As a Malayali, I felt proud of the Malayalam media - to which I, too, belong - despite my differences over many aspects of how it conducts itself. Most of the Indian media was seen mired in unabashed glorification of the recent consecration of Ayodhya's new Sri Ram temple, an event that posed serious challenges to the idea of a secular and democratic India. But Kerala's media, without keeping away from the euphoria, didn't fail to adhere to the fundamental principle of good journalism- airing multiple voices on the topic, including the very critical ones. This practice of pluralism would have been routine in any democracy, but not so in present-day India, where every institution is capitulated to the powers to be.
The consecration provided a moment of embarrassment, too, to me as a Malayali. It reminded me of the highly controversial role of the Malayali ICS officer, Kadamkalathil Karunakaran Nair(1907-77), in triggering the dramatic events that culminated in the consecration. The Kuttanadu-born Nair’s role in the “miraculous” appearance of Ram idols inside the Babri Masjid at midnight on December 22, 1949, while he was the District Collector of Faizabad, is fairly well known. But not so the serious allegations that Nair was also a land grabber, accused of having tried to accumulate vast tracts of property in Ayodhya and around for himself.
The entire story of Nair has been dwelt in detail by historians Krishna Jha and Dhirendra K.Jha in their seminal book, “Ayodhya: The Dark Night” (HarperCollins 2012). The book gave the first comprehensive look into the origin of events related to the “recapture of Ram Janmabhoomi” since the “mysterious” appearance of the child Ram’s idol inside the Babri Masjid in the early hours of December 22, 1949.
According to the book, Nair got transferred to his family’s ownership of large tracts of land held by Ranopali Nanakshahi temple located near Ayodhya. Later, Nair was accused in a civil suit of getting this transaction done by supplying opium to the temple’s elderly mahant, Kesav Das, who was an addict. The suit was filed by the temple’s trustees, who succeeded Das. Though the temple won first, Nair’s claim over the land was upheld in 1976. But land ceiling laws were in place by then, rendering Nair’s victory meaningless as the government would take over the property. This made Nair return the land to the Udaseen sect, who owned the temple, in return for compensation for the expenses he incurred for the litigation.
There were also gifts showered on Nair by Hindu groups acknowledging his service. Many of these properties were shared with his associates, such as the Hindu Mahasabha leaders like Digvijay Nath and Gopal Singh Visharad. According to the book, a massive mango orchard -Lakperwa Bagh, meaning a garden of 1 lakh trees- near Faizabad was gifted to Nair by a prominent Ramanandi establishment. Authors quote Sadhu Saran Mishra, a lawyer who looked after Nair’s cases, saying he allegedly used the new Zamindari Abolition laws to acquire property for himself. One of them was the sprawling Lorpur estate in the heart of Faizabad city, which became his residence and was later sold off as small residential plots that became known as today’s Nair’s Colony.
A memorial is now reportedly being planned at Ayodhya for Nair for his pioneering role more than seven decades ago in making the temple a reality today. After being suspended from civil service by the UP state government for his role in the 1949 midnight incident, Nair resigned from the government in 1952 and started practicing as a lawyer. In 1967, he was elected to Lok Sabha on Bharatiya Jan Sangh’s ticket from Uttar Pradesh. His wife Shakuntala, believed to have been the force behind her husband’s close association with the Hindu groups, belonged to Dehradun and was a three-time Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. In 1951, she was Hindu Mahasabha’s first woman MP and later won on BJS’s ticket. Daughter of Dilip Singh Bisht of Dehradun, she married Nair in 1946 when he was posted as the District Collector in Gonda.
As reported by mathrubhumi.com, Nair was born to Shankara Panikkar and Parvathi Amma, who studied at the SDV School in Alappuzha and University College in Thiruvananthapuram before leaving for higher studies in London. After passing the Indian Civil Service examinations at 22, Nair was posted in Uttar Pradesh.
According to the book, Nair’s association with the Hindu religious groups began from his posting as the District Magistrate in Gonda in 1946. Here, he became close friends with Maharajah Pateswari Prasad Singh of the local princely state of Balrampur and also Mahant Digvijaynath, the head priest of Goraknath Math and a Mahasabha activist who later became an MP. All three shared twin passions- tennis and also Hindutva. At a yagna conducted by Digvijayanath in his palace in 1947, Nair met Swami Karpatri, a sanyasi with political ambitions who founded Rama Rajya Parishad, a political organization. On the last day of the Yajna, the four resolved to follow Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar’s call to recapture all the temples allegedly razed by Muslim invaders, including Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi. Nair reportedly offered to do everything he could for the purpose.
Nair was posted as Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Magistrate of Faizabad, where stood the Babri Masjid on June 1, 1949. Nair’s close confidante, Guru Dutt Singh, was his deputy as the City Magistrate. Soon, they forwarded to the government a request from some local Hindus seeking construction of a temple at the “chabutara,” lying next to the Masjid. While the government sought his response to the request, Nair forwarded a report by Singh in October, who visited the place and recommended sanctioning the building of a temple. This was against the judgment of the Faizabad sub-court made in 1885, rejecting a similar request on that spot to prevent a possible break out of communal violence.
But Nair’s report was rejected by the state’s Congress government led by G B Pant. What happened next was the appearance of the child Ram’s idol (Lalla) inside the Masjid on December 22 midnight. The book quotes Awadh Kishore Jha, one of those involved in planting the idol that Nair was present at the spot at 5 am who told their leader Abhiram Das, “Maharaj, don't move from here. Don’t leave Ram Lalla alone. Tell everybody to raise slogan that Ram Lalla is hungry”.
The authors write: “The district magistrate of Faizabad was among the first to reach the spot once Abhiram Das finished the operation successfully in the dead of the night. At that time, the masjid only had a handful of people, and Ayodhya was asleep. No one would have known about the incident—or people would have come to know so late that no commotion would have been possible—had the district magistrate acted swiftly and removed the idol and images of Hindu deities from the mosque and scratched away the writings, not many in number, from its inner and outer walls. So, he could have easily restored the mosque’s status quo ante without creating any fuss among Hindu believers. That was also expected of any district magistrate anywhere in the country.”
The FIR and also the message to the government on the happenings were deliberately delayed to let devotees take over the premises. Nair’s message to higher-ups blamed the police pickets for failing to prevent the Hindus from entering and planting the idol. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was enraged by the occurrence and asked the idols to be buried in Saryu. Nair refused to implement Nehru’s instruction, and Chief Minister Pant, who although belonged to the pro-Hindu faction in the Congress, had no other way but to suspend the officer. Nair fought the suspension and got reinstated. But he refused to join and enrolled as a lawyer. Highly popular among the Hindus for his role in the Ram Janmabhoomi issue, Nair won as a BJS candidate from the Bahraich seat to the Lok Sabha in 1962.
6 min
Columns
View From My Window
Jan 10, 2024
4 min
Columns
View From My Window
Dec 26, 2023
4 min
Columns
View From My Window
Dec 17, 2023
6 min
Columns
View From My Window
Dec 6, 2023
4 min
Columns
View From My Window
Nov 14, 2023
Ayodhya: A murky Malayali story
7
8
27.01.2024
As a Malayali, I felt proud of the Malayalam media - to which I, too, belong - despite my differences over many aspects of how it conducts itself. Most of the Indian media was seen mired in unabashed glorification of the recent consecration of Ayodhya's new Sri Ram temple, an event that posed serious challenges to the idea of a secular and democratic India. But Kerala's media, without keeping away from the euphoria, didn't fail to adhere to the fundamental principle of good journalism- airing multiple voices on the topic, including the very critical ones. This practice of pluralism would have been routine in any democracy, but not so in present-day India, where every institution is capitulated to the powers to be.
The consecration provided a moment of embarrassment, too, to me as a Malayali. It reminded me of the highly controversial role of the Malayali ICS officer, Kadamkalathil Karunakaran Nair(1907-77), in triggering the dramatic events that culminated in the consecration. The Kuttanadu-born Nair’s role in the “miraculous” appearance of Ram idols inside the Babri Masjid at midnight on December 22, 1949, while he was the District Collector of Faizabad, is fairly well known. But not so the serious allegations that Nair was also a land grabber, accused of having tried to accumulate vast tracts of property in Ayodhya and around for himself.
The entire story of Nair has been dwelt in detail by historians Krishna Jha and Dhirendra K.Jha in their seminal book, “Ayodhya: The Dark Night” (HarperCollins 2012). The book gave the first comprehensive look into the origin of events related to the “recapture of Ram Janmabhoomi” since the “mysterious” appearance of the child Ram’s idol inside the Babri Masjid in the early hours of December 22, 1949.
According to the book, Nair got transferred to his family’s ownership of large tracts of land held by Ranopali Nanakshahi temple located near Ayodhya. Later, Nair was accused in a civil suit of getting this transaction done by supplying opium to the temple’s elderly mahant, Kesav Das, who was an addict. The suit was filed by the........
© Mathrubhumi English
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Donald Low
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Michael Kwet
