From being the state with the highest liquor consumption to the state with highest divorce and unemployment rates, to being the state with a suicide rate three times higher than the national average and the largest market for psychiatric drugs in the country, godmen are the latest addition in the state's list.
Santosh Madhavan, a self claimed godman in Kerala used to claim that people visit him from all over Kerala to seek his blessings and to ask for miracles. He claimed to be an astrologer, but now his own stars seem to be in the wrong place.
After Madhavan was being arrested last month in Kerala, his ashram was attacked by youth Congress workers. The police say that astrology is really Madhavan's side business. He made real money as a middleman in shady land deals and his charade allegedly unraveled only after a Dubai-based buyer accused him of stealing 40 lakh rupees.
But it is not only real estate gone wrong. Police investigations reveal that there is something even more un-godly. Madhavan allegedly took minor girls to his flat, molested them and then blackmailed them with videos of it.
The police discovered CDs with images tucked away in a bank locker in Kochi.
Kerala's godmen are on the run from the police. Himaval Bhadrananda was booked by the Kochi police. He too is a college-dropout-turned-faith healer. They jailed him for 25 days for using a beacon light on his car and trespassing into a local newspaper office for want of more evidence.
Bhadrananda is out on bail now after he staged a suicide drama in jail to protest his innocence. Madhavan and Bhadrananda are both accusing the Kerala government of a class bias.
They say that police raids only target smaller swamis but leave the bigger, high profile godmen and women totally untouched.
National politicians, top bureaucrats, big businessmen, all swear by Mata Amritanandamayi, the hugging saint. Her public meetings attract thousands of people from Kerala to New York and every place in between.
''Santosh Madhavan is a small person if you are comparing with other. There are lots of big sharks. Nobody can do anything against them. I used to say this only because I have my god's blessings,'' said Swami Himaval Bhadranandaji.
Madhavan and Bhadrananda have found an unlikely ally in Kerala's rationalist society.
''Why don't they examine the source of income of Mata Amritanandamayi? How are they using these funds? What are their political and other connections?'' said Prof U Kalanathan, Rationalist Society of Kerala, President.
The society suggests that Kerala's Left government is turning a willing blind eye to the ''saints'' with huge followings for political reasons. Some say things erupted when the CPM youth wing attacked an ordinary saint named Vinu Swamy.
''The DYFI activists cut my hair and beard, tore my clothes,'' said Vinu Swamy.
The DYFI says that the demonstrations were part of a larger drive against these so-called godmen. But Swamy says that they have more to do with local rivalries and has moved the human rights commission to take them on.
There is potential for serious trouble. The community of godmen are appealing to Kerala's Hindus to help fight this.
''Situation has come to such a pass that anyone with a beard, long hair and saffron dress cannot step out on the road,'' said Swami Advaita, member, Chengotukonam Mutt.
Religious organisations have jumped at the opportunity saying the attack on the swamis is really part of a larger Islamist and Christian conspiracy. It is a suggestion that has turned the situation on its head.
And what started as a campaign against fake godmen and spiritual crooks is now threatening to become a full-blown communal crisis.
New churches in Kerala, the church believers and heavenly feast of Thanku are targeted already by the Sangh Parivar because of the converts they attract from Kerala's backward but mainly Hindu communities.
The Kerala government is now being forced to investigate specific churches as well. It has asked for the center to help to investigate K P Yohanan of the Believers Church for an unaccounted 900 crore rupees. The Believers Church are evangelists, who operate in 10 Asian countries.
A Christian revivalist group, The church of the Heavenly Feast, which claims to have one lakh members in Kerala is under an income tax audit that has led so far to the discovery of foreign currency and papers for property worth 20 crores.
''We are very clear our accounts are very clear. Government agencies have gone through our accounts we don't hide,'' said Thomas Kutty, Heavenly Feast.
With such details and statistics in God's own country, it is no surprise that faith healing has become its own cottage industry. Now the state government is thinking of ways to deal specifically with questions of faith from regulating funding to legal action against fake godmen.
But in the complex world of religion and spirituality telling believers to not be blinded by faith will perhaps be an equally big challenge.
