Tag: atheist

New Superstar

~ The Koboi Project
Mammooty + Rajinikanth | CM Kerela + CM Tamil Nadu

In the sixteenth State legislative assembly elections of Tamil Nadu held on the 6th April 2021, the DMK won the majority of seats and its president M K Stalin, son of previous Chief Minister and DMK patriarch M. Karunanithi, will reportedly be sworn-in as the Chief Minister on May 7.

When Superstar Rajinikanth dropped out of of Tamil Nadu politics in December 2020 on the basis of ill health, he was in effect, acknowledging the impossibility of religious politics in Tamil Nadu. It seems that neither his spiritual politics nor the BJP’s Hindutva, for which he was allegedly a proxy, had a chance of victory in the political milieu of the South.

In the meme pictured above, Rajinikanth’s visage in a still form the Mani Ratnam film Thalapathy has been replaced by that of MK Stalin. This meme also presents Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in the place of Mammooty, who plays Rajinikanth’s friend in the 1991 film.

Both the Dravidian MK Stalin and the Communist Pinarayi Vijayan are avowed atheists.

https://twitter.com/umasudhir/status/1388873470662955013

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/rajinikanth-opts-out-of-political-entry-citing-health-covid/article33443627.ece

https://www.timesnownews.com/india/tamil-nadu/article/dmk-chief-mk-stalin-stakes-claim-to-form-govt-in-tamil-nadu-after-stupendous-victory-in-2021-assembly-polls/753051

https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/rajinikanth-politics-periyar-bjp-rss-gurumurthy-tamil-nadu-elections-2021

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Murugan and Rajinikanth

~ The Koboi Project
Kiasu Cowboys Performance, Koboi Project, Singapore Art Museum 2017

In the midst of the Political storm caused in Tamil Nadu by the Periyarist Karuppar Koottam facebook chanel’s recent denigration of Lord Murugan and his Kanda Sashti Kavasam, Superstar Rajinikanth came out form his political hibernation to acknowledge the sitting AIADMK state government, itself Periyarist in inception, for the swift crackdown on the alleged provocation. Two protagonists of the disturbance were arrested and charged with ‘giving provocation intent to cause riot’, ‘promoting enmity between different groups’ and ‘deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings’ under the Indian Penal Code.

Writing on this matter based on my valid, if limited, locus standi, as a Jaffna born Tamil, I must note that while I am enamored of the ethos and charisma of Dravidian politics, I have never appreciated its central praxis of narrow communal scapegoating as a means to mass mobilization. While admiring their pioneering deconstruction of religion and myth as means to power and as forms of social control, I have always rejected their blank atheism as a window onto the truth of human existence. Without developing this sensitive, explosive even, subject further, I would like to take the opportunity of its topicality to index my own engagement with this nexus of Muruga and Thalaiva! In 2016/17, I presented an installation and performance at the Singapore Biennale which itself became the basis for 5th photographic series of the Koboi Project titled Kiasu Cowboys. Central to this work are the acknowledgement of Lord Murugan, via an antique terra cotta icon of the ‘mango myth’ and a large photographic print of a cinema hoarding of Superstar Rajinikanth.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInQup_YzESGFToU1zZ8JBg
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-two-tamil-nadu-periyar-activists-arrested-for-offensive-video-on-lord-muruga/357020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc31a0xd1FUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc31a0xd1FU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Anna_Dravida_Munnetra_Kazhagam
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/karuppar-koottam-hindu-peravai-members-held-under-goondas-act/article32207633.ece
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Tamil_Nadu
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kiasuhttps://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kiasu
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kiasu/icon
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kedualan