Kerala

"God's own country"

"While India’s life expectancy figure of around 60 years compare quite unfavourably with China’s 69 years, Kerala’s life expectancy – about 72 years – appears on the other side of China’s achievement. Similarly, the infant mortality rate of 79 per thousand live births in India is very high indeed in comparison with China’s 31, but Kerala’s rate of 17 is much better than China’s. Again while India’s literacy rate is much lower than that of China, Kerala’s is substantially higher than China’s."

"Ownership inequality between men and women are is not a newly emerging inequality, in contrast with natality inequality, for example. It has existed in most parts of the world for a very long time. However, there are also important local variations in the prevalence of this of this inequality. For example, even though traditional property rights tend to favour men over women in most parts of India, nevertheless in the state of Kerala, over a long period there has been matrilineal inheritance for an influential part of the community, most notably the Nairs, who constitute about a fifth of the total population of Kerala and who has long been influential in the governance and politics of kerala. In the exceptional nature of Kerala’s social achievements, the greater voice of women seems to have been an important factor, and in this long tradition of matrilineal inheritance on the part of an influential segment of society has played a significant role."

"The trend is catching pace in India too, especially in Kerala. An organisation has recently been formed to provide those who renounce Islam, a platform to express and gather fearlessly. “Ex-Muslims of Kerala” is an attempt by the educated Muslim youth, who thought to exit the religion and become free thinkers. It has declared January 9 as ‘Kerala Ex-Muslim Day’. It is a historic development as many members in the group are active in social media debates attracting more like-minded people to their fold. Kerala, with Islamic radicalization growing unimaginably voluminous in its Malabar region, has become a hotbed of Islamist activities which the state administration is purposefully silent about. Most of the members in the group face economic and social boycotts and sometimes receive violent reactions from the radicals. Excommunication of people who left Islam is normal in the community and thanks to democracy that apostasy is not punishable under the constitution. The movement in Kerala provides social, economic and legal support to the Ex-Muslims."

"In probably a first in India, an organisation has been formed in Kerala to provide a platform to those who are renouncing Islam, a move which has significant socio-political implications. Although there are rationalist movements and religious reformist movements in our country, there was no organisation until now to represent those who leave a religion and want to continue as non-religious, neutral person(s). Now, a group of people who renounced Islam have come together to form ‘Ex-Muslims of Kerala’ and also decided to observe January 9 as ‘Kerala Ex-Muslim Day’. Moreover, considering India’s religious history, the ex-Muslims’ movement of Kerala can be viewed as a unique historical development."

"A group of people “who abandoned their religion” have floated a new organisation called ‘Ex-Muslims of Kerala’, offering a platform and support to those who stopped practising Islam. The organization observed January 9 as ‘Ex-Muslims Day’."

"The clearest eye-opener is the birth-rate in the relatively affluent Muslim-majority district of Malappuram in highly-literate Kerala; at 75.22%, the female literacy rate in Malappuram is twice as high as for most Hindu communities in the Hindi belt. In the decade 1981-91 its population grew by 28.74%, well above the national average of 23.50% and more than twice the Kerala average of 13.98%. This disproves the usual excuse that the birth-rate automatically follows the poverty rate and the illiteracy rate. Most Hindu Scheduled Caste people whom I know have settled for smaller families, but by and large, Muslims have not changed their appetite for large families. Ever since the propagation of birth control among the Hindu masses, rich and literate Muslims have more children than poor and illiterate Hindus."

"Baljit Rai, a retired police officer who was a personal witness to India's failure in con­tain­ing the rising tide of il­legal im­migration from Bangladesh, refu­tes this ar­gument by poin­ting to the birth rate among Kerala Muslims, who have a high level of education and a relativ­ely high stan­dard of living. Mani Shankar Aiyar had clai­med on the basis of statewise figures for the south­ern states that "Muslim birth rates in all these en­light­ened states are very much lower than Hindu birth rates in unen­lightened states like Uttar Prad­esh". However, Rai's clos­­er­­ analy­s­is of the figur­­­­­­­­­­­­­­es­ shows that the Kerala Mus­lims have a higher birth-rate than the natio­nal Hindu average and even than the Hindu average in poor and back­ward states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan: the population growth (+28.74% for 1981-91) in the Muslim-majority district of Malappuram (with female liter­acy at 75.22%, far higher than among Hindus in the Hindi belt) is more than twice as high as the aver­age for Kerala (+13.98), and well above the Hindu national aver­age (+23.50). A secularist journalist confirms: "In spite of this 'near total literac­y' the popula­tion growth rate of Muslims who constitute one-fourth of Kerala's population is as high as 2.3 per cent per year, which is more than even the natio­nal PGR [= population growth rate] of 2.11 per annum and is almost double the PGR of Hindus in Kerala it­se­lf.""

"The government had earlier eaten into the Muslim reservation by assigning the turns of Muslims to persons with disabilities, KNM said. "Muslims are suffering a big loss because their turns are being assigned to other weaker sections," the organisation said. "This is a serious matter," the organisation said."

"In a statement, the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM) said it was unacceptable to strip away the rights granted by the Constitution to the socially disadvantaged Muslim minority community under any pretext. "The government should not feign ignorance when the Muslim quota is reduced due to the inclusion of new, less privileged communities in the quota system," it said. The Sangh Parivar has already made its agenda clear during the election campaign to end the Muslim reservation, it said. "The state government should not be helping the communal forces that are trying to sabotage the Muslim reservation assured by the Constitution," KNM said."

"Truth shall always prevail."

"Deputy Solicitor General of India OM Shalina told the Kerala High Court that the name Janaki, being another name for goddess Sita, could hurt religious sentiments. However, Justice N Nagaresh disagreed, stating, “She is the victim? If the rapist’s name was Ram, Krishna or Janaki, then it would have been understandable. Here she is the heroine, who is fighting for justice.”"

"The judge strongly asserted that it is not for the censor board to dictate the creative choices of filmmakers, including the names of characters. “What is wrong with the name Janaki? How is this an insult to religion? This is the freedom of the artist,” Justice Nagaresh asked pointedly."

"Most Christians in Europe are of such opinion as though the Malabarian heathens were a rather barbarian people who know nothing of either erudition or moral ethics; yet all this stems from not having known their language properly and having jumped to conclusions from outward appearances. I myself must confess that when I first came among heathens, it was impossible for me to imagine that their language might be a language of proper rules and their life a proper life, but formed very many faulty conceptions on all their activity, believing that among them there were neither civil nor moral laws. For this reason I find it very easy to forgive those who have never been among these heathens and harbour similar erroneous views, since I was myself still inclined to them when I had already been with these heathens for some time; however, as soon as I had learned to understand their tongue a little and was able to talk with these heathens about this and that, I was gradually freed from this misconception and I was able to harbour far better ideas about them. When I finally gained the complete knowledge of being able to read their books, and found that among them those very philosophical disciplines were taught which were being exchanged among the scholars of Europe and that they have proper written laws from which all theological matters must be derived and demonstrated on; I was greatly astonished by this and conceived a great desire to learn as much as possible about their heathendom from their own writings. Thereafter, I got myself one book after another, sparing neither time nor expense until now at last I have got so far through the diligent reading of their books and through the continued discussion with their Brahmins or priests, that I know something definite about them and am able to reason about it. Yet this is a very vast field, so if one would write something detailed about it, one would require a great deal of time and large volumes."