When sticks & stones could cause hurt

In Tamil Nadu, statues of political and community leaders now stand caged in a great many places, it has been reported. Iron bars and steel mesh guard against vandals, in addition to the stone or metal umbrellas that also often shelter statues in Tamil Nadu from the sun and the rain. Now, Tamil Nadu is a place where they adore their leaders, living or dead.

Living leaders get larger-than-life cut-outs, the dead, statues. Or should we make that idols? However, one man’s hero could well be another’s villain, and vice versa. Tamil Nadu also has a deep-rooted cinematic tradition. In movies, the hero normally beats the villain to a pulp. It is not illogical for a hero’s followers to smash a villain’s immortal remains to smithereens. Survival of animosities that outlast their begetters creates a new demand for iron and steel in a world with excess capacity for those commodities.

These iron cages reveal a lucid sociology, too. If Ambedkar stands protectively encased while nearby Annadurai stands without a cage, it means two things: Dalits are an assertive presence but an intermediate caste has the upper hand in that place. In a DMK-dominant village, it might be the lot of MGR, founder of the rival AIADMK, to require protection. Probably not the kind of iconoclasm Tamil Nadu’s social reform pioneers had envisaged, this.