Of Thiru Karunanidhi, Tilak and Secular Fundamentalism

In modern India, the tradition of spiritual thinking is severely endangered. It is very painful to see that all the non-believers have joined together as a group of pseudo-secularists and with other so-called secular politicians and intellectuals and they act against the whole dharmic fabric of India. There is no surprise that these non-believers’ first targets are the ethics and values of Hindus, the majority community of India.

This trend has lead to the decay of spiritual values, which eventually leads to all kinds of extremisms, including Islamic and naxalite terrorisms. It appears that our Dharma, and in fact, the whole aanmik (spiritual) values are in grave danger. Not only Hindus, even other aanmik movements including Islam, Christianity and Budhhism should take grave note of this trend. Even though these nastik forces may now appear to appease other religions, it is high time the leaders of other religions realize that these forces are against all aanmik convictions including Islam and Christianity. Many political parties in India and especially in Tamil Nadu are in the same anti-aanmik mood. This spells danger for the entire civilization of the world including India.

Here comes my humble appeal to leaders of all major communities in India, be they Mullahs, be they Sanakaracharyas or be they Arch Bishops, to jointly take positive steps to save India from these non-aanmik forces.

You may like to read my blog on this:

http://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/decay-of-spiritual-values-in-india/

Well, I wonder what does he have to say about muslim practice of burning (in a bowl) some substance that gives off foul smelling irritating smoke….

I wonder why people question Karunanidhi instead of questioning the real reasons behind making such statements. It seems such statements sell well among those who vote but a bigger question is, why do such divisive statements sell at all?

> What would be your ideal definition of “Indian-ness”?

Ideally? Ideally, there wouldn’t need to be a definition. As far as I am concerned anything anyone in these shores does – as long as it does not interfere with other people’s business. Trying to define, unify and preach only leads to unwarranted tension.

Dear Sir,
Trying tro define, unify and preach only leads to unwarranted tension is pregnant with meaning. That is what this site to bring out, “SANATAN DHARMA”.
Leave us alone we know what we have. We may be backward in our thinking, leave us alone.
We may be having our idiosyncracies, leave us alone.
We may wear threads and dots , leave us alone.
We may not be committing sins as we feel something that we do is “something that we do” ; leave us alone.
Do not define anything leave us with a way of life.
We do not preach. We do not define. We do not unify!
Regards,
vck

> I don’t know who Mr.Sabari is referring to by ‘We have moved from god nonsense’.

I said that we’d largely done so. There are plenty of religious people even in my family and neighbourhood – and that is despite the huge increase in inter-marriages in the past few years. My point was that it plays a comparatively dwindling role in social affairs. We’re getting there.

And as if the temple on one end of my street and the mosque on the other weren’t enough, there’s a small /shrine/ for Narayana Guru nearby too – makes sense eh?

> Isn’t it idotic and superstitious to drink koozh wearing head ribbon in 21st century?

It most certainly is.

I’m in Kerala – you may have heard of the CPI(M) MP visiting an astrologer recently – plenty of craziness remains.

I’m not going to try and defend the CM of another state but I can appreciate when someone does the right thing for once.

—

Spriritual knowledge is largely nonsense anyway. “It represents the third eye of spiritual sight, which sees things the physical eyes cannot see.” – Until you show me empirical evidence: NONSENSE.

Don’t try and insinuate that we (whoever we are) are out to criticise just the hindus (I stress that the hindus are far from homogeneous, and it is unfortunate that that word has been acquired by a certain minority) – it is not fair for the Sikhs to be allowed to carry weapons and not wear helmets, or the muslims to practice polygamy (they are finally going to ban this in Kerala) and mutilate children (why isn’t forced circumcision illegal yet?), etc.

As for inordinate consumption, dressing up, or other symbols – I have no opposition per se, as long as you don’t get in the way of others. But I can still tell you that your practices are silly. You can try and convince me why I might be wrong; just don’t forget the empirical evidence when you do that, and until then don’t expect any favours.

But who is really bothered whether Mr.Sabari or Karunanidhi is convinced about wearing tilak. Let me ask this, Karuna wears yellow shawl all the time..What is the empirical evidence for that? Sabari is right in his own capacity not to follow hindu tradition.
‘As long as you don’t get in the way of others’ – Now, this is a good one. Who really is getting into way of others, is it Tilak or is it Karuna and Mr.Sabari who supports him in public. How do Mr.Sabari or Karuna sees Tilak getting into way of others. Did any Hindu organization issued fatwa for not wearing Tilak? If this is not the case, then Mr.Sabari should stop preaching ‘sense’ and rather condemn Karuna to stop ‘getting into the ways of hindus’.
As I said, noone is really bothered whether Mr.Sabari or Karunanidhi is convinced about Hindu tradition, all we say is stop preaching and ridiculing and do something for the state.

Hrishi:

Fair point about the mind – I’ll have to think about that.

As for the square root of minus one, it doesn’t exist, hence imaginary numbers. I do understand relativity as it happens, but not quantum theory; as Feynman put it: “If you think you understand Quantum theory, then you don’t understand Quantum theory”. But all that is beside the point. I take your point though, but in science and the arts there are such things as peer review and publications that are accessible to all. Even something like “1+1=2” doesn’t have to be taken for granted (see Principia Mathematica pp.362 (2nd ed.) if you’re curious).

I don’t see any equivalent in religion or spirituality.

I am willing to admit that a sweeping generalisation about things that one doesn’t understand is very unfair. It’s just that it seems to me (perhaps wrongly) that all spirituality is based on blind faith, fear and greed. Thanks though.

Empathy is worthless where logic is demanded. Example: the fact that praying or homeopathy work for some is no proof of their efficacy.

Nanda:

I never suggested tilak was “getting into way of others.”. I don’t care if people choose to wear it; I just don’t buy any of the explanations. When I’m at a temple and someone (usually my mother) puts sandalwood/ash/kunkumam/… on my forehead, I do not rush to remove it, because I don’t want to upset anyone.

I’m speaking out against superstition, not traditions – I could not care less what Mr. Karunanidhi wears. If he does so because he believes it will do him some sort of good, he is an idiot too.

How exactly am /I/ getting in your way?

Ridiculing foolishness has a very important part in serving the state. (I happen to think patriotism is foolish too – vasudhaiva kutumbakam, Vallathol’s lokame tharavatu, and all that – but that is beside the point.)

Indian:

I do hate being lumped together with Karunanidhi 😉 but he is Indian too: why can’t he voice his opinion? Now if he were to actually start dictating, I’ll be on your side to fight, not his. I doubt it’ll come to that – neither of us, I suspect, live in Tamilnadu.

As for the rest of your response, I don’t see a point.

Title : In search of God
Author : G C Shekhar
Publication : India Today
Date : February 28, 1997

Source: http://www.hvk.org/articles/0297/0166.html

To Believe or not to believe in God is the question in Tamil Nadu, the state where politics has been shaped by the anti-religion ideology of the Dravida movement. Elsewhere in India, nobody would bat an eyelid if a chief minister’s son visited a temple: but in Tamil Nadu, the simple act of paying obeisance to God gets noticed.

Particularly as the chief minister happens to be the well-known atheist M. Karunanidhi, and his son, M.K. Stalin.
To make matters worse, he is being equated with the son of ‘God’ -at least by DMK cadres of Madurai who recently plastered the city with posters hailing Karunanidhi as “God”. The chief minister was livid: “I am a human being, that’s why I act when you make an appeal. Do not render me inactive by calling me God,” he thundered, and got the posters removed. But he could not have missed the writing on the wall that the growing religiosity in Tamil society has seeped into the DMK.

This is the party that has always been anti-God because Hinduism was considered the preserve of Brahmins. The DMK’s social-justice agenda was therefore enmeshed in a firm commitment to rationalism. But with Brahmin hegemony having been broken after 30 years of continuous rule by Dravidian parties, the DMK has started softening its stand on Hinduism. It has clearly decided to adopt a more pragmatic approach to religion.

Today, several DMK ministers have no compunction about openly participating in temple functions-which would have been sacrilegious a decade back. K. Pitchandy, the housing minister, and Pulavar Senguttuvan, minister for Hindu religious and charitable endowments, even pulled the temple car at Tiruvanmalai some months ago. And more and more MLAs-such as T.C. Vijayan and T.Rajendar-and party functionaries are making the annual pilgrimage to the Sabarimala shrine in the Kerala hills.

There are even examples of DMK local units organising religious functions. On January l4, a Pongal function at the Vridhakeeswarar temple at Vridhaclam had the party’s patronage. Backward Classes Minister M.R.K. Pannerselvam looked on in pious devotion as 108 litres of milk, curd, coconut water and sandalwood paste were poured on the idols. Contrast this with 1971 when, during its first term in power, the party looked the other way when activists of the Dravida Kazhagam (DK) – the parent body founded by E.V. “Periyar” Ramaswamy Naicker, from which the DMK broke away in 1949 – threw chappals at Lord Ram’s pictures.
But the piece de resistance came on January 24 this year, when Stalin visited the Melmaruvathur Adi Parasakthi temple. The son of the rigid rationalist actually prayed before the deity and accepted prasadam. And PWD Minister Durai Murugan proudly proclaimed that he had become a minister only after visiting the temple. All this would have been unthinkable a decade back, says DK General Secretary K. Veeramani. “The DMK used to frown upon its cadres for being even covertly religious. Today, it silently accepts leaders displaying their religious beliefs.”

Consider the DMK’s choice for Speaker of the Assembly – P.T.R. Palanivelrajan, an openly religious lawyer from Madurai. With vibhuthi (holy ash) and kumkum on his forehead, he is the antithesis of the DMK old guard who stood for Periyar’s atheism and Annadurai’s agnosticism. Admits Palanivelrajan: “The number of non-believers in the party has definitely come down. The new generation has not been tempered by the views of Periyar or Anna. But they’ve been shaped by a society which has become more religious.”

Deputy Speaker Paruthy Elamvaruthy perhaps best represents this change. His father, V. Ilamparuthy, a Dalit MLC, had remained a firm non-believer till the very end. But Paruthy openly worships Lord Muruga and does not mind his wife Lalitha going to church. The drift from the rationalistic ideology of the Dravidian parties was most visible during MGR’s rule, says S. Thiagarajan, a DMK commentator and writer. The DMK was forced to be a silent spectator from l977 to l987, when the AIADMK effectively watered down the Dravida ideology, replacing it with populist gestures. MGR’s religious endowments minister R.M. Veerappan gave state support to a spate of temple renovations, while MGR himself regularly visited the Moogambika Temple near Mangalore. Says RSS ideologue S.
Gurumurthy: “MGR de-Dravidised the polity of Tamil Nadu as he knew it was easier to take on Karunanidhi in a duel of charisma rather than ideology.”

Besides, the past decade has witnessed the long march of the Hindutva movement. In Tamil Nadu there is the Hindu Munnani which has been carrying on a strident campaign declaring the DMK as pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu. The DMK has obviously realised that a safer way to consolidate its own Backward Caste vote bank is to prevent it from being divided on religious lines. Moreover, a political party cannot but keep pace with the beliefs of the people it represents. (And there is little doubt that Tamil society is becoming increasingly religious.) As a senior minister puts it, “A decade back we could do an election campaign without visiting a temple. But today, voters expect us to stop at every roadside temple. When your intention is to get votes, your ideology has to take a back seat.”

But in all fairness to the DMK leaders, the two cults that are finding special favour with them are exceedingly popular with the lower castes. The temple that Stalin visited, for instance, was part of the Adi Parasakthi cult. Founded by Bangaru Adigalar, a schoolteacher from the backward Vanniyar caste, the cult has a huge following among rural women. One reason for its success is the manner in which it has channelled resources into education and charitable works. Till now, few Hindu institutions in the south have supported charities, unlike their Islamic and Christian counterparts.

“The new religiosity, like the Ayyappa or the Adi Parasakthi cult, incorporates a democratic and cadre-based character quite akin to the DMK, and the cross-influx between the party and such cults becomes difficult to contain,” says M.S.S. Pandian, a research fellow at the Madras Institute for Development Studies. The Ayyappa movement too has no caste barriers. Even some Christians
and Muslims make the pilgrimage to Sabarimala. The growth of the Ayyappa and Adi Parasakthi cults has neutralised the hard-core Dravida philosophy that Hinduism is the pocket borough of Brahmins.

That makes God much more acceptable to the DMK rank and file. But it’s not as if all remnants of rationalism have been abandoned. Party functionaries still go through the reformist weddings introduced by the DK, which are ‘socio-political functions’ minus all religious trappings.

Moreover, party supremo Karunanidhi remains an incurable atheist. He has kept his secular image intact by regularly hobnobbing with Christian leaders and attending Iftar functions during Ramzan-though Hindu religious leaders continue to be taboo. But this has not stopped his partymen from adopting a more open approach towards Hinduism. Clearly, this time round, Karunanidhi will have to struggle against the god within.

Great contribution by Kovai Senthilkumaran. Very informative articles on the situation in TN which usually gets sidelines in the national arena apart from wherever Karunanidhi opens his foolish mouth.

*** COMMENT EDITED ***

Oh and I firmly believe that every law abiding citizen should have the right to bear arms

Remember what Franklin said:

“Those who for temporary safety give up essential liberty deserve neither”

Or Jefferson:

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”

I hope people reading this are smart enuf to figure out who the tyrants I am talking about are.

*** NOTE by MODERATOR ***

Harish: Pl. watch your language. No abuse. No threats of violence. No personal insults.