Become enlightened with education, strong with organisation and rich with effort, said Kerala’s legendary social reformer Sree Narayana Guru. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recalled this message when he inaugurated the Sree Narayana Guru Open University through an online video on Friday.
The Kerala government made an announcement about the university a month ago when CM Pinarayi said at a press conference that it will be launched in Kollam. This was a day after the Sree Narayana Guru Jayanti on September 2.
“Sree Narayana Guru led Kerala through the dark times it endured into the path of renaissance. Those days were so horrible in ways that today’s generation could not imagine. The great poet Ulloor wrote: udukuvan thuni illa, kidakuvan kudil illa, kudikuvan oru thulli kannuneer illa, hari ennu vai thurannu parayuvan ariyilla, karayuvan polum karya vivaramila (no cloth to wear, no hut to lie down, not a drop of tear to drink, do not know to utter ‘hari’, do not even have the knowledge to cry). This was the state of a large population, going through the intolerance of caste differences and untouchability and the denial of education,” CM Pinarayi said, while inaugurating the university.
Sree Narayana Guru, who spoke for the equality of all castes and religion, did not limit his movement to a certain community. The Namboodiris, Nairs and all castes enjoyed the fruits of it, said the CM. Organisations like the Nair Service Society got formed, and resistance rose against superstitions and injustice.
CM Pinarayi then spoke of a protest led by Martin Luther King Jr, civil rights leader of African Americans in 1960s America, who was shot dead. “Protestors took part carrying flags that read – I am also human. The same words that Sree Narayana Guru told a society at the end of the 19th century.”
The guru asked people to get education and pass it on to others and through that, fight casteism and other unjust practices in the society. “When he said all of us have one caste, he meant the human caste. By one religion, he meant the religion of humanity. Beyond all that, what’s important is to be a good human being. For the oppressed, his words created new sky and new earth. Renaissance happened. People organised. A generation fought for social equality. So many social reformers followed in his footsteps.”
Citing the eight areas that the guru once said pilgrims should focus on – education, sanitation, organisation, business, handicraft, god belief, technical training – the CM said that the open university will be a practical implementation of these, especially the cleanliness of body and deed at a time the world is plagued by the coronavirus.