Here is another ‘Kerala Story’ written in the lead-up to the 1977 elections, when Kerala was the only state to have elections for both assembly and Lok Sabha.
While at the national level, the Janata Party was constructing a broad-based coalition to punish the Congress for its Emergency excesses, in Kerala the Congress was able to lead a broad-based coalition against the CPI(M). Kerala was thus becoming “the new oasis of the Congress party.” As it turned out, the Congress actually won the state election.
Stig Toft Madsen wrote this brief article with the intention of publishing it in a Danish newspaper, However, that did not materialise. Nearly forty-seven years later, The Polity publishes it here in an English translation without redaction to capture and convey the tone and imagery of that period.
The article portrays Kerala as a land where political parties are firmly rooted in well-organized castes. The Congress had knit these parties together so well that the tide, which was to sweep away the Congress in India as a whole, left Kerala as an exception.
Kerala was once the powder keg in Indian politics. Twice, the communists were in power, and several times the Indian President had to dissolve the state government due to political and economic chaos. No government had managed to stay in power for its entire period until now, when the Congress Party has managed to stay in power since 1969.
Solidly planted in an eight-party alliance, the party has all chances to continue in power. While the Congress Party falters across most of North India, Kerala has changed from being India’s Yan’an to become the high citadel of the Congress Party.
Political Puzzles
The Congress Party has not reached this position without making an effort. To rule Kerala requires skill in satisfying the demands of religious and caste-based groupings The powerful Catholic bishops concentrated in the break-away Kerala Congress Party have been promised a good number of seats in return for their support.
The other religious minorities, the Muhammadans, have placed their political organ, the Muslim League, at the side of the Congress Party. Together, Catholics and Muhammadans will support the Congress Party by advising their fellow-believers to fight the “atheist Left Communists.” The two socialist parties – Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Praja Socialist Party (PSP) are part of the alliance for show only; they are small and relatively inconsequential groupings around, among others, wealthy Nair farmers.
Nairs, and their sworn enemy, the large but poor, Ezhava caste are, however, able to offer significant support to the Congress Party through their own newly-formed parties, the National Democratic Party (NDP) established by the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the Socialist Republic Party (SRP) formed by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP). This alliance is not yet solid, but the Congress party has shown its goodwill towards both of them.
Finally, there is a ‘rightist’ communist party – the Communist Party of India (CPI). Though the CPI has deserted the Congress Party in most parts of India, it seems that they still work together in Kerala.
These are the seven allies of the Congress Party, and less than that would not be sufficient, because Kerala consists of a relatively small number of sharply-divided and unusually antagonistic groups. Their cooperation is all the more noteworthy because political consciousness has been sharpened by a high level of education.
The opponents
Facing the Congress Party and its allies almost alone stands the Left-oriented Communist Party of India - Marxist or the CPI(M). Their more moderate comrades in the above-mentioned CPI do not want to revive their governing coalition from 1967-69. Apparently, this would rekindle the bitter memories of the cascade of mutual accusations of corruption that ended their collaboration. Even so, it goes against good party discipline that they face each other in Kerala now that they have patched up in several other states.
By comparison, that corresponds to a situation in Denmark, where our own Danish Communist Party (DKP) would enter into collaboration with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in one place, while simultaneously supporting the VS (Left Socialist Party) in an electoral battle against the Social Democrat, the Prime Minister Anker Jørgensen. The prospects of a few “coconuts” may have swayed the CPI.
Instead, the CPI(M) has entered into an alliance with the Janata Party which is the main opponent of the Congress Party in India as a whole. If, against all odds, the CPI(M) wins in Kerala at the same time as the Janata Party gains power in Delhi, it will not mean that all problems have been solved.
The political line of the CPI(M) is more radical than a very much more moderate central government would allow.
This could force the President to, once again, dissolve the state government. No matter what is best for India, the combination of a Congress Party in power both in Kerala and in Delhi would be better for the stability of Kerala.
