Southern States - Kerala

`Renaissance ideals still relevant'

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR APRIL 27. The ideals of the Renaissance period are relevant and important even today as the Kerala society is still unable to imbibe many of the facets of modernism, according to the noted historian and Vice-Chancellor of the Kalady Sree Sankara University, K.N. Panikkar. Inaugurating the MRB (M.R. Bhattathiripad) Memorial Committee at the Sahitya Akademi Mini Hall here on Friday and delivering a lecture on `Renaissance and current happenings', Dr. Panikkar said that though we talk of the age of post-modernism, the truth remains that the Kerala society is still not in a state to imbibe many of the facets of modernism. "Our modernism had grown by imbibing from various sources.'' Pointing out that humanism, rational coherence and universalism as three ideals from which the concept of secularism emerged, Dr. Panikkar said that like Rajaram Mohan Roy fought against Sati, MRB fought against the `hell under the palm-leaf umbrella'--the oppressive life of Namboodiri women. However, these three ideals have been fast eroding from the lives of individuals and society.

This deviation from the ideals is a return from humanism to brutality. The recent happenings in Gujarat are a pointer to such return. He observed that the culture of physical violence is fast growing in the State. "Everything is physical in Kerala. Religiosity has taken the place of logical coherence in current times. The superstitions that were to some extent freed from society by MRB and others are now coming back. Religious hatred has entered our social scenario instead of universalism.''

He said 50 years ago, people in Kerala used to give offerings in places of worship other than their own religion. But this practice no longer exists. Referring to Kerala's Renaissance, he said the movement had opened new intellectual fields and put forward new intellectual methods. "But the failure was that the resistance turned into regeneration of the same ideals that were resisted by the movement. Also, the movement was glorified on one hand and led to democratisation on the other. This was evident in the first efforts for Semitisation of the Hindu religion in the 19th century. This Semitisation meant Brahmanism. Meanwhile, the awareness against casteism resulted in democratisation.''

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