By R.K. Radhakrishnan
Thiruparankundram, a pilgrim town and a suburb of Madurai in south Tamil Nadu, possesses all the elements that could turn it into a communal flashpoint in today’s India: a celebrated temple at the foothills of a hillock, a dargah high up on the hill adjoining another small temple, huge flocks of believers, and majority Hindus and minority Muslims living in close proximity to the temple.
All it needed was a spark: a political outfit looking to exploit these conditions. This spark ignited in February 2025, when a Hindutva outfit, stoking controversy over the ownership of the hillock, claimed that attempts were being made to rename the hill Sikkandar Malai after Sikhander Badshah (a 12th-century ascetic), in whose memory the dargah was built. An inept police force and fumbling district administration just made things worse.
The temple at the foothills is worshipped as one of the six abodes of Lord Murugan and attracts huge crowds of devotees from across the State and beyond. In December, Hindutva outfits protested when a Muslim family attempted to make an animal sacrifice (kandoori) at the hilltop. The ritual was stopped by the police but tensions have been building up slowly since then. To settle the issue, peace talks were held on December 31 between community organisations and the local Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO). The RDO ruled that there were no records of kandoori being practised historically and demanded that it be stopped forthwith. This emboldened the Hindutva outfits and provided fodder to their Whatsapp groups.
This story was originally published in frontline.thehindu.com. Read the full story here.
