Will an evolving League boost UDF’s prospects?

THe contract winding route from Narikkode to Keezhariyur was decked in a sea of flags. The red river signal flag of the CPI(M), the william green flag of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and the hand-stamped tricolour of the Congress acted as signposts to the political preferences of this rural area in northern Kerala, where agrarian prosperity had long ago given way to wealth from Gulf remittances. A small memorial stood sentinel to the memory of the Hindu-Muslim cast of the Keezhariyur Bomb Conspiracy case. This is where local socialists, led by K.B. Menon (later a Member of Parliament), plotted to bomb the railway following the launch of the Quit India Movement in 1942. It is here that Fathima Thahliya is seeking a place in history.Also read | High-octane campaigning ends for Kerala, Assam, Puducherry ahead of April 9 pollIn a party synonymous with male politicians, Thahliya is an exception. A 34-year-old lawyer from Kozhikode, she is one of the two women candidates of the IUML, the Congress’s most valuable ally within the United Democratic Front (UDF). Her candidature has changed the nature of the contest in Perambra, a storied constituency near Kozhikode ringed by the Western Ghats to its east and the Korappuzha estuary in the west, which has voted for Left Democratic Front candidates in all elections since 1980. Her entry threatens to upset LDF convenor and former CPI(M) minister TP Ramakrishnan’s re-election (though TP won with a margin of over 22,000 votes in 2021). Irrespective of the outcome, her candidature is a marker of massive changes underway in the Muslim politics of Malabar. It bodes well for the general health of politics in Kerala, where political parties are obstinate about sending women to the state assembly and Parliament; in fact, only 7.86% of Kerala’s MLAs are women.Also read | From margins to muscle, BJP’s Kerala push intensifiesThe evening this reporter visited Perambra, Thahliya was holding a roadshow that drew people of all ages, religions, and genders. This diminutive postgraduate in law—comfortable with English and Malayalam and boasting a string of achievements—held forth before a receptive audience on the merits of voting for the UDF. In Left strongholds, men looked away, but the womenfolk enthusiastically welcomed her. Wherever she stepped off the campaign vehicle, women swarmed her for selfies. “Very good vibes,” she told this reporter. “Her entry has enthused young people,” said Akbar Shah, a polytechnic student.Muslims constitute 26.56% of Kerala’s population (2011 Census) and are influential in the 57 seats across northern Kerala districts like Kasargode, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Palakkad. The IUML, or the League as it is popularly known, has remained the community’s preferred platform and the rock on which the UDF has stood for decades. In the past, the CPI(M) had popular leaders like EK Imbichibava and Paloli Muhhammed Kutty, and the Congress had the backing of the “nationalist” Muslims. These categories have disappeared recently, though young leaders have risen within the Congress and the CPI(M).Importantly, the League first fielded a woman candidate in 2021 and has now nominated two women, including Jayanti Rajan, a Hindu Dalit, from the non-reserved Koothuparamba seat. Rajan, a national assistant secretary of the League active since 2010, hopes to follow the trail of UC Raman, a Hindu Dalit who represented the League thrice in the assembly. Both Rajan and Thahliya have previously represented the League in local bodies.“Considering the League’s social base, this transformation is revolutionary,” says NP Chekkutty, author of Muslim League in Kerala History. Chekkutty recalls League supremo Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal stating that larger societal concerns are even more important than community issues. MH Illias, professor at Mahatma Gandhi University, notes that the League’s priorities shifted over the last decade toward welfare politics, addressing poverty, health, and the needs of the Gulf diaspora.This adaptability explains how the League survived political isolation after the Emergency and challenges from radical groups after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. While the Pankkad Thangal family remains the guiding force, the leadership has democratized to reflect a diverse class base. “The mature stance of the League leadership to provocative utterances from the LDF results from deep reflection about prevailing anti-Muslim sentiment,” says Chekkutty. Consequently, the League has attracted many non-Muslim politicians and even temple music practitioner Njaralath Hari Govindan.In this election, community support for the UDF could be critical. While the League contests only 27 seats, it provides the foot soldiers for the UDF across northern Kerala. Conversely, the League’s absence in southern districts hurts the UDF as the Congress stands alone, and lack of familiarity with the League often feeds into Islamophobia.The League’s shift mirrors changes in the community. Shilujas, a sociology teacher at Farook College, points to a new class of articulate, political young women enabled by remittances and modern education. She notes they are uncompromising in Islamic values but assertive about their agency. Shilujas views Thahliya as a representative of this Gen Z Muslim woman. The League has embraced this shift; after disciplinary action in 2021 against leaders of Haritha, the women student’s wing of the League, including Thahliya, for opposing sexism, the party revoked the action and appointed them to leadership positions.This cultural resurgence is also evident in cinema, academia, and the arts. Films like Halal Love Story and Feminichi Fathima suggest a community in transition. Shilujas sees new Malayalam cinema as a space of dissent where creative youth carve out a world outside male-controlled religious conservatism.This is a universe the Left seems unwilling to engage with, perhaps fearing the loss of core Hindu voters to the BJP. It is also a community with an internalist outlook, identifying with the Palestinian cause and is concerned about the Israel-US-Iran conflict. To paint this as radical misinterprets a community under siege and denies the liberal impulses guiding its response to Indian democracy. “The Left may have lost the trust of the community,” says Shilujas. That has political consequences.