Eral, a small town in Thoothukudi district, was immersed in hazy moonlight that night. Hundreds of people had assembled to listen to a talk by a leader, who was their beloved. The man was quite old. With a clean-shaven face, hair neatly combed backwards and in khaddar shirt, the man had a magnificent air of simplicity. His gaze was penetrating and his voice was mesmerising.



He started his speech straight away plunging into the subject. He described the freedom struggle. He knew it. He had been part of it. But he cautioned the public — "do not overestimate the contributions of Gandhi. In reality, it was the INA rebellion of Netaji”. He also described the tragedy of Partition. Then he described the present plight of the nation in general and Hindus in particular.

"Chitragupta, the assistant of Yama, had misplaced my file and he has been searching for it for quite sometime. Anytime he may find it and then I will have to go. So before that I have to tell you people, particularly the youth of this nation, the true history of our country and its freedom struggle.”

Talking about the need for Hindu unity, he now dwelt on the contribution of the man in whose centenary celebrations he was speaking. "There are many doctors you know — Dr MGR, Dr Karunanidhi, Dr Jayalalithaa etc. These are doctors celebrated by the state. But this doctor from Nagpur — Dr Hedgewar, whose centenary is celebrated by patriots, you should know about him. He was a great man of divine qualities...”



Then he stopped. He fell to the ground unconscious. It appeared as if he had fainted. Doctors tried to revive him, but those were destined to remain his last words, "Dr Hedgewar ... a great man of divine qualities”.



‘Iyya’ Thanulinga Nadar, the great Gandhian freedom fighter, fierce Hindutva supporter from the Kanyakumari district, and a leader of sterling qualities and impeccable honesty, had become immortal on that night — the night of 2 November 1988.

When Thanulinga Nadar was a student in Tiruchi, he received a letter from a local community leader, Balaiah Nadar. Iyya's grandmother, Sitalakshmi, had complained to Balaiah Nadar about the missionary school in their village that forced her grandchildren to remove the religious marks on their forehead, and had also removed their flowers.

For Sitalakshmi, this was a reminder of some bitter memory of her younger days. When her marriage had been fixed with the son of Ramaswamy Nadar, her father Vedamanikkam Nadar had converted to Christianity. He christened his daughter ‘Kanni Mary’ . Her father wanted the family of Ramaswamy Nadar to convert to Christianity for the marriage. Ramaswamy Nadar did not budge. On the other hand, he insisted that Vedamanikkam Nadar and his family return to Hinduism. His daughter too in her heart never liked the conversion. She detested all the psychological trauma the conversion was creating in her personal life, family and the village.



At last, Veddamanikkam Nadar yielded, and ‘Kanni Mary’ became Sitalakshmi.



Thanulinga Nadar was Sitalakshmi’s eldest grandson. Now, when she saw her granddaughters and grandsons being deprived of flowers and vermilion by the missionaries, she wanted the community to respond.

Soon, Thanulinga Nadar returned to his village and decided to run schools for the villagers, which would not practise such religious persecution. With the help of Travancore legislative assembly member V Dhas, Thanulinga Nadar started Sri Krishna Primary School in the village.



For the villagers, the school was a great blessing. They started sending their children to this school. The result was that the missionaries had to close their schools in the village and the nearby one. In the school, ‘Iyya’ worked as teacher and principal without a salary. The Hindu Mission of Travancore came forward to support the school. It was renamed Sri Narayana Vilas School.



Today, this is a government school in the village of Karumpattoor. Thanulinga Nadar also started organising community prayers and satsanghs in the evenings. The imparting of religious awareness in Hindus effectively immunised them against proselytisation. Later, he became the vice-president of Hindu Mission of Travancore.

With South Travancore (as Kanyakumari district was then known) in the grip of missionary educational institutions, Iyya realised the need for creating an effective educational infrastructure for Hindus. Without such support, they would have never fared well in the areas of education and employment.



Through his efforts, the Hindu mission started a network of schools in the villages of Kanyakumari district and later, the Vivekananda College could come up because of the groundwork done by Thanulinga Nadar. He was also the captain in the agitation for merging the Kanyakumari district with Tamil Nadu.

In the 1970s, the Christian domination started disturbing the communal harmony of the district. Christian elements tried to defeat one of the tallest leaders of the Tamil Nadu Congress, K Kamaraj. They joined hands with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and ran an explicit anti-Hindu campaign targeting Kamaraj.



Thanulinga Nadar, as a lieutenant of Kamaraj, crafted an election strategy in such a manner that it yielded victory. Kamaraj wanted to make Thanulinga Nadar a minister in the Congress government in Tamil Nadu. But this time, determined Christian communal forces defeated him. Bitter, Thanulinga Nadar retired from active politics in 1972. When M Bhaktavatsalam opposed Vivekananda Rock Memorial project, Iyya’s influence on Kamaraj made the latter advise the chief minister to allow the construction.

As a member of Parliament, Thanulinga Nadar had noticed the Jan Sangh members. ‘Hindus with spine’ — he used to think of them and dreamt of the day when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) would come to Kanyakumari district.



During the 1982 Mandaikaddu riots, the RSS, which assisted the Hindu victims of the riots, approached Thanulinga Nadar. Though he initially rejected attending any peace meetings, saying that such events were Christian hoaxes and political gimmicks, he later relented. Those who attended that peace gathering at Nagercoil collector office still remember how Thanulinga Nadar’s commanding voice had a mesmerising effect on MGR, who was then the chief minister.



At the fag end of the meeting, Iyya, who was completely silent observing everyone in the meeting directly asked the chief minister, "Can I be allowed to talk a few words?” And then his first salvo was asking that if the victims and perpetrators could be treated as two equal sides, was it not a travesty of justice.



Dr MGR was taken aback.



The majestic voice, the sincerity and honesty that drenched each and every word of Iyya had such an impact that at last the government commission looking into the riots recommended a law banning proselytising.