Reflecting on the Literary Impact of Malayala Manorama
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Malayala Manorama, Written Media in India.
1980 marked the bicentenary of Indian journalism.
The first newspaper on modern lines appeared in Calcutta on the 27th of January 1780. It was called the "BENGAL GAZETTE" and was published by an Englishman. It was an outspoken political and commercial weekly. It displeased the officials and was shut down within a year.
The "INDIAN GAZETTE" started the same year but played safe. The "CALCUTTA GAZETTE" appeared in 1874. Other journals that followed were the "CALCUTTA CHRONICLE" (1875), the "MADRAS COURIER" (1875) and the "BOMBAY HERALD" (1879), all of which were careful not to be critical of the colonial masters.
There are over 40 newspapers in India which are centenarians. The oldest surviving vernacular daily called "BOMBAY SAMACHAR" is published in the Gujarati language. It was established in 1822. Amongst the centenarians are the English newspapers "THE TIMES OF INDIA" from Bombay (1838), "THE PIONEER" from Lucknow (1865), "THE AMRITA BAZAR PATRIKA" from Calcutta (1868), "THE STATESMAN" from Calcutta (1875) and "THE HINDU" from Madras (1876).
"THE MALAYALA MANORAMA" is the largest circulating vernacular newspaper in India. It has more than double the circulation of "THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE" which is published in Paris and printed simultaneously in ten centres around the globe, Paris, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, Singapore, The Hague, Marseille, Miami, Rome and Tokyo.
The Malayala Manorama is published simultaneously from twenty centres, its birthplace Kottayam, and from Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Thrissur, Kannur, Kollam, Palakkad, Malappuram, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Mangalore, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bahrain, Dubai, Manama and Doha.
The Malayala Manorama was founded by Kandathil Varghese Mappillai of an orthodox Syrian Christian family from Kerala. The editorship passed to his nephew, Kandathil Cherian Mammen Mappillai (KCMM), a schoolteacher, who later became a planter, banker, industrialist, politician and freedom fighter.
It was this type of vernacular newspaper, which existed in all corners of British India that carried the message of Mahatma Gandhi and other non-violent freedom fighters to the mass of people in Indian towns and villages that finally led to independent India.
KCMM, like several others of the fifth estate, had to suffer the bitter pill for being responsible for guiding the people in his region to fight peacefully for their independence. He spent several years in prison on false charges. He saw his enterprises destroyed and his newspaper closed. He saw the death of his brother during their imprisonment.
His drive for a free press continues even today. This drive, which KCMM passed on to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, has made it the largest circulating newspaper in India with a daily circulation of almost a 2 copies and readership well into the over 2 million.
The publishing group also produces the largest circulating vernacular weekly magazine, and the most popular vernacular magazines for women and children. Its English Language Weekly has been growing in circulation since its introduction in 1982. The group also publishes the largest selling Indian Year Book in English, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Bengali Editions.
Office of Malayala Manorama
at Pathanamthitta, KeralaName Frequency Language Type Arogyam Monthly Malayalam Health Balarama Weekly Malayalam Comic magazine Balarama Amar Chitra Katha Fortnightly Malayalam Comics Balarama Digest Weekly Malayalam Children Bhashaposhini Monthly Malayalam Arts and literature Kalikkudukka Weekly Malayalam Children Karshakasree Monthly Malayalam Agriculture FastTrack Monthly Malayalam Automobile Magic Pot Weekly English Children The Man Monthly English Men's lifestyle Manorama Weekly Weekly Malayalam General interest Sampadhyam Monthly Malayalam Market Smart Life Monthly English Society Tell Me Why Monthly English Children Thozhil Veedhi Weekly Malayalam Career Traveller Monthly Malayalam Travel Vanita Fortnightly Hindi Women Vanitha Fortnightly Malayalam Women Vanitha Veedu Monthly Malayalam Property National Geographic Kids India Monthly English Children Watch Time India Monthly English Technology The Week Weekly English News and general interest Onmanorama Website English News and general interest The first of the fortnightly Indian Webletter to hit the World Wide Web, Findians Briefings, in 1996, had all the dignity and dedication of the character of KCMM. It has been run by my wife, Annikki, and me, a grandson of KCMM. The paper version started in 1992.I can recall the moments that my grandfather, then aged over 75, spent with me, even as a small boy and from whom I learnt the power of the pen.
The British did not like the vernacular papers. They had sprung up as a result of the revolution in 1857 against British Rule. They were controlled by drastic press regulations including the Official Secrets Act 1923, Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act 1931, Foreign Regulation Act 1932 and the Indian States (Protection) Act 1934, amongst others.
It was through these vernacular newspapers that the words of Indian national leaders such as Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, all freedom fighters, were transmitted deep into the heart of India.
Editors of these newspapers risked their life to inform their fellow countrymen as to what was happening in different parts of India and what action they should participate in to obtain their freedom. It was through these newspapers that the call of non-violence was preached and its fruits explained.
Several of these brave editors were forced to close their newspapers, spend their time in prison, all for supporting the cause of freedom. But it demonstrated that the power of the pen was mightier than the sword.
Mahatma Gandhi would not have been successful had it not been for these brave unsung people around the country who, at risk of their own personal liberty, conveyed the message throughout the length and breadth of the country to every nook and cranny so that India could be led to independence by non-violent means.
KCMM was one of these many who braved the forces to carry the message.
He was born in 1873. He was unusual person in many respects. His thinking was far ahead of the time in which he lived. He achievements were far beyond the grasp and dreams of his generation.
Born in a middle class family in a rural area of Travancore that had little contact with trade or industrial development in the rest of the country, KCMM had his up-bringing in a conservative environment. Breaking out of the mould was discouraged. He belonged to an age when the scope for public life and professional advancement was circumscribed by the conventions and traditions of caste and religion.
It is a real wonder that KCMM dared to do what he did and that he succeeded in his endeavours.
Society was very conservative, especially in his Syrian Christian community. The important principle was that the good name of the family had to be preserved at all costs. A farmer expected his sons to grow up as a good farmers. Sons were expected to do no more than try to add a little to the ancestral property. Industry was unheard off. Trade was restricted to a few commodities. Higher education was the privilege of a few. Government jobs were the preserve of a few communities. Access to important jobs was denied to the majority on the grounds of caste or religion.
Literary pursuits and intellectual professions were frowned upon by the conservative Christian families as alien to family traditions. Political activities were almost non-existent. Even remote criticism of the ruler or his administration was equated with sedition.
Loyalty to the ruler was considered next only in importance to devotion to God and implicit obedience and conformity were the expected duties of the citizens. In fact, there were no citizens, there were only the ruler and his obedient and loyal subjects.
KCMM, in spite of the severe limitations of his times, broke out of this mould in everything he attempted. He, however, remained a typical Syrian Christian and down-to-earth Travancorean.
Born and brought up in a family of agriculturists, farming was his first interest. Conventional farming practices prevalent in Travancore did not appeal to him. Long before the Green Revolution was thought of in India, KCMM ventured on an experiment of reclaiming saline land for paddy cultivation. He tried the scientific application of natural fertilisers for paddy cultivation to increase productivity.
Decades before the concept of Operation Flood, he demonstrated how production of milk could be organised on a large scale in rural areas and how this milk could be supplied to urban consumer centres at economic prices.
Soon the plantation crops attracted his interest. He demonstrated how tea, coffee and rubber could be developed into good business ventures. He branched into untried areas of commerce, finance, banking and insurance.
He was innovative in everything he put his mind to and saw the growth of a large banking business.
His success was based on twin concepts of management efficiency and good service to clients, but above all it was based on good human relations with his co-workers. There was never a master slave relationship with his employees. Each was an individual to be heard and respected. Their problems were his problems, their happiness was his happiness, their grief was his grief.
While the success of the Bank was the crowning glory of the achievements of KCMM in the economic field, it also brought a trail of personal disaster and economic ruin, though temporarily, for purely non-economic reasons. He could not remain indifferent to the social and political upheaval which was gathering momentum in Travancore, and in his advanced age he emerged as a powerful prophet and philosopher of this great movement.
He paid a heavy price for this, but he would not have been true to himself if he had not provided the moral leadership and intellectual content to this great mass upsurge for social and political justice. It is here that was his unique contribution as the Editor of the Malayala Manorama. The newspaper became the main instrument for articulating the hopes of the disadvantageous sections of people for justice and fair play and for steering the course of popular aspirations towards the more important political goal of democracy and self-government.
KCMM was a voracious reader. He had a flare for writing. Moreover, he was acutely sensitive to the aspirations of the people and fully conscious of their needs. In his newspaper he found the most adequate medium for educating the people of Kerala and leading them to a new age of progress, a progress suited to the peculiar aspects of the land that lay around them. He encouraged the exploitation of the local resources for the benefit of the local people.
Above all, to KCMM freedom was priceless. He identified himself with the people in their struggle for responsible government. Even though he had been warned that the government would crush him, his bank and his entire business, if he extended even moral support to the freedom fighters, he did not desist from his political activities nor did he relent in his fight for the freedom of the country. He ignored every threat hurled at him and faced the consequences of his actions with indomitable courage. It was his zeal for the liberation of his people that led to his enchainment by the autocratic ruler of the State.
KCMM loved the newspaper. Beside his wife, his only daughter and his eight sons, It was his foremost love, his precious life blood.
KCMM was a man of heroic stature. He triumphed over the severest of adversities with unprecedented courage and supreme equanimity. He revolutionised the concept of the nineteenth century and helped build a modern and resurgent Kerala. He was a maker of modern Kerala and for that matter a lodestar of modern India. It is no wonder that he won the admiration and adoration of the people in Kerala.
The history of the freedom struggle in India has given emphasis to the leadership given to it by the great national leaders such as Lokmanya Balagangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi, beside whom even Garibaldi and Bismarck pale into insignificance.
However, historians have hardly done justice to the leaders who spearheaded the struggle for freedom in the princely states. They have totally ignored the powerful thinkers who gave the people in these states the purpose and direction, who inspired them to wage a formidable war for freedom.
The French revolution was not just the story of Robespierre or Danton; it is the story of the revolutionary writings of Voltaire and Rousseau who fired the imagination of the countless men and women to make the revolution occur.
KCMM was one of those writers in the Indian freedom struggle. Here was an agriculturist, planter, industrialist, trader, banker, writer, editor, social reformer, political philosopher, and crusader for social and political justice.
Above all is seen the portrait of a good man, good in the real sense of the term. There were many achievements. There have been many who have been good in life. But there are few who have been good and great.
Since Indians have achieved their freedom from the British only by the power of the pen and non-violence as preached by Gandhi and others, India will always remain a country where the Pen is a mighty weapon against forces of injustice, a weapon mightier than the Sword, and that above all categorises Indian Freedom as known by its masses.
KCMM gave the dictate to the newspaper to follow ”The Sacred Trust”.
Annikki and I have, over the period of our 56 yesrs, been quietly following the principles laid down ny KCMM.
Today we have 19 different blogs. We have written extensively on matters we thought important.
We landed in Finland on 21st April 1984. We kept day to day accounts of every income and expenditure to be able to survive in this country and yet maintain the standard of living we were accustomed to in India.
This is the first page of those accounts. You will notice that we were able to give our children their pocket money so that they also got used to managing their own budgets.
This extensive book-keeping formed the basis of the Survival System contained in our book “Handbook For Survival in Finland” which was published in 1994.
This book was published on the internet in 1994 and was, to our (and AI knowledge), the first complete book published on the internet.
The English translation of “The Holy Qur’an” was published in 1995, so it is clear that Annikki’s book was the first one.
I had resigned from the University of Oulu in 1992 because I would not take part in corruption prevalent in the university. Our third book exposed the practices which violated the 10 Guiding Principles that Annikki and I have adhered to.
The book was also a best seller. Called “Seven Years Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish University” catalogued my life in University of Oulu where, in just 7 years, I started at the very bottom, as an Assistant Researcher, and became the Chief Engineer of the Microelectronics and Material Physics Laboratories in the Electrical Engineering Department.
Since then, we have produced several other books. These will be described in a different memoir's blog entry on our literary works.
What we have tried here is to show is that the foundations laid in me by my grandfather has given me the background to produce such a vast amount of literary work including over 3000 blog entries over the last 30 years.
The multi-skills (typing, proof-reading, composing, printing, publishing, human behaviour, mentoring, dedication), I learnt as a child in Malayala Manorama, resulted in my being the scientific editor of over two dozen Master’s and Doctoral theses, many tens of scientific articles by my colleagues in the University of Oulu for international journals and conferences, not only from the Electrical Engineering Department, but also the Physics, Theoretical Physics, Computer Science, Biology and Zoology Departments and later as the sole editor of highly confidential reports produced in companies as Nokia Mobile Phones and Nokia Telecommunications, Electrobit, and the State Research Centre of Finland in Oulu.
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