The lost Hinduness of Eelam : What if LTTE had claimed their Hindu identity?
A very powerful image from a scene in Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamital. A Hindu Eelam priest chooses to die in his place of worship amidst Lankan army bombs, rather than abandon his Dharma.
A very powerful image from a scene in Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamital. A Hindu Eelam priest chooses to die in his place of worship amidst Lankan army bombs, rather than abandon his Dharma.
Mani Ratnam was conveying a point untouched in in TN's Eelam discourse. That the battle was also a Sinhalese Buddhist Supremacist vs Hindu Tamil. The LTTE took missionary route of linguistic nationalism without a Hindu soul, a misrepresentation of core conflict, doomed to fail.
This denied the religious aspect, Lankan Buddhists attack on Hinduness of Eelam. If they had pushed Hindu claim, whole of India would have felt obligated to stand with them. Picture an LTTE with Hindu iconography of sacred ash, Shivalinga, Rudraksh, Chola flag with tiger imagery.
It was Chola Bhoomi after all for centuries. This could have struck a chord with Indian Hindu mind space, and made it an issue like Ram Setu is. The average Indian Hindu would have identified with the cause, like Indian Muslims identified with the Khilafat movement far away.
Indian Hindu sentiments would have bound itself & made it a political necessity for parties to support the persecuted Hindus of Eelam. In abandoning it's own Hindu identity, in typical missionary route of linguistic based nationalism meant Eelam struggle lost its biggest ally.
Became a fight of mercenaries. The lonely priest here signifies that those who promised to save him have abandoned duty. For a Hindu at brink of annihilation in Eelam, there was no one to heed to his cry. He chooses to die in his own temple, sounding out the lord for justice.
Probably the only scene in Tamil Cinema history to hint at a temple being destroyed. As how James Cameron showed a guilt ridden captain of Titanic choosing to die with it, Mani Ratnam showcases a Hindu priest in Eelam, having no choice but to die in his chosen place of Dharma.
There is a lesson here for TN Tamils who are being sold the same missionary narrative of Tamils are not Hindus. Removing the religiosity of the natives is the first step in soul harvesting.
The above mentioned scene is available @ 5.10 in this video.
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An Eelam icon and foremost Tamil poet from the land stressed how it must have always been a fight for Hindu Tamil Eelam. Ignoring the Hindu aspect of it proved costly he registers.
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