Eloquent descriptions of the journey of Vakkom Moulavi, transitioned, in Shashi Tharoor’s commemorative speech about the social reformer, to a loathing of ‘the troubled and turbulent’ times of contemporary India as he drew parallels between the two periods for a seminar last Wednesday. Moulavi, a scholar and freedom fighter, is celebrated as a proponent of free speech and had founded a Malayalam newspaper that was shut down by the British in the early 20th century.
In the absence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Shashi Tharoor, the parliamentarian from Thiruvananthapuram, where Moulavi once ran his paper, inaugurated the seminar on tradition, dialogue and dissent in the princely states during the times of Moulavi and his contemporary social reformers. The seminar, was organised by the Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust and the University of Kerala. Two days of the academic session at the Kerala University campus in Kariavattom ended on January 10.
“Many who follow the media in the state know that Vakkom Moulavi’s name is inseparable from Swadeshabhimani, the newspaper he founded – a powerful instrument of truth and justice and accountability,” Tharoor said. Moulavi wielded his pen as a sword, fearlessly exposing corruption, authoritarianism and societal injustices. “His writings were to awaken not just his community but the conscience of the entire region and as we all know he paid a terrible price for it losing not only his freedom but also his press as well,” he said.
Swadeshabhimani, run by Moulavi and edited by Ramakrishna Pillai, was closed down in 1910 for its anti-establishment nature, and the latter was arrested and exiled from Travancore, the princely state that comprised the southern parts of present day Kerala. Tharoor quoted the example of Moulavi and other social reformers of the time to emphasise their fight for free speech, which is now often labelled as unpatriotic in today’s India. We live in an era, he said, where the Opposition is considered anti-nationals, dissent criminalised under UAPA (Act) and people thrown into jail without even a trial for the mere act of protesting non violently against the government.
Tharoor said it is relevant to look at Vakkom Moulavi standing up against British imperialism, fearlessly, so that we could remind ourselves of the importance of questioning authority, whether it is the authority of a colonial state or an elected government in New Delhi.
He also drew parallels between the kind of fearless journalism practiced by Moulavi and the media today.
The inaugural session included a keynote address from writer and literary historian Rakhshanda Jalil. She spoke about Maulana Hasrat Mohani, freedom fighter and Urdu poet who fought in the Indian independence movement, drawing parallels between him and Moulavi.
The two days of seminar included talks by scholars like Dilip Menon, Mahmood Kooria, KM Seethi, Chitralekha Zutshi, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Razak Khan and Roy Bar Sadeh. There were also discussions by academics like Sanal Mohan, Vinil Paul and Udaya Kumar.