Hindu (Indu) Makkal Katchi has raked up a massive controversy in Tamil Nadu with the controversial archaeological site of Keezhadi. In its Twitter account, it asks: “What’s common between Keezhadi, Pattanam & Vangchhia? These are three places where ASI has relinquished authority to research, excavate and maintain archaeological sites to parochial state agencies. In Tamil Nadu’s Keezhadi, DMK’s convicted criminal Kanimozhi is facilitating access to the church with priest Gasper Raj while preventing ASI access to the site. Are they removing artifacts that does not fit the “Dravidian” ideology of being distinct from “Hindu civilization”? In Kerala’s Pattanam, Cherian – funded by a parochial Kerala commie govt in bed with the church, and working with shadowy agencies from abroad. In all three sites, malicious forces from the church, funded from abroad, are pouring money, exerting political power and forcibly manufacturing history.”
Now, Hindu Makkal Katchi president Arjun Sampath has submitted a memorandum to Rajya Sabha MP Dr. Subramanian Swami on July 21, accusing Keezhadi Excavations as a “Weapon for Dravidian Secessionism”. Sampath is launching a massive agitation at Keezhadi. He says ‘another Kashmir-like exodus shall not be allowed in Tamil Nadu’.
The Frontline reported that “On September 24, 2016, Father Jegath Gaspar Raj, founder of an organization called ‘Tamil Maiyam’ and who had organised Sangam 4, a 10-day festival in August 2016 that focused on Madurai’s history, culture and tradition, visited Keezhadi along with Kanimozhi, an advocate. Amarnath Ramakrishna took them around and showed them the trenches.” (Keezhadi treasures caught in a swirl, T.S. Subramanian, Frontline, January 20, 2017)
Fr. Gaspar Raj, Kanimozhi Mathi and Keezhadi excavator K. Amarnath Ramakrishna charted out the agenda. Kanimozhi Mathi who is also coordinator of Gaspar Raj’s NGO, Tamil Maiyam, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court with the prayer that the ASI should not be allowed to take the artefacts to Karnataka and that it should not be allowed to close the trenches dug at Keezhadi. In their interim order, the judges restrained the ASI from closing the trenches and shifting the artefacts to any place outside Sivaganga district.
Catholic priest Fr. Gaspar Raj is officially referred in US crime records as ‘Gaspar Raj Maria Paulian’. Senior national security strategist, Douglas C. Lovelace Jr., Esq., in Terrorism Documents of International and Local Control, Academic, OUP, Vol. 91 (2008) alleged that between 2003 and August 2006, individuals including Gaspar Raj Maria Paulian, Nachimuthu Socrates, Fnu Lnu, and Vijayashanthar Patpanathan were “involved in multiple criminal activities in support of LTTE, a Sri Lankan group designated by the US state department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization”.
James J. Tareco, Special Agent of FBI, accused Gaspar Raj, Nachimuthu Socrates and others, in 2006, at the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. James J. Tareco, Special Agent of FBI, in 2006, at the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York has accused Father Gasper Raj for “procurement of military equipment, communication devices and other technology, fund raising and money laundering through front charitable organizations and other criminal activities such as conspiracy to bribe public officials and dealing in financial transactions with a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations like LTTE”.
Similar charges were made by Domestic Security and Intelligence analyst, Siobhan O’ Neil, in Terrorist Precursor Crimes: Issues and Options for Congress (2007) pointed out Gaspar Raj’s LTTE links. Neil stated that Gaspar Raj Maria Paulian along with others such as Nachimuthu Socrates “have conspired to remove LTTE from US state department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list”.
LTTE is still active and shall remain banned as an unlawful association until May 2024 under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, as per a Indian home ministry notification issued on May 2019. The home ministry notification also stated that the LTTE continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty of India. The group continues to adopt a strong anti-India posture and also continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Indian nationals (India says LTTE still active, extends ban for 5 more years in Times of India, May 15, 2019).
Fr. Gaspar Raj was also actively associated with S.P. Udayakumar, Coordinator of the People’s Movement against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), who led protests against the commissioning of the Indo-Russian Nuclear Power Plant at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu (Kudankulam protesters disallow PM Manmohan Singh’s envoy to speak, The Economic Times, September 21., 2011).
When the CBI raided Karunanidhi and his family in connection with the 2G scam in 2010, the media reported that, “the biggest, most prominent raid in Chennai could very well be that of Father Jegath Gaspar Raj, a Catholic priest and the head of the NGO, Tamil Maiyam, on whose board both he and Kanimozhi officiate. A source said the CBI questioned Gaspar Raj on the source of the NGO’S funding and its income” (2G scam: CBI raids rattle Karuna family, India Today, December 16, 2010).
Gaspar Raj keeps close ties with Keezhadi excavator K. Amarnath Ramakrishna. This archaeological-criminal nexus with separatists abroad, unheard of in the history of Indian archaeology, needs investigation by central government agencies. The enthusiasm shown by Amarnath Ramakrishna in supporting Gaspar Raj and Kanimozhi for filing a PIL to keep excavated artefacts at Keezhadi has to be understood. In 2016, the ASI began a probe into alleged financial irregularities and also unscientific approaches adopted by the KCHR at Pattanam. Amarnath Ramakrishna who was superintendent archaeologist of ASI, Bengaluru circle was appointed to conduct an inquiry on Pattanam and KCHR. (ASI probe into KCHR’s ‘Pattanam excavations’, Business Standard, Jan. 5, 2016). His findings are not known, but Amarnath Ramakrishna later took up the Keezhadi excavations. Possibly, he prepared a report favorable for left and church historians to prove the historicity of Apostle Thomas.
Conspiracies are on to make Pattanam a satellite site of Keezhadi. R. Sivanantham, deputy director, Tamil Nadu state department of archaeology, officially facilitated a lecture on Pattanam by its excavator, PJ Cherian at Chennai. Cherian claimed that the excavated material from Pattanam and Keezhadi are similar and hence there is a brotherhood (Pattanam, Keezhadi excavated materials similar, says expert, Deccan Chronicle, October 31, 2018).
Many church NGOs in Tamil Nadu have direct access to excavated artefacts. PJ Cherian runs an NGO named ‘PAMA’, and through its new project, ‘Rediscovering the ancient sites in Tamilakam’, he links Pattanam, Keezhadi and Kodumanal sites in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He claims he “had an on-hand documentation of excavated materials from many archaeological sites under the custody of Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department” (Do ancient Tamilakam sites deserve rediscovery, The Times of India, November 30, 2018). Gaspar Raj’s NGO, Tamil Maiyam, which includes Catholic priests such as Lourdu Anandam and Vincent Chinnadurai, filed a PIL demanding that the Keezhadi artefacts should not be transferred to Karnataka for study. Such demands show that these NGOs have, or find ways to have direct access to excavated artefacts from these sites to manipulate them conveniently to determine the past.
According to Ministry of Home Affairs, NGOs operating out of Tamil Nadu received the maximum foreign funding of about Rs 547 crore in 2013-14 (TN NGOs received maximum foreign funds in 2013-14, The Hindu, November 26, 2014). Mathew Cherian, Chairperson of Voluntary Action Network India, says southern states top in foreign funding due to presence of Christian organizations (Foreign funds pour in; 3,000 NGOs get over Rs. 22,000 crore, The Hindu, August 3, 2016). NGOs in Tamil Nadu got significant percentage of funding, with maximum of 33% flowing in from USA (Rajnath Singh launches online tool to monitor foreign-funded NGOs, The Economic Times, January 2, 2018).
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court permitted the ASI on November 24, 2016 to shift the finds at Keezhadi to its chemistry branch headquarters in Dehradun or any other laboratory in the country. The judges based their decision on ASI Director General Rakesh Tewari’s submission that “all the required examination of the excavated materials cannot be carried out” at the ASI’s chemistry laboratory in Chennai because it “is not equipped with the necessary and advanced facilities for proper examination and analysis” of the artefacts’ (More excavation only after report in Frontline, January 20, 2017).
The delay in submitting reports to ASI on Keezhadi excavations by Amarnath Ramakrishna obstructed granting of excavation license and funds for third field season, a fact concealed by the excavator and NGOs. Asked in 2017 whether the ASI would give Amarnath Ramakrishna the license to excavate for the third field season, the Director General said: “The license for the third year will be given after the completion of the documentation of the excavation and the artefacts found during the first two years. Otherwise, the report never comes (More excavation only after report, Frontline, Jan. 20, 2017).
ASI Director General Rakesh Tewari clarified that Keezhadi excavator Amarnath Ramakrishna had submitted only “brief” and “sketchy” reports about the first two years. Permission would be given to him after he wrote “a detailed report” (Keezhadi dig to continue, Frontline, March 17, 2017).
There is an ongoing conspiracy to make Keezhadi a Dravidian racial site arguing, Dravidians migrated to Keezhadi from Indus Sarasvati sites after Aryan migrants forced them out of north India.
The Federation of Tamil Sangams in North America (FeTNA) invited Amarnath Ramakrishna in April 2018, to deliver a lecture on the Keezhadi excavations. The ASI denied him permission to participate as guest of honor at this event, possibly because FeTNA publicly supported the cause of ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils in the Sri Lankan civil war. Commenting on Tamil groups in Sri Lanka, Gaspar Raj unambiguously stated in an interview that, “We had a homeland and we have a homeland, and we will have the right for a homeland, since we have our own history, language, culture and way of living, and hence have the right to self-determination” (Tamil Eelam not a lost cause: Fr. Jegath Gaspar, TamilNet, Nov. 3, 2009). FeTNA has honoured Gaspar Raj for Christianizing Tamil culture.
FeTNA sponsored the tenth World Tamil Conference, held in July 2019 at Chicago. Its central theme was “Keezhadi nam Thai madi” (On our Tamil mother’s lap – Keezhadi excavation), dedicated to Tamil scholar Rev. G.U. Pope on his 200th birth anniversary (10th edition of World Tamil Conference in Chicago from July 4, The New Indian Express, June 26, 2019). Bishop Robert Caldwell launched the Dravidian ideology in Tamil Nadu. Caldwell was assisted in his Dravidian studies by an array of missionaries such as G.U. Pope, J Brigel, J Clay, J Dawson, E Diez, F Kittel, F Metz, A Graeter, C Graul, and H Gundert.
With the agitation launched by Arjun Sampath of Hindu Makkal Katchi at Keezhadi, Father Gasper Raj accused by FBI, K Rajan of Tamil University , PJ Cherian of NGO PAMA, Tamil Nadu Archaeology director K Sivanathan are all in a fix to reply after their dubious exercise at Pattanam in Kerala.
Photo courtesy: The Hindu
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