6 months ago
1
Among the DMK leaders who met enactment president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin astatine Chennai connected Monday (November 24, 2025) arsenic portion of the Udanpirappe Vaa programme was Katharbatcha Muthuramalingam, the MLA representing the Ramanathapuram constituency. His distinctive operation of a Muslim and a Hindu sanction has agelong attracted nationalist curiosity, adjacent inspiring a Tamil film Kathar Basha Endra Muthuramalingam featuring histrion Arya successful the pb role. Whenever Speaker M. Appavu calls his sanction successful the Assembly, it invariably prompts questions, with galore wondering whether the MLA had converted to Islam.
“We person carried the sanction ‘Katharbatcha’ for 3 generations. My begetter was Katharbatcha Vellaisamy Devar, my sanction is Katharbatcha Muthuramalingam, and my lad is Batcha,” said Katharbatcha Muthuramalingam, who besides serves arsenic the caput of the DMK’s Ramanathapuram territory unit.
He explained that his grandmother, Meerakkal, was a relative of Indirani, the parent of the precocious Forward Bloc person Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar. “Thevar had a peculiar affection for Muslims, arsenic helium was nurtured by a Muslim bedewed nurse, Santha Beevi, aft the decease of his mother. He besides studied successful a schoolhouse tally by Christian missionaries,” said Mr. Muthuramalingam, a autochthonal of Melaramanathi successful Kamuthi taluk, Ramanathapuram district.
The family’s longstanding relation with Muslims, coupled with their heavy religion successful Islam, played a defining relation successful the naming tradition. Meerakkal, who had been childless for galore years, prayed astatine the Nagore Dargah. “After my begetter was born, helium was named ‘Katharbatcha’, arsenic helium was regarded arsenic a blessing from Nagore Andavar. The household aboriginal added ‘Vellaisamy Devar,’ the sanction of Muthuramalinga Thevar’s grandfather,” helium explained.
Mr. Muthuramalingam noted that Ramanathapuram has ever been a bastion of Hindu–Muslim harmony. Philanthropist Seethakathi, for instance, was a adjacent person and advisor to Kizhavan Sethupathy, the ruler of Ramanathapuram.
