As widely reported in the national and international media, Kerala has seen unprecedented levels of rains and floods in the last few weeks, leading to an unimaginable loss of lives, livelihood and resources of the State. During the crisis, people from all walks of life were helping out those who were affected, and showing immense solidarity for the cause.

Although a majority of social media responded with a positive vibe, there were also many instances of irresponsible and insensitive comments aimed at trying to start a blame game on Kerala’s culture and the State’s progressive attitude.

This was the worst occasion for people to link mad superstitions, crazy occult beliefs and play silly blame games—that too at the time of a genuine crisis. Twitterati from some parts of India tried to blame the flooding chaos on the widespread “beef eating” habit of Malayalis. Some even went on to escalate the blame game to the next level—by linking the Supreme Court’s decision granting entry to menstruating women into Sabarimala, which in turn led to the wrath of Hindu Gods.

“Some of the statements made by Right-wing activists and their supporters, blaming the floods on the menstruation of women and other irrelevant things, reveals not just their hatred of women and the utter callousness of their worldview, but also their political bankruptcy,” remarked Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor of The Wire and former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu. “It is frightening to think some of these people are in charge of formulating public policies.”

It is really sad and deplorable that certain citizens from our own country try to belittle and snub our state’s progressive attitude at the time of a natural disaster. It goes without saying that natural calamities are nobody’s fault. Climate scientists and weather science researchers would gladly tell you that natural disasters are just a matter of probability emanating from permutations and combinations of various earthly parameters. Hence it is totally illogical to bring divine interventions and occult theories into the picture, and cite them as reasons for the flood in this day and age.

Forecasting the weather in itself is a tricky science that comes along with additional challenges and limitations. “The floods also resulted in major landslides likely due to precursor conditions of rainfall and wet soil, prevailing in this extreme rainfall and occurring towards the late monsoon season. “Causality of the actual landslides is hard to attribute due to local geographic conditions, combined with the meteorological forcing,” explains Dr Aneesh Subramanian, a Malayali weather scientist working for the University of California in San Diego. Comments from various weather modellers and climate change experts also show that there is no foolproof way of predicting, preventing, or even dealing with natural calamities such as floods.

The best way forward is to consult weather scientists, disaster management experts, and international organisations, who are experienced and equipped enough to deal with rebuilding things that have been affected due to natural catastrophes.

Bigotry and hatemongering using totally unscientific and occult theories by certain factions of social media are unnecessary and unwelcome at this time. Kerala is a state where people come together to help each other in times of emergencies—without questioning their identity, background, or lineage. The last few weeks have been an excellent demonstration and testimonial to this value system and ethos that the Malayalis proudly embrace. The amazing levels of camaraderie shown recently by Keralites are simply beyond words!

Bringing in negativity and trying to divide people based on religion or politics, or on caste, class, and gender, during the time of a crisis, is a morbid and sadistic act. There have been few instances of videos being circulated on WhatsApp and social media showing Muslims and Christians kneeling down and praying to Lord Ayyappan, begging for mercy to be rescued from the raging floods. In all likeliness, such videos are doctored, morphed, or completely fake. 

The timing of such campaigns—that kill the positive spirit and prevailing hope—is most despicable. “Humans who kill the idea of ‘hope’ during this time are to be treated as commanders for the violence of  the situation,” exclaims Padmashri Shaji N Karun, a noted filmmaker who has highlighted Malayali culture and films at various prestigious international film festivals like Cannes, Edinburg, Pusan, Locarno, Montreal and so on.

Hence, the simple message to social media users is: even if you can’t directly help or empathise with Kerala’s present situation, please don’t spread superstitions, bigotry, hatred and allow occult theories to spiral out into stories that justify the ongoing crisis. A morbid glee when others are in trouble is totally against the real spirit and ethos of good Hinduism.

This makes Dr Shashi Tharoor’s latest book Why I am a Hindu even more relevant in today’s times. In recent times, writers and thinkers like him have been pointing out the growing disconnect between core Hinduism and wild Hindutva.

As of now, it looks like the gap between Hinduism and extreme Hindutva is reaching insane limits. But please leave us (Malayalis) alone when we are trying to rebuild our state.