Veteran actor Kamal Haasan is all set to launch his political party on Wednesday. Haasan has said that he will reveal the party’s name, flag and ideology at a public meeting in Madurai – the ancient seat of Tamil Sangam, or literature comprising some of the earliest writings in Tamil.
But Haasan will do something else on Wednesday that has caught the attention of many in Tamil Nadu. He will start the day with a visit to former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s memorial in Rameswaram. Kalam is a much-loved figure across the country and Tamils take pride in the fact that he was a son of the soil. His funeral in 2015 had seen thousands across Tamil Nadu bid him a tearful goodbye.
But Kalam was also Muslim, though he is seen as much more than a community icon. Haasan’s equation with Muslims has been difficult to say the least, despite many mistaking him for one because of his name. Haasan hails from the Tamil Iyyengar community, a Brahmin sub-sect.
In 2013, his film Vishwaroopam ran into trouble with Muslim organisations accusing the actor of showing the community in a poor light by associating it with terrorism. Amid the protests, Haasan declared that he would leave the country if his artistic freedom was curtailed. But he finally relented and deleted some dialogues so that the film could be released. This controversy turned him against the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam too, as he saw the ruling party’s hand behind the protests. He did thank Jayalalithaa, the chief minister at the time, for “her help” in resolving the crisis. But the scar has remained.
Haasan’s political entry coincides with Rajinikanth’s preparations to take the political plunge himself. On December 31, Rajinikanth announced that he would form a political party ahead of Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, which are due in 2021. In the short time since, there has been speculation that the superstar could ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party – which could make the Muslim community uncomfortable.
Given these backgrounds, will Muslims in Tamil Nadu back Rajinikanth and Haasan? And will their entry in politics alter the way the community approaches politics in the state?
Muslim politics
Like elsewhere in India, Partition had a profound impact on Muslims in Tamil Nadu. The Indian Union Muslim League was formed in 1948 and developed a close relationship with the Dravidian movement, which sought equal rights for all castes and communities and promoted the Tamil language. The movement’s founder, EV Ramasamy, viewed Islam with sympathy, given its lack of caste structure. The Indian Union Muslim League was led by Mohammed Ismail – who was revered as Quaid-e-Millath, or leader who ensured communal harmony – till his death in 1972.
As writer Kalanthai Peer Mohammed points out in this interview in The Hindu, Quaid-e-Millath’s death became a turning point in Muslim political history in Tamil Nadu. For years after his death, the party was happy to serve the interests of the business class in the community, and failed to do any grassroots activism. This slowly led to dissent and finally a split in 1994, when several leaders walked out to form the Indian National League.
Like Partition, the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh in 1992 by Hindu groups mobilised by the BJP transformed the Muslim psyche and politics. Coupled with the Coimbatore bombings of 1998 and the police response to it – with scores of Muslims arrested and allegedly ill-treated in prisons – Muslim political leaders became more vocal about taking a tougher stand against Hindutva. This was reflected in the formation of the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam in 1995 and its political party, the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, in 2009.
Since the early 2000s, several hardline Muslim organisations have emerged in the state, including the Indian Towheed Jamath and Tamil Nadu Towheed Jamath. They claim to preach a purer version of Islam and campaign against dilution of the Islamic faith in the form of cultural amalgamations such as the Sufi movement. They speak highly of the ultraconservative Salafi tradition of Islam.
Support for Dravidian parties
But despite the emergence of organisations that claim to exclusively represent the interests of Muslims, the community in Tamil Nadu has largely voted for the Dravidian parties, especially the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The party projects itself as a champion of minority rights, an image that was further cemented in 2003 when it opposed an anti-conversion law brought in by the Jayalalithaa-led government. It has also partnered the Indian Union Muslim League in most elections since 1967.
The Muslim support for Dravidian parties can be gauged from the fact that Muslim parties often perform poorly when not allied with either of the two major Dravidian parties. And when in alliance, their fortunes swing according to the performance of the Dravidian party. In the 2016 Assembly elections, the Indian Union Muslim League and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi together polled less than 1.3% of the votes as allies of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham, which lost to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. While the Indian Union Muslim League won just one of five seats it contested, the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi drew a blank in all four constituencies it put up candidates in.
Kamal and Rajini
In this cramped political space and given the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s clout among Muslims, will Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth make any impact on the community, which constitutes about 7% of the state electorate?
KM Khader Mohideen, state president of the Indian Union Muslim League, said there were enough Muslim political outfits to represent the community and he did not see the need “for a Muslim in Tamil Nadu to look beyond these organisations”.
About Haasan, Mohideen said the bitterness of the Vishwaroopam controversy still lingered. He said the film was an attempt to Americanise Indian cinema by bringing the American view of Muslims and terrorism to Tamil Nadu through cinema. “More than that, we know nothing about their politics,” he added.
On Haasan’s claims of being secular, Mohideen said whether a leader is secular can be determined only by the way they function and not through their words. “What sort of compromises they will make will determine this,” he said.
On Rajinikanth, Mohideen said the actor has no chance of winning as long as he does not categorically disassociate himself from the BJP. “And this is not just about Muslims in Tamil Nadu,” he added.
Writer and filmmaker Kombai S Anwar, who has documented Tamil Muslim history and traditions, said that in the current atmosphere of Hindutva’s growing influence, every election is a do-or-die battle for Muslims. As such, he does not see the community taking the risk of backing either Haasan or Rajinikanth. “The community has voted with the mainstream, which in Tamil Nadu has been the Dravidian parties,” he pointed out.
On the Vishwaroopam row, Anwar said Haasan did try to reach out to the community, adding, “I do not see this as the most important reason deciding how Muslims see him.”
However, the writer called Haasan a confused leader. “As a politician, he has to touch an emotional chord to gain support,” he said. “I am not too sure if Haasan has that at the moment.”