Hundreds of Chennaiites, including civil rights activists, gathered near Valluvar Kottam on Saturday to protest against rising violence and mob attacks in the name of cow protection.
The #NotInMyName campaign has seen people taking to the streets in several parts of the country.
Live updates from Chennai's protest:
S. Poorvaja, Preethi Ramamoorthy, Janane Venkatraman and B. Aravind Kumar are giving updates from the venue.
12:50 pm: Intersectional queer feminist Namithaa Jayasankar had this to say:
"[There is] way to wash the blame off. The majoritarian population has to take the onus. But saying not in my name is very false. [The] syntax is similar to not all men. You should say this shouldn't be happening. Not say 'not in my name's. This is something savarna people do all the time.
"This Hinduism and Hindutva are not two sides of the same coin. They're the same side. It's the same thing. Caste Hindus say they're not Hindutvavadis. But everyone knows what the say behind closed doors."
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12:40 pm: Satwik Gade of the Vettiver Collective - which is one of the groups organising this protest said, "We are protesting against targeted lynchings. You can be at this protest whatever your political leanings are. I won't be surprised if members of the RSS are here. I'm sure no political ideology advocates lynching."
12:30 pm : Citizens for Peace, Justice and Democracy, the organisation that is part of the protest in a statement said: "It is important that we break our silence and proclaim loudly that all attempts to criminalise the exercise of one's right to life, livelihood and freedom of belief or lack of it, amounts to nothing less than a crime against the Constitution itself."
A scene from the protest venue yesterday.
12:20 pm: Arts editor and columnist Sadanand Menon had this to say on the cynicism surrounding these protests. "There is no cynicism. People are finally finding platforms to voice their opinions. This is a national level movement. I'm sure this is going to snowball into something big."
12:05 pm: A teacher from Thiruvannamalai has come to Chennai to participate in the event. "Don't tell me whom to love, what to eat, what to wear. There is no place for saffron in my rainbow," reads her placard in Tamil. ''I am concerned about what is being propogated as killing is alright,'' she says.
11:50 am: Students from Loyola College perfom Tamil songs with parai and thapattai. "Modi, this is not Gujarat or U.P. This is Tamil Nadu. Your games will not work here," goes a song.
11:40 am: Folk art to voice dissent
11:30 am: Some prominent faces in the protest comprise former vice chancellor of Manormanium Sundaranar University Dr V. Vasanthi Devi, poet Salma and activist Nityanand Jayaraman.
11:00 am:
Activist Geetha speaks about atrocities meted out to Dalits.
People hold a placard with names of Dalits killed in the recent times.
10:40 am: While #NotInMyName campaign across India began to voice against cow vigilantism, the Chennai campaign touched upon several other topics too, such as imposition of Hindi, crony capitalism, majoritarianism, oppression of Dalits and so on.
10:30 am: Crowds begin to swell outside Valluvar Kottam. The landmark to commemorate Tamil poet saint Thiruvalluvar has now become a centre for protests.
