Lingaraj Azad
Madras High Court Judge G. Jayachandran’s statement about the action choreographer Kanal Kannan’s provocative speech case on Periyar statue in front of Perumal temple at Srirangam in Tamilnadu is based on his religious and caste perspective instead of constitutional and existing criminal jurisprudence.
Kanal Kannan is an Indian actor, action choreographer and screen writer who has been working mostly in southern cinema. He was born in Nagarcoil where communal violence was projected by the Hindutva groups against minority chiristian community at Mandaikadu. He has also affiliated with Hindu Munnani, the hindudva organisation that wears the facist ideology in Tamil Nadu.
In the year 2022, while speaking at a meeting, Kannan had insisted that the day the statue of the man who said there is no god, in front of the temple in Srirangam is demolished will be the day of Hindu uprising. He maliciously instigated that Hindus would be uplifted once the statute was demolished. On following this information, the cyber crime wing registered a case against him for the alleged deliberate and malicious provocative speech calling for the demolition of the statue of Thanthai Periyar in Srirangam under sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 505 (1) (b) (with intent to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity) of Indian Penal Code.
Periyar statue in Srirangam
Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, the revolutionary social reformer and rationalist who fought to ensure justice and equality among people in Tamil Nadu. He was also fought for the upliftment of the women to get equal social, political, economic and cultural rights. He also advocated to self – respect and scientific temper, woman rights not only in Tamil Nadu but all over India. Karthick Ram Manoharan in his book “Periyar – A Study in Political Atheism says that Periyar was not a liberal atheist who restricted his criticisms to religion alone. His was a political atheism that expressed disbelief in both god and the state, that attacked both religious and political forms of oppression, highlighting their interlinks. Periyar attacked ideas of god with the intention to promote social reform and equality. He strongly believed that God is the protector of the inequalities and injustice.
Periyar statue in Srirnagam
On considering his immense and sterling contribution to the welfare of the Tamil society, then chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Perarignar Anna unveiled Periyar’s statue in the presence of Thavathiru Kundrakudi Adigalar and Perunthalaivar Kamarajar at Thiruchirapalli bus stand in the year 1967. Since then, many Periyar statues were unveiled all over Tamil Nadu by the ruling DMK Party and AIADMK. In 1969, Periyar’s birthday celebration was conducted in Srirangam by members of the Trichy Dravidar Kazalagam and a resolution was passed to urge the Srirangam Municipality to erect Periyar’s statue in Srirangam.
On following this resolution, a representation was submitted before the Srirangam municipality. On considering the representation, the then Srirangam Municipality Councillor Rajagopal Ayyangar and others brought in the resolution to erect Periyar statue in Srirangam. Meanwhile the resolution was accepted by Y. Venkateswara Dhitchidhar who served as a chairman of Srirangam Municipality and decided to sanction the land to erect Periyar statue in front of Srirangam Police Station in the year 1975.
However, Periyar’s statue was erected only in front of Sriranganathar temple at Srirangam by then chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in the year 2006. In the statue’s plaque was inscribed one of the most rational and scientific slogan of Thanthai Periyar “there is no god, no god, no god. those who preached god are fools. Those who spread god are rough. Those who pray god are barbarians.” The ultimate intention of the inscription is not hurt the religious feelings of the people but to ensure the social reform and scientific tamper.
Decision of the Madras High Court
There are many dark sides in Indian judicial history. It has been functioning as an elite and upper caste institution in India. Despite its ultimate accountability to protect and preserve the constitutional rights of the people and constructing modern rational society based on the principle of liberalism, the Indian judiciary has been protecting the age old inhuman and barbarian inequal social values. The madras high court is not an exception to this prejudice and the privileged institution of the brahmin community. The majority of the judges appointed in it belonging to the brahmin community.
Recently, Kanal Kannan has filed the petition to quash the final report for the alleged offences against him before the Madras High Court. The Madras High court Justice Jeyachandran has set aside the final report filed against him for the calling the demolition of Thanthai Periyar statue in front Srirangam Ranganathar Temple. Despite the legality of the final report as per the provisions of Indian penal code, the judge has considered the rational and scientific slogan uttered by periyar to promote the Tamil society as rational and modern equalitarian with humanitarian value as a provocative statement. The concern of the judge is not judicial, it is religious. The court did not understand the moral and rational democratic values behind the inscription on Periyar’s statue in Srirangam. Every modern state and its constitution have been framed based on rational and legal values. The prominent sociologist Max Weber says that there is no place for god and prophet in the modern society.
Justice Jeyachandran in his order, ridiculously came to the conclusion that the display of the provocative words committing believers of god opposite to the Hindu Temple is the cause for the speech and the person, and cannot prosecute the petitioner for reaction.
Periyar’s statement about the believers of god is not provocative in nature as concluded by the judge. In his whole life, Periyar fought to promote the social reform in Tamil Nadu. In the legal sense, promoting the scientific knowledge is the integral part of the right to speech and expression enshrined under article 19(1) of the constitution of India. Periyar is not the only person who deliberately attacked the god. Betrand Russell, the British philosopher and prominent public intellectual in his book History of Western Philosophy quotes the following sentence from William James “the prince of darkness may be a gentleman, as we are told he is; but whatever the god of earth and heaven is, he can surely be no gentlemen.” Rational attack on god and believers of god was the beginning of the people’s democracy all over the world.
Justice Chandra Reddy of Andhra Pradesh High Court wrote a fantastic judgement in the case N. Veerabrahmam Vs State of Andhra Pradesh and he held that the conditions in india are different from those in other parts of the civilised world in regard to religious beliefs, and there are classes of people in this country prone to fanaticism, bigotry and superstition. We must not forget that we are in a secular state and cannot object to free thinking.
Indeed, Periyar’s ultimate concern was to promote the scientific and rational thinking among the people and ensure social and economic equality. Unfourtunetly, Madras high court order has opened the path way to fools who want to break the scientific temper and social reform in this country. The judge’s conclusion on Periyar Statue in front of Perumal Temple at Srirangam in Tamilnadu based on his caste and religious perspective.
Richard A. Posner, well known legal scholar says “judges are not moral or intellectual giants, prophets, oracles, mouthpieces or calculating machines. They are all – too – human workers responding as other workers do to the conditions of the labor market in which they work….Judicial thinking in a Vocabulary to alien to most judges and lawyers.” Justice Jeyachandran of the Madras high court is one among them who did not think judicially when he quashed the final report filed for alleged offence against Kanal Kannan but based it on his religious and caste perspective.
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Lingaraj Azad is a practicing advocate at Madras High Court.
