RIFLE RANGE BOY: An introduction to TN separatist movement!

Viduthalai Part 1 (விடுதலை, Independence; 2023)
Director: Vetri Maaran

This story is mentioned to be a creation of fiction. Still, a connoisseur of Indian, especially contemporary Tamil Nadu (TN) politics, would realise that it is a compilation of a hodgepodge of events around TN in the 1980s and 1990s.

The movie is based on a short story titled 'Thunaivan' written by

Jeyamohan. In this movie version, an honest rookie police constable, Kumaresan, is stationed in a god-forsaken place on the borders of TN. This place is active with Naxalite activities, and the tribal people are said to be harbouring a wanted criminal, Perumal @ Vathiyar. He is said to be heading a terrorist group named Makkal Padai (People's Army) which masterminded many destructive activities, including a bomb blast and derailing a train, which caused much damage and lives lost.

Kumaresan falls in love with a tribal girl and soon realises everything is not as it seems. The police are not interested in performing their duties. They are just eyeing their remunerations and the medal that they will receive. The officers are just yeomen to their superiors and buying time. Nobody is interested in taking the extra mile or in what vital information he has to offer. The hierarchal order in the police is so toxic. The administrators are only interested in putting up a good image and recommendations from the public for work well done. The media keeps churning out half-truths. The whole machinery works for so-called development that purportedly improves peoples' lives, but in reality, it just fattens the coffers of the power that be. But he wants to do his job to do as a policeman. The first part of the offering showcases how this rookie comes face-to-face with the feared hooligan.

Pulavar Kaliya Perumal

The Makkal Padai is fashioned after Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA). TNLA is said to have formed after a reported incident when Indian Army personnel were sent to Sri Lanka during the LTTE insurgency. Apparently, the Indian soldiers raped or molested a big group of Tamil female detainees under their care. This fringe group had a bone to pick with the Indian Central Government, hence the formation of TNLA to liberate TN. Unable to garner support from the general public, they went underground, linked with the Communists and Naxalites to engage in arms struggles.

The gruesome train accident depicted realistically in the early part of the movie did actually happen. In 1987, The Rockfort Express train travelling between Madras and Trichy was derailed when Naxalites bombed a section of a rail track. Even though somebody did alert about the bombing, the message got lost in bureaucracy. Former Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram was supposed to have been travelling on that train.

TNLA was started by Pulavar Kaliya Perumal @ Vaithiyar (note a similar name in the movie - Perumal and Vaithiyar). It has strong links to the Communist Party of India - Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) but severed its ties to follow the Naxalites' path of arms struggle. It started as a sympathetic group to LLTE and fought for a separate nation within India. It is linked to many bomb blasts within the state. Many of its leaders have perished in bombing accidents or are behind bars. It remains a front behind many legitimate organisations and has established links with the sandalwood forest brigand Verrapan's group in Karnataka.

Just for the record, CPI started in 1921. After the war with China in 1962, patriotism to India made it difficult to show allegiance to Mao. Mao's brand of Communism concentrated on peasant revolution, versus traditional Communism, which chose ruled by a selected group of workers named the proletariat. In 1967, armed peasants seized crops around Naxalbari and surrounding areas in West Bengal, which was already ruled by a communist government, as a revolt against their non-representation. The peasants controlled harvests and ran the villages like a government. They even ran a people's court to mete instant justice. The authorities shot it down, but it became a prototype for other people-controlled Naxalite-Maoist insurgency.

(NB There is an active movement to take Tamil Nadu out of the Republic of India. There is a feeling that TN is treated as a stepchild compared to the other states. The present political parties are mostly all self-professed atheists who oppose the current rise of Hindu consciousness in India. Ironically, a region that is testimony to the glory of Hindu architecture and knowledge has spiralled into this. And 'God's own Country' @ Kerala is governed by a godless Communist government!)