Malappuram : Ma’din Islamic Academy conducted seminar on Ethno Cultural Moorings of Malabar.During the session one of the great scholar from fiji enthralled the whole malayalees by his proud explanation about Malabar.

Thousands migrated to Fiji a century ago

M. Noor-Ul-Hassan doesn’t speak a word of Malayalam. Nor does he quite recognise the provincial entity called Kerala. But this lecturer in Islamic theology from Fiji whose great grandfathers were shipped from the Malabar coast by the ruling British almost a century ago as coolies and cultivators to the island republic, says there are thousands of families in Fiji who still have many a cultural remnant of Malabar, which they keep close to their heart even while living in a different country, speaking a different language.

Here to attend a seminar on ‘The Ethno-cultural Moorings of Malabar’ organised by the Ma’din Academi, Malappuram, Mr. Hassan, who recently settled in Australia, was born and brought up in Fiji. There are many like him, who represent the third generation of Indians in Fiji, who later migrated to New Zealand, Australia and Canada, especially after the peace of the land was shattered after the military coups.

Religious exchanges

Mr. Hassan, who completed his graduation in Islamic theology and a post graduation in education from the United Kingdom, says several aspects of his community’s socio-cultural and religious exchanges in Fiji have their roots on the coast of Malabar.

English and Fiji-Hindi are the most commonly spoken languages of the islands. “But some of our lullabies and the songs we sing on special occasions, such as weddings, are in Malayalam, though we don’t understand even a word of that any longer,” says Mr. Hassan. “Our grandfathers who were shipped to the islands as labourers to the British cotton and sugar plantations must have brought these songs along with them,” he says.

Not the songs alone, certain food items such as ‘Thenga Choru,” “Neyyappam,” and “Tharikkanhi,” which are still prepared by the Muslim families in Malabar on special occasions, are prepared by the Muslim community in Fiji as well. “Many of our religious ceremonies such as “Mauleed”, ‘Raatheeb,’ and ‘Mala Reciting’ [which are offered in praise of holy men on special occasions] are still practiced in Fiji in the same way as they are done by Sunni Muslims in Malabar,’ he exclaims. Even the names of certain religious positions such as ‘Mollakka’ and ‘Maulavi’ are common parlance among the English-speaking Indian Muslims in Fiji, says Mr. Hassan

Clueless

These people, who still take pride in being “Malabaris” in Fiji, however, don’t have any clue to the present socio-political or economic situation of their ancestral homeland, which is no more a province of the Madras presidency under the British rule.

Among other things, Mr. Hassan also has with him copies of a few Emigration Passes signed on arrival by the then Government Emigration agents of Fiji, when the ship carrying his great grand parents, along with many others from the Malabar region, arrived in Fiji in 1912. The copies of the passes he obtained from the Fijian authorities for the seminar, has many interesting details on it.

Mr. Hassan by all chance will have many of his ancestors and their relatives spread across the coastal belt of Malabar. But there is no way he can find them now. “Almost a century stand between us, right?” he asks with profound smile.