There’s No Stopping The Rama Rajya Rath Yatra In Tamil Nadu 

The tea vendor smiles at the crowd and tells me, “We should thank Stalin for this, you know." The person nearby nods approvingly. All of a sudden the crowd goes, 'Jai Sri Ram!' and slowly rolls out the Ram Rajya rath (temple car) from the small lanes of Nagercoil into the main streets. Women and children rush to offer their obeisance and in every eye exudes great devotion and pride. It is very early in the morning and still there is a sizable crowd.

Yesterday, from the frontier village of Kanyakumari district to the capital town, for a distance of approximately 18 kilometres, people had stood waiting in heat of the summer to welcome the Ram Rajya Rath Yatra. When the rath entered Kanyakumari it was 5.45 pm - it was almost three hours late.

That delay also says something.

It was not a Sangh Parivar programme as alleged by the Dravidianists. The pictures on the rath show that the programme belongs to the monastic institution of Brahma Sree Neelakanda Gurupadar and Jagat Guru Sathyananda Saraswathi - Shri Ramdas Universal Society. But factual correctness has never been the hallmark of Dravidianist politicians, who, after seeing the name, Rath Yatra, concluded that it was organised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Vishwa Hindu Parishad (RSS-VHP). In fact, the entire establishment media had called the yatra, 'VHP's Yatra' and 'BJP's Yatra' before arriving at a more ambiguous term ‘VHP-backed yatra.’

The delay by hours did not dampen the spirit of the people. Various Hindu organisations too have come together. The reason is simple. The yatra would have passed off unnoticed as it did in Kerala, Karnataka and other states but for the shrill opposition raised by M K Stalin, son of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) supremo M Karunanidhi and the party’s working president. The hatred the Dravidian chauvinists have for Sri Rama goes back many decades if not the previous century. A completely flawed irrational racist interpretation was given to Sri Rama with the start of the colonial times. In this, Sri Rama was the Aryan and Ravana was Dravidian. A cult of racial veneration of Ravana also emerged.

Interestingly, Hinduism already has in it a better and a more aesthetically pleasing holistic veneration of Ravana. (Also see: Beyond The Binaries: Understanding The Veneration Of Ravana)

Again, Rama veneration in Tamil Nadu also has deep roots. Chola kings who invaded Sri Lanka likened their invasion to that of Sri Rama as both Cholas and Rama belonged to the sun dynasty. Here in our district, Ayya Vaikundar, the 19th century seer who fought against both the forces of proselytising and social stagnation likened the social stagnation to the age of Kali while equating proselytising and colonialism to 'white demonic'. More importantly, he constructed a critique of the related evils of colonialism and resulting social stagnation by equating them to the puranic demons of Sura Padman (killed by Skanda-Muruga), Kamsa and Kauravas destroyed by Sri Krishna and Ravana destroyed by Sri Rama. In Ahilathiratu Ammanai, the scared literature of Ayyavazhi, Ravana assumes the form of colonialism and related evils of proselytising as well as social stagnation.

The spontaneous welcome that the people of Tamil Nadu gave to the rath yatra, is a clear indication of how the collective spirit of Tamil Nadu feels. When people of Tamil Nadu voted a Ramachandran (MGR) to defeat the DMK they showed where their feelings reside. One should remember that pro-DMK and left intellectuals used to call Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as ‘Dravidian Jan Sangh’ because of its passive pro-Hindu stand unlike the aggressive anti-Hindu stand of the DMK and the original Dravidian black-shirts organisation: Dravidia Kazhagam (DK).

‘Ram Rajya? Then what about Sambuka?’ - Rhetoric:

Meanwhile, in typical diversionary tactics, questions are raised in the urban Chennai centric media regarding Ram Rajya. The outdated question of Rama killing Sambuka - a Sudra ascetic, follows. However, they forget a crucial fact. Rama killed not only Sambuka the Sudra but also Ravana the Brahmin. And more importantly, Ramayana, through the various readings and re-readings as well as rendering of the epic through various seer-poets from Kulasekhara Alzhwar to Tulsidas, has created a collective national consensus imagery. This centres around Rama slaying Ravana the Brahmin and Rama humbling Parashuama the Brahmin and Rama accepting the offering of the tribal woman Sabari and Rama accepting the offering of fisher-folk chieftain Guha. This completely leaves out the killing of Sambuka. Neither Tulsidas nor Tyagaraja glorified Rama for killing Sambuka, the so-called Sudra ascetic but glorify Rama for killing Ravana the demonic Brahmin.

Here, it should be noted that in the lineage of Rama itself, both Satyavratha and Harishchandra became chandala and crematorium keepers. And yet, that did not prevent Rama from becoming the king. Clearly, the classifications were not entirely birth based - particularly for the fourth varna. Dr B R Ambedkar had pointed out that the fourth varna itself was actually the Kshatriyas who had lost out in the power struggle. Another striking clue is given in the lineage of Rama again. One of the princes in the lineage of Rama, Asamanja, was known for torturing children. He was exiled by the will of people by his own father Sagara for this cruel perversion.

So, the Sudra label here could well refer to a fallen clan or sect of Asamanja. After all, Rama was approached with the death of a child of ‘an aged peasant Brahmin’ which was caused by the penance of Sambuka. Note the words ‘an aged peasant Brahmin’ (Valmiki Ramayana translated by Hari Prasad Shastri), which means here the term Sudra with respect to Sambuka does not denote peasants but then it might be associated with some ideological or genealogical branch of Asamanja. Jain Ramayana, which even makes Ravana a Jain seer, makes of Sambuka a power hungry ascetic who was doing the penance to get an invincible sword and here he was killed by Lakshmana. But again, before the colonial times, when the Hindu-phobes became fixated on this single episode, it was all but forgotten in the collective memory of Indian people.

Yet, this lone controversial act does not make the Rama Rajya concept caste-based rule. On the contrary, through Sri Ramanuja tradition, the name Rama became the single greatest liberating weapon for the downtrodden masses.

So, when the establishment media and the mostly north India-based ignorant English media try to project Tamil Nadu as a Dravidian-EVR fortress impenetrable to Hindutva forces, they are simply selling a false myth. That the Ram Rajya Rath Yatra received a louder welcome in Tamil Nadu than it did in any other state should make that fact abundantly clear. That the Tamil Nadu BJP has not yet converted the vitality of Hindutva in Tamil Nadu into political results is another story.

‘Jai Sri Ram’ the crowd cheers as small children run behind the rath, cheering to get prasad. “We would have missed it”, the tea vendor smiles and then adds with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, “We know how the greatness of Rama could help even a squirrel to do his seva, but that he could make even Stalin and Seeman squirrels in his service... that is really amazing!’

‘Ram Ram’ to that sentiment!