The only element that united the Christian community in Kerala was Jesus Christ and his teachings, but the leadership always wanted more, they wanted the followers to be more united as a community and as an organisation, not for a good cause, but for their selfish business interests and their political power games. But they never could make the entire community come together. The common usage “Athu angu Palliyil poyi paranjal mathi” shows the poor influence of Christian leaders on the community.
There are many reasons for a community to unite and fear of an enemy is the most compelling reason. Every leadership tries to find an enemy so that they could use it as a means to unite their followers. India always had Pakisthan, USA had Russia and Israel had Palestine. Even political parties attempt the same, Communists target the rich and BJP targets the non Hindu. The PDP has now given the Christian in Kerala an enemy to unite against.
So far the Christian community did not feel fear the extremists of other communities, every other small communal incident was seen as an isolated event. Even the cemetery issue at Vaikom could not evoke a sense of fear among the Christian community. But with the hand chopping incident and the support from some factions of the Muslim community for the culprits have changed all that.
When this question paper issue started every Christian thought of Joseph as an idiot and a fanatic. Not even a single Christian supported him, everyone thought he deserved the suspension and the criminal case against him. But with the brutal violence against him the thought process has changed, he has now become a victim and people are even thinking he is innocent.
The protest rallies in Muvattupuzha, Thodupuzha and Perumbavoor supporting the culprits of the hand chopping was a bit too much. The Christian community now feels a bit insecure and threatened. They are intimidated by the blind unity of the Muslim community.
Anyways the Christian leadership must be happy, this incident will give the Christian community a reason to be more united and more obedient to the leadership. Now they can give a better context to their campaigns for more Children and more community involvement in the Churches political ambitions.
No doubt the prime concern of Church leadership is busines by way of Educational institutions and not faith.
Comment by Shalvin — July 10, 2010 @ 10:46 am
Good to see a post after a while..
Christian leadership in kerala has been practicing a “soft” communalism(read as communalism with out blood shed) for a long long time.While Hindu/muslim extremist where practicing “hard” communalism,which is much more visible.
Hope this will not turn them to follow the “hard” core path.Because if the two most powerful communities of kerala are not in peace with each other,
we will keep on getting “disturbing” head lines…
Comment by Dhanesh N M — July 10, 2010 @ 2:06 pm
” But with the brutal violence against him the thought process has changed, he has now become a victim and people are even thinking he is innocent.”
Well, people need to be shocked so that they open their eyes. Only when they think that this could happen to them, do they even think about it.The more dramatic the better.
Did he not become a victim when his hand was chopped ? Or do people have to think of him as a victim, for him to become one ?
“People are even thinking he is innocent” ? Well, what is he guilty of ?
People who commit to violence to uphold religion and morality are idiots. They are the ones who have committed the wrongdoing. If things go like this people would find it difficult to write/speak about God/religion/morality as it would (statistically) offend someone or the other.
Comment by unbiased — July 12, 2010 @ 2:47 pm
Kerala church leaders have no power to defend in such situations, because they are far out of morale.
They are always busy with many business affairs like education, building rentals and more.Automatically they ceased to be the leaders of mass in heart.
The Thodupuzha issue is not a religious issue, it is a burning question of humanity and law. Everyone need to condemn it and to be vigilant further.
Comment by Joshy Don Bosco — July 13, 2010 @ 6:40 pm
Kenney, u didn’t touch the topic of ethics in wat u said. Rather u were busy throwing dirt on a particular community (as usual), which is unfortunately on the victim side here. Prof.Joseph took d question frm d work of P.T Kunjumuhammed, a communist sympathizer. Its true tat his community shud’ve made a better chk of his offence(if thr was something) bfr punishing him. n the extremist faction on d other side took advantage of it.
Plz realize tat, if the attacked community is nt always fighting bac, its coz they r far more educated and respect their religious values, than d extremists and has hardly anything to do with unity. And a community doesn’t always need a martyr to unite its followers, coz its nt a political party.
After reading ur entire excerpt wat i feel is like u are kinda takin part in the processions supporting the culprits like a shadow. Plz try to show d true picture of the entire episode thru ur blog. expect more sincere wrk frm u..
Comment by Cyriac — July 23, 2010 @ 6:21 pm
@Cyriac
For the sincere work.. read the post previous post.
And about what I wrote…. I only mentioned the part where the Christian leadership got benefited, I never said anything about good or bad.. I just said that their attempts to unify Christians in a more radical way got some fuel from this hand chopping incident.
Comment by Kenney — July 23, 2010 @ 6:26 pm
I think the kind of approach towards that master was the right thing.!
because,i as a teacher, who has to be the role model of the learners, such kind of provoking statements should never be emerged. It will only create panic in the society, where highly sensitive people live.
That master is a shame to the entire teachers community. If he was to be treated according to the jurisdiction, it will only create more trouble in both sides of the community.Also, he will be finally saved with the loop holes in the ipc. so this kind of chopping has to be a warning bell to those kinda people!.
Even to execute ajmal kasab, our jurisdiction takes two years and not yet finalised, cases like these has to be handled by this method!!!
Comment by Ajith — August 7, 2010 @ 10:39 pm