Vairamuthu, a foremost Tamil Poet and the most celebrated movie lyricist of our time, is being hounded by the Hindutva elements who are bent upon destroying all those associated with the Dravidian Movement. Rallies are conducted against the poet by a crowd of men and women alike who want him to apologise for a presumed offence.
It all started with a speech he delivered on the mystical poet Andal in Tiru Villiputhur, which is her birth place. The meeting was organized by Vaidyanatham, Editor of Dinamani, who is far removed from the Dravidian Movement. He selected Vairamuthu as a speaker because he was sure of the competence and the dedication of the poet. Actually the speech was a part of a compendium of Tamil literature Variamuthu is writing at present. He claims that in spite of his rationalism he has been enthralled by the poetic splendor of the Saint-Poet, and has been nurtured by her Tamil as much as he had been nurtured by his own mother with her milk.
His speech was well received by the audience which ought to have consisted of a good number of Andal’s devotees. Yet, they listened to him without any disruption. The trouble started only later, when the speech was printed in the form of an essay, and someone went through it with a magnifying glass to locate some black spot which could be used against the poet and against the Dravidian Movement he is associated with. He got what he was looking for, blew it out of proportion and howled “Andal had been insulted, Hinduism has been denigrated…. And so on and so forth”
Anybody who goes through the article will be moved by the writer’s love for Tamil and admiration for Andal. He holds her as a liberated woman, who was able to choose her husband in Lord Krishna and proclaim it to the whole world. In this context, Vairamuthu has quoted a researcher who had come up with the opinion that Andal could have been a Devadasi living in Sri Rangam temple. Even here, the word in question has not been used in the derogatory sense but in its original meaning – a servant of God. Again it is presented only as a conjecture, not as a fact.
It is this word that the trouble makers made use of, claimed that Vairamuthu had deliberately denigrated Andal and demanded an apology from him. Vairamuthu did understand their feelings and tried to assuage them by expressing regret. But the trouble makers said: “That won’t do! Let the writer come to Thiru Villiputhur and express his apology in the shrine of Andal.” They are distorting the speech and shout that Vairamuthu was out to insult Hinduism and Hindu deity. If his intention was meant to insult Andal, would he have gone all the way to her birth place to deliver the speech?
Then mob psychology took hold of the matter. Brahmin crowd, consisting of men and women gathered and started hurling abuses on the poet. Vairamuthu’s sincere attempts to reason with them through the press fell on deaf years. The Jeer of Thiru Villiputhur, a religious head, went on an abortive fast. Did he take the trouble to go through the article at all, one wonders. If he had, he would certainly have been captivated by Vairamuthu’s eulogy of Andal.
This is a lynch mob, thirsting for the victim’s blood. This has been the methodology of Hindutva forces. Pick on some victim, with or without reason, and bleed him. Reason for the act can be concocted, after all. A dignitary of the BJP offered ten lakhs of rupees to anyone who would bring the writer’s tongue. Vairamuthu’s response was dignified.
“I would willingly permit my tongue to be cut off by anyone who brings the amount, he said, I will not only replace my tongue with part of the amount but will spend the rest of the amount in the service of Tamil.”
Finally, the Jeer has said that he knew of trick of throwing soda bottles. This, when there has been no violence at all so far. Does he expect soda bottle throwing? Is he worried that there has been no violence so far? Is he instigating violence? It is up to all right thinking people to expose the hypocrisy that lies beneath all this madness, which is their method of gaining space for their irrational, outmoded and unscientific ideology. We assure Vairamuthu that we are all behind him and there is no need for him to get heartbroken as he has revealed in one of this recent utterances.
Prof. A. Ayyasamy
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SANKARACHARI INSULTS TAMIL – WILL HE AWAY WITH IT?
In a book release function held in Chennai on 24th January 2018, which was participated by no other person than the Governor of Tamil Nadu himself, Vijayendra Saraswati, junior head of Kanchi Sankara Mutt, chose to keep sitting when the formal Tamil Thai Vazhthu (invocation to Tamil) was played, much against the custom followed in Tamil Nadu. In fact the Governor himself stood up, along with all the others on the dais and the auditorium at the start and kept standing until the playing was over. When people expressed their displeasure at the behavior of Vijayendra, the first question put by his minions was, was it a prayer song. When it was explained that it had been stated as equivalent to a prayer and people were expected to stand up when it was played, people at Sankara Mutt said, that the junior head always used to meditate when a prayer was sung and that was the custom he followed on the said occasion also. When asked why he stood up when the national anthem was sung, there was no reply.
Most of the people in Tamil Nadu and even the Tamils abroad feel that Vijayendra deliberately insulted Tamil through his indecent, uncultured, behavior. The Kanchi Mutt has already gone on record characterizing Tamil as Neecha Basha (a lowly language). Then why should its head, junior or senior respect it?
But he chooses to use that Neech Basha in all his transactions with the public since it is also ‘Paying Basha’, which helps his very survival in Tamil Nadu. Then why this prejudice?
These questions are agitating the minds of Tamils all over the world, who demand an open apology from him. They are right, aren’t they?
