gods.

In this backdrop, the biggest festival of Kerala, Onam, has dawned. Even though there is nothing to celebrate, Keralites must rejoice as they cannot disappoint an old benevolent monarch, Mahabali, who was consigned to the netherworld by an incarnation of Vishnu Himself, and will be visiting his subjects during the Onam season. The festival is the time for Keralites to pretend that they are as happy and prosperous today as they were during his reign. So huge home-delivered feasts and online festivities are already lined up, regardless of the call to cut expenditure to save for the Covid-19 victims. Malayalis cannot let go a traditional festival even in the midst of disasters. So with festive masks depicting pictures of colourful gods on them and social distancing thrown to the winds, we appease the gods by feasting and drinking. God alone can save His own country and the rest of Kerala can celebrate Onam with gusto.

About The Author

TP Sreenivasan

TP Sreenivasan is a former diplomat

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