The villagers of Nallurvayal, a habitat under Madhvarayapuram village panchayat (Thondamuthur Block, Coimbatore Dist, TN) have started a movement to restore the culture, identity, and pride of the village. The villagers have formed a collective body named “Nallurvayal Restoration Committee”; they took out a rally on February 3 and replaced the name board on the highway at the entrance of the village, with “Nallurvayal”. The Madhvarayapuram Village Panchayat in an unanimous resolution asked the govt to restore the village name in the post office, police station and telephone exchange, etc. The whole district administration panicked and went into action to pressurize the villagers, but villagers stood their ground. While in all the govt records its only known Nallurvayal mercenaries with the connivance of the Govt/ officials could name the police station, post office and at entry point changed it to “Karunya Nagar”. Local advocate and activist Rangaraj alleges “In and around Madhvarayapuram new Churches , Prayer Halls, etc were constructed in the last 10 years or so”. A reply to the RTI query raised by Ranagaraj exposes no approval/permissions were granted by any competent authority.
If one browses through Google map of the locality one can see, after 1990s, other than the Karunya group of educational institutions , Voice of Horeb Assembly , Holy Innocent Orthodox Church, Karunya Matha Syro Malabar Christian Church, Little Heart Vocational centre, to name a few. If Google Map is updated today it would have nearly half a dozen more Churches/prayer halls. As per the 2011 census the Madhvarayapuram village panchayat area has 1,797 houses and 6,365 population, more than 90% being Hindus including SC/ST. The irony is not a single Temple, one can locate, in the Google map of the village. The Madhvarayapurm Panchayat has five small villages including Nallurvayal. These Churches on Sundays, after prayers, serve the locals, Tribes in particular, with sumptuous, non-vegetarian lunch apart from other “incentives” to lure them, says Rangaraj. RTI query on similar issues to “ Poovalur” panchayat so far were not responded. He further alleges , even during this Pandemic, efforts were made to convert and when reported to local police they booked them for violation of epidemic code, not religious conversion. So, as the popular Tamil daily “Dinamalar” carried the news with headline “Mini Vatican”, it is in fact created here. Will the TN Govt dare act against the gross violations of laws by Paul. Dhinakaran of the Karunya empire?
