Tamil Nadu Elections: Islamism On The Rise 

The Tamil Nadu election scenario has thrown up some very interesting alignments. Even though the AIADMK government had taken a soft approach towards Islamist forces operating in the state, they have this time sided with the DMK-Congress alliance. Thus the Muslim League, MNP and SDPI - all have aligned on one side.

Muslims make six percent of the state population and in the coastal district of Ramanathapuram which has now become a hotbed of radical Islamist activities, their population is above 14 percent. In the state capital Chennai also the Muslim population is above 10 percent (9.54 in 2001 census).

There has always been some traction for Islamist politics amongst Tamil Nadu’s Muslims. During the pre-partition days, the Muslim League joined hands with the Dravidian movement and advocated partition. One of strongest advocates of partition was Mohammad Ismail. After Pakistan became a reality, Mohammad Ismail made a statement in Madras stating that ‘a Muslim is always a Muslim - a Muslim first and a Muslim last’ and that ‘Muslims in Hindustan as much as those of Pakistan’ were ‘proud of having achieved Pakistan’. Wishing Pakistan ‘a more glorious future’ he made a strategic observation that Pakistan was ‘good and essential not only for the Muslims of Pakistan but also for the Muslims of Hindustan’.

To this day his memory remains cherished in Dravidian politics and all Dravidian parties carry his picture in their posters. In other words Dravidian parties consider themselves ideologically in sync with Islamist politics. With decades naturally the radical Islamist elements have always found for themselves natural allies in Dravidian politics. The Dravidian governments in power have been forced to arrest Islamist excesses only because of constitutional necessity and hence seldom the Islamist terror accused get punished in the courts of Tamil Nadu. The same is true even with the gruesome 1998-Coimbatore bomb blast enacted by Islamist forces which killed more than seventy persons.

While AIADMK had tried to come out with somewhat pro-Hindu stands in the past with Dr.Jayalalithaa’s pro-Kar Seva statement and anti-forcible conversion legislation, the party was forced to take the original Dravidian stand of supporting Islamist politics. This tactical support from democratic politics has emboldened radical Islamist forces in Tamil Nadu. Under the previous DMK regime, some of the jailed Islamist radicals were released. Muslim women were publicly executed in broad day light by radical elements for defying Shariat rules. Under the AIADMK regime a virulent violent campaign was let loose to eliminate Hindu activists.

With pro-ISIS forces surfacing in Tamil Nadu Muslim politics, the coming together of warring Islamist factions in Tamil Nadu election under one umbrella signifies a sinister radicalization plan. Historically, Islamists have used the vote banks nurtured by Dravidian politicians in democracy to further their aim of making Muslims more alienated from mainstream Hindus. When Mohammad Ismail envisioned Pakistan as ‘good and essential for the Muslims of Hindustan’ what he meant was an Islamic International.

What were then the forces behind the creation of Pakistan have today evolved into pan-Islamist global terror networks. Islamist strategy has always used democracy to simultaneously create a space for the apologists of Islamism. Thus while al Qaeda may bomb and kill , there will be Islamists moderates who do the impossible act of condemning ‘the true perpetrators of terror’ while accepting in principle all the ideological stands of Islamic terrorists. In Tamil Nadu such voices have a strong presence in body politic and their coming together now under one umbrella is a worrisome development.

Nevertheless, this provides a hope for the truly secular forces in Tamil Nadu. By decisively defeating DMK-Cong-Islamist alliance in the coming elections they can send a message that Tamil people are no more gullible as their previous generations were.  As the popular Tamil rhetoric goes ‘even God cannot save Tamil Nadu’ from becoming a hot bed of terror activities, if the DMK-Congress alliance wins even substantial seats in this election.