Religion with Education

I accompanied a group of my students to a pilgrimage centre today as part of my school’s usual ritual before the annual exams. Perhaps that’s a very pertinent destination for such a trip which is meant to seek the blessings of a divine personality on students before their exams. The patron saint of the place is a monk who revolutionised a whole system in Kerala. He is Chavara Kuriakose Elias, one of the officially recognised saints of the Catholic church.

Born in 1805, Kuriakose Elias witnessed a lot of injustice. The poor were deprived of every possible delight of life in those days. Those were days when the caste system of Hinduism ruled the roost. The low caste people and the untouchables had no rights whatever. They were not even allowed to eat sufficient food. Keeping people hungry is one of the easiest ways of subjugating them. Their young girls would be carried away by the upper caste men for their transient delights. There were even traditions like a newly married bride of a peasant had to be deflowered by the landlord before she could sleep with her husband. Kuriakose Elias lived in a time when the low caste women had to walk in public places with their breasts uncovered so that the higher caste people could ogle. And do a lot more, of course, since there was no untouchability at night. And it was also the time when education was denied to everybody except the higher castes.

It was then Kuriakose Elias opened the first Sanskrit school in India that invited everyone irrespective of caste and creed to learn and grow out of the oppressive socio-political system. Remember how Manusmriti, the holy book of Hindutva, had stipulated that any low caste person who happens to hear the Vedic shlokas recited must have molten lead poured in his ears? It was when that rule and many other such heartless rules were in practice that Kuriakose Elias put up a small roof over a patch of land and invited the untouchable people of the place to send their children to come and learn Sanskrit. In the year 1831. The teacher was one Mr Warrier, a high caste Hindu.

It will be highly interesting to study why a high caste Hindu would do something that was to undermine his own religious system. Warriers were quite an exploited lot in those days. Too many people were exploited in those days, in fact. Anyone who did not belong to the privileged group was a victim. Is the situation any different today? Look at our economic inequality now. A tiny group of people own most of the country’s wealth and the whole political system is giving them still more. And more.

We are still practising the ancient caste system. In a new way. With a new rhetoric. With a new Manu on top.

We need another Kuriakose Elias, I thought as I was returning from Mannanam (near Kottayam in Kerala), the place where his tomb is today. We need a revolutionary visionary who can shatter the myths which are being imposed on us today as historical truths. We need a visionary who can dispel the darkness of rhetoric and histrionics with the radiant light of wisdom.

Kuriakose Elias dared to bring Sanskrit to the low castes and the untouchables in a time when that was thought to be impossible. He was the first individual to open a printing press in India at that time. He started a newspaper, Deepika. He was aware of the power of the press better than any politician. He changed Kerala’s outlooks and attitudes and made it a far better place than any in India.

We need someone like him today, I thought as I returned home from Mannanam. He was a religious person but his religon had a heart. And, more importantly, a brain.