Mourners shave heads in homage to Jayalalithaa
CHENNAI // Thousands of Indians flocked to the seaside grave of Jayalalithaa Jayaram yesterday, a day after a burial ceremony restricted to politicians, film stars and relatives of the reclusive but hugely popular leader. Men wearing white dhotis lined up on plastic chairs beside police barricades around the grave to have their heads shaved, a Hindu mourning tradition usually reserved for the death of a close relative. Many of the mourners were poor women who had travelled long distances in intense heat to pay final respects to the revered former chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, who died on Monday at the age of 68. Among them was Vanita, 50, who ekes out a living rolling the cheap Indian cigarettes known as bidis.
Vanita said she had travelled to the state capital Chennai to see Jayalalithaa many times, and once asked for her help getting treatment for a heart complaint.
“She made sure I got the operation I needed,” said Vanita, pulling her sari to one side to reveal the scar from her surgery. “She even gave me money for medicine. And the next time I met her, she remembered me and asked how I was.”
The former movie star, a populist champion of the poor, was buried on Tuesday alongside M G Ramachandran, her onscreen lover and predecessor as chief minister, at a ceremony attended by film actors and political leaders. Prime minister Narendra Modi also flew in from New Delhi to pay his respects. Her nephew was among the few relatives who attended the funeral, and there has been speculation about who stands to inherit the vast wealth she accrued during her time in power.
An estimated one million people lined the streets to watch her glass coffin transported to the burial site amid tight security in a city that has witnessed violence in the past after the deaths of top political leaders.