From: bond@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Girish)
Subject: JAYA SHRI RAM
Keywords: politics, AIADMK, BJP, Hindutva
Organization: University of New Brunswick
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 21:38:57 GMT

     An editorial  from "The Telegraph", Sunday, November  29, 1992 on
     the recent political happenings in Tamil Nadu:
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                             _J_A_Y_A _S_H_R_I _R_A_M

          To view the remarkable political 'volte face' by  the  chief
     minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms Jayalalitha, as merely a churlish over
     reaction to the Congress inspired antics of Mr Subramanian  swamy
     is clearly inadequate. True, Ms Jayalalitha has reason to be sore
     with her  traditional  ally  for  encouraging  the  Janata  Party
     leader's reckless character assassination. She may also have felt
     that Mr Narasimha Rao, encouraged by Mr G.K. Moopanar, was under-
     playing   her   importance  as  a  political  leader.  But  these
     grievances, important as they are, can not explain  why  Ms  Jay-
     alalitha  took  the audacious step of distancing herself from the
     Congress at last week's meeting of the national integration coun-
     cil, endorsing the Vishawa Hindu Parishad kar seva in Ayodhya and
     making a speech that could well have been  scripted  by  Mr  L.K.
     Advani.  The  collapse  of  the AIADMK-Congress alliance may well
     have been on the cards, but a parting of ways did  not  automati-
     cally imply Ms Jayalalitha's endorsement of Hindutva.

          The shift is more surprising in view of the AIADMK's  avowed
     commitment  to  the  Dravidian  legacy of C.N. Annadurai and M.G.
     Ramachandran. Ms Jayalalitha may be a brahmin by birth,  but  she
     has  operated  in  the  context  of  a movement that claims to be
     inspired by rationalism and a fierce antipathy to the symbols  of
     North  Indian  domination.  Clearly, her endorsement of "majority
     sentiments" in favour of the Ram Janma Bhoomi temple  in  Ayodhya
     is more than a tactical shift; it questions the very fundamentals
     of the AIADMK heritage.  Irrespective of whether or not there  is
     any  prospect  of  a BJP-AIADMK understanding, Ms Jayalalitha has
     provided the Hindutva camp a bridgehead into the southern  heart-
     land.

          Nor  is  it  merely  a  matter  of  personal   beliefs.   Ms
     Jayalalitha's  patronage  of  Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu and her
     encouragement of Vedic learning have been cited  as  evidence  of
     her  status as a closet kar sevak. But these beliefs have assumed
     significance because they coincide with other  rumblings  on  the
     ground.  First,  notwithstanding rationalist streak in the Dravi-
     dian legacy, the advent of MGR signalled a dilution of the inher-
     itance.  Basing  his  claim to fame on his celluloid credentials,
     MGR emphasised a personality cult far more than ideology.  Conse-
     quently,  the  base of the AIADMK became the MGR fan clubs rather
     than the devotees of the anti-brahmin movement. In the new scheme
     of  things,  deification and hero worship became the hallmarks of
     the AIADMK and this has made it possible for  Ms  Jayalalitha  to
     sense opportunities in the new mood of Hindutva being promoted by
     the VHP and Hindu Munnani.  In Tamil Nadu, this is  best  epitom-
     ised  by  the  growing  appeal  of Vinayaga, a god who is a local
     variant of Bharat Mata. From MGR to Ram may sound absurd, but  it
     is a logical progression of an emerging mood.

          Second, the emotive thrust of the anti-brahmin movement have
     long  been  blunted. The brahmins of Mylapore and Egmore who dom-
     inated the Congress till the days of K. Kamraj are today  politi-
     cally  irrelevant. They may have their enclaves of influence, but
     these are mainly outside Tamil  Nadu  and  often  outside  India.
     Anti-brahminism  is  an  archaic plank bereft of immediacy. Simi-
     larly, it is obvious that there is no longer any insidious  North
     Indian ploy to thrust Hindi down the throats of reluctant Tamili-
     ans.  Even the BJP has moved away significantly from the  program
     of Jana Sangh, and no longer insists on the pre-eminence of Hindi.
     This may be a factor behind the BJP's spectacular growth in  Kar-
     nataka.  Instead,  the  new  Hindutva thrust is towards promoting
     local manifestations of faith, such as the Jagannath  rath  yatra
     in  Orissa  and  Gujarat,  Ganapati worship in Maharashtra, Durga
     Puja in West Bengal, Bihar and eastern Uttar  Pradesh  and  other
     festivals in the rest of the Hindi heartland. In such a scenario,
     Ms Jayalalitha as the loyal servant of the towering deity, Vinay-
     aga,  the  symbol of Tamil Hindutva, is not as bewildering as may
     initially appear.
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