Hindutva activists clashed with the police at the base of the Thiruparankundram hill outside Madurai city as they attempted to breach a police cordon and force their way to the summit on Wednesday, December 3. They were trying to light the Karthigai Deepam (lamp) at the ‘Deepothoon’, a pillar located next to a Sufi dargah atop the hill.
Four policemen were injured as the mob raised provocative slogans targeting the DMK-led state government and minorities. Following the unrest, Madurai District Collector K J Praveenkumar immediately imposed a curfew in Thiruparankundram under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
Armed with a court order, hundreds of Hindutva activists — led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Hindu Munnani, Hindu Makkal Katchi, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other Sangh Parivar organisations — began gathering at the ancient site from Wednesday afternoon to witness the lighting of the Karthigai Deepam. The annual ceremony involves invocations to Lord Murugan around a cauldron of fire.
For more than a century until the court order, the HR&CE officials have been lighting the lamp at another spot called the ‘Deepa Mandapam’ near the Uchipillaiyar temple.
The Deepa Mandapam is located on the lower of the two peaks of the 170-acre monolithic rock. However, Hindutva groups have long demanded that the ceremony be conducted at the Deepothoon, which lies next to the 700-year-old dargah of the Sufi saint Hazrath Sultan Sikandar Badshah Aulia.
Tensions escalated when HR&CE officials defied the court directive and lit the lamp at the traditional location near the Uchipillaiyar temple instead.
On Monday, December 1, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, led by Justice G R Swaminathan, ordered that six petitioners must be allowed to light the Deepam at the Deepothoon.
Government and police sources cited two reasons for not allowing the petitioners to proceed. Police said permitting large numbers of Hindutva activists near the dargah could spark communal tension. Additionally, on December 2, the HR&CE department approached the High Court challenging Justice Swaminathan’s order.
Activists vs Police at Temple Town
Enthused by Justice Swaminathan’s order, Hindutva activists gathered in large numbers at around 4 pm to witness the ceremony and celebrate their victory. Even as the Sangh mobilised its cadres, the district administration deployed around 4,000 police personnel in and around the area, set up pickets at various sensitive locations, installed CCTV cameras at vital locations and barricaded roads leading to the hill.
The situation turned volatile when the priests and officials of the state government-run temple refused to change their earlier mode of worship. At 6 pm, they offered Pooja and the Deepam was lit at the usual spot near the Uchipillaiyar temple.
Trouble escalated when a group of men — whom police later identified as outsiders — attempted to dismantle barricades near the temple’s 16th pillar hall and marched towards the hill, injuring at least four policemen. Police stopped the crowd at the second arch and forcibly removed them from the site. Several members of Hindu organisations were detained for attempting to enforce the High Court order.
The crowd that was rushing towards the hill were prevented at the second arch by the police and were forcibly evicted from the spot. In an attempt to control the situation, the police detained members of the Hindu organisations who were protesting and raising slogans to implement Justice G R Swaminathan’s order.
Following which at around 7.30 pm, the Madurai District Collector imposed a curfew banning all public gatherings in Thirupurankundram . “In view of the emergent law and order situation at Thirupanakundram, the prohibitory orders are promulgated under section 163, BNSS (144 CrPC) to maintain public safety and public tranquility till further orders,” read the notification.
In a recent two-part investigative report, titled ‘Ayodhya of The South – A Timeline of time immemorial’, TNM uncovered the legal disputes going back a century and religious contests that go back to the Sangam era.
The only evidence we found to trace the antiquity of the Karthigai Deepam struggle by Hindus in Thiruparakundram was buried in a colonial era document from the Madurai subordinate court. The judge, PG Rama Aiyyar, said that there was an attempt to light a flame on top of the hill in 1862 and again in 1912.
Judge Aiyyar also noted that in both instances the Madurai district magistrate “interdicted the lighting because it was not customary to put up a light there and probably because a breach of peace was apprehended”. His verdict set off a century of litigation.
Drama at Justice Swaminathan’s court
On December 3, while HR&CE officials were in the process of making arrangements for lighting the massive lamp at the Uchipillaiyar temple, Hindu Munnani’s Rama Ravikumar, who is also one of the petitioners in the case rushed once again to the court of Justice G R Swaminathan. He moved a contempt petition at 3 pm against the district administration and the HR&CE officials accusing them of defying the High Court’s order.
The matter was taken up for hearing on an urgent basis by Justice Swaminathan and during the arguments Tamil Nadu government’s additional advocate general J Ravindaran argued that the lighting of Karthigai Deepam was scheduled for 6 pm as per the custom followed so far. The government lawyer averred that hearing of the contempt petition at 5 pm would be premature and sought its closure.
The hearing was passed over for 6.05 pm for further hearing and when the matter was taken up for hearing Justice GR Swaminathan noted that the Deepam had not been lit at the spot specified by him. The officials had instead conducted the ceremony at Uchipillaiyar temple.
“That contempt has been committed is beyond dispute. The order of this court has been breached,” Justice Swaminathan said in his order.
Holding the temple’s Executive Officer (EO) responsible for not implementing the order, Justice Swaminathan passed an order that many observers criticised as unusual and bad in law. The court permitted petitioner Hindu Munnani’s Rama Ravikumar to scale the hill and conduct the ceremony on his own.
“I am conscious that this is only a symbolic gesture. But the importance of symbolism cannot be lost sight of. The petitioner can take ten other persons along with him including the other petitioners. Such assistance is required to carry the articles,” the judgement said.
Coming down heavily on the Tamil Nadu government, Justice Swaminathan said that the state administration has decided to caulk a snook at the court’s order. “Defying the order of this court would send a very bad signal. It would encourage the officials to indulge in such conduct in future also. That would sound the death knell of democracy itself,” his order said.
Further, Justice Swaminathan made an unprecedented move by directing the Commandant of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) – which is mandated with the task of guarding the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court premises – to accompany the petitioners to the hilltop.
“I direct the Commandant, CISF unit to send a team of CISF personnel to offer protection to the petitioner and his associates in carrying out the court’s order.”
At 6 pm, the deepam was lit at the ‘Deepa Mandapam’ near the Uchipillaiyar temple.
Immediately after this, around 60 Hindutva activists tried to rush to the pillar demanding that that deepam should be lit there too. This is when they clashed with the police, and the district administration responded by announcing prohibitory orders.
The final act of the dramatic day played out when Rama Ravikumar, armed with the fresh orders from Justice Swaminathan, arrived at the base of the hill accompanied by more than 50 CISF personnel around 8 pm. This is the first time a central force mandated to protect critical government infrastructure was deployed to a situation like this in Tamil Nadu.
At around 8 pm, a group led by petitioner Ravikumar and their uniformed escorts were stopped in their tracks by Madurai Police Commissioner J Loganathan who was waiting for them with a sizeable force under his command. Citing prohibitory orders issued by the district administration, he told Rama Ravikumar and his supporters to halt.
The activists broke into an animated argument with Loganathan and his troops but they refused to budge. “The DMK government is curtailing the Hindu’s right to worship and it is being done to appease the minority community,” Ravikumar told the media.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government approached the Madras High Court challenging Justice GR Swaminathan’s order and the petition is expected to be taken up for hearing on Thursday.
With inputs from Abhishek Vijayan