Thiruvananthapuram: Markandey Katju, a former judge at India’s apex court, praised Kerala, on Sunday, calling it ‘real India’ as it gears up to celebrate Independence Day on August 15.
In his post on social media titled, ‘Who are the real Indians?’, Katju begins by saying since he is Kashmiri, he’d like to call Kashmiris real Indians. He goes on to say because his ancestors worked in Madhya Pradesh, he’d like to refer to them in the same terms, and UP is a contender for the title since he grew up there.
Katju, who is also a former chairman of the Press Council of India, goes on to add that he has close links with Bengal and Odisha states, and would like to call the people there real Indians.
He then adds that those are merely “emotional opinions”, and goes on to say that “thinking rationally, I believe that the real Indians are the Keralites, because they have in them the quintessential qualities of Indians.
“To live united and in harmony we must respect every group of people. In my opinion Keralites do this the best, and therefore they are symbolic and represent the whole of India. So they are the real Indians, and all of us must try to emulate them and imbibe their spirit.
“I regard Kerala as the real India because it represents a microcosm of India. India is broadly a country of immigrants. The essential quality of Kerala is its openness to external influence — Dravidians, Aryans, Romans, Arabs, British, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Marxists, etc.
“The Christians of Kerala belong to the oldest Christian group outside Palestine. Jews came here and settled down in Cochin when they were persecuted by the Romans after demolition of their temple in 72 AD. Islam came here through traders, and not through armies, as in the north.”
In his post, Katju also praises social reform in Kerala. “The scheduled castes never suffered the discrimination that they suffered in the rest of India. One of their sages, Sree Narayana Guru, who was an Ezhava, is venerated by all communities in Kerala.
“Adi Shankaracharya travelled throughout India and established the four well-known centres of Hinduism: Sringeri in the South, Puri in the East, Dwarka in the West, and Jyotirmath in the North. In the Badrinath temple in the Himalayas the head priest is always a Namboodri Brahmin from Kerala.
“Keralites are great travellers, and everywhere in the globe one will find Keralites. There was never any tradition in Kerala against travelling abroad, nor of ritual defilement for crossing the ‘kala pani’ [black water] as [in] among many communities in North India.
“Keralites abound in the Middle East. In many hospitals in India and abroad the nurses are Keralites. I believe there is no illiteracy in Kerala.”
Katju ended his post by giving another round of salute to Keralties. “Keralites are hardworking, modest, and intelligent. They are broad-minded, liberal, cosmopolitan and secular in their views. All Indians must learn from them. Long live the Keralites!” he wrote.
