Culture or religion? DMK and BJP spar over Tamil custom and Hindu tradition

Culture or religion? DMK and BJP spar over Tamil custom and Hindu tradition

“Even if they recite Thirukkural or celebrate Pongal, the BJP’s aim will not be fulfilled,” said MK Stalin earlier this year before the Lok Sabha election season began. In a sense, he was acknowledging the BJP’s effort to woo the Tamil population while dismissing it as insubstantial.

The most elaborate of the BJP outreach to Tamils was the Kashi Tamil Sangamam, an annual event that was started in 2022 by the Union Ministry of Education, Government of India to underscore the ancient links between Tamil Nadu and Varanasi. The choice of Varanasi was both politically and culturally significant: as the Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha constituency and as a Hindu pilgrimage centre that is important for Hindus in the south too.
Stalin’s reference to what he saw as BJP’s appropriation of Thirukkural followed BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Uttarakhand Tarun Vijay’s vow to take the teachings of saint-poet Thiruvalluvar to every corner of the country.

During his “Thiruvalluvar Thiruppayanam”, or Thiruvalluvar spiritual journey from the 133-ft Thiruvalluvar statue in Kanniyakumari, Vijay sought to stress on the saint’s teachings as a part of the larger corpus of Hindu philosophy.

In Tamil Nadu, the kural is seen more as pithy couplets on virtues and moral codes for kings and commoners, and not as a religious treatise. Indeed, in some traditions, he is regarded as a Jain teacher and some scholars even wondered if the saint poet was Mahaveer himself.

In fact the BJP, on the lines of Kashi Tamil Sangamam, also organised the Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam to highlight the Jain connection and also connect with the Saurashtrians settled in Tamil Nadu ages ago, mostly in the Cauvery delta region of Thanjavur. The Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, however, in his attempt to make Thiruvalluvar, who is usually shown attired in white, a ‘sanatan’ saint, posted the Tamil poet in saffron robes.

The attempt by BJP is to see Tamil culture as a distinct stream but within the vast Hindu tradition. This drew widespread attention with the installation of the Sengol (sceptre) in the new parliament building. The BJP projected the Sengol as a symbol of significance for both governance and religion. But the DMK, with its rationalist legacy, did not warm up to the idea of giving the Sengol the pride of place in Parliament.

The BJP also gave a lot of importance to Pongal celebrations. Even in 2022 Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai tried to organise ‘Modi Pongal’ that did not take off, but realised it in 2023 as ‘namma ooru Modi Pongal’. This year the celebrations were in Delhi at the then Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Fisheries L Murugan's residence, where Annamalai participated along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. PM Modi was seen participating in all the rituals. Modi last year even joined the Puthandu vizha (Tamil new year celebration) at Murugan’s residence.

For the DMK, Tamil culture goes beyond religion, and is based on language and secular custom. Even when it comes to religion, the DMK emphasises on village deities outside the Brahminical tradition.

The BJP is seeking to challenge this by seeing Tamil culture as part of Hindu tradition, a distinct stream that is not in conflict with the civilisational ethos of Bharat.

Even though the efforts did not bear electoral fruit, this is for the BJP a larger, long term project.