The DMK’s enduring hatred towards Hinduism is on full display
Bharat has a recorded history of attempts by invaders and occupiers of this holy land to destroy our culture and sacred spirit because it was not acceptable to them. However, true to its meaning, our dharma, Sanatan, lives on. We have studied in history that whoever forgets history must repeat it. This is what we are seeing these days as well.
What is the opposition’s agenda?
Recently, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Youth Welfare Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s statement, in which he said that ‘Sanatan Dharma’ should be eliminated, led to a political controversy. The BJP and its allies are expected to question the agenda of India’s opposition alliance, of which the DMK is a part.
For the people of Tamil Nadu, this is not a surprise. We have been accustomed to such statements and attempts by Dravidian parties for decades. However, his speech was also picked up by many in the mainstream media, taking the message across the country, leading to widespread condemnation.
The Dravidian parties have their roots in the social justice movement led by E. in. Ramaswamy, also known as Periyar, in 1925. This slogan sums up his views on religion: “Whoever creates God is a fool; Whoever calls to God is a scoundrel, and whoever worships God is a barbarian.” If this is the view of Periyar, who is described as the source of the Dravidian movement, it would not be surprising to know the views of his followers. Through his writings and speeches, Periyar was highly critical of Hindu religious practices that led to the marginalization of some sections of society.
Periyar wrote in his party paper Kudiyarasu that non-Brahmins, untouchable castes, poor and working classes, if they wanted equality and socialism, needed to destroy Hinduism first.
Periyar questioned the dominance of a few caste groups in society and linked it to the existence of religion itself. It was believed that Brahmins played a crucial role in maintaining Sanatan Dharma. So they chased them. In fact, Periyar’s hatred for Brahmins was so great that he encouraged his followers to kill the Brahmins first if they encountered a Brahmin and a snake on the road. One of his party workers mentioned in a video that they used to inform Periyar daily about the number of holy threads cut on that day.
Mocking Hindu gods and goddesses
At a procession organized by Periyar in January 1971 in Salem, people carried posters depicting nude images of Bhagwan Rama and Sita, the revered deities of Sanatan Dharma. It was also reported that such posters carried a wreath of cabals. Thanks to social media, today we are able to read what Periyar had to say about revered Hindu gods, Puranas and beliefs. Some of them cannot even be reproduced here due to their language and obscene nature. Although in the early years he was opposed to inequality in all religions, later he restricted his sermons against ‘Sanatan’ only.
CN Annadurai, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, was a long-term associate of Periyar before he parted ways over some ideological differences and founded the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). After Annadurai’s death, Karunanidhi took charge of the DMK and the government. Despite decades of so-called social reform works carried out by Periyar and his party, the people of Tamil Nadu continued their religious practices. Just as Periyariya was on the wane, the DMK needed an idol for itself. Hence, Karunanidhi started projecting him as the greatest social justice reformer.
Over the years, they began to emphasize the distinct cultural identity of the Tamils. The narrative was pushed to distinguish them from Sanatan, which is now popularly referred to as Hinduism. Although literature from the Sangam period contains references to Sanatan Dharma, the DMK started airbrushing it. Some great figures, such as the poet-saint Thiruvalluvar and Vallalar, were shown in white robes and bare foreheads, devoid of holy ashes, unlike images seen in publications before the 1960s.
The leaders of these Dravidian parties have a history of refusing to accept the prasad offered to them. Many videos are often seen of them anointing the holy ash or kumkum which the temple priests apply on their forehead.
Mocking Hindu traditions
Dravidian parties organized events directly or indirectly to cut the sacred thread worn by Brahmins and remove the mangalsutra from married women. Former CM Karunanidhi, in 2002, courted controversy with a statement that the term Hindu meant thief. After public outcry, a court asked the police to register an FIR in 2006. However, that did not deter him or his followers from hurting our sentiments. At the height of the Sethusamudram controversy, Bhagwan called Rama a “drunkard” and wondered if Rama was the engineer who built Ram Sethu at Dhanuskodi.
Taking a cue from Periyar, Karunanidhi harped on the Aryan-Dravidian dichotomy. He portrayed Hinduism as an Aryan Brahminical faith different from that of Tamil Shaivites. Although Tamil Nadu has the largest number of temples in India dedicated to Hindu deities, they try to highlight it as a separate form of worship followed by Tamils, and it should not be associated with Hinduism followed by Aryans.
Any references to deities in Tamil literature are interpreted as references to their version of God that differs from the Hindu deities. The DMK’s second-rate leaders and party functionaries are even worse when it comes to making fun of Hindu gods. Women usually boycott their public meetings because of the rude language and anecdotes used by party speakers.
After Karunanidhi, his son Stalin took over the leadership of the party and became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 2021. Since the current government took charge, allegations of mismanagement and interference in rituals at temples run by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department have been rampant. . They allowed non-Brahmins to assume the roles of priests in temples, which is against Agama Shastra.
Stalin, as party president and state president of Tamil Nadu, never wanted people to attend Hindu festivals. At the same time, he never fails to congratulate people on holidays of other religions. This is his hatred for the Hindu religion. In one of the viral videos, he can be seen talking poorly about Hindu wedding rituals. He said that the phrases used at the ceremony were disgusting.
Udhayanidhi Stalin continues DMK policies. The latest rhetoric is an attempt to keep minority votes with them. Just before the elections, they will do temple tours and declare that they are not against Hinduism. In the coming days, we will hear many accounts of the explanations and intent behind that speech. We are already witnessing them and their allies distinguishing Sanatan from Hinduism.
