WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Sitting in my office on the last day of the first week of
2013, this thought came to my mind. Where are we going? The first thing came to
my mind is the absurdity of the land reforms implemented by the first Communist
Ministry in Kerala. There was a specific reason for this subject coming to my
mind. On the previous day we had a discussion on this topic.
It was in 1957 that the first Communist Ministry came to
power in Kerala. They were busy in bringing out pro-labour rules. They found that
the agricultural labourers were widely exploited by the so called Zamindars. So
they decided to bring ceiling in land holdings and capture the excess land
owned by private land owners. The excess land so captured was distributed among
the landless labourers. A good initiative, isn’t it? The successive Congress
and Congress led collision governments also followed the same path eying on the
vote banks.
Soon the people who were owners of tens and thousands of
acres of land became landless or owners of small holdings. My father was
employed in a Namboodiri Mana (the house where Namboodiris stayed are known as
Mana, Illam etc. in Kerala) who owned vast area of land spread across the State
and my father used to travel these places to collect the lease rent from the
lessees. After the land reforms all the land were given to the lessees after
accepting a small amount as compensation. The large scale subdivision and
fragmentation took place in Kerala enabled a large number of people owning
small pieces of land. Soon these small landowners realized it was not economical
for them to cultivate the land because of the high cost of operation. Many of
them filled the cultivable land which gave the state rice to feed the masses to
a great extent and sold it as small house plots. Some of them leased-out the
land for starting brick manufacturing units. Large scale brick manufacturing
converted this cultivable land into deep pools. Now these pools pose threat to
the human life in many places. In Malayalam people used to say kulamthonduka
(digging pond) for destroying a family or house or assets.
We had joint family system in the state. The parents,
grandparents, brothers and sisters lived under one roof. The family had a
common landholding. They cultivated in this land and produced paddy,
vegetables, fruits etc. We had lot of greenery in the State. The traditional
families had the so called Sarppakkavu
( a small thick forest) and ponds in their family property. There were a number
of children in the family. So they never felt loneliness. The family members
joined together in the evening and offered prayers irrespective of the cast and
creed. Every Hindu family had the system of burning the traditional Nilavilakku (oil lamp) at dusk and place
it in front of the front door. Grandparents, women and children used to sit
around this lamp and chant prayers. They used to celebrate birthdays and
festivals during which all the family members sat together and dined. People
had time to look after the aged. The older people never felt loneliness. They
had the company of the sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and their children. There
was no need of Aaya to look after the children. How much pleasant those days
were?
Now the subdivision and fragmentation of land played a
significant role in bringing up the micro-family culture. As soon as the son or
daughter got married, they shifted to a new house. The flat culture came to
Kerala only very recently. Before that every one preferred to have an
independent villa or house. As they
became independent, they forgot about their aged parents. In many houses aged
parents live alone or under the mercy of a servant. On dying they have to wait
in air conditioned glass cases till their sons and daughters arrive to conduct
the last rites. There are instances where the dead body had to be kept over one
month since the sons and daughters did not get leave or they had other
engagements like their children’s examination etc. In some cases the aged
parents are pushed to an old-age home so that their burden of looking after the
parents is limited to sending the monthly charges to the institution. The
brothers and sisters meet each other greet only sparingly. In many cases their
children did not know each other. What a culture, isn’t it?
The desire to own independent houses dragged the youths into
debt trap. Many of them constructed houses costing a fortune beyond their
capacity by borrowing leaving them with no savings and only debt. Imagine that
instead of leaving their ancestral home, had they lived there itself by building
additional living spaces above the house to accommodate additional members, a
common kitchen to feed every one, a common court yard for children to play and
lot of fun in the evenings, how much pleasant the life would have been. Now the
high debt burden pushed many people to mental agony and in order to escape they
started drinking. The government found that by promoting drinking in large
scale, they can increase their income. Though Mahatma Gandhi worked against
alcoholism, his followers are promoting it. What a contradiction?
The suicide rates in the State are also increasing mainly
because of the loss of mental piece. In a joint family system they could have
shared their agonies with their kith and kin, brothers and sisters, parents and
grandparents. But now the loneliness leads them to depression and the number of
psychiatric patients is increasing. The
alcoholism and psychological imbalances made people more aggressive. As a
result the number of attacks and murders has increased substantially. Daily we
are reading in news paper stories of son killing father and vice-versa, husband
killing and the other way too or brothers fighting with each other and killing
either one or both etc.
The available land is now being misused. There were three
airports in Kerala, Calicut, Kochi and Thiruvanathapuram. Now we have airport
in Kannur. A new airport is planned in Pathanamthitta. We need not wonder if
airports are constructed in every district. We are forgetting that we are using
the precious cultivable land for this extravaganza. How many people are using
airlines for their travel in each district? What is the rate of utilization of
airline services by passengers? Now almost all airlines are running with huge
losses. In 1994-95 the flight charges to Delhi from Kochi was around Rs.10000.
In 2006 I could fly to and from Delhi by spending Rs.7500. But now the charges are again increasing
substantially as the airline companies have to pay the utilization charges to
each airport which they are using. In the absence of enough passengers, they
will end up with huge losses. Instead of constructing more and more airports
why can’t we link the existing airports with rail, road and water transport
systems with excellent amenities and greater speed?
Speaking about land, I found that lack of proper planning
resulted into large area of land being occupied by abandoned roads. Many of
these roads are unfinished since the project might have been abandoned midway.
Now we cannot use this land for any cultivation purpose.
The pleasant days have gone. The values have been eroded.
People have forgotten to love each other. The meaning of love has been taken in
the negative sense and not only young girls and women even the older ones too
have no safety here. If things are moving like this where are we going?
Let’s enjoy the weekend.
