Tamil Nadu’s five-month-long annual festival season which began in the month of Aadi (Tamil month during the July 15 to August 15 period) is fast turning out to be a season of sorrow and discontentment for the State’s Hindu Dalits. Temple festivals which peak in the Aadi month has turned out to be “no-man’s zone” for the Hindu Dalits because of the intransigent stand of upper caste Hindus that the former would not be allowed the right to hold festivals.
With the district administration of Thanjavur cancelling the annual car festival at Vada Bhadrakaliamman Temple in Sannapuram near Kumbakonam following the refusal of caste Hindus to take the temple car through Dalit settlements in the village, the number of temple festivals cancelled this season elsewhere in the State on the same grounds has risen to five. Nine people were injured in lathicharge by police who tried to disperse the agitating Hindu Dalits.
The Bhadrakaliamman Temple festival near Vedaranyam hit the national headlines recently following the stand taken by 250 Dalit families that they would embrace Islam if they were not allowed the right to hold the temple festival. Credit goes to Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamat, described as a fundamentalist organisation, for restraining the Dalits from taking any drastic action. “The TNTJ distributed copies of Holy Quran among the Dalits and have asked them to study the basic tenets of Islam before getting converted,” said Abdul Rehman, spokesman, TNTJ.
Except the leaders of the Hindu Makkal Katchi, a miniscule party working among the Hindu Dalits, no mainstream political parties took any interest in resolving the Vedaranyam stand-off. The peace meet convened by OS Manian, a Minister in the Jayalalithaa Cabinet, who is also the local MlA, remained inconclusive since the administration could not give any assurance to the Hindu Dalits.
“leaders of the BJP and the RSS are not taking any initiative to sorting out the issue between the caste Hindus and the Hindu Dalits. The demand by the caste Hindus that the Hindu Dalits would not be allowed to hold temple festival is unreasonable and violation of basic human rights. These temples are all administered by the State Government through the department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment,” said Sankaranarayanan, senior BJP leader.
Though some of the Hindu leaders had alleged that the threat by the Hindu Dalits that they would convert to Islam was a ploy by leaders of the VCK, a Dalit outfit, leaders like Ravikumar , general secretary of the party has termed that conversion would not bring an end to the issue.
The Meenakshipuram (a village in Tirunelveli district) episode of 1981 when 800 Hindu Dalits embraced Islam to escape the humiliation meted out to them by the caste Hindus is still fresh in the minds of the people.
“The Dalits could not be blamed if they resort to religious conversion. They are confident that once they get converted to Islam, the same caste Hindus would not dare to touch them. Moreover they are also offered jobs in West asian countries as well as in Tamil Nadu itself. It is economy which matters,” said a senior intelligence officer who is closely following the issue.
He said it is for the Tamil Nadu government and various Hindu organisations like the BJP, RSS and VHP to intervene and convince the caste Hindus. “The Dalits are not asking for the Moon,” he reminded.