Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 12 March 2018 | Page 3
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Volume LVIII, No. 10
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Rajesh Ramachandran
GROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR R. Prasad
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR Sunil Menon
CHIEF OF BUREAU Pranay Sharma
ASST EXECUTIVE EDITOR Satish Padmanabhan
POLITICAL EDITOR Bhavna Vij-Aurora
WRITERS Arindam Mukherjee, Lola Nayar,
Qaiser Mohammad Ali (Senior Associate
Editors), G.C. Shekhar (Associate Editor), Dola
Mitra (Sr Asst Editor), Pragya Singh, Prachi
Pinglay-Plumber, Minu Ittyipe (Asst Editors),
Ajay Sukumaran, Naseer Ganai (Senior Special
Correspondents), Ushinor Majumdar (Special
Correspondent), Arushi Bedi, Siddhartha Mishra
(Correspondents)
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Published for the week of March 06-12, 2018
Released on March 03, 2018
Total no. of pages 84, Including Covers
The Tamil Country
I
T’S tough to run a news magazine in a 24X7 digital world. You may not even get to
slip in a decent obituary on a production day. This is the Holi week and we are going
to press without even paying attention to Karti Chidambaram’s arrest, Jayendra
Saraswathi’s death, the assembly bypolls and much else. Interestingly, Karti Chi-
dambaram and Kanchi Shankaracharya personify a strange contradiction found
only in their home state. For me, Tamil Nadu is the most fascinating place in the
country. It is the cradle of civilisation carved beautifully in rock. Forget the fights over
the antiquity of Tamil and Sanskrit, it also doesn’t matter whether newer archaeologi-
cal discoveries in Tamil Nadu have discounted the “out of Africa” theory, what matters
are the brilliant Big Temple at Tanjavur, Madura Meenakshi, Chidambaram and the
countless magnificent structures dotting the landscape. Equally compelling are the
competing inscapes of ideas and socio-cultural movements
that have shaped the Tamil discourse.
It accommodates the most post-modern of ideas along
with the remnants of a regressive past. Till late, Periyar’s
self-respect, Dravidian identity and rationalism hadn’t
made much difference to the two-tumbler system of the
villages. Jayendra Saraswathi was a living god of Brahmin-
ism, who was sent to jail in a murder case by a Brahmin
chief minister. But a politician who revelled in being lab
elled an anti-Brahminical, Dravidian icon never dared
poke this Shankaracharya. A Malayali chief minister, to bolster his Tamil credentials,
even nurtured Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. Like the intricate carvings of the maj
estic Tamil gopurams, the societal contradictions make a pattern, which in itself is a
breathtaking sight. Here a Dalit musician blends folk and classical traditions—sup-
posedly antithetical—to create an unheard harmony, that too in popular culture.
But the saddest contradictions are Tamil politicians. They are probably the worst
opportunists and the most corrupt, still spouting Periyar and Ambedkar, equally
comforta ble in a necktie and a konakam (loin cloth). Glib in court, courteous in cus-
tody, happy in jail, and murderous in power, their rags to riches stories are the stuff
of epic poetry. But their voters remain dirt-poor. Therein lies the real tragedy: rich
representatives of poor people or the poor creating new demons from among them-
selves. There are constituencies represented by the richest of politicians without
even the basic amenities. Instead of hand-pumps, they install ATM machines. Dur-
ing the 2004 Lok Sabha elections I travelled widely in Tamil Nadu. There was one
constituency which was forever etched in misery in my memory. In the desert-like
hamlets of this five-star constituency, there was no drinking water and the people
had to make do with a brackish liquid. I met women who made Rs 10 a day selling
the burnt charcoal of twigs of thorny bushes, which were aplenty. This was the sight
in a constituency repeatedly represented by a politician whose sneezes and coughs
used to send the stockmarket into a tizzy.
So, whether they are arrested or acquitted, one thing is sure, these thalaivars are
not good for their constituency or this country. Three people, two press employees
and a guard, were killed when two cousins fought. One of them had a BSNL exchange
running from home and another is supposed to have polished off a prominent hill,
quarrying and mining all its worth. Between these two or the other one who cannot
offer drinking water does the empty talk on Dravidian identity or inclusive politics
really matter? In fact, this is the only state where they profess maximum ideology
and practise maximum fraud.
Rajesh Ramachandran
12 March 2018 OUTLOOK 3