Cultural terrorism can be termed a policy of attacking or suppressing cultural values or of destroying cultural treasures, an offensive against dominant systems of meaning within the realms of propaganda and disinformation. It is not just an aggressive act of violence destroying cultural remains, but conspiring to expunge the past using money, organizations, hoax claims and bogus propaganda using radical racial, linguistic and political machinery. Kathleen Nader DSW and Yael Danieli in 2008, argue that trauma and the destruction of culture may create fertile ground for violent cultures and future terrorists. At the Second 21st Century Academic Forum Conference at Harvard in 2015, Saba Gheni while speaking about a culture of terrorism in Middle East highlighted two important factors that fuel culture based terrorism. They are demonization of the enemy and conspiracies. That is precisely what is happening with Keezhadi.
Keezhadi located in the Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu was excavated by Archaeological Survey of India. On October 2019, Tamil Nadu State Minister for Tamil Language and Culture, K Pandiarajan, termed the Keezhadi’s heritage “Bharatham’s civilization”. It was opposed by Madurai Central DMK MLA PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan who asked how the findings dating back 2600 years could be representative of nationhood formed just 70 years ago. Thiagarajan further contended that “The notion of the Dravidian is also proven as something non-Aryan and so there is nothing wrong in calling Keezhadi a Dravidian civilization”.
Thiagarajan was giving a clear indication that the Keezhadi excavators shall accept only cultural remains that fit into their ideological frame and reject or destroy any evidence that challenge their concept of Dravidian racial/linguistic claims. Their outlook is one that divides the world simplistically into “them” and “us.” Demonization of a mythical enemy is an essential factor in cultural terrorism.
By a call for racial and linguistic bifurcation of people, such statements not only negatively impacts the right to take part in cultural life, but it nourishes extremist groups both materially and immaterially, thereby indirectly promoting terrorism and its associated violations. It is analogous to the statement from the one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar “The real God is only Allah, and all other false gods should be removed”, following an edict issued by Afghanistan’s Taliban regime announcing that all pre-Islamic statues in the country were to be destroyed.
CPI leader and Madurai MP, Su Venkatesan, claimed Keezhadi evidences shows a Tamil Civilization debunking ASI lies. Venkatesan said “The findings have again proved that Tamil is the oldest language and the similarities in the markings discovered in Keezhadi and Indus Valley are new keys to rewrite Tamil history.”
The left-church alliance is a major factor in Dravidian secessionism. Mathias Samuel Soundra Pandian, popularly known as M.S.S. Pandian was JNU historian and ideologue of Dravidian theory launched by Bishop Robert Caldwell .The recent work authored by Y. Vincent Kumaradoss titled Robert Caldwell Scholar Missionary Colonial South India was published by Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (ISPCK). This new study on Robert Caldwell’s was commissioned by his missionary society in London, United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). M.S.S. Pandian commented that Robert Caldwell’s “contribution to both Christianity in South India and the cultural awakening of the region is unmatched during the last two hundred years”. Pandian has helped edit the book in conjunction with the Rev. Dr. Daniel O’Connor, a Vice-President of the USPG and a former teacher and chaplain at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.
But what the Dravidian and left lobbies suppressed was a conspiracy, an essential factor in cultural terrorism. They suppressed the major involvement of Father Gasper Raj, Catholic priest and his NGO, Tamil Maiyyam at Keezhadi, thus preventing examination of unearthed antiquities by ASI through PIL filed in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. Fr. Gaspar Raj is officially referred in US crime records as ‘Gaspar Raj Maria Paulian’ according to senior national security strategist, Douglas C. Lovelace Jr. and Domestic Security and Intelligence analyst, Siobhan O’ Neil. They charge Gasper Raj for “involving in multiple criminal activities in support of LTTE, a Sri Lankan group designated by the US state department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization”.
In 2010, the CBI raided senior DMK politicians in connection with the 2G scam. The media reported that, “the biggest, most prominent raid in Chennai could very well be that of Father Jegath Gaspar Raj, a Catholic priest and the head of the NGO, Tamil Maiyam. A source said, the CBI questioned Gaspar Raj on the source of the NGO’s funding and its income”.
The home ministry’s website shows that there has been an overall increase in foreign funding to NGOs in Tamil Nadu, mostly Christian organizations. The Intelligence Bureau revealed that Tamil Nadu has the second highest foreign aid receipts by NGOs, next only to Delhi.
The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating out of Tamil Nadu received the maximum foreign funding of about ₹547 crores in 2013-14, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) which also informed the Lok Sabha that on the basis of complaints, 24 cases had been referred to the CBI and nine to the State police for investigation.
Academicians who hold top posts on foreign funded NGOs have entered the Advisory Board of Archaeology, Archaeological Survey of India, to help their NGOs secure license and other concessions for excavations. Prof. K. Rajan of Pondicherry University, who patronises Pattanam and Keezhadi, is Member, Sub-Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Archaeology, Archaeological Survey of India. He is in the executive council of Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR). Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cancelled the licence of over 20 NGOs in Kerala in 2016, under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 which includes the KCHR. Currently PAMA, an NGO run by P.J. Cherian who earlier excavated Pattanam under Muziris Heritage Project, has managed to secure license to re excavate Pattanam and Mathilakam in Kerala under the Ancient Tamilakam Project. This Tamilakam project claims its brotherhood ties with Keezhadi excavations.
On November 2007, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it would freeze the U.S.-held assets of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) that acts as a front to facilitate fundraising and procurement for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). TRO was established in 1985 in Tamil Nadu with current headquarters at Jaffna in Sri Lanka. The LTTE has been designated by the United States as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization since 2001 and a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is designated today under Executive Order 13224, which is aimed at financially isolating terrorist groups and their support networks. E.O. 13224 freezes any assets held by designees under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from transacting with designees.
According to press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka, on 15 November 2007 titled U.S. freezes TRO funds, the LTTE has ordered international NGOs operating in its territory to provide all projects funding through local NGOs, which are managed collectively by the TRO. This arrangement allows TRO to withdraw money from the local NGO accounts and to provide a portion of the relief funds to the LTTE. Robert Blake, the U.S. Ambassador for Sri Lanka, addressed media in Colombo on the funds freeze of the TRO by the United States Department of the Treasury.
In an interview given to Praveen Suresh on November 7, 2019, titled ‘Meet Fr. Jegath Gasper Raj, Founder of ‘The Rise’ Global Summit for Tamil Entrepreneurs & Professionals’, Father Gasper Raj asserts his association with the TRO.
The tenth World Tamil Conference, mainly sponsored by FeTNA, was held in July 2019 at Chicago. Its central theme was “Keezhadi nam Thai madi” (On our Tamil mother’s lap – Keezhadi excavation), dedicated to Tamil scholar Rev. G.U. Pope on his 200th birth anniversary.
M.Nageswara Rao, senior IPS Officer has currently disclosed that a humongous amount of Rs. 2,08,096 Crores of foreign ‘donations’ has been pumped into the country, in the last two decades, by foreign sources through official open channels by remitting to FCRA-NGOs. He cautioned that, foreign funds have been the prime mover for changing the religious demography, interference in our indigenous religious traditions and practices, creating hurdles in our socio-economic progress, creating and aggravating various faultlines and the consequent unrest, colonising our minds and subverting our national discourse to suit certain sinister purposes.
