News Tamil Nadu

Tamil Hindus Including Malaysian Minister Condemn VCK Head Thirumavalavan’s Anti-Hindu Rant At Tamil Conference

July 24, 2023
The Commune

The 11th World Tamil Research Conference commenced at the University of Malaya campus in Malaysia and spanned three days from 21 July-23 July 2023. The purpose of this conference is to facilitate an exchange of knowledge and ideas among Tamil scholars and scholars from various other languages worldwide. It aims to showcase the brilliance of the Tamil language as well as the excellence found in other languages.

Thirumavalavan Speech On Tamil Nationalism

One of the key guests on the first day was Viduthalai Siruthaigal Katchi (VCK) head Thirumavalavan, who addressed the conference, focusing on Tamil nationalism in his speech. 

“Today, people who can talk about religious nationalism have fallen to show violent fanaticism in Manipur. People who used to live in harmony as brothers no matter what religion they follow are fighting on the basis of religion for the past few years causing India to hang its head in shame on the global stage.”

“So, when religious nationalism becomes a religious ideology, hatred against other religions turns into hate politics. There is a need to present Tamil nationalism as a platform for the restoration of political, socio-cultural rights.”

“As far as India is concerned, linguistic nationalism has to be propagated in each of the states based on the language spoken there among the people, it is our duty to promote recognition of language-based nationality. Tamil nationalism alone cannot grow, Kannada nationalism, Malayalam nationalism, and Telugu nationalism also have to grow only then Tamil nationalism will grow.”

“Linguistic nationalism should be forged in India but this is being prevented by the cultivation of religious nationalism by religious nationalists – ‘Don’t live as a Tamilian, Live as a Hindu’ – this is religious nationalism.”

He said, “Dravidian politics means egalitarian politics and also means social justice politics.”

“The reason for saying that religious nationalism is dangerous for India is that whatever is the majority religion here (Hinduism), whatever is the majority society, it ignores equality. It does not accept equality, it is against equality and encourages caste pride.”

“A village is not one unit – that is the truth, it is divided into streets and slums, Brahmins live in an agraharam where shudras or caste Hindus cannot live together with them or build houses there. The village street is different, the agraharam is different, the slum street is different, and the Kuppam where the fishermen live is different. In this way, the habitats are separate in the Indian social structure. As you enter the village, you have different streets for different castes – there is a Konar street, a Chettiyar street, a Padayachi street, a Mudaliar street, a Pillaimar street, a Mukkulathoor street – even in the same village there is a structure of caste names for streets.”

He went on to say that religions across the world propagate equality and brotherhood.

“Religions function as institutions. The principles and philosophies offered by those religions do not speak of discrimination, it speaks of brotherhood.“, he said.

He further said “Philosophy is different and the institutions that implement the philosophy are different, Islam is philosophy. The Muslim religion is an institution that builds mosques, creates imams and ulema, and provides training to recite Quran – that is the institutional process but Islam is a philosophy, Christianity is philosophy Buddhism is a philosophy – these philosophies speak about brotherhood. What is the philosophy of the Hindu religion? What is the philosophy of Vaishnavism? What is the philosophy of Saivism? Or what is the philosophy of Hindutva? Sanatan Dharma is said to be its philosophy, they claim it is Sanatan Dharma. That Sanatan Dharma rejects brotherhood. This is the problem. It also attacks the Tamil community, it destroys the unity of Tamils. We cannot do anything that can destroy Tamil unity as a Tamil nationalism.”

As he finished speaking and returned to his seat from the dias, within a few minutes, a member from the audience can be heard screaming “Hey nippatra, (hey stop it), the topic you are speaking on itself is not right!”. This created a commotion at the event. The organisers tried to convince the audience and the protestors left the place.  

Following this, Saraswathy Kandasami, the Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives in the Pakatan Harapan government led by Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia spoke at the event and requested the protestors to remain seated. She also said that the speech made by Thirumavalavan was his own personal views and did not represent the organisation or the Conference. 

Anwar Ibrahim Aims To Promote Tamil Language Learning In Malaysia

It is to be noted that Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, pledged an additional allocation of RM2 million for the Department of Indian Studies at University Malaya. He also allocated another RM2 million for the translation of significant Tamil literary works into Bahasa and English. He also expressed his commitment to promote the learning of Tamil and aims to introduce it as an extra language in public schools.

It is alleged that there were no representatives Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at the World Tamil Conference that took place over the 3 days.

Saraswathy Kandasami later spoke to TNTV Tamil Oodagam and this is what she had to say. 

Condemn Comments Made By Thirumavalavan

When asked about the speech made by Thirumavalavan on Tamil Nationalism, she said that his comments were incorrect. “While I agree with him that we must not indulge in hate propaganda, but he went on blaming one specific religion for indulging in hate propaganda, that too, he has flown across the seas and spoken about a religion that we Malaysians consider equal to the language (Tamil). We cannot accept his views. Yes, it may be his political philosophy and we do not accept the fact that he used this platform (of the World Conference) to speak about it.”

Ms. Saraswathy also added, “We have all congregated here as Tamils, yes, we welcome his views on Tamil nationalism but Tamil nationalism must be for the growth and spreading of the Tamil language and not be the root cause of separatism or target a particular community, ie, Hinduism.

He mentioned that Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism propagate brotherhood but he separates Hinduism and says it is actually Sanatan and it propagates inequality, which means I think he has not understood Sanatan Dharma. As per our understanding of Sanatan Dharma, all are equal, everyone has equal rights over this land and everyone must lead a life based on Dharma. This is what we have understood about Sanatan Dharma. His opinion, placed on an inappropriate platform with ill intentions, is being strongly rejected, and numerous Malaysians are expressing their condemnation of it.”

When asked about casteism in Malaysia, she spoke about how Bali, an Indonesian island with a Hindu majority had no caste-related issues. She said that it was the politicians that were raking up casteism and connecting it to Hinduism for the sake of votes. She also spoke about the issues they were facing among Indians who came to Malaysia for work. She said that alcoholism was a major problem among the Indians. “Alcoholism is a problem in Tamil Nadu too. Will people accept if I say that the Dravidian Model of governance promotes alcoholism? Both are different. Caste is a negative on our society and we have to overcome it but what are they trying to dig by connecting it to only one particular religion? We live in a fast-paced digital world, we are on the path of progress and we talk about unity, we do not agree to dig up a particular ideology and make a structure out of it and claim that this is the cause of casteism.”

She added, “Tamilians must live well and prosper if India/Tamilians do well, we Malaysian Indians feel proud about it because that is our identity. When India wins, when India is praised on the global platform, we feel proud about the epithet given to us as Indians. We want to see Tamil Nadu also do well like us.”

Condemnation By Tamil Hindus In Malaysia

University of Malaya’s Professor Rajendran spoke to a gathering of Malaysian Tamils at Kuala Lumpur where he mentioned the repeated use of the Thirukkural “Yaadhum Oorey Yaavarum Kelir”. This kural was used by Thirumavalavan during his speech at the World Tamil Conference.

Without mentioning Thirumavalavan’s name, Rajendran said, “When you go to a country as a guest, it is important to understand the country’s culture, what are the challenges there, and how we behave there is the exact meaning of that kural. 

If it is our country, we will follow all rules and regulations. Out of that, 99% followed all those rules and we saw that at the conference and we appreciate it. However, less than 1% of them spoke about religion. It would have been okay if they spoke in praise of it. Had someone, even if one person got agitated by the speech and informed the police that someone is speaking disparagingly of religion, today he wouldn’t have returned home but rather have had to go to prison.

In Malaysia, in recent times, the 3Rs should not be touched at all – Religion, Race, and Royalty. If anyone touches these things, no one will be spared is what our PM has said several times and repeated it at the Conference. So we request those people who have come from Tamil Nadu, dear friends, you may have several problems in your country/state, you may be a big shot there but don’t bring that garbage and dump it here.

What should one speak when you come here – something that is common to all, about Tamil, how to do better research in Tamil, how to improve the language, how to better commerce through Tamil, how to improve Tamil research departments, how to create opportunities to do this. Had they spoken healthy politics, it would have made sense but contrarily they spoke unhealthily just because they got a platform. If they thought the people would take this lying down, I think it will lead to very disastrous consequences.”

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