Two brothers who dared to declare war on an empire — centuries before 1857 — are remembered today by DMK president M. K. Stalin, who paid solemn tribute to the Marudhu Brothers on their memorial day, 24 October 2026, honouring the polygar chieftains of Sivaganga who gave their lives resisting British colonial rule.

In his post in Tamil, Stalin saluted Periya Marudhu and Chinna Marudhu as 'சீற்றமிகு காளைகள்' ('fierce bulls') of the Sivaganga region, calling them the very definition of the valour celebrated in the ancient Sangam text Purananooru. 'They fought standing against the British,' he wrote, 'embodying the heroism of the Tamils of that era.'

The Jambudweepa Declaration — India's earliest unity call

Stalin reserved particular emphasis for the brothers' most consequential act: the Jambudweepa Declaration, a proclamation the Marudhu Brothers issued calling on all Indians to set aside their differences and unite to expel foreign rulers. Stalin described them as 'social harmony warriors' who 'thundered this message to everyone before anyone else did' — a pointed assertion that the idea of pan-Indian unity against colonialism predates the mainstream freedom movement by decades.

The declaration is historically significant as one of the earliest known pan-Indian calls to resistance, issued from a regional Tamil kingdom at a time when the British East India Company was consolidating power across the subcontinent.

Sivaganga's chieftains who chose the scaffold

Periya Marudhu and Chinna Marudhu were polygar chieftains who administered the Sivaganga estate in what is now southern Tamil Nadu. They led sustained armed resistance against the British East India Company in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Captured by colonial forces, they were executed — choosing death over submission. Stalin described their sacrifice in his post: 'On the remembrance day of those fighters who sacrificed their lives and sowed the seeds of the spirit of freedom, I offer them my heroic salute.'

A consistent DMK thread — reclaiming pre-Congress Tamil resistance

This tribute fits a well-established pattern within DMK's public commemorations. The party consistently brings attention to pre-1857 Tamil resistors of British rule, anchoring its ideology in narratives of regional valour and social harmony that predate the Indian National Congress-led freedom movement. By foregrounding the Marudhu Brothers' explicit message of unity across communities, Stalin also draws a line from eighteenth-century Tamil resistance to the DMK's own stated commitment to social cohesion.

Annual remembrance events are held in Sivaganga on 24 October, with cultural programmes typically marking the occasion at the district level in Tamil Nadu.

For a party that governs Tamil Nadu and frequently contests the Centre on questions of federal identity, invoking chieftains who defied an empire from the same soil carries unmistakable political texture — even in a solemn, reverential register.