Warriersonline

NEEDED – A SELF-CRITICAL INTROSPECTION

-         Devidas Warrier

(former President of the Trivandrum Unit)

As one of the early initiators of the Warrier Samajam in Trivandrum, way back in 1968 – that is 42 years ago, I have been ruminating over the various problems and hurdles faced by the Samastha-Kerala Warrier Samajam since its inception thirtytwo years ago.  I think it is important for all of us, ardent devotees of our cause, to do a deep introspection about our progress, problems and pitfalls and suggest remedial action on the occasion of the 32^nd Annual Convention in Thrissur.

Right now we are in an existential crisis.  Do we have a registration for the Warrier Samajam now in the wake of the court ruling?  I learn that despite repeated attempts and protracted discussions and negotiations we could not establish our name and identity. Are we in a Thrishanku swargam?   We seem to be  treading on shifting sands in this regard.

We supported the concept of going global in our DB meetings and  conferences and even started wearing the global garland.  The World Confederation of Warriers has now become a reality.  What exactly is our relationship with this body?  The WCW has invited units to become its members. Is the Warrier Samajam getting absorbed wholescale into the WCW as a member or is it allowing its members, individual and unitwise, to enrol themselves as members?  Why didn’t the Warrier Samajam, as the major parent body in Kerala and initiator of the WCW, play the lead role in forming the WCW?  Why didn’t the Samajam take its members into confidence about the developments following the formation of the WCW?  Why is there this blackout about this matter in the warriers.org which had offered its communication portals to the Samajam?  Why didn’t we have our own website?

This particular situation could have been avoided had the Samajam been organizationally effective and administratively competent.  It is no exaggeration to say that the Warrier Samajam paid but scant attention to the units outside Kerala, even in sustaining communication.

No regular communication network was established with the units in different states and efforts were not initiated by the parent Samajam to start units outside Kerala.  There was no concrete, effective coordination with various state or metropolitan units and they were left in the lurch and forced to fend for themselves.  No worthwhile or serious policy directives were sent to them.  Feedback from outside units reveal that these sordid facts militated against their desire to affiliate with the Warrier Samajam.

It is indeed a sad fact that representatives of the Warrier Samajam who had enthusiastically supported the idea of the world confederation and spoke in glowing terms about its relevance, importance and usefulness from Warrier Samajam platforms within Kerala have themselves now turned their backs on the WCW.  Why?

Is it not a fact that the Board of Directors of the Warrier Samajam is quite an unwieldy crowd of people many of whom wish to talk their hats off in wasteful and indisciplined argumentation, making the role of the President and General Secretary infructuous, ineffective and unproductive making it difficult for them to find consensus and arrive at important decisions.  The adage “the more the merrier” has totally failed in the choice and induction of members into the DB.

Apart from clearing some longtime debts and implementing the Akshaya project and a constant refrain on fund-raising,  has the Samajam done anything worthy of Keralawide or nationwide attention, what to speak of global applause?  Has the Samajam been able to do anything for generating employment for deserving warriers or undertake any major venture which could be termed as charity, community service or innovative initiative in the fields of health, welfare or education?

Even in running the Akshaya project and the Theertham magazine, Samajam insiders are of the view that the antediluvian outlook of many DB members has acted as a stumbling block and made it virtually impossible for improving the organization’s performance. Despite all this, I do not wish to minimize the importance or appreciate the efforts of many units to strike it out on their own to celebrate and applaud the success of students belonging to our community in their areas and welfare measures for helping the needy warrier families. Their work on the cultural front is also highly appreciable.

Yet another vital area in which our Samajam could have excelled is the Ambalavaasi Aikya Vedi which we had taken the initiative to form.  For the past few years this body is virtually dysfunctional and ineffective.  At a time when the government has turned pro-Forward-Communities to some extent, we have failed to act.  The Aikya Vedi could have been energized into action to work on the long-pending issue of establishing a Forward Communities Federation and a Forward Communities Development Corporation.  At least from now, new initiatives and determined followup are needed to bring these into effect.

I venture to make these frank self-critical observations with the sole objective of making our members, and particularly those at the managerial levels in the unit, district and state Samajam do a sharp self- critical analysis of where we have gone wrong and in what ways we can rectify the situation and that too urgently.  If we fail to do this and come out with quick correctives, we are in for disintegration and decimation.

In the light of the above observations, may I suggest a few action points for urgent consideration of and vigorous followup by all our members:

1. Take steps for ending the “existential crisis” and re-establish the Samajam’s identity.
2. Warrier Samajam, with all its units, take an organizational membership in the World Confederation of Warriers.  This is quite important as,  otherwise, individual members and Samajams from within and outside Kerala will become members of the WCW.  This can lead to a considerable weakening and eventual disintegration of the Warrier Samajam, the mother of all warrier families.
3. Drastically reduce the number of DB members down to one representative per district plus a few zonal representatives.  The maximum number of DB members should be 21 in addition to the President and General Secretary.  The DB members should be chosen with due regard to their administrative competence, clarity and brevity of presentation and behavioural decorum.  The culture of negativism, fault-finding and aggrandizement should be done away with.  Take steps for ensuring at least one-third reservation for women in the DB and other committees.
4. Reorganize and enlarge the Ambalavaasi Aikya Vedi by bringing in other like-minded, culturally-akin forward community groups and form a coordination committee to enter into serious dialogue with the Kerala Government and the Union Government and work for ameliorating the condition of the forward communities, and particularly the temple-related minority communities like Warriers, Pisharodis, Maaraars, etc.  The Aikya Vedi should join hands with the Yogakshema Sabha, the Kshatriya Samajam, the Brahmana Sabha, Shaiva Vellalar Sabha, and other culturally likeminded groups.

5. Fully utilize the proferred services of the Warriers.org and Warriersonline.com  and make competent facilities and IT-savvy staff available at the Warrier Samajam headquarters in Guruvayur to ensure their prompt and efficient use to establish sustained and effective communication with the units in and outside Kerala.

6. Take steps to improve the quality and content of the Theertham Magazine.  A new intiative could be an online magazine jointly run by the World Confederation and the Warrier Samajam.

7. Appoint three standing committees with maximum of seven members in each for (a) preparing and following up on proposals for starting revenue-yielding projects; (b) forming and training district and state-level  composite cultural troupes under the banner MANJULA ARTS, EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT FORUMS.  These troupes could be got registered with the Central Government’s Song and Drama Division of the I & B Ministry and also the State Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs.  This committee will also identify sports talents from amongst members of the Warrier & likeminded communities and organize training programmes for developing them; and (c) formulating schemes and programmes for educational and welfare measures for needy and disabled sections of the community and follow up on getting these implemented with support from government and non-government agencies.   Responsibility and accountability for running these committees efficiently should be fixed right at the beginning. The Committees’ Chairpersons should report to the General Secretary and President and their work will be evaluated every month.

8. A Centre-State Coordination Committee should be set up comprising equal number of representatives of the WCW and the Warrier Samajam for frequent, periodic meetings to sort out problems through interpersonal or video-conference communication.

9.  Suggestion-boxes should be kept in all Unit offices and at the Hqrs of both the WCW and the Warrier Samajam and a Scrutiny Committee at Hqrs should carefully scan through all the suggestions from members and their families and take prompt and appropriate action and communicate directly with those who have come forward with suggestions.  It should be the responsibility of the Scrutiny Committee to see that no letter or suggestion is left unattended.

10. There are a good number of Endowments made by close relatives to perpetuate the memory of their near and dear ones.  The Education & Welfare Standing Committee should be entrusted with the responsibility of properly running and utilizing these Endowments.  The Committee should see to it that those who offered these endowments are regularly kept in contact and their queries answered promptly.  The President and General Secretary should keep a close watch on the prompt and effective utilization of the Endowments.

11. Above all, I would like to remind the WCW and Warrier Samajam leadership, units and members that the ROOTS of all ofus Warriers are deep down in Kerala and nowhere else. Wherever we are located, whether it be in the Americas, Africa,Canada, Great Britain, Europe, the Gulf countries, Russia, China,South East Asia or the Far East including Australia and Japan, we cannot brush away the fact that we belong to Kerala genetically, culturally and historically.  The ideal thing, therefore, is to have the international headquarters of the WCW in Keralawith national and regional headquarters at other centres in India.

The above suggestions may please be considered as illustrative, they are by no means exhaustive.  Members are invited to add many more innovative and practical suggestions which they can think of.

The 32^nd year is a crucial year with an astral yogam called dwathrimshati yogam.   If we can cross this Rubicon with care, dedication and above all prayers, we can survive and even flourish.  Let us remember this and do our bit to save and advance our community.