The murder of 27-year-old IT employee Kavin in a case of “honour killing” has shook the state of Tamil Nadu with citizens across the state calling out the Dravidian model which claims to have “eradicated caste.”
However, politicians have a separate tune to play – the caste system, Hinduism, and ultimately Brahmins – blame all these for every social evil one comes across every day. In line with this, VCK leader and MP Thol. Thirumavalavan, speaking at a protest gathering in Tirunelveli, launched a scathing attack on Hindu religious traditions, Sanatana Dharma, and the Brahmin community, linking them directly to the caste system and the social violence surrounding inter-caste relationships.
During his nearly hour-long address, Thirumavalavan made a series of allegations and inflammatory claims, particularly accusing Hindu society of institutionalizing caste violence and asserting that Sanatana Dharma itself justifies ‘honour killings’.
“The basic principle of Sanatana Dharma is that marriage between castes is a great crime. If someone falls in love, they should be brutally killed, this is a punishment practice that continues only in this society, in Hindu society.” he said, accusing Hinduism of promoting a code that prohibits bloodline mixing and upholds rigid caste endogamy.
He described the varna system in detail, accusing it of rigidly preserving caste boundaries. Blaming the caste system, he said, “There should be no mixing of castes. There should be no mixing of blood. This is an internal system. In English, they say endogamous. It is necessary to marry within the same caste again and again, no matter how many generations, but there should be no marriage between castes. This is not only against SC people. It is not only against the fact that a woman or a man from a Scheduled Caste should not be loved and married. In other communities other than the Scheduled Caste, they are called OBC or Shudras according to Varanashrama Dharma. Vaishyas, Kshatriyas, Brahmins should not marry alternately within these four years. Kshatriyas should not marry Vaishyas. Vaishyas should not marry Shudras. Shudras, Vaishyas and Kshatriyas should not fall in love with Brahmins and marry them. Brahmin varna should marry within the Brahmin community and only within the Brahmin community, looking at the Kulam Gotra.”
Furthering his accusation on endogamy, he said, “Sanatana Dharma is that which says that one caste should not mix with another caste, within this BC itself. It is the Sanatana Dharma that has been followed and adhered to for ages that prevents people marrying within these communities – BC/MBC. BC, MBC, SC, ST are all names created by the government for administrative convenience. That is all. It is not the name of a caste. It is the name of a list. Within the MBC, there are several hundred castes, that is a list. There are many castes in the BC. That is a big list.”
Singling out the Brahmins, he said, “As far as the Brahmins are concerned, only the Brahmins are the higher caste and everyone else is the lower caste. This is their view. Everyone is Shudra, they say. You need to understand another subtle message. Even among the Brahmins, Brahmin women are lower caste women, 100 percent Brahmin community women are Sudra caste, if you ask where all this is mentioned, it is in Manu Dharma, that is Manusmriti. There was a person named Manu. He created a set of laws that is the basic law of Hindu Dharma. The kings of that time accepted all that and implemented it as it is.”
Attacking the kings of the past, he said, “The brave warriors we talk about – Pandya kings, Chola kings, Chera kings. At one time, they all submitted to the Brahmins, believing that the mantras he says are the Vedas, the Vedas he recites are the only ones we live by, and they did whatever they told them to do. They threw away the Tamil that was inside the garbagruha and brought Sanskrit. It was the kings who did it. They had separate living quarters, they separated the Brahmins and gave them protection. They gave them everything, including cattle and land. They even gave entire villages, all those villages that end with the name “Mangalam” were those that were given to Brahmins. It was in the caste system created by those kings, that those who marry out of caste they will be murdered.”
Highlighting supposed historical atrocities, he recounted false stories such as those of Sambhuka, Ekalavya etc. He said, “They cut and killed Sambuka because he was doing penance. You are a Shudra – how can you do penance? There is a story in the Ramayana about Rama going and killing Sambuka.” “Ekalavya’s thumb was cut off because he dared to learn archery. These stories are from Ramayana and Mahabharata… Stories based on Sanatana Dharma. The life and breath principle of that Sanatana Dharma is that if you marry outside the caste, you should kill both of them and do not leave anyone alive.”
At this point he narrated how the 27-year-old Kavin was murdered in the name of caste, seemingly to connect both Hinduism and caste honour killing. He further said, “This situation of not marrying within caste and within caste did not arise yesterday. It has been there for a long time. It is there all over India.”
He also portrayed child marriage and widowhood restrictions as products of Hindu tradition. He said, “In the northern states, the custom of Sati came, which is much worse, we do not have it in Tamil Nadu, not in the southern states. If a man dies, the wife is put on the funeral pyre and burned alive. The custom of burning her alive is Sati. If she is alive after the death of her husband, she will become a bad person. This is a betrayal of her husband. Therefore, if the husband is dead, immediately after his death, she will put her on a pyre and burnt alive and worshipped. The custom of building a temple for her is a barbarity in the northern states. It lasted until the 20th century, maybe even more. It has not come to an end. It is Sanatana Dharma that says that one should not marry after the death of a husband and remain a widow. One should wear a white dress. One should not put flowers. One should not put a pottu. It is not allowed. One should not stand in public. One should not participate in any ceremonies. This is cruelty.”
He further alleged, “Manu Dharma calls marrying out of caste a crime, it promotes child marriage, it asks women to perform Sati, it prevents widow remarriage. The constitution was created with the power to destroy all that. But it allows that there is no crime if you marry outside a caste. However, you cannot call out the Agamana system as a crime. Some people are not entering temples today, not even government-run temples, some SC villages are not able to see the temple chariot pass by their village, so what is in place here, Manu Dharma as Sanatana Dharma and not Indian constitution.”
He further said, “Marrying out of caste is legally approved, it is not a crime, but Manu Dharma calls it a crime and honour killings take place based on that. So what is in place here is Sanatana Dharma and not the Indian constitution.”
Thirumavalavan praised Ambedkar as a revolutionary who replaced “terrible” Brahminical laws with the Indian Constitution. He asserted that while the Constitution criminalized caste discrimination in theory, “Sanatana Dharma is still in practice here.”
Despite acknowledging figures like Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar, he dismissed Hinduism’s capacity for reform, “The revolutionary Ambedkar, who stood alone and destroyed such reactionary traditional conservatisms that had been rooted in this land for thousands of years.”
He also said, “Sanatana politics should be dismantled all over India. Only then can we stop all these honour killings.”
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