Thevar Jayanthi

Thevar Jayanthi ("anniversary" or "celebration of a special occasion", lit. 'victory' or 'victorious'), celebrated on 30 October, is an annual commemoration of the birthday of Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar. It is celebrated by the Thevar community in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India.^[1] Although not an official public holiday, many schools and businesses in the area remain closed on the day.^[2][3][4]

Garlanding Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar's statue in Madurai during the 2007 Thevar Jayanthi centenary

Background

Although Thevar was active in politics, it is mainly his spiritual discourse that explains his following after his death. Additionally, the fact that his date of birth and death lie close to each other has been interpreted as a sign of supernatural powers.^[5]

Thevar Shrine

One of the main events on Thevar Jayanthi takes place at the samadhi (burial place) of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, located some 50 miles distance from Madurai. Pilgrims gather to take part in the ceremonies at the samadhi on 30 October. In recent years, the ceremony at the samadhi has begun to attract politicians.^[5] Former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi installed the 16-foot-tall statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar at the intersection of Goripalayam in Madurai on 5 January 1974. He also constructed the memorial for Thevar at Pasumpon village.^[6]

Thevar Jayanthi

In 1979, Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran announced the birth anniversary of Thevar to be celebrated as a government event. On 19 October 1994, then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa installed a life-size bronze statue of Thevar at the Nandanam junction facing the arterial Anna Salai in Chennai.^[7]

Golden Armour

Jayalalithaa garlands the Thevar statue at Nandanam in 2004

Tamil Nadu opposition leader J. Jayalalithaa visited the Thevar memorial on 30 October 2010 during Gurupooja. Many from Pasumpon requested that she gift a gold armour for the statue. On 9 February 2014, J. Jayalalithaa, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, donated gold armour to cover the 3.5-foot-tall statue of Thevar. The gold armour weighs 13 kg and is estimated to be worth Rs 4 crore. The armour is kept in a nationalized bank locker in Madurai, and will be taken out and handed over to the organizer of the memorial every year between 28 and 30 October to observe Thevar Jayanthi Celebrations.^[8][9][10]

Political controversy

The All India Forward Bloc, the political party to which Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar belonged, has demanded that Thevar Jayanthi be declared a public holiday in Tamil Nadu.^[11]

The event is not entirely uncontroversial. The CPI(ML) Liberation has charged that the Tamil Nadu government should stop sponsoring Thevar Jayanthi celebrations, claiming that the event is utilized by the Casteist forces.^[12]

2007 centenary celebrations

On 30 October 2007, the birth centenary of Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar was celebrated. TN Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi took part in the celebrations in Pasumpon village.^[13] This was the first time in two decades that M. Karunanidhi participated in Thevar Jayanthi.^[14] At the celebrations, Karunanidhi suggested that Madurai Airport be renamed after Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar. These moves were seen as an attempt by Karunanidhi's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party to challenge the supremacy of the rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) over the Thevar community. The AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa criticized Karunanidhi's participation in the Thevar Jayanthi centenary program, stating that he did not believe in Thevar's ideas. Moreover, she claimed that her previous government had allocated 30 million rupees for the Thevar Jayanthi centenary, but that Karunanidhi's government had spent only five million rupees.^[14]