Decline of Nair dominance in education institutions in Kerala

The agitation by students in an academic institution teaching law in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala is entering its fourth week. Student organisations have pointed out several anamolies in the functioning of this premier private law college in Kerala. The institution run by Nairs- Lekshmi Nair, cookery show celebrity,  the principal and its founder is her father Narayanan Nair who headed the institution for a long time. His brother Koliakode Krishnan Nair is a CPM leader.

However, Kerala Law Academy Law Collge, an autonomous institution has nothing to do with the Nair Service Society (NSS) founded by the freedom fighter and visionary Mannathu Padmanabhan. They have a large number of educational institutions from primary school to engineering, medical, arts and science colleges and hospitals in the State.

The NSS was started in 1914 with the objective of uplifting the Nair community that was facing a crisis due to outmoded customs, beliefs  and loss of their supremacy in land ownership due to lack of hard work and education. Nairs were the warrior tribe in erstwhile Travancore and they occupied high positions in administration. Some Nair families by virtue of their land holdings also kept slaves. . Their extravagant life style, ceremonies and lack of education contributed to their decline.

The classic work, The Decline of Nair Dominance: Society and Politics in Travancore 1847-1908 by Robin Jeffrey gives a description of the changes that occurred to the Nair community during this period.

Meanwhile, the Kerala politics witnessed the dominance of caste in elections since late 1940’s before the formation of Kerala State along linguistic lines. The early dominance of Nair community gradually gave equal way to Ezhavas, Christians and later Muslims who continue to have pockets of influence. NSS sometimes maintained a principle of equi-distance from the CPM-led Left Democratic Front and Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

Apart from government institutions, private aided, unaided schools and colleges set up by NSS, Ezhava community, Christians and Muslims have played a stellar role in creating more educational opportunities in the state.

However, in terms of quality of education and training imparted, the Christian institutions seems to have scored over others although in terms of infrastructure NSS. Ezhava and Muslim institutions were equally good.

Having studied for two years in an NSS institution and later in government institutions, I realised the vast difference in standards between the two. Also the better scoring students tended to seek admission to institutions run by Christian organisations.  Examination results also reflected the quality of education provided by NSS institutions. The teachers were recruited more on their financial ability rather than merit.

The Law Academy Crisis

The Law Academy was started in the late 1960’s as a society with the blessings of the CPM led government at that time. However, in due course, it became a private institution with no control of the government except an affiliation with the Kerala University.

The irregularities in the functioning of the Law Academy was known to people in the capital city and I remember in my college days, meritorious candidates usually sought admission to Government Law College while average or lesser performers got into Law Academy.

It was N Narendran covering the education beat for The Indian Express who first chronicled the irregularities in the Academy but no political party or the University took any steps to correct the anamolies in its functioning. The notable alumni list of the institute includes politicians, journalists, magistrates, government pleaders, advocates and therefore nobody took up the issue. No other media organisations seem to have followed up Narendran’s story either.

The Academy also didn’t take any step to improve their functioning and expressed their ire over Narendran’s reports. They didn’t keep ownership and management of the Academy separate. This led Lakshmi Nair, daughter of the founder taking over the reins of Principal of the institution. Serious allegations have been raised against her including calling a Dalit by his caste name apart from showing favouritism in internal assessment for some students.

Although run by Nairs, the Law Academy has nothing to do with NSS but at the height of the crisis, they were reported to have approached NSS leadership to seek their support.

The NSS institutions seem to be requiring a good dose of professionalism just as Mannathu Padmanabhan exhorted the Nair community in early 1900’s to come out of their shells and work hard to be in the forefront.