Udhayanidhi Stalin’s genocidal call to exterminate those who follow Sanatan Dharma, or the timeless Hindu faith, is not surprising in Tamil Nadu, a state whose ethos has long been poisoned by EV Ramaswamy ‘Periyar’. Even in the ’70s, Hindu deities were smashed or hit with slippers in the name of fighting historical injustices meted out to lower castes by Brahmins.
Udhayanidhi’s rant comparing Hindus with malarial mosquitoes and Covid virus could have easily gone without the kind of outrage we are seeing today. Such Hindu-hate has been normalised in Tamil Nadu, a state which has seen some of the greatest Hindu kingdoms like the Cholas, Pallavas and Parantakas.
But the massive outpouring of public anger on media and social media perhaps points to a silent change afoot in Tamil Nadu. A revival of Sanatan Dharma and politics around it is slowly taking shape under BJP’s young leader K Annamalai. Hinduness has been in Tamil Nadu for as long as it existed in the rest of India, tracing back to the Vedic times. It is not possible to keep that fountainhead of Sanatan Dharma muted forever with the rock of Dravidianism.
Also, by calling for a Hindu genocide because of real and perceived injustices by some Brahmins, is Udhayanidhi Stalin inviting calls for genocide of Muslims and Christians because of the centuries of jihad and colonial-era massacres?
Udhayanidhi and his party DMK’s vicious ideology comes from Periyar, an intellectual thug who did not just marry his own adopted daughter 40 years younger, but reportedly incited local goons to sexually harass his wife to stop her from visiting a temple.
Here are a couple of gems from Periyar which puts Udhayanidhi’s genocide call in context:
“If you see a snake and a Brahmin on the road, Kill the Brahmin first.”
“‘Who do you hate? The Brahmin or Brahminism? What is Brahminism?’ For questions such as these, my reply is Brahminism came from Brahmins and hence it is the Brahmins who should be annihilated. It is like asking whether you hate thievery or the thief. It is because one is a thief, one indulges in thievery. When someone says he hates thievery, it means he hates the thief, too, doesn’t it? Thus, [my stand is] Brahminism grew out of the Brahmin and I am striving to annihilate the root.”
One can see the naked violence in Periyar’s quotes. Today, Udhayanidhi is simply Periyar’s voice; the content is the same.
But with the currents of change in Tamil Nadu politics, Udhayanidhi Stalin’s utterances could prove to be a huge favour for a rising BJP in Tamil Nadu. Although the party is fighting the relentlessly run narrative on Tamil media that it is an upper-caste, north Indian force, the choice of non-Brahmin Annamalai, an extremely articulate and hardworking young politician from the Gounder caste, has been breaking that ice.
The BJP is gaining among the Thevars, an assertive caste which has traditionally voted for J Jayalalitha. AIADMK leaders VK Sasikala and O Panneerselvam belong to the Thevar caste. A section of Gounders are also veering towards the BJP. AIADMK’s K Palaniswami is a Gounder.
Brahmins, pushed to the wall by decades of such violence, will naturally go with the BJP-AIADMK alliance. A chunk of the powerful Vanniyar vote, which usually goes to the PMK, may shift to the saffron alliance.
Annamalai has been capturing the popular imagination with his ‘En Mann En Makkal’ (my land my people) padayatra. The BJP’s spiritual unit is busy reclaiming the temple space, rallying for freeing temples from state control, and engaging in conserving shrines and their traditions.
When PM Narendra Modi installed the ancient symbol of power and governance, sengol, in the new Parliament building, he sent out a loud message to Tamil Nadu about how precious he deems its traditions.
Udhayanidhi Stalin’s message has also gone out loud and clear. The innate bigotry and violence of it may gladden many of his supporters, but it will also polarise and consolidate votes against him. His own mother is a devout, practising Hindu. In that sense, his rant is not just anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat, but it is also in a sense matricidal. The DMK may not be able to live it down.
Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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