Chennai: Thiruparankundram hills in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district have been home to both Hindu and Muslim places of worship for centuries. But a row over an attempted animal sacrifice at a dargah in the area has sparked communal tension.
Now, the conflict has spiralled into a land ownership issue, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and pro-Hindutva outfits in the state calling for the dargah’s demolition and claiming that the land where the Sikkander dargah is located belongs to Hindu temples on the hills.
Thiruparankundram hills are considered one of the six abodes of Hindu deity Lord Murugan, and house the Subramaniya Swamy and Kasi Viswanathar temples. The hills also have a Jain site and several archaeological landmarks.
At the centre of the current row is a land dispute between the dargah and Subramaniya Swamy temple, which was settled about a century ago by the British Privy Council.
President of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit, K. Annamalai, and the party’s national secretary H. Raja have been leading the protest. Annamalai has claimed that the council’s order in 1931 was in favour of the Subramaniya Swamy temple (Lord Murugan temple) management, while Raja has drawn parallels between the Thiruparankundram dispute and the Ayodhya case.
At a demonstration in Madurai on 4 February, Raja called for relocation of the dargah to a different site. “A lot of Muslims visit the Sikandar Badushah dargah atop the Thiruparankundram hill, which belongs to the Hindus. We (Hindus) have also been visiting the Murugan and Shivan temple on the hill for decades. If you want religious harmony, why can’t you move your dargah to another place? What is stopping you?” he remarked.
On 6 February, after examining Raja’s speech, Madurai Police registered a case against him on charges of inciting violence.
A. Ramasamy, historian and former head of Tamil department at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli, said, “If people want to live in harmony in the present, all of them have to let go of the practices of the past and accept the practices of the present. If we dig deeper into the history of the hills in Madurai, almost all of them, including Thiruparankundram, were once the place of Jains.”
According to local residents in Thiruparankundram, Hindus and Muslims have lived in harmony in the region for years and animal sacrifice at the dargah is not new.
However, District Collector M.S. Sangeetha issued a statement on 5 February, saying that neither the board of functionaries of the dargah nor the state government’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department could furnish evidence of animal sacrifice at the dargah in the past.
Nagapattinam MLA and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi deputy general secretary Aloor Shanawas told ThePrint that it is a common custom practiced at every dargah, irrespective of where it is located. “It is largely a once-in-a-year event, and sometimes, people who belong to the dargah may offer prayers and sacrifice animals in the middle of the year. After the sacrifice, they cook the meat and offer it to the people there. It is not new.”
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What sparked the row
On 4 December, 2024, the managing trustees of the dargah announced via posters that “all facilities are available for those who wish to perform Kanduri at the hilltop dargah”.
After an alert by the administrators of the Murugan temple, posters displayed in and around the temple premises were removed.
Thiruparankundram resident R. Sivanandham said the posters were what led to the initial conflict. “This situation arose only because of their advertisement. Even before that, the Kanduri event has taken place on the hills and we have also participated in it.”
On the morning of 25 December, 2024, five individuals attempting to go uphill with a goat for Kanduri were stopped by the police. Subsequently, members of the local Muslim community approached the district collector, which led to a peace committee meeting at the Tirumangalam revenue division office on 31 December, 2024.
Although the dargah’s managing committee was advised to approach the court over law and order concerns, it refused to sign the resolution passed during the meeting, the district collector said in her statement earlier this week. On 18 January, a group of members of the Muslim community petitioned the district collector, seeking permission to sacrifice a goat in front of the dargah on the eve of the annual Santhanakoodu festival.
Later that same day, pro-Hindutva group Hindu Munnani, led by its leader Kadeeswari G. Subramanian, along with 200 workers, attempted to stage a protest at the foothills of Thiruparankundram. “The situation became tense as the Muslims’ plea to continue their tradition was turned into a Hindu-Muslim issue,” local resident Sivanandham told ThePrint.
On 27 January, a group of 11 residents of Thiruparankundram urged the collector to initiate action against those interfering with the traditions, which they said have been practiced in the village for years. Later, during an all-party meeting on 30 January, it was decided that the existing customs of both communities would continue without external interference.
“In Thiruparankundram, existing customs (such as animal sacrifice on the hills) of both communities (Hindus and Muslims) will continue. We will not allow anyone from outside the village to interfere and create confusion,” read the resolution passed at the meeting.
However, the BJP did not participate in the meeting and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam representatives present refused to accept the resolution.
As for local residents, Angelin Hepzibah said she refers to her Hindu neighbours as her relatives. “We have never seen them as outsiders or third person. We have lived here as brothers and sisters for years. The current confusion feels strange, as we have never discriminated against our Hindu neighbours, nor have they discriminated against us.”
Century-old land dispute
The communal and political tensions in Madurai have brought into focus an old dispute over the ownership of land of the dargah, which dates back to the 1920s.
Several organisations, including political parties, advocating for communal harmony, have accused the BJP and pro-Hindutva outfits of disrupting public peace by raking up the issue.
Multiple sources in Thiruparankundram told ThePrint that back in 1920, some individuals managing the Lord Murugan temple had claimed that the entire stretch of the hills belonged to the temple.
However, in August 1923, a trial court (subordinate judge) ruled that the hill primarily belonged to the temple management, except the cultivated land and the dargah site. This site and the steps leading to it were declared the property of the Muslim community.
Even though the then administration and temple management accepted this verdict, representatives of the Muslim community appealed to the high court, which acknowledged that both Hindus and Muslims had rights to certain extent at the hills and ruled that the hill’s ownership would be with the government. Upset with the decision, the temple management appealed to the British Privy Council. According to Vanchinathan, a coordinator for organisations advocating religious harmony, the council upheld the trial court’s judgment, confirming that the dargah site belonged to the Muslim community.
“The court examined over 300 documents and 21 witnesses before delineating the boundaries of the Sikkandar dargah and the Subramaniya Swamy temple (Murugan temple) on the hills. This decision was also upheld by the Privy Council in 1931,” he said.
According to state government sources, two cases regarding the ownership of the dargah land are still pending before the high court. Asked about the ongoing issue, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister P.K. Sekar Babu told ThePrint that the state government would implement the court’s decision once it is finalised. “This is Periyar’s land. We will not allow fringe groups to disturb the peace in the area. Once the court order is issued, we will enforce it in accordance with the rule of law.”
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The Sikandar Badushah Dargah must be removed from the hill. The Muslims have no claim over the hill. The hill belongs to Hindus and Jains. It has been that way for over millennia. The Muslims cannot just forcibly construct a Dargah on the hill and then lay claim on the hill itself.
Historians like Prof. A Ramasamy deliberately beat around the bush. His attempt at indicating that Hindus have no rights over the hill and that it exclusively belonged to the Jains is reprehensible to say the least. He must be an adherent of the Dravidian ideology of Periyar. His ideology quite clearly trumps his commitment to history.
Nevertheless, we Hindus will accept it if the hill is given to the Jains. We are ready to cede control dn ownership of the hills to the Jains. But the Muslims must shift the Dargah out of the hills. They do not have any place at all in these sacred hills.
The article mentions several politicians by name but not the MP who was nearly at the centre of this incident. How about the reported attempt by the other side to hoist their flag on the “sthalaviruksham’ – did that contribute to sentiments of the Hindus being offended?
Such glaring omissions on a news article that leads with calling TamilNadu “Periyar’s land” makes it not interested in presenting a full and balanced view of the situation.