In a picture taken from the sky, say a high-flying drone, Ayinkamam ward in Parassala panchayat will look like a Sri Lanka-shaped real estate fully trapped inside a near triangle of Tamil Nadu roads, an oval green-brown patch that had accidentally fallen off Kerala's brocade to the other side.
There are many border regions in Kerala that spills a part of their territories into neighbouring states but there is no place like Ayinkamam that is completely swallowed by a neighbouring state, in this case Tamil Nadu.
Though perennially amused, Ayinkamam residents had come to terms with their odd position in the map. Then, COVID-19 struck. The country went into a lockdown and the strange nature of their existence began to bother Ayinkamam like a dormant illness that suddenly turned active.
Nobody's people
"We depend on Parassala for all our basic needs, hospitals, government offices, banks, shops, everything. After the lockdown, we found that we were not allowed entry into Kerala," said P Suresh, the Ayinkamam ward member.
There are only two easy ways through which a person in Ayinkamam can cross into Parassala in Kerala. One by taking the Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram highway that moves along the north side of the ward, and the other by using the Nagercoil-Vizhinjam road that passes along the south-western side of the ward.
In both cases, they have to encounter Tamil Nadu check-posts; along the highway here is the Kaliyikkavila check-post and along the Vizhinjam byroad there is the Kozhivila check-post.
"Both have been closed by Tamil Nadu. They had also closed the narrow byroads that we could use to reach Parassala. Even the elderly who want to visit the Parassala Taluk Hospital are turned back. They are asked to visit the government hospital in Vettumani (in Tamil Nadu). How can they when it was the Parassala hospital they had always depended on. They also get free medicines at the taluk hospital," Suresh said.
State-less in host state
Ayinkamam is a lower-income ward with just about 900 houses. Most of the inhabitants are either daily-wage construction workers or small-time farmers who sell their produce mostly in the Chalai market in Thiruvananthapuram. Less than two per cent hold government jobs.
All the institutions they depend on for assistance are in Parassala; the post office from where they get their monthly welfare payments, the national and cooperative banks from where they secure loans, the village office from where they get all their necessary documents, and also the agriculture and animal husbandry offices that are crucial to the existence of people dependent on farming.
"We will go hungry if we are not able to work or sell our goods in Kerala. And if we have a problem, no one from Kerala can come to our aid either. We are kind of trapped," Suresh said.
Eternal intruders
The slight loosening of lockdown restrictions have not made it easier for those in Ayinkamam. "Those travelling for construction work or wanting to transport their vegetables to Chalai market are being blocked," Suresh said.
Many times Suresh had to take his two-wheeler and rush to the check-post to convince the officer on duty. "Sometimes my ward member ID card can send people through. But I cannot be at the border always. The infuriating thing is even those allowed to cross in the morning are not allowed to cross back in the evening because by then a new set of policemen had taken over the check-post duties," Suresh said.
There were also instances when the vehicles of the residents were seized. Suresh has to frequently visit Kaliyikkavila police station to get the seized two-wheelers and mini-trucks of his ward members released.
Small mercies
Parassala MLA C K Hareendran said there was indeed an issue of movement for Ayinkamam residents. "We have made the police superintendents on both the sides to talk to each other and have finally decided to open two side-roads for them to travel, which will of course take a bit longer for them to reach Parassala. They cannot take the highway route as it has been secured for inter-state movement of stranded Malayalis," Hareendran said.
During the initial stages of the lockdown, even the trucks carrying foodgrains to the ration shop in Ayinkamam were also blocked. "They, however, allowed the trucks to move freely after the MLA and the police chiefs on either side intervened," Suresh said.
Landlord myth
The ward member said he had always wondered why such a fate had befallen Ayinkamam. "No one here knows why we got dropped inside Tamil Nadu. But our guess is that at the time of Independence Ayinkamam would have been under the control of a very powerful landlord or government official, having huge influence over the Travancore royal family, who did not want Ayinkamam to go to Tamil Nadu," Suresh said.
Travancore historians Onmanorama talked to, however, say it was lack of application during the time of linguistic reorganisation of states in 1953 that sealed Ayinkamam's fate.
Hastily done partition
Then, Travancore had eight taluks: Nedumangad, Chrayankil, Neyyatinkara, Attingal, Vilavancode, Agastheeswaram, Kalkulam, and Thovalai. The last four, considering the dominance of Tamil speakers in these areas, were given to Tamil Nadu.
"Ayinkamam was then in Neyyattinkara taluk but was geographically inside Vilavancode. When all of this was within Travancore, this odd placement was not an issue. But at the time of reorganisation, no one gave a thought to what would happen to Ayinkamam after the division," said Joy Balan Vlathangara, a noted young Travancore historian.
He said Assembly records show that when the three-member Fazl Ali Commission on linguistic reorganisation visited in 1954, the then Thiru-Kochi chief minister Pattom Thanu Pillai did not give the commission any recommendations in writing, leaving the commission to mechanically take out parts from Travancore and annexe it to Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu.
Conspiracy that felled Ayinkamam
Another noted historian M G Sashibhooshan said there was a political conspiracy behind the shoddily done reorganisation. "One of the members of the Fazl Commssion, Sardar Panicker, had an axe to grind with Travancore. He was not made the dewan of Travancore nor was his desire to be the vice-chancellor of Travancore University entertained. Since Kanyakumari was Travancore's old capital, and therefore had strong cultural ties, Kerala could have retained for itself the portion of Kanyakumari at least up to Thakkalai. But Sardar wanted the whole of Kanyakumari to go to Tamil Nadu," Sashibhooshan said.
Ayinkamam was collateral damage.
