I am sure many will wonder what earthly
connection Utopia and Malabar would or could ever have had. Admittedly, Kerala is quite literate
according to many indicators and is/was a model state and so on, but with the
news that can be read on today’s newspapers and seen on TV, many would agree that Kerala is now trending in the negative direction. Anyway instead of
digressing, let me get back to the topic which is - the connection between
Utopia and Malabar, and before you curl your brows in a quizzical look, there
was apparently one (I should admit right at the outset that this is a quick and superficial study).
But before we dive into the topic, what is Utopia? In
principle it is Greek for ‘Good place’. The literary term Utopia was coined
from this Greek word by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, an earthly
paradise. It is supposedly an egalitarian place like John Lennon’s song
‘Imagine’ portrays, where there is total harmony between humans and nature,
where mankind had few needs and small desires, where there was no war or
oppression, is filled with simple and pious people, with little hard labor to
endure, where men and women were equal… well, let me put it this way, a place
you can’t even think of or dream of, today. In summary, the current use of the
word Utopia, referring to an ideal place or society, was therefore inspired by
More's description of a perfect place to live.
Where did this 501 year old concept come from and which
locale provided fodder for More’s fictional utopia? To get an answer to the
question, you have to meet Raphael Hythloday (“Hythloday” is Greek for “speaker
of nonsense”). In 1516, More published his book in Latin titled (translation) ‘A
truly golden little book, no less beneficial than entertaining, of a republic's
best state and of the new island Utopia.’ Many question why More wrote it and
many scholars opine that the book was a criticism of the evils of European
society of his times which are detailed in Book I and potential solutions being
provided in some way in Book II.
In the book, Thomas meets Raphael who had returned after a
sojourn to the east during which he stayed five years at the idyllically
perfect island of Utopia. Of course Raphael is a fictional character, and in
the book some real people are also interspersed to lend credibility to the
prose and hold the readers interest. The voyage mentioned is Amerigo Vespucci’s
4th voyage and Raphael was one of the 24 who supposedly went with
him.
Let’s now step back in time and look at that era. I have
written much about the Portuguese travelers and discoveries, covering Vasco Da
Gama, Cabral, Magellan and so on and their travels to India. Summarizing it in
a paragraph is quite tough, but then again let’s try. The lure of spices
coupled with the missionary zeal of the Spaniards and the Portuguese started it
all and with some difficulty, Vasco Da Gama discovered the sea route to Malabar
from Lisbon, landing in Calicut just before the monsoons of 1498. He had a
rough time during this visit, but went back telling tall tales and excited his
king into starting a series of new voyages to Malabar with an intent to corner
the spice trade and decimate the Arab stronghold in the spice market. The
second armada led by Cabral arrived in Calicut in 1500 and many others
followed.
But something interesting happened in this Cabral voyage. In
the Cabral ship that departed Cochin on 10th Jan 1501 was the 40 year old
Joseph, ‘a man with a benevolent reception’ and his brother Mathias (Mathai).
Fr Joseph was a St Thomas Christian Nazrani who hailed from Cranganore
(Kodungallur). Mathias died enroute (or at Lisbon). After reaching Lisbon in
June 1501, and meeting King Manuel, he stayed in Lisbon for 6 months as a royal
guest (as the first Indian Christian to visit Europe) before proceeding to meet
Pope Alexander VI in Rome. He then left for Venice in 1502 and remained a guest
of the Signoria of Venice and from there went on ‘probably’ to Jerusalem and
Persia (Aramea and Babylon). Some say he came back to Lisbon from Venice. The
various interviews he gave at Venice, Lisbon and Rome became known as the
‘Narratives of Joseph the India’, the very first accounts of India by an
Indian. Bits and pieces of his accounts
of Malabar, the Mahabali epoch and the advent of Parasurama in its reclaiming
perhaps crept into More’s creation of Utopia. Joseph Minattur was the first to
do a brief study in this matter and his paper is somewhat illuminating. It
could also have been comments by Manuel, the converted Nair who became a
fidalgo in Portugal, but suffices to note that one of these native members
provided fodder for the novel in question.
Whatever happened to Cabral? Because of the great loss of lives on the voyages, especially the loss
of Bartolomeo Dias who went down with his ship off the Cape of Good Hope, it
was not a happy homecoming for him. King Manuel I greeted Cabral with kindness,
but the two of them were in disagreement because Vasco da Gama had been chosen
to lead the next expedition. Cabral never returned to the King’s court. He got
married, had six children, and lived near the Tagus River until his death
around 1520.
Before we get to the book, let us look at one more
character, the Italian Amerigo Vespucci. He did not ever visit Malabar, though
he made many claims and is the person after whom America got named eventually. Initially
he worked for the Spanish crown, but later in 1500, at the invitation of King
Manuel I of Portugal, Vespucci participated as observer in several voyages that
explored the east coast of South America until 1502. He is said to have
participated in four voyages, a matter still disputed, but then letters
ascribed to him were accounts which connected his name to many discoveries,
including America. His second and third voyage sailed eastwards and the third
voyage occurred in 1500-1501 where he met Cabral’s above mentioned armada
returning from Malabar. In a letter from Cape Verde, Vespucci says that he
hopes to visit the same lands that Álvares Cabral had explored, suggesting that
the intention is to sail west to Asia, as on the 1499–1500 voyage. In 1508, the
position of chief of navigation of Spain (piloto mayor de Indias) was created for
Vespucci after his becoming a Spanish citizen, with the responsibility of
planning navigation for voyages to the Indies.
Their accounts provided a base for More’s creation of the
fictional island sometime during 1515. In context it is important to note that
Barbosa’s detailed account was published only in 1518, so one could assume that
the Joseph accounts were the only first account ones available to More, other
than Varthema’s accounts published in 1510-11. The book has been analyzed by
philosophers, historians and all kinds of specialists to study the far reaching
and somewhat opposing ideology projected by More, at a time when he was
considered to be more of a conforming catholic. Was he trying to show what the
opposite could be? Or was he musing of a ‘what if’ imaginary scenario of a
perfect world?
Why would he implant inputs from far away eastern lands? At that
time, all strange lands to the west and east of Europe were potentials, with
America being considered as the Garden of Eden. Researcher Yeter Caglar analyses
it thus - The word ‘utopia’
derives from two Greek words ‘eutopia’ meaning good place and ‘outopia’ meaning no place. Thomas
More is the creator of the work, Utopia. He combined ‘ou’ negative prefix with ‘topos, a place in order to produce the title of the book. It
has two diametrical meanings: nowhere and perfect place. Utopia can be defined
an ideal and perfect place that does not exist anywhere on earth. But is it
right? Did the lands in the east possess any of the required criteria and was
Malabar a potential?
So I guess, it would make some sense to now amble across and
see what the Utopia book was all about. Set in Antwerp, Netherlands, Raphael
Hythloday the Portuguese, Peter Giles one who was dealing commercially with the
Portuguese, and Thomas More sit down outside the beautiful church of Notre Dame
to discuss the Hyhloday’s travels. Note here that More Is
real, so is Giles who was the son of the Assistant Treasurer of Antwerp and a
Chief Secretary, a classical scholar and a jurist. Hythloday apparently was one
who had accompanied Vespucci in the American voyage and subsequent trips to the
east during which he pauses to spend five years in Utopia, visiting Malabar and
Trapobane (Ceylon) on the way. In the
Quattuor Navigationes Vespucci gives Malacca and Calicut as his ultimate
destinations, so that Hythloday can be said to have completed Vespucci's
abortive "Fourth Voyage." He was
left behind in what is now Brazil, though More does not mention it by name.
Somehow, from there he managed to get to Calicut from where he sailed back to
Europe.
Let us look at some if the characteristics of Utopia, an
island in the oceans somewhere between South America and Malabar. The island of
Utopia is in the middle just 200 miles broad, and holds almost at the same
breadth over a great part of it; but it grows narrower towards both ends.
Smewhat similar to Ceylon, More goes on to describe it as - its figure is not unlike a crescent: between
its horns, the sea comes in eleven miles broad, and spreads itself into a great
bay, which is environed with land to the compass of about five hundred miles,
and is well secured from winds.
It is an island with no private property and with goods
being stored in warehouses, people request just what they need. Houses are not
locked, and Agriculture is the main profession where men and women work. They
all wear simple clothes, work just 6 hours and all households have two slaves
(these slaves are foreigners or Utopian criminals - released at times for good
behavior). It is a welfare state with free hospitals, where even euthanasia is permissible,
where priests are like normal people allowed to marry where divorce is permitted, but where premarital
sex is punished by celibacy and adultery punished by enslavement.
Identity documents are important in the island, for some
peculiar reason, and this demonstrates that visitors from other places are
perhaps common. Travel on the island is only permitted with an internal
passport and any people found without a passport are, on a first occasion,
returned in disgrace, but after a second offence they are placed in slavery. Rules
of law are simple and well understood by all. All kinds of religions are
permitted, there are moon-worshipers, sun-worshipers, planet-worshipers,
ancestor-worshipers and monotheists, but all of them tolerate the others. But
then again, atheists are despised (but allowed) in Utopia, as they are seen as
representing a danger to the state: since they do not believe in any punishment
or reward after this life, they have no reason to share the communistic life of
Utopia, and will break the laws for their own gain.
Even though wives are subject to their husbands and husbands
are subject to their wives with women restricted to conducting household tasks but
also undertaking training in military arts, interestingly gambling, hunting,
makeup and astrology are all discouraged in Utopia. In Utopia, it is believed
that animals also have immortal souls. Utopians do not like war, but do provide
military aid to friendly countries
The first hint of Indian lands being somewhat of a base for
this fiction is evidenced by More’s attribution of Utopia’s characteristics to
Gymnosophy. I wonder if you recall an earlier article of mine relating to
Calanus and Alexander. Gymnosophia was the philosophy of the Brahmans who, it
was always felt by the Greeks, lived in a commonwealth ruled through ancient
laws and culture was devoid of lust, pride, and greed.
The language of Utopia is another which has been analyzed
and oft talked about, concluding it to be composed of many tongues and entirely
imaginary. Some scholars (Darrett, Lach) opine it to be closer to Malayalam,
samples of which script More obtained from returning Portuguese travelers who
had been collecting Malayalam words from the first voyage of 1498.
Joseph Minattur’s study is interesting, and he opines that
much of the input came from Malabar. He is convinced that the words of Joseph
the Indian were the main source, even though Joseph himself was somewhat
critical of Hindu thought and religion. He suggests that More heard of the
Parasurama legend and reversed it. While Kerala was reclaimed from the sea by
Parasurama in the legend, Utopia was formed off a portion of the mainland. He
opines that the family size of 40 and two slaves is similar to a Malabar
tharavad. The fact that both men and women partake in military training is
equated to kalaripayattu and the kalari schools of Malabar.
But the most and the
wisest part (rejecting all these) believe that there is a certain godly power
unknown, everlasting, incomprehensible, inexplicable, far above the capacity
and reach of man’s wit, dispersed throughout all the world, not in bigness, but
in virtue and power. Him they call the father of all. To him alone they
attribute the beginnings, the increasings, the proceedings, the changes and the
ends of all things. Neither they give divine honours to any other than to him.
Yea all the other also, though they be in diverse opinions, yet in this point
they agree all together with the wisest sort, in believing that there is one
chief and principal God, the maker and ruler of the whole world: whom they all
commonly in their country language call Mithra. Joseph equates Thampuran to
Mithra.
He believes that clinching evidence comes from the
discussion of a Christian bishop. Quoting the text - Yea, they reason and dispute the matter earnestly among themselves,
whether without the sending of a Christian bishop, one chosen out of their own
people may receive the order of priesthood. And truly they were minded to
choose one. But at my departure from them they had chosen none. This
incidentally was an issue which the Syrian Christians of Malabar did face in
the 16th century. He also believes that Utopia arises from the name
of Joseph which was actually Utup (Father Utup or Utupacchan).
In conclusion, Joseph Minattur says – The points of similarity noted above may be sufficient to indicate that
Saint Thomas More most probably had the people of Kerala in mind when he
delineated the Utopians the way he did. There is express statement in the prefatory
verses that Utopia was based on gymnosophy. More’s circumstances indicate that
he had access to information about Malabar, and some of the details in the
picture appear to be reflections of life in Kerala. A few of the change from Kerala
life envisaged in Utopia could be due to More’s espousal of Christian ethics,
for instance insistence on monogamy and the mention of severe punishments for
conjugal infidelity. When More attributed a communal way of life to Utopians,
he was probably reviving for them a way of followed by Christ’s disciples
‘which had been pleasing to Christ’. The saint that he was, More may have been
prophetic when he envisaged some form of ‘communism’ in the land of Utopus or
Utupaccan.
But then again, one should also look at the age old reign of
Mahabali in Kerala when life was considered Utopian. The song sung during the
Onam festival typically, went thus ( loose translation provided)
Maveli Naadu vaanidum
kaalam, Manushyarellarum onnu pole, Aamodathode vasikkum kaalam, Aapathangarku
mottilla thanum. Trans - When King Mahabali was ruling our country, All men
lived alike, it was a time of joy, and
no danger for anyone.
Aadhikal vyaadhikal
onnumilla, Baalamaranangal kelkkanilla, Dushtare kankondu kaanmanilla, Nallavarallathe
illa paaril… illa paaril. Trans – No suffering, no disease nobody had even
heard of infant death, and there were only good people in that world.
Kallavumilla
chathiyumilla, Ellolamilla polivachanam… polivachanam Vellikolaadikal
naazhikalum, Ellam kanakkinu thulyamaayi… thulyamaayi. Trans – No theft, no
cheating, no lying about weights and all balances were accurate
Kallapparayum
cherunazhiyum, Kallatharangal mattonnumilla, Kallavumilla chathiyumilla, Ellolamilla
polivachanam… polivachanam Trans - No cheating with inaccurate balances, no
other kind of lying, even a grain of sesame was weighed correctly.
Did a gist of this age old ballad end up with More? We do
not know, but Utopia the book was begun while More was an envoy in Flanders in
May 1515, Erasmus published the book in Leuven in 1516, but it was only
translated into English and published in his native land in 1551 (16 years
after his execution), and the 1684 translation became the most commonly cited.
I must also add that inhabitants of Ceylon see a depiction
of their island in More’s work. Prof Laksiri Fernando has researched this
subject in depth, Elton John has also opined so and the work of Prof Laksiri
presents many an argument supporting his case.
Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social
philosopher, author, statesman and a noted Renaissance humanist. More opposed
the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and
William Tyndale. More also opposed the King's separation from the Catholic
Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England
and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to
take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and beheaded.
It was much latter that JH Lawrence wrote The Empire of the
Nair’s. I had written about the work and the author, some years ago..
By the way, there is a place in Texas, America called Utopia.
The citizens of the earlier settlement of Waresville renamed their city Utopia
after finding "Montana, Texas," had already been taken. About 200
people live in this tranquil city.
References
A comparative analysis of Thomas More’s
Utopia and Plato’s republic in the enhancement of
teaching language procedure - Yeter ÇAĞLAR
Thomas More and Joseph the Indian - J. Duncan M. Derrett
Pics
Portuguese Armada - By Walrasiad - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
