Two international events witnessed recently by this ages-old city once again proved the inability of academics and activists to carry the mass of people along with them, even on crucial issues like colonialism and neo-colonialism, which affect the masses in diverse ways in their every day struggles for existence.

Perhaps, the strange thing which happened in the name of the "International reference on Vasco Da Gama," which concluded here on May 28, is the joining hands of leaders of groups which frequently lock horns and push their cadres to near war through their statements and actions.

The two events, the "International conference on Europe" and South Asia-500 years" organised at Kozhikode and Kochi from May 16 to 20 by the Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), New Delhi, and the "International Reference on 500years of Vasco Da Gama" organised jointly by a number of activist groups and hosted locally by the Anti Colonial Forum (Adhinivesha Pratirodha Samithi) from May 26 to 28 here, provided enough media mileage to the organisers and leaders present, but failed to really conscientise the masses about colonialism or neo-colonialism, the anchor point of these two events.

The "International reference on 500 years" found the husband-wife team of Dr Claude Alvares and Norma Alvares (Goa Foundation) working overtime since May 22 to bring onto the podium all those fighting an open war in the name of religion and politics. Despite the failure of the local organisers to make it a real event of the people, they managed to bring together leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Jama'at-e-Islami Hind, Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and a host of other such groups that engage in open war on religious and political perspectives and ultra-environmentalists like the NationalAlliance of Peoples Movement (NAPM).

One of the local organisers felt that though had they failed to mobilise sufficient number of people (their standard estimate was 2,000 and the attendance was around 200), it succeeded as a political positioning against colonialism.

Perhaps, it is true. But one observer said that there were leaders from major groups on the podium but not many to hear them from their own parties and organisations. For this, he blamed the local organisers, who refused to take such groups into confidence at the organising stage itself, a process which began nearly a year ago. Though a last minute tactical effort by Dr Claude Alvares and a few others brought the leaders who were assured of even international media attention, they naturally felt that if their cadres were asked to be present, the real victory would have been the local organisers.

If all the major political parties whose leaders attended the programme had taken the event seriously, it would have become a grand show withlakhs of people attending.

The lack of ground preparation for such an emotional outpouring was evident at the concluding event at Kappad beach, where Gama set his feet on Malabar shores. The local people resisted the burning of an effigy of multinationals (made of huge paper bottles of Coca Cola and Pepsi) in front of the Gama memorial. Though the participants spat in group on the memorial and poured black oil on it in a show of their anti-colonialism, the local people cleaned it up soon after the anti-colonialists left.

Interestingly, opposition to the resolution demanding removal of the monument came out in the last session of the reference itself where historian Dr M G S Narayanan sharply criticised it. He spared no words to condemn the organisers for taking groups like the SIMI, an ultra-fundamentalist religious group, as part of the reference organising committee.

Narayanan said that SIMI was an incarnation of Gama, though aiming at oppression of a different kind, and he pointed at the pamphletcirculated by it at the conference titled Kurishu Yudhavum Adhiniveshavum (War of the Cross and Colonialism). The conference organised by the ISS, which was inaugurated by Vice-President Krishan Kant, was marked by the presence of high profile intellectuals and academicians from around the country and abroad.