An event held in Chennai on November 3, claiming that Brahmins in Tamil Nadu are being “persecuted” has led to widespread controversy. Organised by Arjun Sampath, founder of the right-wing outfit, the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK), the rally demanded that Brahmins should also have the “protection” of the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act that abolished the casteist practise of ‘untouchability’. 

The event was attended by BJP Minority Morcha national secretary Vellore Ibrahim, actor Kasthuri Shankar, BJP West Mambalam councillor Uma Ananadan, a Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) functionary and Congress leader ‘Americai’ V Narayanan, Ambedkar Janashakthi founder Vishwanaath among others. 

A day after the event, a portion of Kasthuri’s speech on Telugu-speaking Tamils in the state has also led to furore. The speech included everything from alleging that Kollywood had denied her opportunities because she’s Brahmin, to denying historic caste oppression and even baseless accusations of “Brahmin genocide”.

Claims of Telugu dominance and ‘Brahmin oppression’ 

Causing massive outrage, Kasthuri said at the rally, “When the descendants of the people who spoke Telugu came to serve the women of the harams of kings, claim to be Tamils now, who are you to say that Brahmins who came here long ago are not Tamils? This is why they cannot call themselves ‘Tamilargal Munnetra Kazhagam’ and found a term called Dravidians instead.” 

Her comments led to many slamming the actor on social media, with some tagging Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan demanding action. 

After this, Kasthuri who now lives and works in Hyderabad, claimed that her comments were only to point out that leaders of the DMK, who indulge in ‘Brahmin hatred’, are not natives of Tamil Nadu, but dismiss Brahmins as outsiders.

The Telugu ancestry of Karunanidhi and Periyar has often been cited to call them ‘non-Tamils’. 

“They adopted a fake Tamil identity and then told Tamil people that they are not entitled to their identity,” she said later defending herself.

At the event, she also alleged that while a Dalit party like the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) are not given a “share in power” in the state, “Telugus are given a large share in power in the state.”

Callout of Brahminism is ‘anti-Hindu’

Misrepresenting facts, Kasthuri said at the rally, “Brahmins will not be able to bear it if our sustenance is taken away from us. Because all that we get to eat is a quarter cup of kanji [rice gruel]. And then we have to observe a fast on Ekadasi [the 11th day in a Hindu calendar month] and the next day we can eat only agathi keerai [a type of spinach; Sesbania grandiflora]. This is all we eat. If our livelihood is taken away. I have begun to fear that in the coming days, whether there will be any more Iyers left to conduct the last rites. This is a grave tragedy for all of Hinduism.”

Most of what the actor represents as ‘oppression’ are practices enforced by caste supremacy and Hindu rituals, including fasting and the belief that only a Brahmin can conduct the last rites for a person.

She further said, “The reason for why they are destroying a community that should be an integral part of one’s life from birth to death, is Dravidian ideology. Anti-brahminism is a part of that ideology.” 

She went on to claim that Hindu society is like “four oxen”— a reference to the varna system that codifies caste hierarchy into: brahmins, vaishyas, kshatriyas and shudras. It must be recalled that Dalits and Adivasis are considered ‘avarna’ or outside of these four varnas. 

“If all four are united, no one can do anything to Hindu society. But false stories are told that one community oppressed or marginalised another in order to create divides,” she said.

Another voice who made similar claims of divides in Hindu society was BJP’s West Mambalam councillor Uma Ananadan. “I am indebted to Brahmins. Why was I the only one criticised for doing ‘vote bank politics’ because I stood in West Mambalam [a Brahmin dominated neighbourhood in Chennai]? Don’t Nadars, Gounders or Saiva Pillais do the same? Why are only Brahmins targeted for this?”

This is untrue as election coverage in Tamil Nadu, as is the practice across the country, is always analysed keeping in mind caste vote banks of different communities. 

Uma further said that all castes should come together to create a “Hindu vote bank.” Using mocking terms to refer to Dravidian leader and rationalist Periyar, she went on to add, “Caste cannot be destroyed. Caste exists and will continue to exist. I want to join hands with other Hindu communities and continue my journey towards the rise of Hindus.” 

Earlier in her speech, she also said that Brahmins should stop “complaining that they are being mocked” and that the reason that they “continue to be mocked, is because they did not hit back the first time it [allegedly] happened.”

Uma was the BJP’s sole winner during the 2022 urban body polls in Chennai. She fanned controversy announcing that she is a supporter of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) idealogue Nathuram Godse and claimed that he had his “justification” for assassinating MK Gandhi. 

At the event, a man named Sriram was introduced as the PMK’s media wing secretary. However, sources in the PMK told TNM that no official representative had been sent. Congress too has distanced itself from Americai Naryananan’s presence at the event. Earlier in 2022, Narayanan had been banned from speaking on TV news debates by Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president KS Alagiri for speaking against the party’s leadership and policies. 

Also at the event were representatives from organisations such as the World Brahmin Welfare Association (WBWA) and Veera Vanniyar Peravai. 

Alongside Kasthuri, actor-producer Pyramid Nataraj spoke at the rally as well. 

Ambedkar Janashakthi founder Vishwanaath repeated the claims that Brahmins are being “oppressed” and added that a united front across caste and religion was required to electorally defeat the DMK. 

BJP Minority Morcha national secretary Vellore Ibrahim registered his support to bring special legislation similar to the PCR Act to “protect” Brahmins from the people who “derogate” them. 

Americai Narayanan announced that “Hindu and India are the same.” 

Claims of  ‘anti-Brahminism’ in Kollywood

Speaking at the rally, Kasthuri said that Arjun had brought together supporters from different castes on behalf of Brahmins. “There are people here from the Thevar, Vanniyar and Parayar communities. There are people from Arjun Sampath’s community. When ‘Thevar Magan’ and ‘Chinna Gounder’ can be here, who says ‘Iyer the Great’ will not be released shortly too.” The actor was referring to intermediate caste-supremacy films such as Thevar Magan (1992) and Chinna Gounder (1992), which saw a wave of popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Kasthuri was claiming that it was only a matter of time before a film titled Iyer the Great could also come out. 

The actor went on to attack the recently released Sivakarthikeyan-starrer Amaran, produced by Kamal Haasan. She claimed that the film deliberately “hid” the Brahmin identity of posthumous Ashoka Chakra awardee Major Mukund Vardarajan on whose life and death Amaran is based. “They say they are making a movie without alluding to caste,” mockingly adding, “The film is titled Amaran because saying ‘Iyer’ or ‘Iyengar’ and saying ‘one whose sense of honesty is immortal (amaran)’, is the same.” 

Going back to alleging so-called ‘anti-Brahminism’ in Kollywood, Kasthuri claimed that she had moved to Hyderabad to work in the Telugu film industry, as she was being refused opportunities due to her Brahmin identity and “pressure from higher ups”. 

She then went on to criticise Mari Selvaraj’s directorial debut Pariyerum Perumal (2018). “There is a bar scene. Throughout the film vague terms like ‘aadhika jaathiyinar’ [Dalits] ‘idai jaathiyinar’ [intermediate castes] and ‘aanda kudiyinar’ [dominant castes] are used. Names like Gounder and Thevar can only come in the title when they’re the heroes, not when they’re the villains. Unless it's movies like  Soorarai Pottru (2020), where the Brahmin hero is given one of ‘their’ names–Maran. And the villain is given a Brahmin identity.”

Both movies appeared to be a sore point with Brahmins at the rally. A speaker named Nithyananda, who appeared on a debate show on the Tamil news channel Puthiyathalaimurai on November 4, also cited the films as an example of ‘Brahmin oppression’. 

“In Pariyerum Perumal,” Kasthuri continued at the November 3 rally, “The hero goes to a bar to drink. There is only one man there whose shirt is completely unbuttoned. Why? So that his poonal can be shown. There’s no one at the bar wearing a cross or Islamic skull cap.”

Pariyerum Perumal, set in the director’s home district of Tirunelveli, shows the everyday casteism and violence of caste supremacy faced by its eponymous hero, a young Dalit law student (Kathir). The film shattered previous on-screen representations of rural Tamil Nadu—mostly told from the perspective of dominant communities— as idyllic caste-endogamous havens or as sites of farmers’ resistance to corporates. Pariyerum Perumal was bankrolled by anti-caste director Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Productions. 

Meanwhile, Soorarai Pottru, directed by Sudha Kongara and starring Suriya, was partly based on the life of low-cost airlines Simplyfly Deccan (then Air Deccan) founder GR Gopinath. In the film, Suriya plays Maran, a Periyarist, determined to make flying accessible across class. 

Both films won critical acclaim and audience praise, but Hindu right-wing loyalists including many Brahmins, were outraged at Maran’s politics, saying Gopinath himself is Brahmin.