J Jayalalithaa: The Worshipful Leader

Mass adulation is universal. But the hero worship that’s deeply ingrained in Tamil public life is akin to a relationship with divinity.

- Ajay Sukumaran

On a sultry summer evening in April this year, the road leading to Chennai’s Island Grounds was lined with party flags—and fleets of speeding mini buses were ferry­ing in supporters for what was J Jayala­litha’s opening election rally. Outside the gates, many munched on sundal as they browsed through the merchandise on sale. The paper­wrapped chickpea snack was a good cure for the bored and the peckish browsing by items like key chains, posters and purses. Plus, there were pocket­sized photos of the party supremo, the ones that grace the breast­pocket of every white­-shirted AIADMK member. Then, you got swept in, past the towering cutouts of Amma, into the crowds all pumped up by one rousing number after another until with a dramatic drum­roll the leader appeared. The atmosphere was electric.

It was pretty much the same drill in Chennai or in the state’s second-most populous city of Coimbatore. The urban poor or the rural labourer reacted in the same way, nursing the same hope: ‘Amma would take care of us’. Now, it was despair that welled up for thousands as they grieved for her, some inconsolably.