In about six months time, a ‘temple of rationality’ for Tamil Nadu’s former five-time Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, a self-proclaimed atheist, is expected to be ready, after the groundbreaking ceremony was performed last week.

Members of the Arunthathiyar community, a Scheduled Caste, are behind the initiative of building the temple which is to be constructed on a 10,000 square feet parcel of land, in the Kuchikadu village of Namakkal district. The community wishes to express their gratitude to the late leader, whom they consider their god, for having provided their community reservation and other welfare schemes.

Speaking to WION, K Chinnasamy, Head of the Tamil Nadu Arunthathiyar Munnetra Peravai said, “Kalaignar Karunanidhi gave us 3% reservation within the then existing 18% reserved for Scheduled Castes, he deplored and tried to eradicate manual scavenging, he also ensured that in Tamil Nadu people of any caste could become priests in the temples."

On the funding for the construction of the temple, Chinnasamy said, "We have pooled in money and resources from our own community to construct this temple, while we have not approached other communities for donations, we would be willing to accept if they offer it."

The land acquired for the temple costs over Rs 12 lakh and the temple is to be constructed at a cost of around Rs 30 lakh. The members of the Arunthathiyar community that has over 1000 families living in the village also plan to have a library, garden and a community hall within the premises.

“Arunthathiyars were a very backward community living under the proverty line and were struggling economically and education-wise. In the last decade, the community has had over 200 doctors and thousands of engineers who have started serving, and they all benefited from reservation. People from the community have made it to posts like Deputy collectors, deputy registrars and also university professors," former Tamil Nadu Assembly Deputy Speaker and DMK Rajya Sabha MP VP Duraisamy told WION.

"Kalaignar is a rationalist, but the Arunthathiyar community members are worshipers of Perumal (Krishna), so they wanted to show then gratitude to him by constructing a temple," Duraisamy said when asked about the temple.

Villagers say that the groundbreaking ceremony or the ‘bhumi puja’ of the temple was attended by people from their community, irrespective of their political affiliations and ideological beliefs.

“For someone who has fallen down, the person who picks him up is God. Our community was majorly involved in manual scavenging, and Kalaignar put an end to it. His schemes are God-like for us," said DMK ward secretary, C Dhavamani.

Justifying a temple for a self-proclaimed rationalist, Dhavamani said, "While Karunanidhi himself was a rationalist, he didn’t object to other people worshipping. In DMK there are a lot of people who go to the temple and worship."