Following Hindu Munnani’s announcement of a Murugan Devotees Conference scheduled for 22 June 2025, in Madurai, the Dravidian political ecosystem appeared visibly unsettled. The ruling DMK, known for its consistent minority appeasement and repeated disparagement of Hindu customs, found itself unable to suppress the event directly. Instead, it seems to have resorted to using indirect proxies to do the job.
Enter Jegath Gaspar, a Dravidianist Christian priest and close ties with the DMK in a now-familiar pattern, attempted to sow internal divisions by preaching artificial lines between Shaivism and Kaumaram within Hinduism, and reviving the North-South divide narrative. Gaspar claimed that Vedic traditions (Vaidhikam) are being “imposed” on Tamil Nadu and even went as far as to suggest that the public is disinterested in such practices a statement both misleading and absurd.
In the interview, Dravidianist pastor Jegath Gaspar appeared visibly agitated and unsettled by the upcoming conference. His statements were inconsistent and self-contradictory, revealing a lack of coherence in his arguments. As he spoke, he frequently undermined his own claims, unintentionally exposing his hypocrisy and absence of principled conviction.
Right at the beginning, Jegath Gaspar laid blame on the BJP, declaring, “Conflict, controversy, enmity, hatred, and lies — these are the primary political tools and fuel of the BJP. Today, this country is witnessing more hatred and hostility than it did 20 or 30 years ago. At a time when hatred and enmity have become normalized realities, their final battlegrounds are Tamil Nadu and Kerala — to put it simply, the ancient lands of the Cheras, Cholas, and Pandyas. There is a grand, deliberate plan to somehow destabilize and damage this land that once shone as a beacon of Tamil intellectual and cultural excellence. It is in the midst of this agenda that a group, which has no real connection to Tamil Nadu or the Tamil people, is arriving. What connection does Yogi (Adityanath) have with Tamil Nadu? What cultural or historical link does Amit Shah have? Or what connection does Pawan Kalyan have with the history of Tamil Nadu? A group that has no ties to our land, its roots, or its collective memory is now forcefully entering Tamil Nadu a peaceful, lush land attempting to turn it into a breeding ground of religious fanaticism. Their entire strategy is aimed at the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.”
Then Jegath Gaspar contended that the acts of venerating Lord Ram, constructing a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi, and organizing Vinayagar processions are driven by solely political motives, designed to disrupt the existing culture. He said, “Those who believed they could win elections using Lord Rama, those who tried to (politicize) Vinayagar processions as grand cultural spectacles/commotion and failed — are now turning to Lord Murugan, who holds deep cultural and emotional significance to this land, using him as their latest weapon.”
When asked about the origin of Thirupparankundram hill, he launched into a five-minute ramble, jumping from geography to tectonic plates, only to ultimately conclude with the unimpressive statement, “It originally became Thiruppuram Kundram — there’s no differing opinion on that.”
But almost immediately, his typical Dravidianist secular tone surfaced. It became clear that he was there to push a narrative suggesting that people were opposing Muslim worship at the site. In reality, no one objected to Muslim prayers; the objection was specifically to performing animal sacrifice at the Hindu temple, which is a very different issue.
Then he launched into the usual North-South rhetoric, recycling tired old Dravidian propaganda against Vedic culture. As if that wasn’t enough, he went on to distort history by claiming that the Vijayanagara Empire was responsible for cultural destruction — not the Christian missionaries, not the Mughals, or the Sultans. A blatantly false narrative, clearly crafted to prop up his own faith and its Abrahamic counterpart, all while sitting comfortably on a warped version of history — which likely suggests he skipped every history class.
Jegath Gaspar said, “It was the arrival of Vaidika (Vedic) traditions that caused all this confusion. Just look at the group that’s coming — Amit Shah’s group, Adityanath’s group, Pawan Kalyan’s group. We need to see why someone like Pawan Kalyan is coming here. He traces his roots back to the Vijayanagara Empire. The Vijayanagara Empire caused great harm to our land — not the Christians, not the Muslims, but the people of the Vijayanagara Empire. Yet, this part of history is never spoken about. Finally, in the narrative we build about having to drive out the colonial Britishers who ruled us, these people (Vijayanagara Empire) manage to escape scrutiny. But in truth, the ones who played a major role in destroying the Tamil language, grabbing Tamil lands, removing Tamils from temples, and ousting Tamil priests from their roles—were the Vijayanagara rulers.”
Following that, he began detailing Murugan’s various names, with the apparent aim of asserting Murugan’s distinctness from Northern traditions. This effectively created a subtle North-South divide and simultaneously seemed to disparage Hindu Puranas.
He said, “In the Aryan tradition, there’s a god named Kartikeya. Now they say Kartikeya and Murugan are one and the same, right? Then they spin tales like: ‘Agathiyar came from there, Bharathamuni came from there.’ Just look at how they fabricate stories and say Lord Shiva beat his drum, and from one side came the Ganges and from the other, Tamil. They want to link both. But why this fusion? What is the purpose of this fusion? Because of this forced fusion, look at what’s happened in Nagercoil today—Marwari people have taken over all the major trade and business. I’m sorry to say that but we can’t speak up. What work do you even have here? At least get a proper permit, pay a special 4% tax. That fellow won’t even pay GST properly, won’t pay taxes. Yet he’s captured all the businesses that once belonged to our people. We can’t ask against it because of this fusion ‘We are all one, we are all the same.’ It’s for them they’ve created a group of foot soldiers who willing to kill their own brothers. And now, the aim of all these conferences is to turn that gang of foot soldiers into a real political force. They want to build a massive group here that will act as loyal foot soldiers for them.”
His commentary, rooted in dated Dravidianist ideology, appears to be another attempt to delegitimize Hindu unity and tradition under the guise of cultural autonomy, just as enthusiasm builds for a major religious gathering centered around Lord Murugan, a deeply revered Tamil deity.
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