JOIN USRam Temple: Tamilians praise Ravana on Twitter
It was Lord Ram everywhere on Wednesday as a grand ceremony marked the foundation laying for a temple for him in Ayodhya. But three hashtags on Twitter -- #LandofRavana and #TamilPrideRavana and #LandOfRavanan – trended mostly by Tamil users of the microblogging site did not go unnoticed.
As the rest of India celebrated Lord Ram, Tamil Twitter was lavishing praise on “demon king” Ravana, who is eulogised for his valour in Kambaramayanam, the Tamil version of Ramayana penned by Valmiki.
Ravana, who is considered as demon king in North India for his animosity towards Lord Ram, is celebrated as the pride of Tamils by many who believe he ruled the race once upon a time.
The hashtags were trending in India and in Chennai for the better part of Wednesday and of course, there were intense exchanges between lovers of Lord Ram and Ravana. However, hashtags praising Lord Ram and those related to the event was trending way above these three.
Some people took objection to #LandofRavana and #TamilPrideRavana hashtags arguing that it was the handiwork of those who support the Dravidian ideology.
The tweets praised Ravana, his valour, while some also posted videos of late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi questioning the existence of Lord Ram. Karunanidhi had made those remarks in 2017 at the height of a massive controversy over Ram Setu, a mythological bridge believed to have been built by Lord Ram across the Palk Straits.
“Tamils are not Hindus. So, Raman is not our God. #LandOfRavanan #LandOfRavana,” one tweet read. At 4 pm, #LandofRavana was mentioned in 33,000 tweets, while #TamilPrideRavana secured 23,000 mentions on Twitter.
Former civil servant Sashikanth Senthil wrote: “#LandOfRavanan is trending on Twitter. When the whole country is silently witnessing the circus. There is still a group of committed hearts down south who will fight injustice to the end.”
Tamil Twitter is known for trending hashtags that are quite opposite or contradictory to what is trending in the rest of India. On May 30, 2019, when Narendra Modi was sworn-in as Prime Minister for a second term, the Tamil Twitter trended a feel-good hashtag #PrayForNesamani based on a comedy sequence of popular comedian Vadivelu.