Malayalis and the Great Bombay Dream

As a child, I often remember hearing about how Bombay was seen as a land of golden opportunities by Malayalis long before the Gulf, Singapore and the US. In the early part of the 20th century, it took longer to reach Bombay from most parts of Kerala than to reach Ceylon, another popular destination for those seeking a livelihood. The Konkan Railway did not exist then and the circuitous journey to the city on the same coast took several days, either by train or steamship.

Malayalam, however, was not a very uncommon language on the streets of the great city. As it is now, the language helped blur religious and caste distinctions among the Malayali diaspora. Among these people were the great chronicler of the city O U Krishnan, and those who were not public figures, like my paternal grandfather.

There’s really no way of knowing how large the community was in the 1930s and 40s, but press reports from the 1950s suggested that the city had 1.5 lakh Malayalis. Bombay had fewer than 4 million inhabitants at that time.

The community began to organise itself in the 1930s when it formed the Bombay Keraleeya Samaj. Its website says the Samaj was formed at the Blavatsky Lodge (home of the Theosophical Society) in 1930 when “enthusiastic young men and women” decided to set up a “socio-cultural body to work for the welfare of Malayalees” in the city.

The society was probably the first in the metropolis to organise an Onam celebration for a wider group of people.

As Bombay became an important destination for high-profile Malayalis, the city began hosting much grander cultural events. In 1943, the community decided to organise an annual All Malayalee Conference.

The second edition of the conference in November 1944 was presided over by Pattom Thanu Pillai, who would later serve as the prime minister of Travancore and then became the second chief minister of Kerala in 1960.

The 1944 conference was held at the Sunderbhai Hall in Churchgate, a venue that is now popular for an annual fair of pre-owned books. It was inaugurated by literary critic and politician Joseph Mundassery, who was the education minister of Kerala in the first EMS government.

The conference discussed “social, economic and cultural problems of Kerala and of the Keralites in Bombay,” according to an article in the (now-defunct) Bombay Chronicle newspaper. Another one of the conference’s aims was to “chalk out a programme of action to relieve famine conditions prevailing in Kerala.” The cultural part included song, dance and demonstration of Kalari Payattu, the ancient martial art of the state.

From newspaper clippings of the time, one can only assume that many Malayalis in Bombay saw themselves as temporary residents of the city, keeping a close watch on politics back in Kerala. Of course, many Malayalis were involved in the trade union movements in the city and fought for social justice, but home still felt far away.

In 1955, the chief minister of the Travancore-Cochin state Panampilly Govinda Menon, who visited Bombay for the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Bombay Keraleeya Samaj, shocked the audience by telling them not to move back to Kerala. The Malaya-based Indian Daily Mail quoted Menon as telling the Malayalis in the city to “Live in Bombay, not as Keralites, but as Bombayites.”

Addressing the conference, Menon said: “There was a misconception among certain people of Kerala who had gone out to earn their livelihood that they could return to their home state to settle down when the Kerala State came into being.” He, instead, said that the state “would have to tackle the problem” of the people living there.

Menon told the Bombay Malayalis that the soon-to-be-formed state had a “backward and predominantly agricultural economy” and that Keralites should live where they were earning money since “India was one country and it was the country’s duty to provide for all her sons.”

The politician even cited the example of Tamilians who had settled down in Kerala and become “one with the local population.” Ironically, a year later, Kanyakumari was separated from Travancore-Cochin and merged with what is now Tamil Nadu, something an older generation of Malayalis considered a big loss.

There are no reliable statistics when it comes to the population of Malayalis in Mumbai now. The community probably numbers around half a million in Maharashtra, but Bombay gradually lost its appeal as a dream destination with the emergence of the Gulf and places within India like Bangalore. The community, however, is vocal and visible in Mumbai, even if its numbers are dwindling.