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When Fireworks of Hindu awakening heralded this Deepavali

When Fireworks of Hindu awakening heralded this Deepavali

Author: Sankara. Mahadevan
Publication: Media Centre (Chennai)
Date:

Unlike in other states, which celebrate their 'rajyotsav', the state of Tamil Nadu does not bother to celebrate its formation day falling during November.  All the samepeople witnessed an unprecedented development, on November 1 overshadowing everything else.  Guess what it is?

It was not the scene of striking teachers and government employees picketting  and getting arrested all over the state braving ESMA. It was the news of a massive rally on the sprawling beach in Chennai the previous day  which snatched media attention.  That evening, open umbrellas in hand, over 10,000 persons, men and women, turned out on the sands with the Bay of Bengal sea roaring nearby, in response to Kanchi Shankaracharya Shri. Jayendra  Saraswathi Swamy's call to "celebrate Deepavali by supporting the recent conversion ban ordinance."  They listened with rapt attention to the exhortation of Swamiji unmindful of the howling winds heralding the north  east monsoon which inundated the state capital last week.   Not that a rally in support of the Ordinance that was unprecedented; the one at Madurai the previous week was graced by a large number of Sadhus and Hindu organisations swinging into action; Madurai media described that event as one which "shook Madurai." But the Chennai Shankaracharya rally stood out in that a traditional Hindu institution came out in the open in support of a legislative measure congenial to Hindu interests.

Though the Deepavali celebration part of it consisted of new sarees and dhotis being distributed to over a 1,000 people right there, the real spirit of the Hindu festival was eminently highlighted by the flood of saffron flags that day all along Thilakar ghat on the marina beach, the hallowed site of freedom struggle days when Lokamanya Thilak and poet Subramania Bharathi had addressed vast gatherings driving home the need for swa rajya.  This time it was for swa dharma.

i.e., the Hindutva.

This was a brilliance in an otherwise gloomy scene in the state.  The 10  day old state government employees' strike for a wage hike was stonewalled by a stern Chief Minister.  The imperious lady argued, "Already 94% of government revenue is spent on employee salary."  For the general public, though the arrival of the belated monsoon was a welcome relief, it no doubt dampened the buying spree during the festival season.  In contrast to all this was the near universal enthusiasm of the thinking section of the public evoked by the conversion ban ordinance  which was passed in the Legislative Assembly on the very day of the beach rally.

At the rally the Shankarachary insisted, "all of us must be aware of our Hindu identity" and held the activities of non Hindus responsible for "this Hindu show of strength".  He pointed out that for long conversion was going on in the state but as the number of complaints of such incidents increased, it became necessary for a law to be enacted.  At this juncture, it would be of interest to note how the mere existence of the ordinance came handy to the Theni district collector in thwarting the attempts of a Christian group in that backward district to plant a church by trespassing into government lands.  Of course, the collector acted upon complaints from Hindus well informed of the ordinance.

The most evident highlight of the rally on the Chennai beach was the presence of a sizeable number of Harijans and the Shankaracharya, through his speech, let them all know that he was aware of the persistent evil practice of untouchability.  He cited the practice of keeping a separate tumbler for Harijan brethren in some village tea stalls and counselled an immediate halt to the pernicious habit.  Any Hindu deity shall go in procession through any street in the village, provided the residents invite the deity in complete piety, the Shankaracharya assured.

As the rally was in progress on the stormy beach, news broke out that the Bill to replace the 'Tamil Nadu Forcible Conversions Prevention Ordinance' has been passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly minutes back.  Of course, after a stormy debate on the floor of the House, during which the DMK for its anti-Hindu vituperations and the Congress for its doublespeak on conversion ban legislations came in for a severe dressing down by the supporters of the Bill.  The House passed the Bill with 140 voting for and a mere 73 voting against.

In a House where heckling at Hindu religion used to be not uncommon, the presence of BJP changed it all.  During  the debate, Shri. H.Raja, one of the 5 BJP MLAs, read out with the permission of the Speaker, a portion from a Hindi encylopaedia neatly nailing the lie spread for decades by DMK and DK that the word Hindu in Persian meant a thief.

The encylopaedia revealed, as Raja read it out, " persons living in Persia, after embracing Islam, tended to append the meanings of 'Kafir', 'Lutera', 'Gulam', 'Kaala', etc., to the word 'Hindu' which had the existing meaning of 'people living beyond the Sind' ".

On November 2, the clouds cleared and the sun shone on Chennai in more than one sense; the striking government employees managed a patch - up with the unrelenting Chief Minister Jayalalitha so that Deepavali could sail through smoothly.  Wrath of the public is not quite sweet, after all!

The Hindu enthusiasm looked like that it will linger on, with Hindu Munnani's Rama.Gopalan announcing a signature campaign in support of the Forcible Conversion Ban Act.

Email: mediamds@vsnl.com
 


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