EXPLAINED: Muthuramalinga Thevar and politics of Thevar vote bank in Tamil Nadu

Leaders of all political parties, including Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, opposition leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami, and Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan, went to Pasumpon, a small town near Ramanathapuram, to pay homage to Muthuramalinga Thevar, considered an icon of the Thevar community. The Thevars, known as the Mukkulathors, are a numerically dominant and politically vibrant community in south Tamil Nadu.

Muthuramalinga Thevar, an iconic figure of the Thevar community, is considered a demigod by the community. The youth in south Tamil Nadu from the Thevar community follow and celebrate Muthuramalinga Thevar, a polarising figure in Tamil Nadu. A freedom fighter, Thevar was initially part of the Congress and later floated his own outfit called the All India Forward Bloc. He also worked under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

On September 10, 1957, he objected to the presence of dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran at a peace committee meeting called by the then Ramanathapuram District Collector C.V.R. Panikkar. It turned into a caste clash. The next day, Immanuel Sekaran was found murdered in his hometown, Paramakudi, near Sivaganga. Today, the Thevars and the dalits in the Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga regions have a chequered history. While Sekaran is looked at as an iconic figure among the dalits in the region, Thevar is celebrated by the community.

October 30, being his birth and death anniversary every year, sees political parties in Tamil Nadu flocking to his memorial at his hometown, Pasumpon. With just six months for the election, this year, all the political party leaders, including Vijay’s fledgling TVK, went to Pasumpon to pay homage to Muthuramalinga Thevar. The Thevar community, which includes three sub-castes – Kallar, Maravar, and Agamudaiyar – is spread across the southern part of Tamil Nadu, from Dindigul to Thoothukudi, and is electorally viable. Though Thevars, or the Mukkulathors (an umbrella term for the three sub-castes), are only 6 to 8 per cent of the total electorate in Tamil Nadu, the community is politically agile and present across parties. The Thevars gained political and administrative strength during the AIADMK regime, first under M.G. Ramachandran and then under J. Jayalalithaa. Known for their political acumen and adaptability to work under any leadership, Thevars play key roles in both the Dravidian parties and also in the state administration. “They have a cross-district dominance and a substantial effect in terms of swaying elections. This makes them salient,” says K.R. Vignesh Karthik, an academic and a Dravidian researcher.

In Tamil Nadu, there are only four caste groups that are numerically dominant and geographically spread across districts: Vanniyars, Thevars, Gounders and Nadars. While the Gounders, Vanniyars, and Nadars merged in the early '50s and '60s around community empowerment and caste associations, which were put together by a powerful personality in the community, the Thevars did not have a caste association or a powerful leader then. Only 20 years after the death of Muthuramalinga Thevar did his community begin celebrating him. He was a leader only posthumously. Rallying around him goes back to the politics of south Tamil Nadu, which has Nadars, Devendra Kula Vellalars and the Thevars. They are not fraternal groups but ethnic, caste-based groups that operate more like interest groups.

After his death, he acquired a stature only because there was a need for a mobiliser in the community. This strategically happened during the MGR regime. Muthuramalinga Thevar was brought into the textbooks during the MGR regime. It was MGR who made him an iconic figure. Incidentally, his first MLA was Maya Thevar, who hailed from the community.

During C.N. Annadurai’s period, not even one person from the community was part of the cabinet. But under MGR, who followed Annadurai, four to five MLAs were accommodated in his cabinet, while Jayalalithaa increased it to eight, and now in Stalin’s cabinet, there are five from the community.