Or why Kerala is not the model state when it comes to its politics.

His Imperial Majesty Mahabali is conducting the annual tour of his erstwhile realm as you read this. For those less familiar with Indian traditions than with American holidays imported by enterprising greeting card manufacturers, this means the Onam celebrations have begun in Kerala. Happy Thiru Onam, one and all!

Kill-joy anthropologists tell you the roots of Onam, for all the myth and legend surrounding it, lie in the harvest. (Most festivals are connected to the seasons.) That made it simple enough for every community to join in celebrating Onam for all its Hindu lineage. I remember everyone coming together for the event back in the Kerala of my youth. Even today, when Onam is commercialised beyond recognition, most Keralites enjoy themselves without any inhibitions. The usual exhibitions and ''special'' sales have been laid out, and buyers are thronging to them (except, oddly, the book stalls). This Onam, however, I cannot help sensing the presence of a serpent in Eden.

The problem is that elections to the local bodies in the state will be held in two phases on September 24 and 26. They come at a time when every politician worth the name is jockeying for position for the assembly elections that are due in 2006. Last year, in the general elections, the Congress-led United Democratic Front did spectacularly badly, with the Congress itself losing all the 17 seats it contested. Since then, the Congress has suffered a further setback in the form of Karunakaran walking out of the party. This means the elections to the 16,139 grama panchayats, 2,004 block panchayats, 339 district panchayats, 1,725 municipalities, and 316 corporations have become a gigantic opinion poll.

Kerala is famous for its divided polity. Where other Indians throw up their hands in dismay at the sight of the "Trishanku Lok Sabha", Keralites simply treat it as business as usual. The first assembly was elected in March 1957, after the new state was created by merging the north Malabar districts in Madras with the Malayalam speaking areas of Travancore-Cochin. The (then undivided) CPI won 60 seats in a House of 128, and could only form a ministry with support from four outsiders. It was dismissed twenty-eight months later and the assembly was dissolved. From that day to this there has never been a single case of one-party government in Kerala, with all the instability such a state of affairs entails. The second assembly also failed to run its term. So did the third assembly, the fifth assembly, and the sixth assembly. Most of these have also seen multiple chief ministers.

With such a history it is no wonder that every political group seeks support where it can find it. It is not a particularly difficult task to get such backing given that it is not just politics that is riven by factions in Kerala. Take, for instance, the Christian community in the state, which accounts for over 20 per cent of the population. The truth is that there is no such thing as the Christian ''community''. Doctrinal disputes coupled with personal antipathy have created flavours of Christianity that are unique to Kerala.

The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church combines the theology of the Church of England with the rites of the eastern liturgy. The Knanaya Christians boast Jewish descent and Malayali culture; from time to time they revive disputes between ''northerners'' and ''southerners'' which date back to the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah that existed over 2,500 years ago. And please don't ask me to spell out the differences between the Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church! Small wonder that of the twenty-three dioceses in India as many as eleven are in Kerala.

Over time, each group has found a champion in a particular set of politicians. If you ever wondered why there are so many versions of the ''Kerala Congress'' appearing and disappearing, merging and splintering so often, well, now you know why.

Please don't think that it is the Christians alone who are so fond of fission politics, the other creeds are much the same. There are groups that claim to speak for the Ezhavas, the Nairs, and so on. I am awaiting the day when we Keralites carry this process to the nth degree - and form a group of those people who refuse to belong to any of the other groups!

This Onam, a disturbing new trend is seen. Once, politicians would encourage the odd dispute, and then manoeuvre between factions to their own advantage. Today, I find the heads of the religious bodies put pressure on politicians by openly grumbling that they are not getting adequate "support". There have been reports of the Jacobites, the Mar Thoma, the SNDP (which claims to speak for the Ezhavas), and others entering the fray.

Well, it is a free country and there is no ban on religious figures assuming a political role. I am just worried about the effect on Kerala as a whole. If most of the energy of the political classes is consumed by catering to one faction after the other how much time does anyone devote to thinking about projects and policies for the entire state?

The success of Kerala's literacy and primary health programmes is often held up as an object lesson to other states. It would be a pity if its politics too becomes a model. Dare I hope Mahabali takes all these squabbling priests and politicians back with him when he returns to his own realm? Festivals unite but politicians divide!

Courtesy: The Indian Express, September 15, 2005