My Idea of Utopia

I live in a state whose people’s most cherished legend is about a utopia. That legend revolves round Mahabali (whom the people of Kerala call Maveli affectionately). Maveli was an Asura (demon) king. But his reign was the most unparalleled in Kerala, according to the legend. No ruler could ever reach anywhere near the good governance implemented by Maveli.

Maveli’s reign was marked by honesty, equality, justice and other fundamental human values and virtues. There was no discrimination in the name of castes and creeds. No sectarianism. No jingoism. No hate-filled slogans. No gods, too. Probably, this last thing - absence of gods – made it a utopia.

I was brought up in an orthodox Catholic family. As a child I learnt about God and his absurd ways. The Bible opened with the idea of a weird god who created a Paradise (Utopia) for humans only to deceive them sooner than later. God placed an irresistible temptation right in the middle of the Paradise. He knew the human heart wasn’t immune to such temptations. God didn’t want people to live in any Utopia, apparently. Later when people tried to create another Utopia in what came to be known as Babel, the Biblical God again scuttled the project with a ruthlessness that only a God could have possessed.

Gods don’t like Utopias. Maveli was not a god. He was an anti-god, an Asura, a demon. He is far better than gods in Kerala’s legends.

As a young man, I abandoned gods because they failed to appeal to my reason. I found them absolutely absurd. The entire problem of the Paradisiacal Utopia could have been averted simply by making the human nature incapable of evil. In other words, give human beings the simple realization that doing good and avoiding evil is the ideal form of existence. They choose good and shun evil out of that awareness. It is a fundamental choice, choice of good over evil, knowing that it is the ideal choice for the homo sapiens, the wise creatures.

That gives you my notion of a utopia. Utopia, for me, is a place where the human creatures will choose good over evil at any time just because they understand that that is the most reasonable thing to do. Choosing evil is self-destructive. Who doesn’t know that?

Well, most members of our species don’t. That is the answer. Our gods don’t. It was a god who stole Maveli’s utopia.

The gods in the massive Indian pantheon were jealous of Maveli’s utopia. So they sent none less than God Vishnu in the form of a dwarf named Vamana and cheated Maveli like only gods and their beloved bhakts can.

Kerala still celebrates Maveli. The state’s official and longest festival is Onam which celebrates the memory of Maveli. It is this memory that the BJP wanted to steal from Malayalis a few years back when Amit Shah greeted them with Happy Vamana Jayanti on the occasion of Onam. The attempt backfired. Malayalis told Amit Shah to get lost along with his dwarf Vamana.

The charm of Utopia is too strong to resist. Because it is the charm of innocence. Utopia is a land of innocence. Evil doesn’t exist there because people won’t choose evil. Put positively, people choose the good out a profound sense of awareness. That was the kind of place that Maveli’s Kerala was. I wish we could retrieve that Kerala once again.

Exactly a month from now, Kerala will begin its Onam celebrations. I wish Amit Shah won’t impose his dwarf on us. Let us have the demon Maveli. Keep your gods with you.

PS. This post is in response to this week’s #BlogchatterBlogHop prompt: What is your idea of a utopian world?