Culture
Dravidianist-Led Murugan Conference — An Attempt To De-Hinduise A Beloved Deity
Aravindan Neelakandan
Mar 14, 2024, 01:29 PM | Updated 02:07 PM IST
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On 13 March 2024, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Minister P K Sekar Babu announced that Tamil Nadu government will conduct an international conference on 'Tamil god' Murugan.
While on the surface, this is a welcome move for all Tamil Hindus world over, given the Dravidianist anti-Hindu pro-Christian legacy and the not-so-ethical appropriation strategies that powerful Christian lobbies are engaging in Tamil Nadu, this should also make the Hindus of the state more vigilant towards the project.
The first International Conference on Skanda-Murugan was held in December 1998. It was held at the Institute of Asian Studies near Chennai, India. The magazine 'Hinduism Today' in 1999 reported this:
Institute director John Samuel, an Indian Christian, increased the last percentage, opining a non-mystical – and subtly anti-Hindu – view that most scholars, including himself, believe Murugan was elevated from a historical person.... A scholar who joined the temple tour voiced more spiritual doubt – which Samuel and many academicians seem to have – saying he wasn’t interested in psychologically-induced states of mind passing off as mystical experiences emanating from an unknowable source.
In fact in his later writings, John Samuel who organised the International Murugan Conference, openly stated his agenda. In 2005, endorsing the crackpot thesis of Deivanayagam, that Christianity became Saivism in Tamil Nadu, he wrote:
It is crystal clear that the Somaskantha figures and the concept of ammai-appan-magan are nothing but the revelation of the Christian Trinitarian teaching. It is to be noted here that there was no father to Lord Murugan in the beginning.
Sekar Babu himself is a controversial personality who used to attend Christian meetings and known for emotionally shouting hallelujah on their platforms, and also attending 'Sanatana eradication' conferences.
One of the high-voltage consultants to HR&CE is Suki Sivam who toes the line of Dravidianists that Subramanya and Murugan were two separate gods belonging to Aryans and Dravidians respectively.
Pseudo-historical racial 'scholars' of Dravidianist variety with their superficial pop-spirituality and mediocre knowledge of Hinduism, always end up serving as useful agents for evangelical proselytising.
Here one should note that the fanatical Catholic priest Jagat Caspar is quite close to DMK and he has been constantly involved in projects involving evangelical appropriation of Hindu spirituality.
One can very well expect the Dravidianist-led Murugan conference to de-Hinduise Murugan and appropriate him for Christian evangelical purposes.
So, the Hindu scholars and organisations not only in Tamil Nadu but throughout India and world over should be cautious even as we welcome any positive conference on Hindu god, Murugan.
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