Valson Thampu

I might as well start by stating what experiences in Kerala have taught me in the last seven years, after a long stint in Delhi. The more explicitly religious a person is, the more dishonest and lazy at work he or she is apt to be. On the contrary, those who are spiritually sensitive tend to be trustworthy and sincere in work. Is this correlation merely accidental? Or, does it point to something that merits our attention?

Remember Monson Mavunkal?  Religious relics and icons of counterfeit antiquity figured prominently in his saloon of super-expensive curios. Mavunkal is much more than an individual. He is a symbol that resonates far more widely than is admitted. He did what many Keralites would have done, if they had Monson’s perverse genius. He symbolises the preference of Keralites to rake in a mega buck without having to break sweat. He is the commercial counterpart of the Christian god-men who thrive right royally on their religious wares of comparable dubiety. Like Mavunkal, they too cultivate patrons of the state. Why wouldn’t they, if they have much that denies them sleep?

Historians tell us that wherever Christian revival took place in Europe, it had a positive impact on the ethics and work-culture of the societies concerned. Max Weber, in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, corroborates how biblical ethics powered the economic progress of Europe. Despite the 2000-years long presence of Christianity in Kerala, Keralites are seriously deficient in this regard. We are at once corrupt and bankrupt. The state debt is fast approaching the Rs. 4 lakhs core mark. Who cares? Everyone still wants maximum returns for minimum work or no work. The bankrupt state is lavish with freebies. Then our turn begins. We elect the party that does so. Then damn it for the stench of corruption enveloping the freebies.

The bane of Kerala is that here religion and politics are in collusion against the very sustainability of the state. That is so, even though the politics-religion nexus surfaces mostly in seasons of election. Are our religious leaders also partly responsible for the precarious state of Kerala? Well, we could say: ‘It is not the business of religious leaders to promote work culture in a society’. Let us agree that they have no direct role. But they can have, if they wish, enormous indirect influence. That religious leaders have excessive influence on politicians is obvious enough. If this influence is spiritual, it should be reflected on the outcome. A tree, as Jesus said, is known by its fruit. Do religions imbue politics with principles, or do they corrupt and communalise politics?

Here the similarity between Monson Mavunkal and all other sellers of wares of dubious merit, in politics and religion, needs to be noted. Monson thrived by portraying things as they are not. Democracy is defined as the government of the people, by the people, for the people. These words sound rather curious today, don’t they? If all the promises made by politicians in the last seven decades were sincere, we would have been in cloud seven by now. It would have been similar to buying the ‘Rod of Aaron’, or ‘Lord Krishna’s butter-bowl’ from Mavunkal and finding them to be indeed so!

If communal politics can birth good governance, a Kerala ant can birth an African elephant.

Ask this as well: why do politician need the ‘blessings’ of religious heads? Surely, we don’t need to be told that unworthy elements have to use religion as their sheep’s clothing. If religious patronage weren’t available to them, they would have had to prove their worth on the strength of performance. In politics, as in all other fields of service, work culture is the decisive factor. ‘Work’ in the political context involves the maximisation of the welfare of the people. Politics, in decay, reduces the scope of ‘work’ to perpetuating oneself in power. As Plato said a long time ago, the fact a person covets or clings to an office, is proof enough that he or she is unfit for it.

What is the message that religious leaders send out to the public when they patronise, covertly or overtly who, otherwise, would be unacceptable? It is that good governance does not matter. Such endorsements, whether it be in the Kerala or in the national context, is inimical to work culture and good governance. A political party that builds its capital on the communalisation of politics promising good governance is indeed the joke of the century. Millions throwing their lot with it, is the heartbreak of the century. If communal politics can birth good governance, a Kerala ant can birth an African elephant.

Shut this avenue; vote-soliciting politicians, ubiquitous in seasons of elections, will be left only with secular propaganda. Propaganda is dramatic in its impact in the short-term. It has much less power to anaesthetise for long voters to their avoidable deprivation and neglect. Via religion, citizens can be domesticated in existential misery.

The cheapening and vulgarisation of the culture of the state in this process should be a serious concern for anyone who values life and believes that there is such a thing as tomorrow. Instances are far too numerous, and well-known, to be enumerated. Only consider the turmoil in Trivandrum, where civic life was disrupted for days on end by an employment scam involving a few hundred corporation placements. The protests assumed mythological intensity, not because transparency and equality of opportunity are cherished ideals in our midst, but because employment is so rare. The predominant notes of life in Kerala are weariness and resentment. Does it have to be so?

I am all for the church to play a soulful role in politics. We are, after all, required to be the salt of the earth. We must make a difference in politics. But, difference of what kind? Any idea?

Incarnation is political as well. If the Word became flesh and ‘dwelt’ in the midst of people, ‘full of grace and truth’, it has to be also political in the best sense of the word. Our primary duty in the public domain is to bear credible witness to the beauty and goodness of life. Spirituality is also about beauty; and style is basic to beauty. Pilfered water and wafer will not constitute the Sacrament. What the church invokes upon the elements is incarnational ‘grace and truth’. For us, life as a whole is sacramental. It is incumbent on bishops and priests to dwell in the political space. It is even more incumbent on them to do so Incarnationally, or,   ‘with grace and truth’.