Malabar: A reading revolution

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net

TCN Malabar series: Part 6

Kerala was declared a complete literate state in 1991. Keralites love to read and do read in their own language. This is the reason that though Kerala is full of newspapers and magazines in Malayalam, no English language daily newspaper is published from here.

Mappilas realized the importance and need of newspapers at the same time when efforts were being made to create awareness about education. In 1925, Mohamed Abdurahiman started Al-Ameen, the first Malayalam daily owned by Muslims. In the last 85 years, Muslims have made a great effort in increasing awareness about education. Increased literacy added to the readership of the newspapers and organizations have found newspapers a way to reach to the masses. This effort has yielded results and almost all Muslim organizations have started their own daily newspapers.

Thejas billboard in Calicut

Chandrika, Madhyamam, Siraj and Thejas are the prominent daily newspapers that are owned by Muslims. Malyalam Manorama is the widely read newspaper of Kerala but Muslim owned newspapers have also able to sustain themselves and create loyal readers. Chandrika is the newspaper associated with the Muslim League, an important political force of the state. Jamaat-e-Islami owned Madhyamam had made a mark for its quality journalism. Thejas is the latest entrant in the Malayalam newspaper world and has quickly grown to establish itself in this vast but fiercely competitive market.

Thejas was launched by people associated with Popular Front of India (PFI), though they have a growing but miniscule support in Kerala, the newspaper has been successful in gaining readers beyond their supporters. One reason could be because they keep their politics and ideology away from the newspaper. The Chief Editor of Thejas is a non-Muslim and the newspaper is run professionally with a staff which is a mix of all religious groups. Thejas find itself in the news these days because of a letter by an official of the Union Home Ministry to Kerala government directing them to keep an eye on Thejas. This obviously is a certificate from the government that Thejas has become an effective and powerful newspaper.

Mappilas have contributed immensely to the Malayalam language and literature. VM Basheer was awarded Padma Shri for his contribution to literature and NP Mohammed won prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993 for his novel Daivathinte Kann.

But perhaps the biggest contribution of Muslims to Kerala’s body of written works is in Arabic. ‘Tuhfat-ul-Mujahideen’ by Zainuddin Makhdoom II, is the ¬first book to record the history of Kerala. Written during the period when Muslims were locked in a bitter battle against the Portuguese, this book written to encourage jihad against the foreign pirates, documents the history of struggle against the Portuguese. This book also briefly mentions the history of arrival Islam here. There is a chapter on the religious and social customs of Hindus of this region, which is rather unique in observation and for documentation. The interesting thing about this work is that the call of jihad is meant only for driving Portuguese out of India, it was never directed against the Zamorins who ruled over Muslims for hundreds of years. An important lesson for those who think that jihad is terrorism directed against non-Muslims.

A new generation of Mappilas is growing who want their history preserved and their stories told to the world. I met Dr. Auswaf Hasan of Other Books, a book publishing and distribution firm based in Calicut. Started by social activists, academicians and university students, Other Books represents a new and modern face of Mappilas. They want to use the new tools available to better present themselves and their history. They recently published a modern translation of the famous book ‘Tuhfat-ul-Mujahideen,’ a part of the project to document Muslim history of Kerala.

To increase the habit of reading books among Muslims, they have launched innovative programs like the ‘home-library’ scheme. This has met with some success and an idea that was started five years ago still continues to grow. High quality publications of Other Books along with unique subject matters have opened up a window to the world for the Malayalam reading public.

Links:
http://madhyamam.com/
http://www.thejasnews.com/portal/index.jsp
http://www.otherbooksonline.com/