George Issac And Mary Roy: The Story Of Kerala's First Rhodes Scholar And His Sister, Who Challenged Patriarchy (Image: twitter.com/pramodprasannan, twitter.com/AshaJomis)
George Issac, the businessman and first Rhodes Scholar from Kerala, died on September 8 2023.
Mary Roy was an educationist and activist who ensured equal rights for Syrian Christian women as with their male siblings in their ancestral property from the Supreme Court of India.
As an era passes away with the sad demise of veteran George Isaac, the academician and businessman who hails from Kerala”s Kottayam, there is much more to discuss now.
Mr Issac, with brilliant academic records, strong international connections, and unique business standards, was a global figure. He was also the first to secure a Rhodes scholarship, the international postgraduate award to study at the University of Oxford, from Kerala.
But for the global Indian Christian community, Mr Issac might be known for the famous “Mary Roy Vs State of Kerala Case, or better as the brother of activist and educator Mary Roy, the lady who energetically challenged the patriarchal societal norms, religious orthodoxy and the arbitrary exercise of power by the state, and who eventually put the powerful Kerala Syrian Christian community at stake.
Who was George Issac Palathinkal
George Issac was Managing Director of Malabar Coast Products, manufacturers of the famous brand ‘Palat’, and the former chairman of Gandhi Peace Foundation in Kottayam.
Mr Issac, a man with spectacular personality, was the first Rhodes Scholar from Kerala. Born to PV Issac and Sucy on February 16 1928, Mr Issac went to St Stephan”s College in Delhi, Madras Christian College in Chennai, and Balliol College in Oxford, UK for his higher studies. It was at Balliol he studied with the Rhodes Scholarship.
He started his career as a teacher at the Madras Christian College and later worked in a Kolkata- based company. Then he moved to the Stockholm-based Scandinavian Bank in Sweden and later to the Metal Box company in London.
According to reports, it was his overseas life and his first marriage with the Swedish lady Cecilia helped him to earn a cosmopolitan stature. There he earned more academic proficiency, life experiences, and vast number of contacts and friendships from across the worlds.
Returning back to Kerala, he joined as the Managing Partner of Malabar Coast Products, which was launched by his mother Sucy, and took the company to a major food brand from Kerala with effective marketing and branding exercises.
He was also a member of the Central Fruit Products Advisory Committee, comprising officials of concerned government departments, technical experts, and Research Institute persons.
Mr Issac had also earned a patent for the processing of tinned fruits. He was also the founder and president of the Kerala Small Industries Association.
The Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy is his niece and she even immortalised him as the “pickle baron Uncle Chacko of Paradise Picles” in her debut novel God of Small Things.
Who was Mary Roy?
Mary Roy, who came from the conservative Syrian Christian community, was eventually turned out to be an educationist as well as an activist, who fought numerous battles to secure equal freedom and rights to women. She led several fights to secure the rights of women from the clutches of patriarchs and the clergy, and also against her own brother George Issac.
She is more famous as the winner of Supreme Court lawsuit in 1986 against the gender biased inheritance laws prevalent within the Syrian Malabar Christian community of Kerala.
The judgement ensured equal rights for Syrian Christian women as with their male siblings in their ancestral property.
Ms Roy is also the founder-director of Pallikoodam (formerly Corpus Christi High School) in Kottayam, an alternate educational institution comparing to the mainstream where children are stress-free and engaging with various activities according to their interest. The school was recognised as the best several times and is also championed several socio-environmental causes in Kerala.
Life was not easy for Ms Roy. She broke her marriage woes with the Bengali man named Rajeeb Roy after an abusive realationship. After the divorce, it is said that, she had barely any financial support and then started to set a fight with her brothers over the family property, after their father passed away without a will.
The Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy is her daughter.
She died on September 1 2022 at the age of 89. With her departure, it is an end of an era for Kerala where women rights, religious supremacy, and patriarchal dominance were discussed extensively.
Mary Roy Vs The State of Kerala Case
Mary Roy Vs The State of Kerala is a landmark judgement from the Supreme Court granting equal inheritance rights to Christian women.
The case has its beginning when Mary Roy found herself denied of equal rights on her deceased father”s property, compared to her brothers.
Ms Roy, a widowed mother of two children, was staying at her fathers cottage in Ooty. She was told by her brothers, that she has no claim over the Ooty property as it comes under the Travancore Christian Succession Act of 1916. The Act which applies for the Christians residing inside the Travancore area, limits women from inheriting equal property from parents.
According to the Act,a daughter shall not be entitled to succeed to the property of the intestate, situation in which a person dies without making will, in the same share as the son but she will be entitled to one-fourth the value of the share of the son or Rs 5,000 whichever is less. In the case of a widow, the Act only provided for maintenance that was “terminable at death or on remarriage”.
Ms Roy”s brothers thus claimed that she was in illegal possession of their father”s cottage.
But she refused to leave the cottage understanding the provisions under the personal law was violating her constitutional rights to equality.
Ms Roy then sued her brother, George Issac, in a lower court to obtain equal rights to her deceased father’s property. However, the lower court denied the equal right of succession. Her legal battle was not personal, but against the systems that placed her and other women in an inferior position to men and religious customs.
The adamant lady then appealed the lower court’s judgement to the Kerala High Court, where the case was resolved in her favour. In total, it took eight years and the court ultimately granted her the possession right of her fathers property.
The unstoppable Ms Roy then decided to challenge the Travancore Christian Succession Act of 1916 and approached the Supreme Court against the Kerala State, aiming to put an ultimate end to the patriarchal establishments of church to deny equal rights to Christian women.
In the top court Ms Roy was represented by advocates Indira Jaising and Kamini Jaiswal, the former would later rise to become the first woman Additional Solicitor General of India.
In the court she argued that the Travancore Christian Succession Act violated Article 14 of the constitution, which guaranteed equality before the law.
The key question before the Supreme Court was whether, in territories that once formed part of the erstwhile Travancore state, matters of intestate (a person who has died without leaving a will) succession to the property of Indian Christian community members were governed by the Travancore Christian Succession Act 1917, or by the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
She also raised the question, whether the earlier Kerala’s High Court ruling on her case was legal, and will it be implemented retrospectively.
Arguments made by Mary Roy in the top court:
The petitioner contended that the Travancore Christian Succession Act was discriminatory because the daughter was not given the same value as the son and only a quarter of what the son received.
The Act eventually violated the individuals Fundamental Rights, enshrined in Article 14 and Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, Ms Roy added.
Arguments given by the Respondent
The State on the case contended that these laws [Travancore Succession Acts] were enacted in the past and abolishing them would impact people’s beliefs and customs.
The respondent also argued that the petitioner deliberately disrupted society’s norms to become more modern and independent.
Judgement or Verdict by the Supreme Court
On February 24, 1986, Chief Justice P N Bhagwati delivered the landmark judgment in Mary Roy v State of Kerala, nullifying the reign of the Travancore Christian Succession Act.
No personal laws can supersede India’s Constitution and that any parts of personal law that contravene the Constitution will be declared unconstitutional and unenforceable, the court ruled.
After the princely state of Travancore-Cochin merged with the Union of India, parliament had enacted a law in 1951 extending the Indian Succession Act, 1925. The New Succession act includes Christians across the Indian Union. Therefore, the Travancore Christian Succession Act had actually been repealed since 1951, said Justice Bhagwati.
It is then visible that the Travancore Succession Act of 1916 violated Ms Mary’s right to equality, which is already protected by the Indian Constitution under Article 14. The 1916 act was also leading to gender bias under Article 15 of the Indian Constitution.
The provisions of the Travancore Succession Act of 1916 were declared null and void and could not be used in the case, since it is already superseded by the Indian Succession Act of 1925.
The Supreme Court also ruled that the Kerala High Court’s decision in Ms Mary’s favour would be retrospective. As a result, Ms Roy received a 1/3rd portion of the land, says reports.
The top court in addition ruled that the Constitution is the ultimate law of the land by dismissing all personal laws in Ms Roy”s case and stated that no personal law can be enforced above the Indian Constitution, says.
According to the reports of the Wire, Congress parliamentarian PJ Kurian introduced a Bill in the parliament in 1986 to overturn the Supreme Court judgment, much like what the Rajiv Gandhi government did with the overturning the Shah Bano judgment through legislative action. However, since the Bill was not sponsored by the Union government, his efforts failed.
In 1994, the government of Kerala introduced The Travancore and Cochin Succession (Revival and Validation) Bill to overturn the Mary Roy judgment.
The then law minister, K.M. Mani argued that giving women equal rights in inheritance retrospectively “will create social upheaval as courts will be flooded with cases between family members”, reports the Wire.
But the President of India refused to give assent to the Bill, and with Christian women rallying against the legislative efforts, the churches also backed down.
