This Republic Day, the Tamil Nadu government conferred the Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award on well-known fact-checker Mohammed Zubair of Alt News. This drew nationwide attention to an award of which even in the State there is limited awareness.
The award was instituted in honour of V.M. Ameer, alias Kottai Ameer, a man who had stood firmly against religious polarisation but fell victim to Islamic fundamentalism. Born to V.P. Muhammed Ibrahim and Jaina Bheevi, the third-generation Muslims settled at Kottaimedu in Coimbatore, Ameer had an early stint in public life while he earned for the family from a real estate business. Though he started his political life with the Indian National Congress, Ameer had his most active period in the public sphere when he moved to the Janata Dal, becoming the district president of its minority wing.
A secular locality
Having grown up at Kottaimedu, a busy urban pocket housing the more than 1,000-year-old Sangameswarar temple; over two-centuries-old Kottai Hidayathul Islam Safia Jamath mosque; and the more than 160-year-old St. Michael’s Church within one-kilometre radius, Ameer very well knew the closely knit secular fabric of his surroundings. The name, Kottaimedu, traces its roots to a battalion of Tipu Sultan deployed in the area as an extension of his fort at Palakkad.
“Kottaimedu was a place known for communal harmony with Hindus and Muslims living together. As a social worker and well-accepted personality, my father was a committee member of the Kottai Muthu Mariamman Temple and the Sangameswarar Temple. He also extended support when the Karuvalur Mariamman Temple at Kempatty Colony was consecrated, along with one of its trustees K.M. Selvaraj. He actively supported the activities of these temples while strictly following the principles of Islam,” recalls his son V.M.A. Akbar Basha.
Cracks in amity
But the communal harmony in the city developed cracks when it could not endure the ripple effects of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. A year later, Al Ummah, one of the dreaded militant outfits in south India, took shape in Coimbatore. It was founded by S.A. Basha, who is serving a jail sentence in the Coimbatore serial blasts case.
“Soon after the Babri Masjid demolition, discontent grew among a section of the Muslims. Many were attracted to the ideologies of persons like Basha and the secular fabric began to disintegrate. My father raised his voice against this divide in the community and appealed for peace. He organised communal harmony meetings and walked through every street, asking people to maintain harmony,” recollects Ameer’s other son C.V.A. Jaleel, who used to accompany him to these meetings. However, protests by Muslims erupted in Coimbatore and tension prevailed.
A violent protest
“The police had to come to deal with one such protest when Muslims assembled in the packed four-corner junction near B.K. Chetty Street a few days after the demolition. Some people threw stones at the police from atop a building. A policeman took his rifle to fire without orders. My father, who was urging the crowd to disperse, pulled the barrel to a side and the bullet pierced through the shutter of a cycle shop,” Mr. Jaleel recalls. A year later, on November 23, 1993, Ameer received an inland letter, which is still preserved by Mr. Jaleel, from an unidentified organisation, which warned him of dire consequences if he continued to engage in peace activities. This was the beginning. Soon, distant relatives started telling Ameer’s wife Noorjahan that a group within the community was unhappy about his association with Hindu people and efforts to bring peace. “Two days before my father’s death, a relative told my mother that there were rumours about a plan to murder him. She was so pious and innocent and ignored it, saying ‘they wouldn’t do it’. When my father learnt this, he said he was ready to embrace death if that was the price of keeping peace,” remembers Mr. Akbar Basha.
A last walk
However, Islamic fundamentalists were angered after Ameer attended the car festival of the famous Koniamman Temple in the first week of March 1994, in which the temple committee garlanded him. On March 18, 1994, Ameer had gone for a walk around 5.30 a.m., but he did not return home. Soon, news spread that Ameer was run over by a vehicle on B.K. Chetty Street. “I ran to the spot and found him dead. There were several cuts and stab wounds on the body, and I was sure that it was not a case of hit and run. There were 29 stabs and cuts,” recalls Mr. Jaleel.
S.A. Basha’s son Siddiq Ali, Mustafa alias Muthu, Thambi alias Shahul Hameed, and Muhammed Shafee were arrested for the murder and convicted by the trial court. “While delivering the judgment (August 1999), judge Saranga Rajan stated that the murder of Ameer reminded [one] of the assassination of Gandhi by Nathuram Godse for fighting for Hindu-Muslim unity,” says Mr. Jaleel. [In 2005, the Madras High Court, however, set aside their conviction.]
Considering his contributions to communal harmony, the M. Karunanidhi government instituted the Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award in 2000. It also provided a free house and a monthly pension to Ameer’s spouse, and a government job to his daughter on a request from the then Leader of the Opposition, S. Balakrishnan. In 2019, when Edappadi K. Palaniswami was the Chief Minister, the government did not present the award to anyone on Republic Day. Ameer’s family appealed to the government to continue the tradition, which resumed in 2020.
“I have seen Ameer a few times when he visited my father K. Govindarajulu at our jewellery showroom on Big Bazaar Street. My father was the secretary of the jewellers’ association, which was then an influential body. Ameer largely discussed communal harmony with him,” recalls Coimbatore’s chronicler Rajesh Govindarajulu.
‘A torch-bearer’
Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam leader K. Ramakrishnan, who has interacted with Ameer, also remembers him as a torch-bearer of peace and harmony. “Back then, many in the community, including those who were later involved in the serial blasts, did not pay heed to his words. Years after his death, people have realised that he was right. Even members of the right wing organisations see him as a champion of peace and harmony,” adds Mr. Jaleel.
