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Intersection of Politics and Caste interests: A case study on voting patterns in Kerala and current shifts. A long thread🧵
The BJP's recent attempts at trying to win the trust of Syrian Christians in Kerala and the community's shift from the Congress to the BJP has left many baffled. In this thread I will try to answer why we are seeing such a political shift and what we can expect in the future.
First, We need to stop viewing the Politics of Kerala as a battle of ideologies. It isn't one and the influence ideology has over the people is irrelevant and has been so except during the initial years of the state of Kerala's history.
The political parties we see today will try to act like caste is irreverent but that is not the case. All parties are political organizations that represent a certain caste or an alliance of castes/religions.
The CPI(M) for example has been a Nair-Brahmin alliance during it's early stages, now it has undergone significant shift towards the Ezhava community with the leadership of Pinarai Vijayan.
Why did the UCs of Kerala support a communist party? The answer comes down to caste interest. The communist party's capture of state power and ability to mobilize large sections of the society made it easier for them to retain their traditional position in society.
Brahmins and Certain Nair subcastes such as Menons and Pillais have always been administrators in the Courts of Maharajas and served as the same in the Princely state of Travancore and Cochin.
Take a look at most of Kerala's Chief Ministers during CPI(M) rule and you'll see most were Nairs. In the present day the most famous Nairs are Bureaucrats, Shivshankar Menon, former NSA and Shashi Tharoor, both belonging to the Menon Subcaste.
What we are seeing now in the CPI(M) is a shift towards mobilization of lower class Ezhava voters using caste conflict and freebies. Under such circumstances the Nair influence is diminishing.
Now moving on to the Congress. Kerala is a state where there is no native Vaishya caste, this has led to a situation where Christians, Muslims and Ezhavas have taken to business and many have become quite successful.
The Christians and Muslims were outside the caste system but even in these communities there's disunity as certain denominations in Christianity like the Latin Catholics are Lower Caste converts. In the Islamic community the elite are ones who mixed with Arabs in the past.
The upper caste Christians are usually rubber plantation owners who managed to get rich over the years and their main instrument for gaining political power was the Congress.
This had worked well over the years but with the recent disaster that the Congress has been facing all over the country there are many in the Christian community who want to find a safe alternative and one that is strong enough to protect them from the Muslims.
Now, you might be thinking the issue here would be Congress is unwilling and unable to talk about things like Love Jihad and other similar things but no. The Love Jihad thing that many Pastors have started to talk about is just a small propaganda bit that makes things easier.
But the real issue here is different and has to do with business competition among Christians and Muslims. Like I said before, Kerala not having a native V3 caste opened the door to Christians, Muslims and Ezhavas and this has led to friction between the communities.
To explain things, I'll narrate the story of a Christian lady, who happens to be my Family friend, and started a business in a Muslim area.
Mary, opened a small restaurant near a mosque and served all kinds of non-veg dishes, all halal ofcouse. Business was booming and each Friday after prayers, her shop was crowded. Everyone thought she was now successful and were optimistic...
Then one day, a Muslim chap opened shop very close. Mary thought it wasn't a big deal and wouldn't affect her as the area was big enough and the people numerous.
The local Mulla at the mosque ordered all of his people to "support" their brother in faith who had just started a restaurant. Everyone stopped eating at Mary's and she was soon forced to close shop due to lack of business.
This story illustrates the level of cut throat competition that is now the norm between the Muslims and Christians in Kerala. Then there's the history of violence and fear of Muslim radicals that Christians have. The attack on Professor TJ Joseph is one famous case.