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Is it any necessity or an urge to create beautiful hierarchies that force smaller associations to come together to form a federation? When four or five individuals meet and decide to form an association, it is apparently the result of their common realisation that they should work together to gain strength and achieve certain objectives. Nothing but the same drive is behind the coming together of smaller outfits to form a greater entity and the aims are naturally bigger. FAIMA's origin can be traced to MMS' efforts to form a confederation of Malayalee associations in Tamil Nadu. It convened a conference of the representatives of Malayalee associations in Tamil Nadu in 1989. The conference resulted in the launch of the Confederation of Tamil Nadu Malayalee Associations (CTMA) which has over 50 member associations now. The basic force behind CTMA's launch was the realisation that only a confederation could solve the "complicated social problems" of Malayalees in Tamil Nadu.
Other notable achievements of the CTMA include influencing the Tamil Nadu government to start new bus services to Kerala, give recognition to schools run by Kerala associations in Tamil Nadu, etc. The CTMA approached the government to make Onam a holiday in Tamil Nadu. Though the wish has not been fully fulfilled, Onam is now a restricted holiday in the state and the government has given word that examinations will not be conducted on Onam day. The CTMA formed an educational trust and started CTM College of Arts and Science at Kuthambakkam, near Chennai, in 1996. The confederation works to promote the cultural oneness of Malayalees in Tamil Nadu. The success of CTMA prompted Malayalee associations in some other states to form such confederations. Soon the need for a federation of all the Malayalee associations in India was felt. And FAIMA was founded at the All-India Malayalees Conference held at Bangalore in 1995.
The primary objective of FAIMA is to solve the problems of Malayalees in different parts of the country. The greatest achievement of FAIMA is that it made Kerala government turn the NRI Malayalee Welfare Department into NORKA (Non-Resident Keralites Affairs Department) to include all Malayalees living outside Kerala. Previously, the department worked only for Malayalees abroad. FAIMA would become an ideal federation of marunadan Malayalee associations when all the states will have a confederation of outfits like the CTMA, Velayudhan says. Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to salil@chennaionline.com.
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I could not help meditating on the socialisation of individuals and associations as I sat at Madras Malayalee Samaj's (MMS) office at Purasawalkam which is also the office of the Federation of All India Marunadan Malayalee Associations
(FAIMA).
During over a decade of its existence, the confederation has solved many problems which the individual outfits could not. Its efforts helped solve the hardships faced by travellers at Valayar check-post on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. There was a time when even bodies had to wait for hours at the check-post.
A V Balakrishnan of 'Malayalam Vaartha' and C Velayudhan of MMS are the two persons who took active role in bringing hundreds of associations together. "I feel happy that I could work to bring Malayalee associations all over India under one umbrella," Velayudhan, who is FAIMA's general secretary, says.
