Kerala Elections 2021: Law Against Love Jihad; Sabarimala; Memorial For Victims Of Mappila Revolt In BJP Manifesto 

Bhartiya Janata Party in Kerala is planning to include different promises in its manifesto to woo the people.

The list purportedly includes changing the name of Pathanamthitta to "Sabarimala" District. The party is also likely to include the promise of Hindu Religious Education Schools.

The legislative assembly elections in Kerala are scheduled to be held in April 2021 to elect 140 MLAs to the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly. The election will be conducted on 6 April and counting of votes will be conducted on 2 May.

The party is reportedly planning to propose a law regarding the administration of the state’s temples — including Sabarimala — in its election manifesto, freeing its administration from political interference.

The law is likely to propose administration in line with that of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. TNIE quoted its sources a saying that the plan is to propose a restructuring of the administration of all temples so as to ensure that devotees get an upper hand. In the case of Sabarimala, the temple thantri, the Pandalam royal family and Hindu outfits will be given administrative powers.

Another legislation on reclaiming the movable and immovable properties of the state’s temples is also on the cards.

The BJP also aims to make ‘Love Jihad’ a major plank in the coming elections. ‘Love Jihad’ is a term commonly used to refer to targeted grooming of non-Muslim women by religious extremists, who often operate like a terror-group.

The party’s state unit president, K Surendran, said a week ago that the BJP manifesto would include a legislation against “love jihad”. He pointed out that the Christian community in the state was also worried by the targeted killing of the young girls.

The state witnessed a disproportionately large number of youths leaving India to join the Islamic State terror group, many of them being young women who were recently converted to Islam. In fact, young women formed the “single largest pool of converts” going to fight for the Islamic State.

Also read: A Look At Historical-Ideological Roots Of Love Jihad — Systematic Targeting Of Women Driven By Religious Extremism

“Love Jihad is more prevalent in Kerala than in Uttar Pradesh, and a law is required to prevent it,.. the Christian community in the state is worried and have sought stringent action against love jihad,” he said.

The BJP is reportedly trying win the Christian, especially Catholic vote in the state with this promise. Catholics form the largest Christian segment in the state.

Several leaders from the Christian community, including a member of the National Minority Commission, have spoken against ‘Love Jihad’. Various Churches are carrying out intensified “campaigns and enlightenment drives’’; and several fringe Christian groups are also campaigning on social media on the issue.

The party also plans to include in the manifesto a proposal to construct a memorial for the victims of the Mappila Riots and pensions for their descendants.

The Mappila riots broke out in 1921-1922 in the Malabar region of Kerala amidst the Khilafat struggle. Initially a peasant revolt against landlords, it quickly gave way to Islamist fanaticism with worst kind of atrocities perpetrated on Hindus, including rape, plunder, forced circumcision and conversion.

B R Ambedkar said of the rebellion:

“The blood-curdling atrocities committed by the Moplas in Malabar against the Hindus were indescribable. All over Southern India, a wave of horrified feeling had spread among the Hindus of every shade of opinion, which was intensified when certain Khilafat leaders were so misguided as to pass resolutions of congratulations to the Moplas on the brave fight they were conducting for the sake of religion.”

“The Hindus were visited by a dire fate at the hands of the Moplas. Massacres, forcible conversions, desecration of temples, foul outrages upon women, such as ripping open pregnant women, pillage, arson and destruction— in short, all the accompaniments of brutal and unrestrained barbarism, were perpetrated freely by the Moplas upon the Hindus.. This was not a Hindu-Moslem riot. This was just a Bartholomew. The number of Hindus who were killed, wounded or converted, is not known. But the number must have been enormous.”

Annie Besant notes of the riot:

“They established the Khilafat Raj, crowned a King, murdered and plundered abundantly, and killed or drove away all Hindus who would not apostatise. Somewhere about a lakh people were driven from their homes with nothing but the clothes they had on, stripped of everything."

Also Read: The Moplah Revolt: Separating Fact From Fiction