Sociologist Ashis Nandy arrived in Kochi a few years ago to undertake a study on Kochi’s unique identity. During his enquiries, he found that the city had seen hardly any instances of communal violence, unlike many other cities in India. After studying the people here, he found that communal harmony here was based not on any principal of secularism, but on mutual dislike between communities.
“Every community thinks that they are the best and have negative comments about the other community. They also know that the other community also thinks the same about themselves. But people are accustomed to living with differences,” said Prof. Nandy, in conversation with writer N.S. Madhavan. The two prominent figures were in conversation in Kochi on Tuesday evening in a talk titled ‘Another Cosmopolitanism’ part of the Kochi Biennale Foundation’s ‘Let’s Talk’ series.
The duo spoke about the idea of cities and villages and Kochi’s pluralism. Kochi’s religious harmony was “not based on the goody-goody concept of brotherly feeling,” Nandy observed. Having returned to Kochi a few times in recent years since his first visit here, however, he feels that the Kochi he saw may be changing. “Kochi has sustained its nature. It is outside the mainstream and politicians haven’t intervened much with the communities, though that is changing. But people somehow sense that Kochi is incomplete without its communities,” he said.
N.S. Madhavan, author of acclaimed short stories, said Kochi had seen a few major instances of violence, such as the battle between the Portuguese and the Dutch in the 17 century, clashes between Muslims and Christians in coastal areas of Kochi and Vypeen, and violence against the Sikh community in 1984.
“A different kind of violence has been used upon the last of the major migrant groups to come to Kochi and Kerala – the Bengali, Bihari, Assamese and other migrant labourers,” Mr. Madhavan said. He said the people of Kochi had condemned them to “death by ignorance.” He said the migrants could be seen in the city every Sunday when they came from Perumbavoor and other regions to relax here. “They go to the boat jetty, take a boat, go to the park, and go back, all this without talking to the local people. We have shut them out, though we can’t do without them. It is a silent apartheid,” he said.