Southern musings

The South, Far South. That expression usually has some meaning within most countries, especially when the capital city is not in the South. India is similar to the U.S. in the salience it gives to the north-south divide. Of course, in India, that divide is dramatically accentuated by the corresponding linguistic divide as well, in which the 4 officially-designated southern states speak and write languages that are totally distinct from the northern Sanskrit/Hindi-based languages. The only words they share are the religious or colonial idioms.

The capital of Kerala state is now called ThiruVananthapuram. We had arranged for a room at the YWCA Guest House – actually the 5th floor of the large office-like YWCA building, on the main road (just as every U.S. town has an MLK Boulevard, so every Indian town has an MG Road -- named after Mahatma Gandhi). The ‘Y’ was spartan, but clean and helpful, and very centrally-located. We took a day-trip to the tip (described in an earlier post), also to the fabled Padmanabhuram Palace and some temples on the way. Jeff was most interested in the subtle differences as we crossed the state line – from Kerala to Tamil Nadu. The language changes, of course – but the most noticeable differences otherwise were the political billboards, as the communist parties in Kerala literally dominate the landscape. The street scenes of the capital city Trivandrum/ Thiruvananthapuram (say that three times fast, and you’ll get an idea of the Mayalam language) are filled with red flags, banners, and posters emblazoned with the hammer and sickle, and pictures of the grand old men of the Keralan Communist party, photoshopped next to Lenin or Marx or other archetypal socialist hero, announcing a party meeting on the 26th!

The South is filled with religion, even more than the north – religious buildings are the most prominent: mosques and temples and shrines and varieties of catholic and protestant churches, all apparently prosperous. When we mentioned going South for Chrismas, most northerners said “Oh, all the churches will certainly be filled there.”
The mosques and the Hindu temples seem to be competing for audio status – most of them seemed to be blasting prayers or songs from loudspeakers as we passed literally dozens on our long bus-trip to Cape Comorin / Kanniyakumari.
It is ironic that the two southernmost states – Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- have the most avowedly secular governments. The longtime head of Tamil Nadu, affectionately known as SunglassesMan because he is always pictured in big dark sunglasses, recently enraged the Hindu fundamentalists when he repudiated their declarations that the sandbar between India and SriLanka was the remnant of a bridge built by Lord Ram thousands of years ago. And although Christianity’s social conscience probably affected Kerala’s development as the most literate state, with the lowest infant mortality rate, there remains considerable tension between the church and the avowedly-secular Communist government.

Another noticeable thing in Kerala is the peoples’ pride, both in their language – it seems more monolingual than other places in India – and pride in their state. Several people assured us of the wonders of Kerala, either reminding us of its current tourist-motto: God’s Own Country, or assuring us of its wonderful climate and completeness. That’s reminiscent of Texans bragging of their state.
The other analogy that comes to mind is Bombay residents’ pride in their crowded dusty exciting city, that sounds just like New Yorker pride.


Padmanabhapuram Palace
Our bus tour to Kanniyakumari from Trivandrum actually included a stop at the seat of Keralan royalty from 1700 to 1900, the Padmanabhapuram Palace. It is one of the largest extant wooden palaces, with intricate carving, as well as a notably different wing intended for European guests. The palace is now located in the state of Tamil Nadu, but is officially a little pod of Keralan territory, in small recognition of their former glory.