Why is the 'atheist' DMK government of Tamil Nadu organising a global conference on Lord Murugan?

The religion

Every year, devotees from across Tamil Nadu and the community’s diaspora in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, and South Africa climb the hillock by dancing in a trance, mainly during the Thaipusam festival. They do so after piercing themselves with spears, carrying ceremonial `Kavadi,' and walking barefoot for several kilometres.

In the local dialect, ‘Kavadi’ means burden, symbolising the burden of one's past sins, and here, people carry them on their heads as an act of atonement.

In its simplest terms, Kavadi can be a pot of milk or a bunch of flowers. But devotees often prefer extreme forms, including heavy metal objects pierced into or fixed to the body.

Despite Tamil Nadu's deep-rooted Dravidian ideology, which discards popular Hindu myths and promotes atheism in abundance, Murugan has always remained integral to the larger exploration of regional pride and identity.

In the process, Tamil historians and scholars created theories disapproving of his Skanda-Karthikeya form, prevailing widely in northern and eastern India as the elder son of Shiva and Parvathy. They reject his affiliation with the Shiva family, saying it is an Aryanised concept and claim that his origin was in pre-‘Aryan Tamilagam’ or Tamil motherland.

For them, Murugan is a Dravidian icon, representing southern defiance against the Aryan invasion. Other abodes of Murugan in the state, like Thirupramkundram, Thiruchenthur, Swamy Malai, Thiruthani, and Pazhamuthir Cholai, also have unique folklore depicting him as the symbol of local resistance and defiance.

The religious icon of Dravidian identity

DMK leaders have argued that Murugan was among the many cultural symbols appropriated by Indo-Aryans. The party claims that Murugan was an ancient god of the hills (all his abodes are hillocks) with an independent cult but that he was slowly inducted into the Shaivite fold through various religious scriptures and appropriation.

According to C. Lakshmanan, a former Madras Institute of Developmental Studies faculty member, Murugan is widely popular across Tamil Nadu, especially among the Dalits and OBCs. He is revered by many names in the state, such as Sarāvana, Amurugam, Gurugruha, Guhan, Subrahmanya, Vadivelan, Senthil, Swāminātha and Ṡanmukha.

"Over the centuries, the forces of Vedic religion and the ideals of state and kingship led to the appropriation of this once powerful tribal god and turned him into the kingly Skanda-Kartikeya, son of Shiva. But Murugan eventually found his way back into the Tamil heartland, where he began his journey as Śeyon many centuries ago. Tamils believe that Murugan and Subrahmanya are distinct," R. Venkatraman, a retired professor of art history based in Chennai, said, adding that Seyon is another Tamil name for Murugan.

Lynn Ate, a doctorate in classical Tamil literature from the US who has been researching religious references in Sangam literary works for the past four decades, noted that, in contrast to the Vedic gods, which were sky-dwelling, the Dravidian deities were positioned on earth. The concept of god was not placed on a pedestal and was more accessible, she said.

The politics over the god of war and victory

While Tamil Nadu's DMK Government is preparing to host a two-day global conference on Murugan in Palani on August 24 and 25 at an estimated expense of ₹300 crore, the unusual event has triggered different interpretations, with different interest groups treating it differently.

The move has antagonised the BJP-RSS and other votaries of resurgent Hindutva, and they say the conference is part of the desperate efforts by the DMK to shed the anti-Hindu image the party has acquired over the years.

On the other hand, DMK idealogues portray it as a calculated attempt by Chief Minister MK Stalin to challenge the Hindutva threat in the state by projecting Murugan as the face of the state's cultural resilience.

They also term it as part of efforts to reinvent the core of the Dravidian legacy, which dates back to the Sangam era, the period from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD in south India, when the Aryan invasion had not started, but Murugan had already found worshippers.

While Hindutva organisations accuse the Stalin government of appropriating the legacy of Skanda-Subrahmanya, DMK’s plan to hold the conference is also being interpreted as part of its larger plan to checkmate the growth of BJP-RSS in the state.

Though Tamil Nadu remains the lone southern state, which did not elect a BJP candidate in the last Lok Sabha election, what worries the DMK and its alliance partners is the double-digit vote share it won across the state. The BJP vote share in the last election was 11.1%, and the DMK is keen to counter the potential threat.

When contacted by Hindustan Times, Hindu religious and charitable endowments department minister, PK Sekar Babu said the conference will help the world easily understand Murugan's philosophical doctrines and unite his devotees at a global scale. He also said the conference would help initiate deep explorations of scriptures, which contain the philosophy of Murugan.

Over 2000 delegates from across the globe are expected to participate in the conference, the first of its kind organised by the DMK government.

Previous attempts by the BJP to appropriate the legacy of Murugan have not had the desired impact.

Last year, the BJP's campaign against a YouTube channel that was seen to have made disparaging remarks on a devotional song ‘Kandha Shashti Kavasam’ received poor patronage due to the non-cooperation of ordinary devotees who were suspicious of the party's ulterior motives. Since 2020, the BJP has conducted numerous religious outreach programmes in the state but has yet to win any public support for the initiatives led by present union minister L Murugan.

As the conference dates fast approach, the BJP state unit has been scathing in its criticism of the programme.

State president K. Annamalai argued that this can be seen as a way to drive a wedge among Hindus by classifying them as Murugan devotees and those who are not, thus furthering the "North-South divide" narrative. He recalled the recent statements of DMK leaders, including Stalin and his son Udayanidhi, disrespecting Hindu traditions and symbols to `prioritise the interests of non-Hindu groups over the majority population.'