There seems to be a passion in Tamils to admire, adore and even deify select leaders. Look at the plethora of statues for political leaders, film stars, local heroes… Most of these have strong caste and party identities.
With serious divisions of the Tamil society on the basis of caste, there is the absence of a culture to project leaders on the basis of their contributions and achievements. Sadly there is no consensus of the Tamil society on any Tamil as of outstanding stature.
Look in contrast at the Bengalis or Gujaratis: Bengalis are so passionate about the contributions of Rabindranath Tagore, Subash Chandra Bose or Satyajit Ray. And the admiration seems universal and not confined to sections of Bengalis. Look at the competition between the BJP and TMC in celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of Subash Chandra Bose!
With single minded passion Modi installed the tallest statue for Vallabhbhai Patel at Kevadia, Gujarat and so quickly converted it into a tourist spot! Recently the railways introduced eight trains from different parts of the country; a sea plane service from Ahmedabad was started earlier. Of course, Patel has been acknowledged as an outstanding leader by all Indians. Both the BJP and the Congress claim ownership of Patel’s contributions.
Disappointingly, Tamils do not admire any leader in unison. Large sections do deify C N Annadurai, MGR, Jayalalithaa, Rajnikant…
Look at the contributions of Rajaji, renowned for his intellect, erudition, moral and intellectual acumen.
Attracted by Gandhiji, he renounced a lucrative legal practice and was imprisoned a number of times during the freedom movement. He occupied the highest position as the Governor General of free India and crusaded for individual liberties and freedom for enterprise. He was way ahead of his times demanding the end to licence-permit-quota raj.
Rajaji agreed to the request of Prime Minister Nehru to take charge as chief minister of Tamil Nadu to save the state from the Communists and he did it! But led by EVR and leaders of the DMK, Rajaji was denigrated by sections of Tamils.
The state has statues for sectional caste leaders,several of them not widely known, but not for C Subramaniam, the Father of the Green Revolution nor R Venkataraman, the Father of Industrialisation of Tamil Nadu. Even Subramania Bharati who, decades ahead of Independence, dreamt of a free and prosperous India and dreamt of its defence, its industries, its educational institutions… Unlike Tagore, Bharati did not receive the attention because not all sections of Tamils acclaimed his greatness in unison.
Is this because there have been too many stalwarts?
Once I heard the freedom fighter and littérateur M P Sivagnanam (Ma Po Si) lamenting: “in the 1950s the Central government, under the lead of Dr S Radhakrishnan, requested different states to provide details on the contribution of leaders of the respective states to the freedom movement. The Centre offered to publish this. Ma Po Si said that other states complied with the request. In Tamil Nadu also a draft for this was prepared and submitted. Sadly, the leader found too many of the freedom fighters from the state belonged to the Brahmin community and there was much less reference to others. Familiar with the virulent anti-Brahmin tirade, the leader chose not to send the draft to Delhi. Regrettably Tamil Nadu failed to project its contribution to the freedom struggle.” (Note: Ma Po Si did not belong to a ‘forward’ caste).
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