[Previously unpublished, though submitted to ‘The Indian Express’ in New Delhi]
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Thinker: Meera Nanda, the Kerala Model and the Case of Malayali Nuns in Chhattisgarh
Most right thinking people are distressed by the news of the arrests of two Catholic nuns in Chhattisgarh on charges of religious conversion on a complaint by a Hindutva sect, one among innumerable such groups active in India. Kerala has had its share of religious extremism but when compared to the rest of the country, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been relatively benign for those practicing different religions. Even atheists in Kerala – and Kerala perhaps has a bigger share of non-believers than most other parts of India – share this discomfort. At a time when increasing inequality, lack of opportunities, rampant unemployment, agricultural distress, a confused education system and a refusal by many cow-belt governments to address these basic issues meaningfully, one is reminded of what came to be called the Kerala model.
The Kerala model is not a blue print that can be adopted elsewhere for economic and social arrangements in widely different parts of India. Academics, who first spoke about Kerala as a model, are themselves uncertain about what it was and what it did. But outside seminar halls there is a commonsensical understanding of this extraordinary way of ushering in social change. Robin Jeffrey, anthropologist and political scientists, said it was based on ideas about human dignity and worth, particularly the value a society placed on its women. Education and a strong drive to industrialise and thrive were among its important components.
The role of Christian churches in this was significant. Ignoring the restrictions traditional religions placed on people from lower segments of society, the nuns and priests in Kerala opened schools and colleges and opened its doors to everyone, not just their coreligionists. Some of the clergy may have wanted to convert pagans but most focussed on reforming and modernising society. That was also seen as part of a divine mission. Members of avarna castes, freed from centuries of slavery, marched ahead and used their newly acquired skills to earn better incomes and lead less deprived lives. It was this emancipatory and aspirational push that allowed Kerala to be at the top of economic and social indexes, on par with so called developed nations, while spending only a fraction of what those nations had spent. Those nations had climbed up the ladder slowly while Kerala had done so in just two generations. This was because she was reaping the benefits of modernity that the British and the church had brought to Kerala. Kerala, once described as a madhouse of caste restrictions by Vivekananda, rode a slow elevator to the top.
Keralites moved out of their state to find jobs and build careers elsewhere. Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, as these cities were then called, witnessed the arrival of thousands of Malayalis, eager to work and transfer much of their money back home to their families. It was not just Christians doing this. Christians were seen as a model community by all others, including all Hindu castes and people from minority religions. The result was both peace and prosperity, at least comparative peace and prosperity. Even royal families in Kerala, with a vested interest in keeping alive old hierarchies, joined the surge to modernise. Among the first people in Travancore to be vaccinated were members of the royal family. The royals themselves set up hospitals and industries, often with foreign help. This help came not just from the British but also the Germans and other Europeans. The Basel Mission set up industries and industrial training centres in parts of Konkan and Kerala. With a few exceptions royal families from the cow belt were busy taxing their people and enjoying holidays in Europe or self-indulgent and profligate lifestyles at home.
If at one time the term nurse almost anywhere in India meant a woman from Kerala trained in modern evidence based disease management, the reason is the Kerala model. There are attempts to make Kerala join the national mainstream, to replace widespread use of English with Hindi and to make it embrace notions about a mythical past as opposed to a good understanding of history. Keralites have turned their nonviolent backs on these jingoistic and hate filled campaigns. The future and equipping the next generation with education and skills is more important than fighting over mythical characters and imaginary entities. The future beckons and will not wait for the dust to settle on battles about the past. Some people find meaning in their lives only when they have others to hate and in India, trapped in medieval or ancient thinking, these others are always those who belong to other religions. So long as religion is our primary source of identity this problem will persist. It helps no one but the hate mongers.
The best commentator on contemporary India is a philosopher and writer from Chandigarh named Meera Nanda. For some decades now she has been writing and lecturing on Indian culture, particularly Hindu culture. For her the only holy book in India is the Constitution, itself a document based on the writings and thought of American and French thinkers and leaders. She is a fierce upholder of the values of the Enlightenment, principal among them those of liberty, equality and fraternity. Her speciality is the philosophy of science, but her writings address issues of popular religion, at both the levels of belief and actual practice. Nanda is a one-woman army, fighting for a developed, educated, egalitarian and just India.
That Nanda’s books and ideas are more welcome in Kerala than other regions of India is indicative of how progressive Kerala is. She keeps pleading that justice and development should be the priorities of governments not temple building or destruction of mosques and churches. It is fine to be religious, she says; just do not make it central to our lives. Until that lesson is understood and practiced we will witness the arrests and harassment of nuns like the ones in the news in Chhattisgarh. Let us turn our backs on hate and fight for a better India.
P. Vijaya Kumar
profpvk@gmail.com
8/August/2025
Note: It is the frustration of having pieces like these rejected by editors that has prompted me to start my own blog. I hope, in the course of a few weeks or months, to put up all my lectures / reviews / public addresses and etc. up on my blog.
Thank you.
PVK 31/05/2026
PVK's Book mark 