Kerala's Catholic church v/s CPM feud- clash of the same wine in two bottles

Kerala's
Catholic church v/s CPM feud - clash of the same wine
in two bottles

The duel between the church and communists is not a struggle for existence as might be deemed by a theist-atheist class struggle. Its not Marx v/s Christ or th red flag v/s the cross or the Das kapital v/s the Bible.Its neither history repeating itself nor another chapter in the history.
But then it is no clash of ideologies.If it had been so it could have been perceived as a natural chapter in the log book of church-communist struggles that has happened all over the world in the past two centuries.
It infact is a clash of interests,not essentially based on ideology,but then the idea is to bring in idealism as perceived by each class.
And the contrasting fact is that idealism has the least connection to their professed ideology.

The entire idea of a church going communist or a communist believing in Jesus doesn’t quite exist because both classes have time again asserted the contradictory nature of their respective ideologies.The idea if put candid boils down to a thought that Jesus belongs to the right wing though other Gods are not essentially so. And in such a scenario, a left front-church adjunction is quite immiscible as oil and water.In a country where politico-religious equations have grown to be the ultimate death threat to democracy even after six decades of independance,their inequations are even more lethal.And that is the biggest paradox of the great Indian secularism.

If the current church-CPM standoff seems to be one of the biggest issues in the state,it just shows their cult among the people, the regard people hold for these institutions in their hearts and the desire of people to see them back in the right track.And that is definitely due to the way the clergy and communists changed the way people of Kerala live and think to become one of the most progressive societies in the the country.If our supremacy in the health and educational sector in India may be attributed to the church initiated missionary work,the land reforms initiated by communists is hailed as a model for the entire country.The two were instrumental in fighting the caste hierarchy here as in other parts of the country.

And in many other many fields,the two groups have revolutionised the way our society lives and it was only a matter of time before their interests clashed leaving us engulfed in a flurry of court cases,blame games and public displays of comrade and flock base.The politics and economics of higher education rattled by the entry of self financing institutions has now provided the perfect stage for another episode of the so called Marx's socialist-capitalist or the biblical theist-atheist struggle.The feud now threatens to metamorphose into the second liberation struggle,a church initiated idea after the successful 1957 church sponsored agitation against the move to nationalise church owned institutions by the then EMS govt.

In the last 200 years, the church and communists have been on a collision course around the world many a times.The influence of Pope and the Roman church in preventing the spread of communism beyond eastern Europe may be pointed out.The Russian orthodox church was reduced to a KGB agent by the Lenin-Stalin rule.The church came on a resurrection path only after the decline of Soviet union.With a largely autocratic and authoritative government in power,Chinese bishops and church have often been at the receiving end.

The affinity of Indian communists for their Chinese counterparts has been proved time again and the hierarchy of the catholic church in the state runs up to Rome.Even within their autonomous framework,many a eyebrow is raised about the influences from outside the country on the prominent institutions in the the state.The soft support of the communist party for China in the 1962 Indo-China war,one of the biggest blunders in their history branded them anti-nationalists for long. The educational policies of Catholic church was viewed with suspicion in the initial years.The two worked around the world with little improvisation with respect to local sentiments or traditions and yet managed to develop a cult among them.

And quite understandably,autocratic methods have sustained such modus operanti and opinion of the powerful has subjugated the say of majority.'The party' has an impeccable record of expelling leaders who have raised dissent against its policies.The expulsion of veteran leaders Gowry amma and MV Raghavan will continue to haunt the party for a long time.Left wing organisations have often followed suppressing intra party debates in the name of discipline.Reports of families boycotted under the wrath of the party or the church have run for quite some time.Recently,a case filed at high court pleaded against isolation by the vicarage on non payment of church dues.Women married outside the church are still expelled from the church as per the practice of maharon.The practice of burying people who revolted against the church outside the main cemetery in themmadi kuzhy (meaning rogue's pit) still runs to date.Revolts against church are often termed as revolt against God almighty and naturally qualifies as blasphemy.
What is common here is the way discipline has been 'defined' against any intra organisational debate,let alone democracy.


Recently,the ruling left government and the church coming face to face yet again on a seventh std textbook chapter 'jeevanillatha daivam' (God without life) with serious 'secular and atheist' tones shows how important the interpretation and understanding of their ideology are as important as the ideology itself.Catholic studies are an integral part in any church run school and imagine textbooks of such stature running simultaneously in such schools.The recent letter of bishop Powathil asking catholics to send their children only to church run schools was only a open declaration of the policies church has followed for generations. The church has consciously or otherwise followed a policy of ideological imprisonment in trying to create a flock base trained to believe in its policies without a second thought.And the institutions run by it, schools or colleges have served as the oven of such brainwashed generations. A debate with any student comrade leads me to lot of tailoured views lectured in party classes by the communist intelligensia.These party classes are unique features of communist parties all over the world.The similar thing here too is the absence of a class who cannot do any processing of such ideas.

Add to this media conglomerates run by them, an average Malyalee's starvation for neutral journalism is understood.In an attempt to become to become media barons,they have founded an alternate line of journalism which reports only what it is meant to and reports it the way it is supposed to.The party run Deshabhimani and the church run Deepika are morning jokes for any malayalee whose eyes and ears are open.Be it the sell out of Deepika's shares to Faris abubakker,a dubious businessman or Deshabhimani's acceptance of donations from Santiago martini, a foreign lottery king,the newspapers have done their bit for the controversy crazy malayalee psyche.The comrades compete with the priests in begging for more subscribers.Lets try forget all the issues raised with their TV channels, Kairali and Jeevan in quest of Godly kingdoms and Red empires.Even at the cost of negative balance sheets,running these media houses will remain as important as the existence of their ideologies.These media giants are only a small part of the corporate culture that has grown in them in the last few decades.The church run five star hospitals and self financing colleges and the party run amusement park and star hotel are just a few examples.

The open spat between Pinarayi Vijayan and VS Achuthanandan has threatened to spoil the base of the party in Kerala, otherwise a left bastion.The Thrissur and Changanacherry fractions of the church have been long locked in a ideological and theological deadlock.Not only has such sectionalism not developed into any intra organisational retrospection, but has only threatened to play havoc with the two biggest influences on Kerala's social life.

With the advent of such a bête noire culture and corporate capitalism,the two organisations are drifting away from the real issues threatening them.A dwindling believer base on account of Pentecostal invasion and fake evangelical movements have been overlooked on account of church's politico-economic emergencies.By trivialising the SNC Lavlin case against Pinarayi Vijayan, the communists are shedding their zero tolerance policy to corruption.The alliance with PDP, a Muslim communal party the party has eroded its secular face.

As in any organisation whose clout has grown beyond itself,the two organisations need to come back on a path of revival, retrospection and resurrection.This will be possible only with radical changes in their policies,intra organisational structure and modus operanti.Only if such a change is initiated at its heads,the two will stand the test of times as Kerala's biggest agents of social reformation.