Polarisation is what strikes you when you see India today. There are all kinds of divisions and perhaps more will come. In that eternal drive for power, there are vested interests that seem to forever be stoking the fires of hatred. Of course, it is all done in the name of communal justice and harmony. Chennai has thus far remained above it all, though of late there are many undercurrents which hopefully will remain just that.
It is still not established by fact that the Kapaleeswarar Temple was demolished by the Portuguese to make way for a church, though Whatsapp may claim otherwise. And let us give them the benefit of doubt. The temple was relocated from the coast and rebuilt by Nattu Muthiappa Mudali. The tank fronting it is on land that once belonged to the Nawabs of Arcot. That was gifted to the shrine, with the proviso that the Muslims be given permission to immerse their taziyas during Muharram there. That does not happen any more but the Nawab still gets an invite to participate in the temple’s float festival.
To me this symbolises Chennai. As does the Tuesday worship of St. Antony at the St Mary’s Co-Cathedral. People from all religions queue up to pray and light candles at the votive altar. And then you have the early morning wait outside mosques by mothers with ill children at their waists. As the leader of the prayers emerges he blows over the children’s heads and lo, the fever subsides. In Royapuram, there is one street with a church, a mosque, a Parsi fire temple and a shrine to a goddess. All happily together.
Battle for social justice
Chennai is also where the battle for social justice began. Long before Ambedkar there were Iyodhee Thass Pandithar and Rettamalai Srinivasan. Other leaders followed. The first Mayor of Madras to come from the ‘depressed classes’ to use a term that was current then, was N. Sivaraj. He was a protégé of Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer. Today it is fashionable to refer only to his (not so laudatory) role during the days leading to Independence but there was much in him that was progressive. Sivaraj was accepted as his junior and treated as an equal in the vast establishment that was The Grove, Sir CP’s residence.
When Sivaraj, after whom a street in Royapettah is named, was elected as Mayor in 1945, The Hindu reported on his speech. And there is a line that the leaders of today would do well to ponder over – “He did not see why poor people who had to be near their places of work should be taken to places outside the city.” We are now living in a city where fishermen are evicted and taken to places far away from the sea. The slums, after being allowed to flourish for years are demolished overnight in the name of beautification of riverbanks while encroachments by the powerful remain.
It is now customary to claim that this religion or that is being targeted but let us also remember that freedom to worship goes on unimpeded in this city. All over the place temples, mosques and churches seem to be flourishing. Crowds are only increasing at each of the shrines. And there is space for atheism too. There is debate and discussion. It has not yet degenerated into destruction. May it forever refrain from that.
December 1992 was a turning point in the history of India. There were riots elsewhere but it was in Chennai that Harmony International was born. The Nawab of Arcot founded it and full page advertisements were released appealing for peace. The city was tense but held its peace. Chennai had once again upheld its traditions.
Anna famously described himself as a Hindu sans the sacred ash, a Christian without the holy cross and a Muslim without the prayer cap. Chennai seems to be a city that has stepped into that maxim with ease.
