This is the text of a speech I gave at the ‘Goethe-Zentrum’ Trivandrum on 5/Feb/2024. The date is important for ‘Goethe-Zenturm’ or centres for teaching German language and culture February 5 is a key date for German centres in India primarily because it marks the primary testing cycle for the Goethe-Zertifikat B1 examination. Hundreds or Keralites that this test, hoping to migrate to Germany where Indian workers, particularly in the health industry, are in high demand.
Not many people know about the connection between Kumaran Asan, my grandfather, and Germany.
This is what I said in the ten minutes allotted to me.
Kumaran Asan, one of the makers of modern Kerala, had insatiable curiosity and a matchless zest for learning. While a student in Calcutta, he learned, apart from Sanskrit, English and Bengali. He read Immanuel Kant, among other European authors. Back home, when he initiated a business enterprise, he sourced German machinery and hired craftsmen trained by the missionaries of the Basel Mission.
The ideas of the Enlightenment and of the Romantic Revival in England, itself a reshaping of German and French ideas, greatly influenced him. He understood the need for his people – all Malayalis but particularly those who had suffered historical disadvantages – to adopt science and modern technology and worked ceaselessly for it. Then, as now, Germany led in this.
The copy of Gundert’s Dictionary displayed here is Asan’s own copy, a first edition from 1872.
Asan was familiar with the work of a man considered one of the greatest grammarians of all time, Panini. But Dr Herman Gundert’s grammar and dictionary were written in a very different spirit.
Panini’s focus was salvation of something usually labeled ‘the soul’. In his world, theology and linguistics and philosophy were blended into one whole. Dr Gundert saw language and grammar in clearly non-divine ways. That, of course, was part of the modernity he represented.
Asan responded warmly to this culture of modernity. Indeed, he became an agent of change himself and helped update the beliefs and modes of thinking and behaviour of people in Kerala. Whether it was the need to study modern sciences or English, or organize society along non-traditional lines, or
define new roles for women and the non-privileged, or invest money generated by hard work, saving and thrift – he was constantly urging his people to change and move forward. He hoped to send his children to England for higher education.
Here is a tidbit about his life. In 1913, Asan earned Rupees forty as fees for teaching two Germans Sanskrit. (The gentlemen wanted to read Sakumtalam in the original.)
The poet O N V Kurup once observed, during a private conversation with me about Asan and the fate of the memorial established at Thonnakkal to keep Asan’s memory alive, that gratitude was alien to the Malayali. Shaken by that sweeping remark, I asked him why he thought so. An inference arrived at,
he suggested, after a lifelong study and observation of the culture of the Malayali. To clinch the argument, he added that there was no mudra for gratitude in Kathakali.
Let me do a politically incorrect thing; place on record my immense gratitude to a number of people and entities.
First, to O N V sir for his insight which has taught me that I must fight a culturally and socially ingrained refusal to acknowledge debts.
I am grateful to Herr Achim Burkart, German Consul for Karnataka and Kerala, Dr Syed Ibrahim, the polished and cultured Honorary Director of the Goethe Zentrum, Mr G. Vijayaraghavan, technocrat and the selfless entrepreneur and the brain and heart behind Trivandrum’s famed ‘Techno Park’, the ‘National Institute of Speech and Hearing’, ‘Caddre’, a centre to look after children on the autistic spectrum and so on and all the others at the Goethe Centre
for this opportunity to display a semi-private obligation in this wonderfully public way.
Asan himself was never reluctant to thank his benefactors. Now, on behalf of Asan’s family and, I take the liberty to add, on behalf of the people of Kerala, I would like to record our gratitude for the various contributions Germany has made to this land.
Colonialism was not as brutal or vicious here as in other parts of India and the German influence was largely a benign one. It was through such things as the ideas of Kant and the introduction of technical education by German missionaries. I must also mention the German Indologists who opened our eyes
to the wonders of ancient Indian literature. The last of the great Indologists, born Leopold Fischer,left Germany for India, became a Hindu monk, changed his name to Swami Agehananda Bharati and, as a professor of anthropology at Syracuse University, contributed enormously to the understanding of Indian thought and Indian religions.
For all these decidedly ‘Emden’ contribution, let me express my heart-felt thanks. When Kumaran Asan wanted to start a tile factory in Aluva, which came to be called ‘The Union Tile Works’ he travelled to Mangalore to consult the engineers and technicians of the Basel Mission. Though Basel is in Switzerland, it is primarily a German missionary movement. The vice captain of ‘Emden’, a German warship that shelled Madras during WWI was one Ramakrishna Pillai. The champion of freedom and the peerless reformer Vakkom Moulavi had his German printing press confiscated by the British; the tiles at CMS College, Kottayam were manufactured at the Basel Mission factory in Mangalore; the nurses who trained Indians at the W and C Hospital at Thycaud were German nuns; half the dogs in Kerala were once named Kaiser.
I am sure Germany is grateful for whatever she has received from Kerala and India. Let us continue to help each other and gracefully acknowledge each other’s debts.
Thank you.
P. Vijaya Kumar / PVK
profpvk@gmail.com
Note: A couple of minor corrections have been made to the original article.
Thank you. Nandri. Namaskaram.
PVK 05/June/2026
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