by ILANGOVAN RAJASEKARAN
A statue of Mother Mary which has been standing atop a the hill at Pulipakkam village near Chengleput for 10 years now. Across it is the Sri Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal temple, which is under construction. PHOTO/Ilangovan Rajasekaran
Concerted attempts are being made to promote Hindutva across the length and breadth of India. Frontline makes a journey through the States to unravel the devious methods employed to polarise society and establish majoritarian cultural hegemony.
TAMIL NADU
Saffron in Dravidian land
TAMIL NADU, the Dravidian heartland, is witnessing “saffronisation” on the sly. Hindutva forces are targeting minorities, be they Christians or Muslims, and Dalits with impunity across the State in varying degrees.
In the northern part of the State, especially in the cluster of interior villages and hamlets in the district of Kancheepuram, Dalit Christians, the majority among minorities here, have been living in morbid fear since April 14, Good Friday, when the solemn occasion at the St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church at Sogandi village in Tirukazhukkundram block ended in chaos and violence.
In the southern part, in Cumbum town in Theni district, a mosque was targeted by stone-throwing miscreants on June 1 when prayers were being offered in the month of Ramzan. The incident shocked the conscience of the people of Cumbum, a plantation town located on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. Cumbum, local people claim, has never witnessed such an incident until then, not even when the Babri Masjid was demolished. “We share a warm camaraderie as our lives are intertwined and interdependent. Both are engaged in plantation and agriculture, the mainstay of our livelihood,” says Cumbum P. Selvendran, former Member of Parliament from Periyakulam and a farmer.
Of late, similar attempts of majoritarian hooliganism aimed at polarising people along religious lines have been reported across the State with alarming regularity. At least four other such incidents were reported in the State during the Ramzan month—at the Kannappa Nagar mosque at Rathinapuri in Coimbatore city and at mosques in Ramanathapuram town in Ramanathapuram district, and in Tirupur in Tirupur district. Besides, those who transported a few cows and calves in a lorry for a farmer came under attack in the temple town of Palani in the western region.
Frontline for more