The magnificent incongruity of Onam
Rajeev Srinivasan laments that the festival has been reduced to a travesty of its true self
The ten days of Onam arrived with multifarious splendors: flower arrangements in courtyards, maidens resplendent in off-white, gold-bordered two-piece saris, grand multi-course vegetarian meals served on banana leaves, boat races, sensuous tiruvatira-kali dances, and new clothes, ona-kodi, for all. The skies cleared post-monsoon, the beginning of the Malayalam year with the month of Chingam/Leo and the land is green and fertile, freshly-washed.
On the tenth day, thiruvonam, August 23rd this year, everyone dressed up to greet the legendary King Mahabali, of whose splendid reign the gods themselves became jealous, so that he was consigned to the underworld, whence he visits his beloved subjects on just this one day.
That is the theory. I wish this were still true in Kerala, but this native son is saddened by the reality. Onam is less and less relevant with each passing year. For starters, it is a harvest festival where there is almost no rice cultivation, or harvests.
Secondly, the old gods are eclipsed. Mahabali may have been compelling in a simpler time, but the post-modern denizens of Kerala may find him naïve: who allows himself to be tricked by a dwarf?
Thirdly, the landscape itself is changing. The infinite vistas of paddy fields are gone; once-free-flowing, perennial rivers – the envy of those not so blessed – are now constrained ribbons in the sand in lean times. What looks like untouched wilderness in the High Ranges is a green desert of monoculture: plantation tea or rubber; it is no rainforest storehouse of genetic variation.
Fourth, despite all the talk of the Kerala model – anthropologist and environmentalist Bill McKibben once wrote stirringly about how Kerala mirrors the US in various indices, at one-seventh the income – the quality of life has deteriorated sharply. It now leads in suicides, alcoholism, and almost certainly in hypocrisy and crimes against women. The matrilineal joint family, a masterful social construct, has fragmented into nuclear families.
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2 comments:
"at one-seventh the income – the quality of life has deteriorated sharply. It now leads in suicides, alcoholism, and almost certainly in hypocrisy and crimes against women. The matrilineal joint family, a masterful social construct, has fragmented into nuclear families"
Rajeev,
I think rest of the issues are true except for your statement "the quality of life has deteriorated sharply".
I am not saying this on the basis of any figures or statistics. As a person who has known Kerala for the last 30 years, I have seen a 'visible' change in life of our underprivileged people in Kerala.
Take the example of Construction Workers. A good percentage of them now own their private transport(2 wheelers) and a few of them even come to their work place in Cars!!!
I am not saying that their income has doubled or tripled. What I am trying to say that their feeling of wretchedness is gone. They are a "proud" people once again.
Please remember how the "affected people during Tsunami" rejected the "used clothes" from foreign countries.
The media waxed over the huge-huge sale of liquor during Onam. Nobody mentioned that the boozers were all Hindus. Other communities march ahead in Kerala while Hindus booze and boast of their secularism.
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