Tipu Sultan and Calicut University

In 1193, Bhakhtiyar Khilji torched the Nalanda University and destroyed it, citing the reason that the entire system didn’t suit their Islamic ideology and culture. Many centuries later, we again have the misfortune of affronting   similar kind of barbarism.  Just last year in Kerala, the Calicut University authorities not only withdrew the third year correspondence course history text book acquiescing to the demand of Islamic fundamentalists but also burned the entire published lot. The text book contained portions of Tipu Sultan’s conquest of Malabar, which mentioned the atrocities committed by him on Hindus during that time.

In Kerala, the trend has become such that, by the forceful interference of Islamists and  the leftists, the authorities are mutilating the factual history especially that of the Tipu’s conquest that saw hundreds of temples destroyed, thousands of Hindus killed or converted and the wealth of Malabar looted.  There is an effort going on in Kerala to paint Tipu as a secular social reformer and to convert his bloody conquest as a social revolution. Tipu’s conquest of North Kerala from 1766 to 1793 destroyed the peaceful social-cultural lives of the people there. The conquest not only ruined the economy of Malabar but also the religious demography there.

What Historians said

Vadakannoor Rajaraja Varma wrote in “ Kerala Samskrita Sahitya Charithram” that  the favourite hobbies of Tipu and his father Hyderali was to burn Temples, destroy the idols and behead cows in front of Temples.

K.V.Krishna Iyer, Historian of Kozhikode wrote- “ The attack of Hindus by Tipu’s army should be compared to world’s most cruel and barbaric persecution on a community as a whole”.

Ilamkulam Kunjan Pillai (Wrote in the Mathrubhumi weekly of 1955 December 25)-

“During the conquest of Tipu, Kozhikode town was the centre of Brahmin. There were around 7000 odd households at that time. About 2000 homes were destroyed by Tipu’s attack. He didn’t even spare women and children,. Men absconded to neighboring regions and forests. Population of Mohammedans increased. Hindus, in groups, were forced to do sunnath (circumcision) and convert to Islam. After Tipu’s conquest the population of Nairs became negligible and Namboothiris very low”.

Temples destroyed by Tipu

Kozhikode: Thali, Sree Valayanadu, Kavu, Thiruvannur, Varaykkal, Puthoor, Govindapuram, Thalikunnu temples in Kozhikode town and many temples in the outskirts were destroyed by Tipu’s army.

Rest of Malabar: Malabar Gazette sais even the famous Thirunavaya temple was also wasn’t spared by Tipu’s army. Temples in Vettathunadu- Keraladheeswaram, Thrikandiyoor, Thriparangodu were also destroyed by Tipu. The Gopuram and idols of Thrikavu temple in Ponnanni  were destroyed and the place was converted to ammunition store of Mysore army.

South Malabar:  Temples in Kodikunnu, Thrithala, Panniyoor, Shukapuram, Perumparambu in Edappal

Guruvayoor Temple: When the news of Tipu’s army approaching Guruvayoor reached the people of the holy town, the devotees took Guruvayoorappan’s Idol and escaped from there. Tipu and his army marched forward and on the way they destroyed Palayoor Christian Church and looted households.  It started raining heavily and Tipu stopped his journey. The rain continued for 2 days and Tipu was forced to retreat.  Thus his dream of demolishing and looting Guruvayoor Temple was thwarted, perhaps by a Divine Intervention.

Temples in North Travancore: Thiruvanchikulam Siva temple in Aluva was looted and destroyed by Tipu’s army.  Venkitachalapathi Devaswom temple in North Paravur and Makhanji temple near Manjali kunnu were destroyed by Tipu in 1790 on his second conquest after getting defeated by Travancore Army.

Varapuzha Catholic Carmalite Church and education centre attached to it was attacked by Tipu’s army. They demolished the church and adjacent buildings, and burned the books and records.

Travancore Army defeated Tipu’s army

The atrocities of Tipu didn’t end with demolishing Temples, Churches and Jain temples, but included converting Hindus forcefully to Islam on a large scale, raping and molesting Hindu women, Killing men , women and children and looting the economy of Malabar. The brave Army of Travancore finally defeated Tipu at the battle of Nedumkotta in 1789   . Tipu injured in the battle had to retreat and left with a permanent lameness. 

Picture Courtesy: Thali Temple Kozhikode

Is Imran Khan living in fool’s paradise?

Imran Khan promises to eliminate Jihadi terrorism from the face of Pakistan in 90 days if he gets elected. He seems to have already chalked out an action plan with which he strongly believes that he can remove the menace of terrorism from Pakistan forever.  According to Imran, the cause of the growth of terrorism in Pakistan is the presence of U.S. army in the tribal areas and the drone attacks by it, which kills innocent people every single day. Naturally, the people are angry, especially the Pathans, who has gradually taken up Jihadi terrorism to avenge the U.S. aggression. Imran Khan’s solution is simpler than his reasoning- asks the Americans to leave and once they pack up, the Jihadis will quit fighting.  Is it as simple as what Imran believes? Does the terrorism in Pakistan have only one characteristic- that of the Jihad against the Americans?

The Wiki leaks cable dating from late 2008, published by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn came out with some shocking revelations. The cable details point to the sudden widespread growth of sophisticated Jihadi recruitment network in poor areas of Pakistan, which recruited children into divisions that grew Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith madrassa network.  The network exploited worsening poverty of areas like Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan Divisions. Younger children (between 8 and 12) were preferred and were sent to comparatively small, extremist Deobandi or Ahl-e-Hadith madrassa in southern/western Punjab to get indoctrinated into Jihadi philosophy. They are further enrolled in regional/ indoctrination centers and ultimately send to terrorist training camps in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).

The source of funding for the Jihadi network comes from the Oil rich Saudi Arabia and to an extent U.A.E.  A family receives upwards of $ 6500 per son for getting their ward recruited in the madrassa. While exact amount of money pouring into this projects were unavailable, the staggering estimates put the total to the region of $ 100 million annually. But why do the Saudis fund Jihadi terrorism in Pakistan? The answer is simple- to establish “Wahhabism”, a particularly austere and rigid form of Islam originated in Saudi Arabia. These Deobandi/ Ahl-e-Hadith Madrassas funded by Saudi oil rich Sheikhs has proliferated across Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, creating Jihadis to exterminate the Shiites, Sufis, Ahmedis  and Christians in Pakistan, to fight the government in Afghanistan, to kill the Christians in Nigeria and Indonesia , and Jews and Hindus world over.

Imran Khan is looking at only a portion of the aspect of Jihadi terrorism in Pakistan.   Terrorists or extremists in Pakistan are not only fighting the Americans but different sects and nationalities, which Imran Khan has failed to understand despite working closely with Pakistan’s political affairs for many years now.  A 100 years wouldn’t be enough, forget 90 days, to eliminate terrorism from Pakistan unless and until the government cut the supplies of Saudi funds to the Deoband/ Ahl-e-Hadith Madrassas, dismantle the 100s and 1000s of Madrassas spread across Pakistan and lock up the Maulanas and interlocutors behind bars.

Dileep, The Best Actor

        The Kerala state film award for the Best Actor goes to Dileep. Dileep's intial reaction was that he was surprised and the award was totally unexpected. Many of us also have the same opinion. Dileep, it seems, has displaced (with the help of the jury) two contenders this year (films of last year), Mohanlal (for Pranayam) and Thilakan (for Indian Rupee). 10/10 of the reviews of both "Pranayam" and "Indian Rupee" had approbated the acting of Mohanlal and Thilakan respectively. None of the reviews of " Vellaripravinte Changathi" (for which Dileep got the award) even mention any speciality in Dileep's acting. Moreover, news reports say that Dileep's name never came up until the last hours of Award jury's discussion. It was Mohanlal and Anupam Kher who were in consideration for the best actor award until one hour before the declaration of awards.

 

Did the jury who decided the awards consider only 2 films, when they decided on the best actor award-- ie; "Vellaripravinte Changathi" and "Krishnanum Radhayum"? Did the jury consider only 2 actors-- "Dileep" and "Santhosh Pandit"?

Talibanization of Kerala

             Last week, the 5th minister of the Muslim League (forcefully inducted into the UDF ministry) - Manjalamkuzhi Ali, inaugurated an unusual program at Kamaleswaram high school, situated in Trivandrum city. He inaugurated -the distribution of study materials to " THE STUDENTS HAILING FROM THE MINORITY COMMUNITY",  Students from Muslim and Christian ( a handful of them) community were handed over the study materials in an embelleshing function at the school campus, while the rest of the students stood watching the proceedings startled, not knowing why this discrimination on the basis of religion.

         This incident is just one of the several incidents that showcases the religious discrimination policy adopted by the Congress led UDF government. Muslim League, the second biggest party in the UDF government has taken over the governance from the Spineless Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and misusing it for their benefit. Incidents like

(1) issuing orders to the government teachers to wear green colored blouses at school
(2) registering (illegally) vast lands owned by Calicut University  to the names of Muslim League president Thangal's nephew and Industry minister Kunhalikutty's uncle.
(3) senting circulars to the Panchayats by the government to contribute/donate Rs.3,00,000 to C.H.Centre(An instituition in the name of Muslim League patriach C.H.Mohammed Koya and owned by Muslim League)
(4) Education Minister Abdu Rub ignoring the government's decision(that was announced by the Cheif Minister in the assembly) to take over 35 schools and declaring in the assembly his party decision to grand aided tiltle to those particular schools that eventually would help the management who hails from his community
displays the characteristics of this government.

       Central government policy to appoint police officers on the basis of Muslim population ratio, has been hastily implemented in Kerala. Free training for competitive exams exclusively for Muslim youths gets rolling. Strengthening Madrasas, pensions for Mukris, Muslim special scholarship are some of the programs that are clearly showing the religious discrimination policy adopted by the UDF government.

      Abdu Rub, the eductaion minister has also been in controversy for his despical acts towards Indian culture and heritage, like- changing the name of his official residence from Ganga to grace, and refusing to light Kerala traditional lamp at a function.

     This government reminds us of an era when India shuddered under the foreign Muslim rule. Its time for the people to wake up and prevent the Talibanization of Kerala state.

KULAMKUTHIKAL

Who's younger Mammootty or SRK?

The megastar of Malayalam Cinema was shocked! An old man like Shahrukh Khan, half a century old had touched his feet in reverence in a Television Award function in Dubai. Hundreds of movie fans watched it in flesh and blood, millions watched it in Television. Mammootty would have cursed himself for attending the function; he might have dwindled like a worm. Mammootty was always releaved for his intelligent fans ignorance of his real age. Incidently, I asked my friend RL, a hard core Mammootty fan and a rare twenty first century innocent guy, about his idol's age. He replied confidently-" around 53-54, not more not less". Like RL a large number of people in Kerala believes that Mammoottty is a 53 year old young man.  So when an old man like Shahrukh Khan, almost 50 year old man falls on his feet, what would his possessed fans think? What would an egostic-narcissist actor think?

Is a new dam, the solution?

                             The politicians of Kerala are misleading the people by reiterating that a new dam is the only solution for the safety of people with regards to the Mullaperiyar issue. It takes 8-10 years for a dam to be constructed and do the political kingpins of Kerala mean that until then the ordinary people living in the vicinity of the 116 year old dam should bear any catastrophe pertaining to the collapsing of the old dam? Why are people like P.J.Joseph not insisting for the decommissioning and removal of the Mullaperiyar dam and instead bellowing for a new dam? Why are we trying to be magnanimous to build a dam for Tamilnadu using the money from the tax payers of Kerala?

 “It is peculiar to observe that while dams are removed in the US in large numbers, they are being constructed in equally large number in India. Though objectives for the dams are the same in both the countries, yet in the US many dams are found uneconomic while in India they are mostly believed to be economic”. This is a quote from the book “Decommissioning dams” which explains the mind set of our ruling class. Can a place like Idukki hold yet another dam? The politicians are not contemplating the ill effects of constructing dams either because they want to help the construction mafia and in turn embezzle money in the pretext of dam construction or they are ignorant.  The other day a seasoned politician like V.S.Achuthanandan said that the LEFT DEMOCRATIC FRONT would construct a new dam. He is ignorant or his advisors are ignorant as the cost of building a dam is not a few thousand Rupees; in the US it costs around 10 million dollars for a small dam and in India it would be double or triple and added to that the corruption involved will make it an enormous amount. If the LDF is going to build a dam then who will remove the 116 year old Mullaperiyar dam? The UDF? These buffoons have made not only themselves ludicrous but also the ordinary people, who echo these stupidities! 

A new dam will only add burden to Idukki’s ecological equilibrium. Kerala has no business to build a dam for Tamilnadu as the lease indenture on Mullaperiyar dam that was built by the British by arm twisting the Maharaja of Travancore in 1886 got expired in 1947 when India became independent. And, the validity of the Communist chief Minister’s and his ally Congress’s decision to renew the lease indenture in 1970 without consulting the concern of the Kerala Assembly is questionable. The politicians have diverted the real issue of decommissioning and removing the old Mullaperiyar dam tactfully and is now voicing for a new dam. This is a ploy of the politician-construction mafia nexus. A 10 year period of the construction of the Dam means both UDF and LDF can have the share of the pie! People of Kerala shouldn’t fall into this trap.

 “Decommissioning and removing the 116 year old Mullaperiyar dam is the only solution the Government can arrive upon in this burning issue. And the Government should also desist from constructing a new dam that will again jeopardize the lives of ordinary people.”