Muthuramalinga Thevar – The Nemesis of Dravidian Politics

Today, regardless of ideological orientation every other politician in Tamil Nadu will be thronging the ‘samadhi’ of a unique Tamil personality to offer respects. Visiting samadhis wouldn’t appear as a unique event to those who know somewhat about Tamil Nadu politics. But this ‘samadhi’ isn’t your usual political samadhi. This ‘samadhi’ is the resting place of a man who truly strived to be a saint. His Jayanthi and Punya thithi fall on the same day. It is the Guru Puja day of Shri Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, a visionary who saw through the fallacy of the political parties when it comes to both nationalism and spirituality. “Nationalism and Spirituality are the two eyes of a nation. Politics without spirituality is like a body without soul” is his quote through which many know him. 

He flayed the anti-hindu, anti-national discourse of Justice party and Dravidian movement so much that his speeches were hated by the Dravidian movement followers. One such occasion – when in 1937 Provincial Elections, Congress stalwarts like Sardar Patel, Satyamurti and Rajaji decided to field a 29 year old Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar against Justice Party’s star candidate Sethupathy Raja from Ramanathapuram. Immediately, the Justice Party collaborated with the British establishment and banned Thevar from addressing the public and leaving Ramnad district. But the 29 year old Thevar emerged victorious by a huge margin without even campaigning. How did this happen? 

Thevar entered politics in 1927 after getting inspired by the speech of Netaji at the Congress convention in Chennai. His efforts to denotify the group of castes, Maravar and Kallar (subgroups of Thevar community) – known to be the warrior castes of South Tamil Nadu, that were defined as Criminal Tribes by the British earned him respect and he subsequently became popular among the masses. Criminal Tribes Act was used by the Justice party to penalize backward communities which were not in its favour. Their Anti-Hindu and Anti-Indian nature, in general, made Thevar averse to their politics (That today’s DMK descended from the Justice Party is another matter). Thevar mobilized these marginalized communities against the atrocities of the Justice Party and gave Congress a landslide victory in 1937 provincial elections. After this, Thevar became increasingly involved in labour reform activities. He formed and led various trade unions across the state.

During a prolonged strike of the Pasumalai Mahalakshmi Mill Workers’ Union, demanding the reinstatement of a section of fired trade unionists, Thevar was jailed for seven months from 15 October 1938. In the end, the management of the Mahalakshmi Mills accepted the demands of the union. Thevar also supported the temple entry act passed by the then Congress government in 1939 and played a crucial role in facilitating the entry of Dalits into Madurai Meenakshi temple.

But by this time, differences arose between Thevar and Congress leadership because of the latter’s hesitation in abolishing the Criminal Tribes Act. This even led to his imprisonment in 1942. However, the growing popularity of Thevar and rising anger against Congress over his imprisonment, led to the abolition of Criminal Tribes act. Post-independence, Thevar led Netaji’s Forward Bloc in Tamil Nadu and became one of the prominent nationalist voices in Parliament against the Pakistan appeasement policies of Nehru. Apart from Syama Prasad Mookerjee, he was the only parliamentarian who actively and staunchly opposed the special status given to Kashmir through Article 370.

Today we see Dravidian parties, DMK and its assorted organisations in particular, play the Tamil, North-South card to remain relevant in politics. Thevar asked them the questions that today’s right wing politicians hesitate to put forward in the name of political correctness. He questioned the Justice Party’s acts of sucking up to the British regime and denigrating the indigenous faith and traditions. Justice Party used to mention ‘Jinnah Park’ and ‘Robinson Park’ in their advertisements for political meetings while refusing to name ‘Tilak Park’ as such – stating that he is a North Indian and thus, they won’t take his name. Thevar mocked it asking, “In what way Jinnah is not a North Indian? How are the names Jinnah and Robinson so sweet to you Sir? How is the name of poor Tilak so bitter to you Sir?”. Though the vestiges of such racism can still be seen among DMK and DK, they still need to bend in front of Thevar samadhi for his community’s votes.

Even as far back as the pre-independence times, Thevar realised the importance of Hindu unity and strived to achieve it through his efforts which can be understood from the fact that in a constituency where Thevars formed only about 18,000 voters, he won with 1 lakh votes. Thevar distributed the 37 villages that belonged to him to Dalits – which is testament to the fact that he was beyond caste politics and why he had such a mass following. He vehemently opposed the Tamil-Non Tamil and Brahmin-Non Brahmin separatist propaganda in the name of supposedly saving Tamil identity and non Brahmin communities respectively. He rightly identified the Justice party and the Dravidian movement as propagating cultural destruction in the name of atheism and Anti-Brahminism. He felt that the Dravidian movement was spoiling the cultural image of Tamils among other Indians.

Throughout his life, Thevar remained devoted to the nation and dharma which were his two eyes. Unlike the political samadhis of Anna, Karunanidhi and even Jayalalitha, Thevar’s mortal remains were laid to rest based on the traditions advocated by Shri Ramalinganar with a spiritual guru doing the necessary rituals. To this day people from all walks of life worship him as a saint unperturbed by the caste leader image imposed upon him by the political parties. Irony is that the Dravidian leaders who throng the samadhi of Thevar on the day of his guru pooja to secure the votes of his community threw him into oblivion and made their ideological patron EVR, who opposed Thevar vehemently, as the hero of labourers and backward communities. That EVR who married his foster daughter to supposedly protect his properties – compared to Thevar who gifted away his vast wealth.