States: Kerala: The New Namboodiris

Some do it for jobs and others for social acceptance. In Malappuram and Thrissur districts lower castes can enter the brahminical order for a price.

Converts to a Cause: K P Namboodiri (centre) and Sreelatha performing brahminical rituals

About seven decades ago, Kerala's conservative Namboodiri (Malayalee Brahmin) community witnessed an unprecedented upheaval. Led by a band of young radicals like E.M.S. Namboodiripad, the reformers, under the slogan of "Namboodiriye Manushyanakkuka (make the Namboodiri a human being)", exhorted the community to shun its cloistered ritualistic way of life. Hundreds of Namboodiri men and women responded to the clarion call and boldly broke a multitude of traditional age-old conventions and laws: they learnt English, sent their women who had hitherto been the victims of the oppressive patriarchal system to school, allowed inter-caste marriages and the remarriage of widows, and renounced symbols of their caste like surnames, the sacred thread and even their distinctive lock of hair.

Today, on the threshold of the new millennium, the community seems once again to have acquired the glorified halo of its yesteryears. Kerala's northern districts like Malappuram and Thrissur are witness to an unusual phenomenon: lower castes turning Namboodiris by paying a token Rs 250 and undergoing a few rituals that now often last less than half an hour. In the past five years, over 50 non-Brahmins have changed their caste in this manner.

SEVEN-STEP
BRAHMINISM

The "funeral", signifying the "death" of the non Brahmin.
Preparation of the horoscope of the "newborn".
Naming of the "newborn".
The first feed.
Formal introduction to the alphabet.
First tonsure.
Tying of the sacred thread.

The priests and converts claim that these conversions are "officially" sanctioned by the Paliyam Declaration that followed a 1987 convention at Paliyam near Ernakulam organised by a group of Hindu organisations led by the RSS and attended by many reputed Namboodiri vaidiks (Vedic scholars) and tantris (scholars of rites and rituals). The convention stated that anyone belonging to any caste could be considered a Brahmin if he or she underwent certain rites and rituals. RSS leaders say their motive was to check the orthodoxy's efforts to prevent backward caste persons from taking up priesthood in temples. It was a first step towards fulfilling the RSS agenda of unifying Hindus by demolishing caste barriers.

Most of these new Brahmins are non-Namboodiri spouses craving acceptance in the Namboodiri community. Says a reputed ayurvedic physician K.P. Namboodiri: "Just as Christians are baptised, all Hindus should undergo these rituals." In 1979, he married former Malayalam actress Sreelatha. In 1993, the Nair-born Sreelatha was converted to a Namboodiri. "My wife and my son were not allowed by my family to participate in any of religious ceremony. I was worried that my son would not be allowed to perform my funeral rites. The Paliyam Declaration came as a godsend." After elaborate rituals -- which being of a pioneering nature had lasted two years -- mother and son were accorded complete brahminhood.

There are others who, in a state with chronic unemployment, do it merely to get jobs as priests in temples. Besides, there are instances of prosperous lower castes embracing brahminhood to escape the caste stigma. Last year, three members from the backward Thiyya caste from Kozhikode converted to brahminhood so that they could become priests in temples. Says one of them, requesting anonymity: "Though there is no ban on backward castes becoming priests, we converted only to win social acceptability." A few years ago, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which runs hundreds of temples across the state, offered a course on priestly duties for backward castes. But there was adverse reaction to this. Devotees stopped coming to some temple when backward castes took over as priests.

"The conversions have become an excuse for many to make some quick money."
V T N Namboodiripad, scholar

With such conversions on the increase, opposition to the Paliyam Declaration from the orthodoxy is building up. "The Declaration has no stamp of authority," says reputed scholar V.T.N. Namboodiripad. "It has become an excuse for many to make some quick money." Another scholar, E.B. Namboodiripad adds, "What is happening now is sheer commercialisation of Vedic knowledge."

However, Vedic scholars and tantris belonging to the backward castes feel the opposition to the Paliyam Declaration is a casteist argument which would ruin the attempts for Hindu unity. Says Sreedharan Tantri: "Real brahmins are those who have brahmajnana (knowledge of the Vedas) and not those who are Brahmin by birth. At least half of the present Namboodiri tantris and vaidiks do not even have a basic knowledge about the Vedas or the rites and have come to occupy their positions only on account of their birth."

But the progressive among the Namboodiri community are not happy. According to M.R. Bhattathiripad, the 90-year-old litterateur and one of the few surviving leaders of the reform movement of the 1930s, "The whole issue smacks of an attempt to glorify Namboodiridom and its casteist rituals." According to him, the welfare of the backward castes is the primary issue and the objective can be achieved by the gradual erosion of the caste system rather than the induction of increasing numbers into the brahminical order. The enthusiastic converts need to be convinced of that.