This is expiation by a Hindu…

Excerpts from the speech by Malayalam writer KP Ramanunni, at the reception hosted by KMCC at Kerala House, Delhi after he dedicated the amount he received as central Sahitya Akademi Award, to Saira Banu, the mother of Junaid who was murdered by Sangh parivar extremists.

This is my expiation as a Hindu for the sin of murders committed in the country in the name of Hinduism. Penance is a basic instinct of a Hindu. Venerable figures among Hindus have done this – even Sri Ram, not the Ram being iconised by some people, but the real Ram of Hinduism. The reason for Sri Ram abandoning Sita was that it was thought imperative for the king to do any thing wished for by the subjects. Sita had not committed any sin. But in those times, it was common practice to abandon a wife who was most innocent. And it was the duty of a king to find a solution to the rise of suspicion among subjects and to their becoming disturbed. At the same time, Ram new that what he did was a huge sin, for he gave up an innocent wife and exiled her into the forest. And what was the penance he did for that? He abstained from all pleasures until he died and got immersed in River Sarayu. He lay on the plain floor, like a corpse wrapped in darva gass. Darva grass is the place where dead bodies are laid. Ram declared that he was physically turned into a deadbody. That was the penance of Ram. He did that because he was compelled to commit a sin.

Bhishma lay on bed of nails for 56 days. There may be many who disagree with its interpretation. He lay on that bed for 56 days for having stood silent, in the name of his loyalty, when Droupadi was stripped by the side of Kauravas. That was the penance by Bhishma. Therefore, a Hindu should do this atonement.

Vivekananda had said that Hinduism was the mother of all religions. It is such a mother who is now being made to kill children without any reason, and in the name of Hindus. That is why I asserted that I am a true Hindu. In saying so, I have a political objective too. For, who is a real Hindu? When we say Hindu, should the children of the new generation construe him as one who kills people? No, it was never so. And because it was never so, Hindus and Muslims lived together in this land for thousands of years, and received other religions. We should understand that those like Zamorin were Hindus. But the one thing the Hindu king was really worried about was whether the Muslims were saying prayer five times a day. Hinduism had such a dharma with so much of compassion and understanding towards a fellow-religion. When that dharma is being damaged, we have to teach what a real Hindu means. That formed part of my responsibility.

Kerala too has a pluralistic tradition like the one Prophet Mohammed had established in Madina, and which allowed each community its rights. That is why Kerala is called 'God's own country'. My inspiration for this act is God's book – a book that asks me to act in this manner. For, I cannot disobey a book in which the Prophet respectfully calls Krishna 'Ikkaa' [elder brother] and Krishna calls the Prophet a 'pearl'. I got an intuitive command from my inner self that I should do this. When that command hit me, I was aware of its dangers too; when it becomes known that it is going to happen that way, people would do every thing to prevent it. That is why I kept it a secret till the last minute. The family of Junaid had to trust that. If I call them directly from here, they may be afraid if they would land in some danger. When I knew that Youth League leader CK Zubair had some connections with Junaid's family, immediately I made a contact. From that point, things were handled with great care. For this is not a philanthroic act. If I had to give them a lakh of rupees, that could have been delivered directly to their home.

On the contrary, when I do this, it should make an impact. It will become meaningful when the amount is given at the venue of Sahitya Akademi on such an occasion. That is why we called the mother of Junaid over here to hand it over to them. Luckily, this brought a very good response. Reactions are still pouring in to the effect that in our country virtue has not eluded communities. Several writers of northern India took this act in good spirit. Not only that, even those who had Sangh parivar leanings in the name of patriotism but differed with their propaganda against other religions, opined that this is a noble act. We have to choose such a way of isolating those who make capital out of politics of hate. That alone will work. Those who maintain politics of hate may be few in number. Advocates of democracy, and the ones in whom traces of virtue are still left, should join hands to find a way of isolating them. And I am doing my bit in that endeavour. This has been made possible by those who stand by me. All this is a unity of our minds. What matters is not whether our deeds are big or small, but the attitude behind them. What we see here now is that people see each other as brothers and ready for mutual co-existence.

Further, some good things have happened in the elections to central Sahitya Akademy. Writers upheld their worth in a way that allows no room for certain acts of divisive forces – another blessing of God. But one more thing happened with this. When Sahitya Akademi functions smoothly, there should not be any issue that damages the forum. When the Akademi Secretary was trying to protect the freedom of writers, he moved carefully and in such a way as not to allow any disruption in the body that may put him also in trouble. By the Grace of God everything culminated well.

I do not feel having done a big thing, but this is something a native of Ponnani usually does and should do. When I received the VR Krishna Iyer award for communal amity, I had commented that to me it felt like giving an award to fish for living in water. For a man from Ponnani, religious amity is like the fish living in water. We are living in it, and this is a deed that we are bound to perform.

And on another front, there are loud reverberations for this. When Munawar Ali Thangal handed over 25 lakh rupees to Malathi from Tamil Nadu to save her husband from death sentence in a foreign country, it carried a big lesson of mercy from Islam. That was an event every Malayalee could be proud of. And it is enough evidence of how Hindus and Muslims have lived here for centuries. That rescue of Malathi's husband from the death row presented a picture negating the British portrayal of Hindu-Muslim conflicts, and contradicted the colonial philosophy of turning Hindu against Muslim and Muslim against Hindu. May God's blessings be with us to uphold that path.

(Prepared by Hasanul Banna)