Church and Muslims in Kerala: Dialogue essential between believers in God’s own country | John Dayal

October 1, 2024

With some prayer and a lot of negotiation, it is hoped that some 600 families of fishermen – 450 of them Christian, the rest Hindu – will not be dispossessed of their homes in the Munambam - Kadapuram area in Pallipuram panchayat of Vypeen in the Kottapuram Latin Catholic diocese in north Kerala.

Talks have been inconclusive, but they have begun with some sincerity between the residents, and the leadership of the Muslims in the region who are claiming ownership over the land, claiming that the original owners had given it to the charitable trusts, or Waqfs as the Islamic Shariya calls them.

The confrontation between the Christian and Muslim communities in this part of Kerala has snowballed, bringing in the leadership of the three Rites of the Catholic church, the highly politicised and some say radicalised, Islamic clergy and their supporting organisations, and the Marxist communists whose popular leader Mr Hibi Eden is the local Member of Parliament.

For good measure, the Bhartiya Janata Party too has joined in, fishing in the very charged waters to penetrate deeper in the Christian community which helped it win its “historic” first Preplanetary seat of Trissur in the state where governance has rotated only between the Congress party and the Marxist Communist party (CPM).

The first Islamic empire in India was established by the so-called ‘Slave dynasty’ founded by Qutubuddin Aibak in 1206 in north India after the death of Mohammad Ghori who laid the foundation for seven centuries Muslim ruling dynasties in India till 1857, when the British took over with Queen Victoria as Empress.

For the BJP, Waqf and the large properties they own across the country are a pivotal argument in mobilising public support across the nation in every town and hamlet where there is land under a mosque, Eidgah, madrasa, or even a graveyard, each seen as a symbol of foreign aggression over h4e centuries.

Taking a relook at the Waqf boards has therefore been a major, if often unspoken, promise in their election rhetoric. Mr Narendra Modi’s government indeed has this summer brought a Bill before parliament to amend the Waqf Board laws. Though the Union government had the right to oversee the functioning of these boards and appoint administrators if thought fit, management was essentially left to the community, and often to the heirs of the person who founded an individual trust.

Many a times, the Waqf managements have been accused of corruption, or selling lands under their control. Some of the biggest hotels in Delhi stand on and they procured in this manner. Civil society also points to the homes of some of the wealthiest men in the world which are built in Waqf land in Mumbai.

The Opposition, and the nation-wide outrage in the Muslim community, which is at least 125 % of the population, forced the Modi government to first send the Bill to the Joint Committee of Parliament for deeper study, and for ascertaining the points of view of various stakeholders. In previous years, much of properties claimed by Wakf boards have been digitally documented, including their locations as registered by satellite data.

The Kerala villagers cry for justice has therefore been heaven-sent to question Waqf control on many properties.

It also helps that the Catholic community and their Bishops in the Syro Malabar ad Syro Malankara sui juris Rites, have in recent years accused the Marxist government of favoring the Muslim community in everything from scholarships for students to jobs for the unemployed. The Muslims outnumber Christians in Kerala, though both are far less than the Hindu community.

But God’s Own Country has a hot house impact on the faithful, as much as it has had on atheist Marxists. 
Kerala’s Marxist party and government are marching along, albeit with a marked limp, while their comrades in distant Tripura and West Bengal have all but withered away, no longer in power that they had tasted for decades on end.

The Muslim community in Kerala is economically better off than in the rest of India. Th richest Malayalee is a Gulf-based Muslim. The millennials among them are also highly educated. And sharply radicalised. The now banned Popular Front of India enjoys great popularity among them, and its frontal organisations working among students, youth and women are active in northern states.

The Catholic religious leader too is mostly Kerala based, with the state hosting the headquarters, the Synods, of the powerful and well-endowed Syro Malabar Church and the smaller but no less influential Syro Malankara Catholic Church. The Latin church, which is part of the Catholic church across India, has a strong presence among fishermen, boat owners and both coastal and agricultural and tea estates, rubber plantations and paddy field worker communities in the state.

A Catholic spokesperson has said the sensitive issue "will change the political landscape of Kerala” if both Congress and the Marxists refuse to find a solution soon. It is interpreted by any as implying that the Christian support to the BJP in Trissur in the Lok Sabha election may well expand to the entire state in the next elections to the state legislative assembly.

The local Congress MP Hibi Eden was accused of ignoring the case and supporting Muslims because he opposed the Waqf amendment.
 
Mr Eden, in turn, told a gathering, which included priests, that when the BJP brings a similar bill for targeting Church properties, he and his party would be their only support.

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council and Syro-Malabar Public Affairs Commission had urged the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill to take immediate and decisive action to resolve the issue and ensure such claims on lawfully owned properties of Indian citizens are not repeated in future.

After the letters sent to the Syro-Malabar Public Affairs Commission and the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), the Syro-Malabar Public Relations Office in association with the media commission has launched a social media campaign #SaveMunambam.

It is obvious that the Catholic church has decided to make this a major weapon in their on-going battle with the ruling Marxist party, and with their social and political competitor, the Muslim community and tis political organisations. In the words of a Malayali journalist, “Muslims in Kerala are seen to be more radicalized, and Christians fear their fate will be that of Lebanese Christians in the next decade.”

 That’s how radicalism works in the three religious communities in this state where jobs are few, agricultural land scant, and industries all but non-existent. and most families survive on the remittances sent by the several million workers toiling in the oil-rich countries of West Asia.

Another voice says “There must be a solution other than helping Modi to denude Muslim religious capital.” The experience of the Christian community, specially in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, leads many to fear that the BJP will next target Church properties. Ample notice has been given in the speeches of important leaders of the party and the Hindutva groups.

There are apprehensions that the issue will also divert attention from the larger threats that the community faces in the rest of the country, from Manipur to Tamil Nadu and even coastal Kerala.

Latin Catholic voices are urging their Bishops to articulate a more holistic and comprehensive position for the state’s Christian community which takes into consideration the issues that Christians face in the entire country.

Hope therefore pins on an amicable and fast solution for the crisis in the coastal village of Munambam. Political elements must not be allowed to fish in the waters of the Munambam stretch of the Arabian sea.