God's Own Country

For other uses, see God's Own Country (disambiguation).

"God's Own Country" is a phrase meaning an area, region or place supposedly favoured by God.

While its origins can be traced to various locations, the phrase has gained widespread recognition as a moniker for the Indian state of Kerala and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand.

Australia

In Australia, the phrase "God's own country" was often used to describe the country in the early 1900s, but it appears to have gradually fallen out of favour.^[1] The phrase "God's Country" is often used to describe Queensland^[2][3][4] and the Sutherland Shire in southern Sydney.^[5]

Brazil

The idea of "God's own country", worded as "Deus é brasileiro" (Portuguese: "God is Brazilian"), is a common trope in Brazilian culture to inspire optimism and point out the country has vast resources but faces few natural disasters nor international conflict. It is referenced by politicians^[6][7][8] and artworks, as in the movie God Is Brazilian.

England

When used in reference to England, "God's own country" refers to the legend that as a boy Jesus visited England with his great uncle, Joseph of Arimathea.^[9] The event itself inspired the musical prelude to William Blake's Milton, the piece "And did those feet in ancient time", also known as "Jerusalem", which has become an unofficial anthem of England.^[10] The poem asks if Jesus did visit England in ancient times, and in so doing create the New Jerusalem, or heaven in England.^[11]

Surrey

Another first usage of the term by Edward du Bois was in a poem describing the English county of Surrey in 1839.^[12] The phrase was also used in its more literal meaning to refer to Heaven, in a poem by Elizabeth Harcourt Rolls Mitchell in 1857.^[13]

Yorkshire

The phrase has been used to describe Yorkshire, a region of northern England.^[14] The term "God's Own County" has also been used.^[15][16][17]

India

Kerala

Main article: Tourism in Kerala

The official logo of Kerala Tourism

“God’s Own Country’ is the tagline of Kerala Tourism which was coined by Walter Mendez, the creative director of an Indian advertising agency in 1989 at the request of the Tourism Department, Government of Kerala.^[18][19]

This was used by agencies to showcase Kerala’s natural beauty and not-so-explored places across the state.

Kerala Tourism has won several awards for its innovative tourism campaign. Each of them depicted God’s Own Country in a new light, ensuring that the tagline continues to be associated with Kerala.^[20]

The description of Kerala as "God's own country" can additionally be traced to the event known as Thrippadidanam in 1749, the then ruler Marthanda Varma, Maharaja of Travancore, decided to "donate" his realm to Padmanabha (Vishnu) and thereafter rule as the deity's "vicegerent" (Sri Padmanabha Dasa). ('Dasa' meaning Servant or Slave.).^[21][22]

Mythology

Apart from various legends of the origin of the Kerala, the slogan alludes to the variety of faiths in the state: Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, and Parsis (Zoroastrians) have coexisted harmoniously for centuries, as attested by the mishmash of temples, towers, spires and synagogues.

The Matsya Purana, one of the oldest of the 18 Puranas,^[23][24] uses the Malaya Mountains of Kerala (and Tamil Nadu) as the setting for the story of Matsya, the first incarnation of Vishnu, and Manu, the first man and the king of the region.^[25][26] These Puranic accounts portray Kerala as "God’s own country", or the land favoured by God.^[27]

Another character from the Puranas associated with Kerala is Mahabali, an Asura and a prototypical just king. According to regional belief, Mahabali ruled Kerala with great justice and was beloved by his people.^[28]However, the gods grew jealous of Mahabali's growing fame and power, and feared he was becoming too powerful. They begged Lord Vishnu to stop Mahabali. Vishnu incarnated as Vamana and, playing on Mahabali's benevolence, tricked Mahabali into giving up his kingdom, and exiled him to Patala, the netherworld. Vishnu, seeing the devotion of Mahabali, blessed him to be the Indra of the next Manvantara and granted him his request that once a year, during the Onam festival, Mahabali could return to his kingdom to visit his people.^[29] It is said that Vishnu guards Mahabali's kingdom as a mark of respect for his virtues.^[30]

Kerala (Chera-nadu) is prominently referenced in the Tamil Epic Cilappatikaram. The Heroine Kannagi after suffering innumerable injustices travels over the hills to Kerala, where the Gods and Goddesses receive her and take her to heaven. The deity at the Kodungallur Bhagavathy Temple is worshipped as Kannagi Amma.

Another legend, from the 17th century Malayalam work Keralolpathi, tells that the lands of Kerala were recovered from the sea by the axe-wielding warrior-sage Parashurama, the sixth avatar of the deity Vishnu (hence, Kerala is also called Parashurama Kshetram; 'The Land of Parashurama'). According to legend, Parashurama threw his axe across the sea, and the water receded as far as it reached. This new area of land extended from Gokarna to Kanyakumari. The land which rose from sea was filled with salt and was unsuitable for habitation; so Parashurama invoked the snake-king Vasuki, who spat the holy poison and converted the soil into fertile lush green land. Out of respect, Vasuki and all snakes were appointed as protectors and guardians of the land.

New Zealand

The earliest recorded use of the phrase as applied to New Zealand was as the title of a poem about New Zealand written by Thomas Bracken.^[31] It was published in a book of his poems in 1890, and again in 1893 in a book entitled Lays and Lyrics: God's Own Country and Other Poems.^[32] God's Own Country as a phrase was often used and popularised by New Zealand's longest serving prime minister, Richard John Seddon. He last quoted it on 10 June 1906 when he sent a telegram to the Victorian premier, Thomas Bent, the day before leaving Sydney to return home to New Zealand. "Just leaving for God's own country," he wrote. He never made it, dying the next day on the ship Oswestry Grange.^[33] Bracken's God's Own Country is less well known internationally than God Defend New Zealand, which he published in 1876. The latter poem, set to music by John Joseph Woods, was declared the country's national hymn in 1940, and made the second national anthem of New Zealand along with God Save the Queen in 1977.

In recent times, the form Godzone on its own has been used informally of New Zealand.^[34]

United States

The phrase later found sporadic use to describe several American regions. Most known is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is currently used to describe South Boston. It was also used by the Confederate army to describe parts of Tennessee in the 1860s.^[35] The phrase was also used to describe California in the 1860s,^[36] and by Clement Laird Vallandigham to describe the land of the Mississippi plains.^[37] None of these remain widely used to describe a region, though it is still occasionally used to describe the United States overall.^[38][39]

During World War II, German Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels sarcastically mocked the US as "Aus Gottes eigenem Land" (From God's Own Country) in an essay that appeared in the German newspaper Das Reich on 9 August 1942.^[40] Goebbels ridiculed the United States as a young land that lacked culture, education and history in contrast with Germany. In 1943, the Nazis published an anti-American, antisemitic propaganda book written by Erwin Berghaus called "USA – nackt!: Bilddokumente aus Gottes eigenem Land" ("USA naked! Photo documents from God's own country") which also mockingly characterized the US with the phrase.^[41][42] Several modern German newspapers such as Die Welt, Der Tagesspiegel and Die Zeit, have also used the phrase "Gottes eigenes Land" ("God's own country") to criticize American culture and society.^[43][44][45]

Zimbabwe

The phrase "God's own country" was heard during the 1970s in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia), where most people perceived the land as beautiful despite the ongoing Bush War of the time. Evidence of the phrase being used earlier in reference to Rhodesia is found in Chartered Millions: Rhodesia and the Challenge to the British Commonwealth by John Hobbis Harris, published 1920 by Swarthmore Press (refer to page 27). The phrase "Godzone" is distinctly different and was not used in Rhodesia.

References

1. ""God's Own Country."". Clarence and Richmond Examiner. 21 January 1902. p. 8. Retrieved 6 August 2020 – via Trove.
2. "Truly God's own country". Courier-Mail. 27 June 1938. p. 5 – via Trove.
3. "Great driving holidays – Brisbane to Townsville (Qld)". DriveNow Blog. 27 March 2010.
4. Birchley, Delia (23 April 1986). "God's own country: the Johnstone Shire story". Bowen Hills, Qld.: Boolarong Publications – via Trove.
5. "The Australian Route Register". www.climb.org.au. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
6. "'Deus é brasileiro' e deve trazer mais chuva, diz ministro de Energia". Retrieved 27 December 2021.
7. "Papa é argentino mas Deus é brasileiro, diz Dilma após encontrar pontífice". Retrieved 27 December 2021.
8. "'Deus é brasileiro e a cura tá aí', diz Bolsonaro sobre remédio ainda em teste contra Covid-19". Retrieved 27 December 2021.
9. "The strange myth about Jesus coming to England". BBC News. 23 April 2018.
10. "English national anthem: Is Jerusalem the hymn we've been looking for?". Independent.co.uk. 9 March 2016.
11. "Analysis of Jerusalem by William Blake". 29 December 2015.
12. Hone, W. (ed) (1839) The year book, of daily recreation & information, p. 469.
13. Mitchell, E. H. R. " To The memory of J.C.S." in First Fruits: Poems, p. 79.
14. Rushby, Kevin (3 September 2013). "Yorkshire - God's own country is the best place in Europe". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
15. "The Olympics are just what we need to bring Yorkshiremen together as a nation". 11 August 2012.
16. "God's own county". Guardian Unlimited. London. 2 June 2006. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
17. "What's so special about Yorkshire?". BBC News. 1 August 2006.
18. "Brand Saga: Kerala Tourism – Exploring God's own country from the lens of advertising". SocialSamosa. 4 August 2021.
19. "A brand voyage". SocialSamosa. 4 August 2021.
20. "Tourism 'Oscar' for 'God's Own Country' – Kerala". Life Confluence. 10 May 2015.
21. Chaitanya, Krishna (1983). A History of Indian Painting : Pahari Traditions. Abhinav Publications. p. 88. GGKEY:Y12G5FWSUHB.
22. Aswathy Thirunal, Gauri Lakshmi Bai (1998). Sree Padmanabhaswamy Kshetram. Thiruvananthapuram: The State Institute of Languages, Kerala. pp. 168–170, 179–180, 595–602. ISBN 978-81-7638-028-7.
23. Goldberg, Ellen (2002). The Lord who is Half Woman: Ardhanārīśvara in Indian and Feminist Perspective. SUNY Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7914-5325-4. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
24. Kemmerer, Lisa (2011). Animals and World Religions. Oxford University Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-19-991255-1. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
25. Dalal, Roshen (2011). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books India. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
26. Ragozin, Zenaide A. (2005). Vedic India As Embodied Principally in the Rig-veda. Kessinger Publishing. p. 341. ISBN 978-1-4179-4463-7. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
27. {{S.C. Bhatt, Gopal K. Bhargava (2006) "Land and People of Indian States and Union Territories: Volume 14.", p.18
28. Dalal, Roshen (18 April 2014). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin UK. p. 741. ISBN 978-81-8475-277-9.
29. Rinehart, Robin (2004). Contemporary Hinduism: Ritual, Culture, and Practice. ABC-CLIO. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-57607-905-8. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
30. Vishnu Purana
31. "Dictionary of Australian Biography Br-By". gutenberg.net.au. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
32. "Dictionary of New Zealand Biography". dnzb.govt.nz. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
33. "New Zealand Armed Forces Memorial Project" (PDF). 16 January 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
34. Thornber, Laura (18 September 2018). "Godzone: Is New Zealand really heaven on Earth?". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
35. Loring, F. W., and Atkinson, C. F. (1869). Cotton culture and the South considered with reference to emigration, p. 71.
36. Annual report of the State Board of Agriculture, Volume 4, Missouri State Board of Agriculture 1869, p. 468.
37. Speeches, arguments, addresses, and letters of Clement L. Vallandigham 1864, p. 211.
38. For example, in the title of Stephen Bates' book God's Own Country: Power and Religion in the USA: Religion and Politics in the USA.
39. Hitchens, Christopher (30 September 1998). "Rushdie: Free at last". salon.com. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
40. Bytwerk, Randall. "Goebbels on the USA (1942)". research.calvin.edu. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
41. Berghaus, Erwin (2 April 2018). USA – nackt! Bilddokumente aus Gottes eigenem Land. Bischoff. OCLC 255345439.
42. "very rare 1943 anti-Semitic / anti-American Third Reich photo book". www.od43.com. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
43. Stein, Hannes (15 July 2013). "Martin-Prozess: Die Rassismus-Frage in Obamas Amerika". Die Welt. Retrieved 2 April 2018 – via www.welt.de.
44. "Gottes eigenes Land". Der Tagesspiegel Online. 3 September 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2018 – via Tagesspiegel.
45. Groß, Th (15 May 2003). "Musik: Wie gut, dass es das Böse gibt". Die Zeit. Retrieved 2 April 2018.