Uphold Keeladi! Madurai Demonstration: Speech by Comrade Tamilmani

Uphold Keeladi!

Demonstration in Madurai by PALA!

Demands:

Union Government!

Keeladi: 

Release the Amarnath Ramakrishna excavation report immediately! Do not obstruct the research work!

Tamil Nadu Government:

Pass a resolution in the Legislative Assembly demanding the release of the Keeladi report!

₹1 crore is not enough for archaeological research; allocate ₹100 crore! Continue the excavations!

A demonstration was held in Madurai on 18.09.2026 at around 5:30 p.m., organized by the People’s Art and Literary Association (PALA) to reclaim our history.

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Tamilmani

Greetings to everyone.

Yesterday, we went to Keeladi and Konthagai. We went to every house without leaving even one. We distributed the pamphlet about the demonstration that is being held today. But there was hardly anyone in the houses. Only elderly people and those who were unable to go out were staying at home. There were cows, goats and dogs in the streets.

All the people in this village are farmers. When we asked a few people there, “Why don’t we see anyone here?”, they said, “Everyone has gone to work.”

When we asked, “Where?”, they said, “To Madurai.”

What kind of work can they get in Madurai? If they go to Madurai, are they going to get the job of a Collector, or an IAS or IPS officer? They can only get wage labour, right? Because they cannot survive on the income they earn from agriculture, they are forced to run to other places as daily wage workers.

When we were distributing pamphlets in a place called Konthagai, a middle-aged woman expressed her anguish to us.

“Comrade, look at the sewage water flowing through the street. There is no drainage facility here at all. If we let the wastewater from our house out and it passes through the neighbour’s property, they come and fight with us. 

This is the biggest problem here.”

What she said was absolutely true. All the sewage water flows through the streets.

She asked us, “When we have problems like this, you are talking about Keeladi, you are talking about Adichanallur, you are talking about civilization. When we ourselves have these problems, what can we do with all this?”

That too is a reasonable question.

We came to Madurai yesterday evening. Today, the heat here is intense. I am from Vellore. People call Vellore “Veyyiloor” — the town of heat. But Madurai is burning as if it has swallowed all that heat and gone beyond it.

There is no water flowing in the Cauvery. Is there going to be a flood in the Vaigai?

There is no water for irrigation. Therefore, there is no agriculture here. This is not the situation only here; this is the situation in many places.

Most of the people in this country are farmers.

Look here. There is a sesame oil shop nearby, waiting with a QR code for someone to come and buy something. They are selling good-quality oil. Even if it is good-quality oil, can people buy it unless they have money in their hands?

No one is coming here to buy oil. But at the liquor shop, there is a crowd standing in a queue to buy liquor. In the same way, people are standing in queues at temples to buy kumkum and sacred ash.

Today, people do not have enough money in their hands. People are suffering. They are living in poverty. Rather than simply saying that they are poor, they are in a situation where they cannot buy what they need. They do not have enough income to buy the things they need.

So one may have a doubt: What is the point in going to these people and talking about Keeladi and Sivakalai?

It has not even been 100 days since the change of government took place.

Two months ago, I went to buy rice. A 25-kilogram bag cost ₹1,400. Last month it was ₹1,500. This month it is ₹1,600. The price has increased by ₹100 every month; in just two months, it has gone up by ₹200.

Sugar price has increased from ₹45 to ₹65.

Prices have risen this much within 100 days. Is there no mechanism to control this? This is the problem faced by the people. This is what the people are talking about.

This is also a real problem. I do not deny it.

But here, we say,

“Uphold Keeladi; drive away Vedic civilization!”

What does that mean?

In the Keeladi civilization, there was no religion, no caste and no idols of gods. There was nothing that divided people. That is why we raise the slogan, “Uphold Keeladi”

We are fighting for this.

After all, are we not also fighting to establish an egalitarian society without caste discrimination?

Good.

At the same time, why should we drive away Vedic civilization?

What is Vedic civilization?

Even the Vedic civilization that they speak about has become deeply embedded among us. You and I, without even realizing it, continue to follow Vedic culture in one way or another.

That is the truth.

Now, there is an important issue unfolding in Madurai.

Yesterday, the consecration ceremony was held at the Meenakshi Temple. Tamil Othuvars and activists are fighting for the consecration ceremony to be conducted by chanting mantras in Tamil.

To understand why Vedic culture should be driven away, it is enough to understand what a consecration ceremony actually means.

What do the Vedas say about the consecration ceremony?

If we understand that, we can decide whether such a ceremony should be conducted or not.

Whether to conduct it or not comes later.

Friends, the Manusmriti is regarded as a legal and religious guide in Hinduism.

What does it say?

I will read it out. Listen,

“When a house or other place has been polluted by the Chandalas, the earth becomes purified by these five things: sweeping, smearing, sprinkling cow urine, removing some of the upper layer of earth and throwing it away, and allowing a cow to stay there for one day.”

(Manusmriti – 5:124)

The word “Chandala” has appeared in many songs in films.

It is a word used to refer to the Paraiyar people, who are classified as a Scheduled Caste in this country.

Whether it is a temple, a house, a shop, or any kind of construction work, many people including the paraiyars may have been involved in constructing it.

That is the truth — many people are involved.

If the place has supposedly been made impure by some of them, that is, if it has supposedly been polluted, then the Manusmriti says that the place becomes purified by sweeping it, smearing it — including smearing it with cow dung — sprinkling cow urine and taking a cow around that place.

The ceremonies such as temple consecration and housewarming are acts that insult the workers involved in construction work, particularly people belonging to the Paraiyar caste.

These are blatant acts of practicing untouchability.

Therefore, whoever conducts a ritual by chanting mantras in Sanskrit, sprinkling cow urine and bringing a cow into the place — whether the mantras are chanted in Sanskrit or in Tamil — the priests who chant the mantras and the people who arrange such ceremonies should be arrested and imprisoned under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Whether they did it knowingly or unknowingly, a crime is a crime.

I do not accept this act of insulting working people — particularly the demand to insult them through the Tamil language.

Next, there are people who boast about “Who are you? Who am I?” They proudly proclaim themselves to be descendants of rulers, this lineage and that lineage.

But history tells us that everyone belongs to the same human lineage.

Everyone came from Africa.

From there, some people moved towards Europe. Some went towards China and Tibet. Some came to the Indus Valley. Others moved southwards towards Tamil Nadu.

All this happened many thousands of years ago.

Depending on the climate of the regions where they lived and the kind of work they did, they underwent evolutionary changes.

That is why the “colour” of human beings became different, and the size of their noses and the size of their skulls also became different.

The people who lived in the steppe grassland regions of Europe survived mainly by herding sheep and cattle.

There was no agriculture there. There were no rivers.

When that region became unsuitable for them to live in, they began moving towards the Indus Valley.

Around 3000 BCE, the urban civilization of the Indus Valley began to decline.

But the Aryans came here only around 1900 BCE.

When the Indus Valley civilization was coming to an end — that is, when those who arrived here came much later — the Sanatana group is attempting to rewrite history by claiming that the Indus Valley civilization was their civilization and that it was the Saraswati civilization.

We must not forget here that evidence is continuing to emerge showing that the Indus Valley civilization is also our (tamil) civilization.

To put it briefly, the truth is that they are attempting to appropriate our civilization as their own.

The Europeans who were herding sheep and cattle at that time later advanced enormously through their scientific discoveries.

The Chinese are progressing so rapidly that they are moving ahead to a level that can even surpass artificial intelligence.

But why could we not progress in the same way, when we had an urban civilization even in those days, and when we were the people who first discovered and used iron in the world?

Why did we, who knew how to write words such as “Athan” and “Kuviran” even then, later reach a situation where we did not even know our basic letters?

Why did people who knew how to read and write in those days become illiterate later?

After entering India, the Aryans, through their deception, somehow influenced the Indian rulers and brought them under their control, and deprived us of education.

At that time, education meant only the Vedas.

And they had to be studied only in Sanskrit.

Only Brahmins had the right to study them.

The right to education that existed by the time of the Kalabhra rule among us was completely taken away later.

Then one may ask: Did no one study after that?

Did the Alvars and Nayanmars not study?

They studied in order to spread the Vedas and the mythical stories of the Puranas among the people.

Who needs such an education?

But the important question we need to ask here is,

Why did our father not study?

Why did our grandfather and great-grandfather not study?

Why did they become illiterate?

Wasn't that the situation until yesterday?

Because of the conspiracies of the Brahmins, education was denied to us by the rulers.

If there is no education, there will be no thought.

If there is no thought, there will be no new discoveries.

It was because they had education that Europeans were able to discover Boyle’s laws, Archimedes’ principle and Ohm’s law.

Education led them to the Industrial Revolution.

Europe progressed.

The Aryans deprived us of education.

That is why we could not progress.

We once lived an advanced urban life, but later became backward. The denial of education to us was the reason for this decline.

The swords, spears and arrows found at Sivakalai and Keeladi are not merely rusted historical relics.

They are weapons of war that have been found to cut down and tear apart Sanatana.

The people must take these weapons into their own hands.

If we do not take up these weapons, even after another 2,000 years, we will remain in the same condition.

In fact, we will continue to move backwards.

Tomorrow, our grandchildren will ask,

“Why did this happen?”

Today, we may have voted because our grandchildren told us to.

And we are experiencing the consequences today.

If this situation does not change, Tamil Nadu will continue to move backwards.

We have archaeological weapons with us to awaken the people of Tamil Nadu.

We must not give them up.

Even if it takes many months, even if it takes several years, we must continue to hold these weapons in our hands.

The Sanatana forces and their agents must be removed from positions of political power.

We were able to feel the tremendous support among the people for this during the Tamil Makkal Isai Vizha.

Activists living all over the world, including in the United States, and Tamil people with a sense of commitment living from Kanyakumari to Kashmir have expressed their support for this issue.

Even though they could not participate directly, they are supporting us financially.

Therefore, those of us living here must lead the struggle against Sanatana.

We, the members of the People’s Art and Literary Association, will continue to take this struggle forward.

There is no other way.

We will move towards that goal.

If this demonstration helps us move in that direction, I will truly be happy.

Thank you.

Greetings!

Tamilmani