Will Kerala be the Third Hungary?

By GEORG E FLORIS
"As you come down on Kerala by plane, you are descending on a vast lovely garden, God's own land, with extensive plantations, mountain ranges, hills and beautiful landscapes, and then lo and behold—you are confronted with a teeming population." That was the picture presented by Cardinal Grades of India's most problematic country, in a rec'ent address on ''The Challenge of Kerala." He put the blame on past omissions, failing to utilise the anaripower resources of this region, for the march of Communism.
Educated
TNDEED, the narrow strip of -aland on the south-western coast of the peninsula has the intellectually keenest, best educated population on the entire sub-continent, There is a high rate of literacy; Hindus. Christians and the small but ancient community of Jews share almost equally the beeefit of a comparatively high education.
It may be queer, •perhaps even pathetic!. but it is a fact that the more intellectual unemployment there is in India, the more students and parents clamour for education. With undeniable though gloomy logic they surmise that if there is no job for the educated, there is even less for the uneducated. it is, therefore, small wonder that it was about education that the tempers in Kerala overboiled. To quote India'e Cardinal once again. he had uttered the words which assumed a prophetic ring during the last Few weeks way back in August, 1958: " The Christians in Kerala are giving c an " The Christians in Kerala are giving c an leer ns d striking evidence through the many measures adopted that they are not prepared to accept the philosophy of Communism and will not allow themselves to be misled by Communist tactics. They are putting up a brave fight for the autonomy and character of our schools. The students are vigorously showing that their Faith, which nas been put to a severe test. is really the victory which overcometh the world."
The teachers
-1-3ASSIONS have been sim-0rnering ever since the passage. subsequeet amendment on the basis of the observations of the Supreme Court and ultimate presidential a s sent of the notorious "Kerala Educatinn Act." The most controversial part of the Communist-sponsored Act concerns the technicality of appointing teachers. In the words of the Informstion Officer of the Communist Government: " The Christian managements. especially Catholic managements, claim absolute freedom in the matter of choosin g and appointing sc even though in their honts, though the entire salary and allewances of the teachers are toa sum toto be fully paid by the Government o
wards mautenance expenses."
That concern over the future appontment of schoolteachers is, of course, fully admitted by Cardinal Grades: " The substential disconcerting development is that in future the t c h ers will have to be appointed from a panel of names prepared by the agency prescribed by Government." However, the situation in Kerala lied not come to a head until the crisis in Tibet exploded, opening many eyes and shattering many illusions in the leading Congress Party circles ill New Delhi. With the partial change of heart in the All-India Stale capital. the Congress movement in Kei•ala was no longer restrained from joining forces with other anti-Communist elements in the province.
Nair Hindus
THE old yet still fighting-fit leader of the proud NairHindu community, Mr. Manilathu Padmanabhan — who had once supported the ComtnunIst " Education Act," due to antiChristian bias — made a cornplate mite-Pee, announcing in April, 1959: "Let me declare that my mind will be set at rest only after sending these Communists, bag and baggage, not merely from Kertila, but from India and driving them to their fatherland—Russia."
The Hindu support enabled the Catholic community to go forward with the school-strike, affecting approximately half of Kerala's edticatiohal institutions, in protest against the ',Education Act." in June, 1959 — at the end of the summer holidays in India. In the wake of the schoolstrike, as an obvious consequence, came the picketing of public offices, obstructing of team and other moves to the anti Government "d r ect action." Just as in Budapest three years ago, in the streets of the Keralan cities, workers were mowed clown by police fire — on the order of an allegedly " workers' government."
Nehru's position
,_L, HE Indian intelligentsia had taken note of the brutal suppression of the Hungarian uprising, the execution of Imre Nagy. the troubles of Boris Pasternak. the breath-taking escape and the more recent dramatic appeal by the Dalai Lama. They are no longer
ow re
bamboozled by Kerala's Cmunists. Hever, there is some reason to believe that Prime Minister Nehru may still lend the Communists sympathetic ears. According to the Calcutta daily Amrita Bazar Patrika: "For the Prime Minister it is a period of confusion as well as anguish, because the two fountalons on which his foreign as well as defence policies are based have begun to sink in the rising subsoil water of Tibet— friendship with China and coexistence with the Communists both at home and abroad." Nehru is known to consider the Chinese propaganda attacks on India a deeper tragedy even than the events. in Tibet. He may. therefore, be expected to sacrifice the anti-Communist. forces in Kerala, among thee, his own adherents—at any rate, for the time being in an attempt to pay a one-sided tribute to the fading principles of Panshthila, his fames "five principles" for co-existence.