The Art of Subjugation: A Case Study

Two Pulaya women, 1926 [Courtesy Mathrubhumi]

The Pulaya and Paraya communities were the original landowners in Kerala until the Brahmins arrived from the North with their religion and gods. They did not own the land individually; the lands belonged to the tribes. Then in the 8^th – 10^th centuries CE, the Brahmins known as Namboothiris in Kerala arrived and deceived the Pulayas and Parayas lock, stock, and barrel. With the help of religion.

The Namboothiris proclaimed themselves the custodians of all wealth by divine mandate. They possessed the Vedic and Sanskrit mantras and tantras to prove their claims. The aboriginal people of Kerala couldn’t make head or tail of concepts such as Brahmadeya (land donated to Brahmins becoming sacred land) or Manu’s injunctions such as: “Land given to a Brahmin should never be taken back” [8.410] or “A king who confiscates land from Brahmins incurs sin” [8.394].

The Brahmins came, claimed certain powers given by the gods, and started exploiting and deceiving the original people of the land. Consequently, the Pulayas and Parays lost not only their lands but also their freedoms. Soon after the arrival of the Brahmins in Kerala, the Pulayas and Parayas became “untouchable” slaves who were sold in the markets like cattle. The Kshatriya kings were crowned by the Brahmins and the duo ensured their own welfare at the cost of the others. [Something similar is happening now in India – history repeats.]

Pulayas and Parays were not the only original inhabitants of Kerala. There were other proto-Dravidian tribal cultivator groups like the Kuravas. They cleared forests and practised shifting cultivation. Paddy and millet were the primary crops. The land belonged to the tribes, as mentioned above, and not to individuals. There was no caste system; all were equal.

With the arrival of the Brahmins from the North, the entire system underwent radical changes. The original owners of land now became tenants or labourers overnight. By 11^th century, they were enslaved totally. This slavery, which was similar to what the West did to the blacks in Africa, continued for centuries. A letter written by Henry Baker Jr, pastor of a missionary order, to his senior authority on 12 Oct 1847, mentions that a slave child’s price was between 6 and 18 rupees. These Christian missionaries contributed their wholehearted services to put an end to the slavery. No wonder, a lot of the indigenous people converted to Christianity in Kerala.

Local leaders emerged too around this time. Right now I’m reading the biography of one such leader, Ayyankali. It is this book that inspired this post. I will review the book as soon as I finish reading it. In the meanwhile, I wanted to bring a parallel here, a parallel between what is happening now in India and what happened in the history of Kerala. I’m not going to make the comparisons more explicit.

The original owners of Kerala became slaves of certain people who brought in their religion and gods. Even today many of them remain landless or poverty-ridden, though quite many were saved by the various welfare schemes and reservations provided by earlier governments. But whatever landlessness and poverty still linger on is the result of historical displacement.

Do you know how many thousands of people have been displaced from their own lands in the last ten years in the name of development? Just one statue, the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, alone displaced 75,000 tribals in 72 villages in the Narmada district. Add to that figure the thousands of others displaced by mines and industries in other areas of India. The truth is no one will tell you the truth on these figures. No one wants you to know. 

Development

Let us conclude this with a recent example. Just over a month back, the Bihar government leased 1050 acres of land to Adani Power for a rent of one rupee per year. The land had ten lakh (one million) trees, including mango and litchi orchards. But the government declared the land “barren” and took it over from farmers numbering to about 1000. The government had their religion and gods for support. We are a religious nation now.