Ending a brief period of truce between the Tamil Nadu government and Raj Bhavan, the ruling DMK as well as parties aligned to the BJP on Friday took objection to the omission of a key line from the Tamil state anthem played at an event attended by Governor R N Ravi.
The missing portion ‘Thekkanamum Adhilsirandha Dravida Nal Thirunaadum’, or ‘The Greatest Nation Down South in the Dravidian Lands’, sparked an immediate protest from Chief Minister M K Stalin, who called the omission an “insult” to Tamil Nadu’s cultural pride.
The event itself was a source of tension as a ‘Hindi Month’ conclusion ceremony was clubbed with what was a function to mark the Golden Jubilee of Chennai Doordarshan. Speaking at the event, Ravi seemed to hint at Tamil Nadu’s traditional opposition to “Hindi imposition”, saying: “Poison has been injected into the minds of Tamil Nadu’s people for the past 50 years.”
With the controversy threatening to blow up, Doordarshan Chennai issued a statement saying the sentence from the Tamil anthem had been missed “inadvertently” due to a “distraction”, and that there was no intention on the part of the singers to disrespect Tamils or the anthem. The Governor’s office also said that the troupe that sang the state anthem “inadvertently” missed the line containing the word Dravida.
In a separate statement, the Raj Bhavan said the Governor was merely a participant at the event and had no role in the omission. “The matter was immediately brought to the notice of the organisers, and the appropriate authorities were asked to look into the matter. The Governor or his office had no role in this except that he participated in the programme,” the statement said.
Incidentally, it was the first time that the Raj Bhavan issued such a clarification distancing itself from a controversy surrounding Tamil language and culture involving Governor Ravi, though there have been several under the Stalin government.
The DMK and other anti-BJP parties, however, insisted Ravi had acted deliberately, and with the Centre’s consent, given that the event was organised by Doordarshan.
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Stalin questioned if Ravi was acting as “an Aryan (Governor)”, accusing him of being unfit for his position. “Under the guise of celebrating India, the Governor is insulting the unity of the nation and the diverse ethnic communities living on this land,” the CM said, reiterating that the Centre should immediately recall him as Governor.
He added: “The Governor’s deep-seated aversion to Dravidian identity is clear. Does he intend to remove the Dravidian reference from the national anthem next?”
Earlier, before the Doordarshan event started, Stalin sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising the celebration of ‘Hindi Month’ in non-Hindi-speaking states. He called the move an “attempt to belittle other languages”.
Tamil Nadu Congress chief K Selvaperunthagai joined in the criticism of Ravi, as did Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami of the AIADMK, and PMK founder and BJP ally S Ramadoss, who said the omission of a part of the Tamil anthem was “unacceptable”.
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While the Stalin government and Ravi have been in near-constant conflict through their tenures, for some months now, efforts had been made to keep things civil. Recently, the Union Cabinet approved Phase II of the Chennai Metro Rail project and its share of the funding less than a week after Stalin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The non-participation of the Centre had left the state in a difficult financial position, since it had already announced Phase II of the project.
The Tamil state anthem, known as ‘Tamil Thai Vaazhthu (Praise to Mother Tamil)’, holds a central place in Tamil Nadu’s cultural and political identity. Written by Manonmaniam Sundaranar in 1891, it was originally intended as an invocation to precede his play Manonmaniam. The anthem soon became a rallying cry for Tamil pride and identity, especially in a region where Dravidian ideology, emphasizing self-respect and opposition to Brahmanical hegemony, took root in the early 20th century. In June 1970, the anthem was officially declared the state song of Tamil Nadu.
After coming to power in December 2021, the Stalin government issued a Government Order declaring ‘Tamil Thai Vazhthu’ the state song, mandating that everyone except the differently-abled stand during its rendition at public events. This decision followed a Madras High Court ruling saying that there was no legal requirement for one to stand during the song, considering it as a prayer rather than an anthem.
