Verghese V Joseph –
With the Adani’s Vizhinjam seaport project deadlock in India’s southern state of Kerala showing no sign of easing anytime soon, it’s worth recounting an inspiring story of another small coastal hamlet Thumba, just 24 Km by road from Vizhinjam. Thumba is known for another reason. It’s the birthplace of India’s space program. The contribution of the Church and its Catholic population at Thumba is as inspiring as the celestial achievements of ISRO! Both Vizhinjam and Thumba are predominantly Catholic populations. The role of the church in both these incidents has been historic, if not significant.
Before recounting Thumba, it would be good to have an idea about the undercurrents that are straining the anchor of Vizhinjam port. At a distance of 15 km from Trivandrum Central Railway Station and four kilometres from Kovalam, Vizhinjam is a small coastal town located near the Kovalam Beach.
Vizhinjam’s local fishing communities, backed by the Latin Church, have been protesting against the port construction stating that it would deprive families of their livelihood.
The biggest demand of the protesters is that the construction of the Rs 7,525-crore deep-water port and container transshipment terminal should be stopped and a proper environmental impact study should be carried out. The community has also put forward six other demands:
- Rehabilitation of families who lost their homes to sea erosion,
- Effective steps to mitigate coastal erosion,
- Financial assistance to fisherfolk on days weather warnings are issued,
- Compensation to families of those who lose their lives in fishing accidents,
- Subsidised kerosene, and
- A mechanism to dredge the Muthalappozhi fishing harbour in Anchuthengu in the Thiruvananthapuram district.
The locals claim that more than 100 families lost their homes to coastal erosion last year, but there is no official data on the relocated families except for some church records. Also, around 300 families were living in schools and camps, and many others in rented accommodations or with relatives. The Latin Catholic church has been in the forefront of the protest. The Dheevara community as well as environmental activists and scientists too are backing the protest.
According to some reports, one of the main concerns around the project is its impact on the coastline as the Thiruvananthapuram District is considered high erosion through a study conducted by Ministry of Earth Sciences. Particularly, the breakwater presents an issue in displacing erosion away from its natural patterns. As the breakwater pushes water away from the area around the port, strong currents will be pushed to the area on either side- areas where around 16,00,000 fishers rely on for their earnings. Besides impacts on fishing, the erosion of coastline represents potential risk to coast structural integrity and multiple natural systems.
Since Wadge Bank (the area has been defined by the Fishery Survey of India) is one of the primary fishing grounds in southern India, the port construction, according to the locals, would negatively impact the breeding ground of over 2000 varieties of fish and the largest coral reef of the Indian Ocean. Over 5,00,000 fishermen have access to great knowledge of the local area and sea, the continuation of construction, according to them, would deprive families of their livelihood, and consequently, the government too would be deprived of ecological insight.
An Update on the Ground Situation
Before we move to Thumba, an update on on Ground Zero.
In all likelihood, Central forces may be deployed at the Adani Vizhinjam port project site as there were no signs of truce in the stir, which is even attaining a communal colour.
As the state government didn’t object to a plea of the Adani group before the Kerala High Court seeking the deployment of central forces for the protection of the project site, the court on Friday sought the centre’s response on the matter and posted to December.
The ruling CPM in Kerala justified the move with party state secretary M V Govindan stating that there was nothing wrong with central forces being deployed for the protection of major establishments.
Meanwhile, the Vizhinjam police have registered three more cases against Thiruvananthapuram Latin Catholic archbishop Thomas J Netto for violating the High Court order directing not to obstruct construction works. Netto has been charged with trespassing into the port project area, which is a high-security zone, and obstructing construction work.
The police have already registered three cases against the archbishop, which had created consternation among community members. Those cases were registered in connection with Saturday’s violence near the port entrance. In the newly registered cases, the archbishop has been named as the first accused.
Incidentally, the police have slapped serious charges against Fr Theodacious D’Cruz, the convenor of the Vizhinjam Samara Samithi, for his controversial remark on Minister V Abdurahiman. D’Cruz has been booked for attempting to create a rift between Muslim and Christian communities and inciting the mob to create a riot. D’cruz had stirred a hornet’s nest by saying that there was a terrorist in the name of Abdurahiman. D’cruz was reacting to the statement of the minister that those opposing the port construction were traitors.
The Church and D’Cruz himself had apologised for the remark and said it was a case of tongue slip. Even as the priest tendered an apology, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM state secretary raked up the issue by accusing the priest of trying to trigger communal sentiments.
Latin Catholic church Vicar general Eugine Pereira said that it was unfortunate that ministers were making baseless allegations of extremist links to the agitation.
Another archdiocese in Kerala had also flayed the alleged attempts to give a communal colour to the stir. Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Thalaserry in Kannur Mar Joseph Pamplany stated that it was unfortunate that the stir was being framed as a stir of the Latin Catholic community.
The Adani Group, which has already moved the Kerala high court and secured a favourable order to continue the construction of the port, said if the protests continue, their deadline of December 2023 might get extended.
The High Court has issued multiple stern warnings to the protesters asking them not to block the road or the construction. The court has also issued an order asking the Kerala police to provide security for the construction of the Port.
Now over to Thumba
In an age of mindless religious animosity, an event during my early journalistic days comes as a whiff of fresh air. What the then principal scientific adviser to the Government of India, late A P J Abdul Kalam (1931- 2015 – who later went on to become one of India’s best-loved President), said holds true even today. I wish to recount that incident that made my heart swell with pride, so here goes.
Sometime in September 2001, I was assigned to cover President Kalam delivering the Narla Tata Rao’s first endowment lecture in Hyderabad.
Kalam, who was called the missile man, had earlier headed India’s missile development programme. The country has indeed come a long way from firing sounding rockets in 1963 to launching over 104 satellites in one go, not to forget the hugely-successful Chandrayaan I (Moon) and the MOM (Mars) Missions and now the second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 – aimed at landing a rover on unchartered Lunar South Pole. Only an exclusive club of nations have achieved those feats. A little known fact was that a small church in Kerala’s backwaters took a giant leap of faith in India’s journey to the heavens, literally! Well, it isn’t anything that they call that state ‘God’s own country!” For him, this was literally a mountain-top experience.
Kalam narrated how the country had the best of leaders in science, technology, history, politics and industry at the dawn of freedom. All these stalwarts had a vision and a universal mind, which transformed India into a developing country within short time after freedom.
In 1962, eminent space scientists Dr Homi Bhabha and Prof Vikram Sarabhai were scouting for a place to establish space research station in the equatorial region. These two great scientists visited number of places and finally zeroed in on Thumba, a small fishing hamlet near Thiruvananthapuram. Thumba was near the magnetic equator within the flow of electrojet and it was ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere, apart from study of atmospheric structure.
Relating the history of the Thumba Research Centre, Kalam said, “In the 1960s, Thumba was a small fishing village on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram city. But for the country’s space scientists, the location was exceptional as it was very close to the earth’s magnetic equator. “The site selected at Thumba lay between the railway line and the sea coast, covering a distance of about two and a half km and measuring about 600 acres.”
However, there was one problem. Within this area, stood a large and an ancient church of St. Mary Magdalene and also a Bishop’s House, whose site had to be acquired.
The original church at the site was founded in a thatched shed in 1544 by St. Francis Xavier. It was renamed after St. Bartholomew in 1644 and brought under the Jesuit priests in the domain of Portugal. In 1858 by a Papal decision, it was attached to the newly created Diocese of Cochin. Work started on a new church during the early years of 20th Century. The architects and sculptors came from the nearby state Tamil Nadu.
As work progressed, some fishermen sighted the statue of St. Mary Magdalene in the sea shore. Strangely, a wooden pole was also washed ashore. The statue was blessed and conscecrated in the church. The pole was erected as a flagmast in front of the church. Ever since, this has been known as St. Mary Magdalene Church.
Kalam had an interesting tale to tell. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place for setting up of an establishment for space science research work. However, he could not succeed because of the sensitivities of the place. He was then asked to see the Bishop of Thiruvananthapuram.
At that time, Rev Father Peter Bernard Pereira was the Bishop. It was a Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. Instead of giving them a definite answer, the smiling Bishop asked them to attend the Sunday mass, where he would put the question to the parishioners. At the mass, the bishop explained the scientific mission and asked the permission of his congregation to hand over the church to the scientists.
The Bishop told the congregation, “My children, I have a famous scientist Vikram with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks the truth that enriches human life. The higher level of religion is spirituality. Spiritual preachers like me, seek the help of the Almighty to bring peace to human minds. In short, what Vikram is doing and what I am doing are the same – both science and spirituality seek the Almighty’s blessings for human prosperity in mind and body. Vikram Sarabhai promises within six months, our abode and church will be newly built and given to us. Children, can we give them God’s abode, my abode and your abode for a scientific mission?”
There was a pin-drop silence for a while followed by a hearty Amen from the congregation, which made the whole church reverberate!
Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. Rev Father Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Thiruvananthapuram, took the noble decision to dedicate the church for setting up of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) at Pallithura, Thumba.
The bishop’s home was quickly converted into an office, the church became the workshop, and cattle sheds served as storage houses and laboratories. Undeterred by the little funding and few facilities, a handful of enthusiastic young Indian scientists began assembling their first rocket.
“We made that church as our design centre, started rocket assembly; design of filament winding machine for FRP product and the Bishop’s house was our design centre. Later, TERLS led to the establishment of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country,” he related.
Legend has it that the altar served as the design table and the bishop’s house the living quarters!
In return for the generous, unquestioning support of Reverend Pereira and his parish, ISRO built two churches for them near Thumba. The paperwork was done and the villagers relocated to a new village with a brand new church in 100 days flat.
Kalam elaborated, “When I think of that event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders; all converge towards giving reverence to the meaning of human life. New churches and new schools were established in record time.”
Of course, the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the capability to design, develop and produce a huge world-class rocket system. Subsequently, India built the capability of launching geo-synchronous, sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, a communication satellite, and a remote sensing satellite thereby providing fast communication, weather forecasting and also the ability to locate water resources for the country.
Twenty newly-recruited scientists handpicked by Satish Dhawan, Vikram Sarabhai and Vasant Gowarikar were busy with their laboratory work at a cowshed behind the Magdalene church.
Kalam was not expected to be part of the team that was to launch India’s first rocket from the Thumba equatorial launching station here (now VSSC). The young man convinced the interviewers about his passion towards rocket technology and they created an additional post to accommodate him in their team.
Thus, Kalam came to be associated with INCOSPAR that would become the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Thumba being the hub of all research activities became Kalam’s home for 21 years. Much to the envy of his peers, Kalam picked up the basics of managing projects that made him closer to Dhawan, whom he regarded as guru. Experiments were not as safe as they are now at Thumba in the earlier days.
Kalam, the architect of missile technology in India concluded, “Today, among us, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is not there nor is Rev Peter Bernard Pereira, but those who are responsible for creation and make the flower blossom, will themselves be a different kind of a flower of unique fragrance,” urging young Indians to help build the country. That giant leap of faith began in a church.
Now, India has the capability of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other developed countries who have launched space missions on their own, a feat only select countries have achieved. Thanks to the large-heartedness of simple parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene Church, Thumba!
In the light of Vizinjam protests, do lend an ear to the story of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station too!