That actor Kamal Haasan chose to launch his political party in Madurai reflects the special place the historic temple city occupies in his heart.
Madurai is the place linked to a man the actor considers his hero: Maruthanayagam.
Mr. Haasan embarked upon an ambitious film project two decades ago, a biopic based on the 17th century warrior whose ambition raised him as a commander of sepoys under the British. He was ‘governor’ of Madurai and even defeated Hyder Ali in battle.
Queen Elizabeth participated in the event to mark the project’s launch but Mr. Haasan could never complete Maruthanayagam, the eponymous film on the warrior, who would later become famous as Muhammad Yusuf Khan. However, the veteran actor gave a concrete shape to his political mission in Madurai with the launch of his party, the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM).
“Yusuf Khan, was, in fact, of the same type as Hyder Ali — one of those men of genius who naturally come to the front in times of great social or political unrest. Had he been left without outside interference to settle his quarrel with his native suzerain, like Hyder Ali with the Rajas of Mysore, there is no doubt that he would have succeeded in establishing his independence,” said British officer S. Charles Hill in his 1914 biography, Yusuf Khan — The Rebel Commandant .
Decried for his association with British
In Tamil Nadu, Maruthanayagam is praised for his valour, but decried for his association with the British.
Born a Hindu, of the Vellala caste, in Panaiyur, Ramnad district, his name was Maruthanayagam Pillai. Hill explains his conversion to Islam: “For Yusuf Khan then to rise to the position to which he attained, it was necessary for him to be freed from whatever trammels might be imposed upon him by his religion.”
English historian James Mill recorded that “he fell at last only by the treachery of his own troops and not by the force of his enemies.” He was hanged as a rebel in front of the British camp in Madurai, by order of Muhammad Ali, Nawab of Arcot, on October 15, 1764.
Body dismembered
Hill recorded that his body was dismembered. “His head, like that of Chanda Sahib, was sent to Trichinopoly, his limbs to such places as Palamcota and Travancore, after they had been exposed for sometime over the principal gateways of the city. The trunk apparently was buried in the village of Sammattipuram, where Yusuf Khan is said to have usually lived while he ruled over Madura.”
