As we await Maveli’s arrival during this upcoming Onam season, my attention has been drawn again to one of such gatherings I attended last year. One of the self-appointed godmen who was invited to give an Onam message spent his entire time tearing down the myth or folklore surrounding this celebration. He not only discredited the whole myth and called it utter lies but then went ahead and created a myth of his own. Most of us who celebrate Onam do not give any credence to the so-called story surrounding this celebration. To us, it is a statewide set of events of coming together and celebrating the virtues of humanity. I was involved in the first-ever Onam celebration, probably in the USA, in 1969, when Mr. Syriac Thannikkary and the late Joseph Mathew organized such an event in the Community Church in mid-Manhattan. There were sixty to seventy of us who had a sumptuous Onam feast with a couple of speeches and singing. It was such a low-key event when, as new immigrants, every one of us busy trying to find a footing in this great land we have come to love and appreciate.That was a prelude to what would happen as we came together and celebrated the Onam in 1970 in the Cardinal Hays High School in the Bronx. This time, it attracted a larger gathering as our numbers started swelling with additional arrivals of students and exchange nurses, as well as a few more with Green cards. Although the Immigration law was changed in 1965, expanding the quota for the non-European stocks, Keralites were rather slow in taking advantage of the system. People with a post-graduate or other professional education, such as in the medical field, would have easily qualified to apply.
Returning to the Onam story, the event in 1970 was organized by a few of us who lived on Topping Ave in the Bronx. Then, Eastburn Avenue has become a haven for a lot of newly arriving medical professionals. The entire program was led and directed by the late Thomas Pushpamangalam, who came to these shores as a Fulbright scholar. His incredible talents and a great sense of humor motivated all of us to devote a great deal of our time to making the program a great success. To my recollection, around two hundred or more people gathered on that day to celebrate Onam with home-cooked meals, songs and dances, and even a drama written and directed by the late Pushpamangalam in which I made my maiden debut on the stage as an artist. Some of those who helped in that grand celebration include V M Chacko, Mathew Zachariah, Jacob Kuriakose, Baby Thottukadavil, Alekutty Eapen, Mariamma Mathew, Kunjoojamma Koshy, Achoy Mathews, and so forth. Newlyweds Joy Oommen and Grace were also honored and felicitated on that stage.The idea of creating a Kerala Samajam, the first cultural organization in North America, was borne out of this Onam program. I was privileged to serve as the General Secretary and Editor of Kerala Sandesam (a handwritten magazine), which was the brainchild of Pushpamangalam himself, together with the late Thiruvella Baby. However, the first Malayalam publication in North America was ‘Chalanam,’ edited by the late Achoy Mathews.The rest is history as Onam is celebrated in almost every major city in the States where Keralites live today, and it has become one of the most celebrated events by every cultural organization. The beauty of the Onam celebration is that people, irrespective of religion, caste, or creed, come together and enjoy the time. Thank God that in the early days, churches were not involved, thereby facilitating a gathering of people from across the spectrum to congregate and enjoy.
However, a great effort is underway now by Hindutva supremacists in the United States to rewrite history. As we all know, they have failed in their first effort to delete the history of the caste system from the textbooks in California. These folks continue to deny that there is a caste system in India, and it is all an imagination of a Western mindset. It took a Harvard professor to come to the aid of those representing thousands of Dalits and OBCs who live here today but have had the horrendous experience of caste discrimination.However, they recently succeeded with Governor Newsom vetoing an anti-caste discrimination law passed by the California assembly with sheer money power. We are now witnessing a sustained campaign against the Onam folklore by these same elements. I very well recognize that some of them feel uncomfortable about the story of a benevolent King sent to the netherworld by jealous gods. But for heaven’s sake, it is folklore and that is where it begins and ends. For most of the Keralites in the old days, it was also a time of harvest and a period of joy and happiness lest they worry about the return of a king from the netherworld.To many of us, it is no longer a religious festival except for these zealots who poke into every aspect of life and try to control it. Faith and traditions are an integral part of any society. Why is there a need to tear them down? According to the revised myth, Mahabali was not even from Kerala, and the gods sent him directly to heaven for his benevolence! Should we now stop dressing up a Mahabali?Regardless, Onam is a grand harvest festival celebrated with flowers, sumptuous feasts, and swings under mango trees. Onam represents the spirit of Kerala, transcending the people of Kerala the world over to an enchanting mood of thanksgiving, idyllic pleasure, and music and dance. People, irrespective of religion, celebrate Onam with traditional gaiety and fervor.
It is stated that where there is a Keralite, there will be Onam. Now that the celebration is extended to the Diaspora, Mahabali needs to travel around the globe to visit all his subjects. Onam embodies the message of the basic goodness of a selfless man in his deeds towards his fellow man. It is also about a dream: a dream about peace and tranquility in the world, economic well-being and resource sharing, love and brotherhood, high ethics and morals, human justice, and preservation of nature.Let us stop these religious zealots with vested interests, who have been lurking behind us, to break the spirit of Onam and create division and polarization. They have already done enough damage in India and let us not allow them to replicate their misdeeds on these shores. I wish you all a very happy Onam.
