Jahane Rumi In search of the unsearchable: O, my soul! where would you find your house?

29Jun/090

Sacred Kerala–Transcending Communal Boundaries

Book Review

 

Name of the Book: Sacred Kerala—A Spiritual Journey

Author: Dominique-Sila Khan

Publisher: Penguin, New Delhi, 2009

Reviewed by: Yoginder Sikand

 

The southern Indian state of Kerala has a unique population mix. A little less than half of Kerala’s inhabitants are Hindus, who belong to various castes. The rest are Muslims and Christians, in roughly equal number, and a miniscule number of Jews, who form India’s oldest Jewish community. In contrast to much of north India, inter-community relations in Kerala have always been fairly harmonious, although the situation is beginning to change today. At the popular level, economic and social ties and inter-dependence between Kerala’s different religious communities have given birth to a strong sense of Malayali identity that transcends religious boundaries. This has been facilitated by the use of the Malayalam language by all of the state’s communities as well as a long-standing tradition of religious overlapping or shared religious identities, which is what this fascinating book is all about.

16Sep/083

Two pictures- Breaking the Fast and Desecration

Two pictures with captions tell many stories

I Breaking the Fast

A lone man eats in a soup kitchen set up for Ramadan outside a public housing project in Paris. Source

II Desecration
A damaged portrait of Jesus Christ hangs on the wall of a demolished home after an anti- Christian mob attacked it in Barakhama village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.