A Muslim man on Monday was voluntarily crucified for more than six and a half minutes to call for the restoration of a convicted Tamil Brahmin political leader who claims to represent the Dravidian cause. The crazy part of the last sentence in a country like India is that the religious identifiers of that sentence don't even matter to the situation. If this were fiction, people would say it was fanciful or that the character at the heart of it was demented. In Tamil Nadu, it appears to be just another day.

Shihan Hussaini, who calls himself a "sensationalist," "para psychic" and "mass influencer" among other things on Monday was reported to have had 6-inch nails driven into his hands and feet as he crucified himself wearing an Amma shirt. ANI reported Hussaini having spent 6 minutes 7 seconds on the wooden cross, adding that it was not a religious reference but a way of commemorating All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa's upcoming 67th birthday.

(The pictures and video below are slightly graphic)



According to news reports, Hussaini was carrying out the task as a way of calling for Jayalalithaa to be reinstated as Tamil Nadu chief minister. The AIADMK chief had been disqualified from holding the post last year after a court convicted her for having been involved in corruption.

Claiming that it is a purely political stunt might be a bit disingenuous on Hussaini's part. In addition to his "mass influencer" credentials, Hussaini also calls himself a karate expert as well as an "endurance world record holder." He has acted in supporting roles in a few movies and his twitter account reveals an attempt to make waves by breaking through 10 ice blocks with his head.

But it wasn't entirely a publicity stunt either. Before he carried out the stunt, Hussaini on his facebook page posted that he would be crucifying himself to pray for the triumph of truth, global peace, religious harmony, penultimate personal achievements and the "return of the golden rule for people in Tamil Nadu."

And this isn't the first time Hussaini has done something slightly ridiculous as a tribute to Jayalalithaa either. In 2013, for the former chief minister's 65th birthday, he made a bust entirely out of frozen blood.

Such actions seem entirely ridiculous until you remember that the cult of political devotion in Tamil Nadu doesn't just infect stuntmen who are willing to go to lengths to be sycophantic as well as earn some publicity. They have also driven supporters to set themselves on fire, with at least 16 people reported to have committed suicide on the day Jayalalithaa was sentenced to four years in jail in the disproportionate assets case last year.

The former CM and top AIADMK leaders don't openly encourage such behaviour, of course, but they have not been shy about building a cult around Jayalalithaa. The party used posters to build her up as a leader and pictures of ministers prostrating themselves before Amma are not unusual. The swearing-in of the new government in Chennai after Jayalalithaa's disqualification was accompanied by vocal signs of dismay and bawling from all gathered. This distance from that sort of devotion to self-immolation and crucifixion, especially from supporters out to show how devoted they are to the great leader, is not large.