(Subhashini Ali is former MP, former Member of the National Commission for Women and Vice President of the All India Democratic Women's Association.)Kerala never ceases to surprise. What is apparent on the surface is often a palimpsest behind which very different realities are never completely invisible. Marumakatayam - Kerala matrilinear customary law - in one way or another influences the way in which domestic arrangements and inheritance of almost all communities in the State, irrespective of religion, were organised till very recently. In fact, this is still followed by many families. While it appears to be extremely favourable for women who, after all, are the owners of their ancestral homes and properties, the law has also been an inextricable part of the worst and most cruel of misogynist practices.
Not only were the women in the family subject to the whims and fancies of their brother, the Karnavar, but, women from the Nair community - the community most committed to and best-known for its adherence to Marumakatayam - were forced into relationships (sambandham) with younger-son Namboodris, who were not allowed to marry women from their own community in a conscious effort to keep its numbers small.
This practice, in turn, had the cruelest effect on the vast number of Namboodri women who, not allowed to marry out of their own community, remained unmarried and lived lives of enforced seclusion. Even the 'Sun' was not allowed to see their faces.
To their eternal credit, it was social reformers and revolutionaries, among whom the name of EMS Namboodripad will always be at the forefront, who fought against these inhuman social practices and for the rights of both Nair and Namboodri women. They stood up to the worst abuse and calumny, were attacked for being destroyers of 'tradition' and culture, but did not surrender or relent until laws were passed and the cruelty of these practices became old memories.
What has taken place in Kerala in the last few weeks reveals, once again, that behind the very real achievements of literacy, education and social development, misogyny and patriarchy are alive and kicking. Young members of the now resurgent and rampant Hindu Right, who have taken it upon themselves to impose codes of behaviour in keeping with their own extremely conservative and totally hypocritical understanding of Indian culture and tradition, attacked a restaurant in Kozhikode where young men and women used to meet, chat and, perhaps, even dare to hold hands and express affection.
The response to this from thousands of young (and not so young) people in Kerala, and then in different parts of the country, was amazing. Another of Kerala's surprises. They did not just rail against moral policing in the social media, but they decided to protest on Kochi's beachfront on the 2nd of November and they named their protest the "Kiss of Love". Young people, married couples and others would congregate, hold hands, hug each other and, some, would kiss.
Despite the fact that the most popular spiritual leader in Kerala is a lady who hugs and kisses total strangers and bestows upon them the gift of her compassion and benediction, this was received with a howl of protest. Various Hindutva groups - Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena - declared that they would not allow this affront to Hindu culture to occur. They were openly supported by Muslim youth organizations whose vocabulary, interestingly enough, was identical. Even the Congress-led Kerala Students' Union joined the chorus.
What followed was not just surprising but totally reprehensible. The administration and police that should have protected a demonstration that was well within legal and constitutional limits came down heavily on the side of those who had ganged up to attack the most fundamental of rights, the right to protest.
The organizers of the protest were arrested and kept at a police station till late at night. Those who had gathered in twos and threes to participate in the protest were left to the mercies of the defenders of culture and tradition who did all that they were expected to - abuse, threaten with rape, and strong-arm peaceful protestors.
The entire political spectrum, from the Hindutva forces to Muslim fundamentalists to the Congress and its allies like the Muslim League that are running the government in Kerala, were united on the Sunday in the determination to deny young people the right to choose whom to befriend and love, and in their determination to resort to brute force and abuse in order to achieve this.
It is heartening to note, however, that the CPI(M) and Leftist organizations like the DYFI and SFI, which had no role in organizing the protest, have come out strongly in support of the right of the protestors to protest and to protest in the way that they want.
Kerala never ceases to surprise. And, certainly, young people and people committed to democratic rights in the State have surprised and will continue to surprise the rest of the country with their courage, energy and commitment. And what they are saying will find resonance everywhere.
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