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The status of Tamils (Dravidians) is miserable. In society they are the lowest caste; 80% of them are illiterate; 90% of them are labourers; 75% of them are engaged in hard labour demanding professions; in government, they never scale up beyond peon, constable or clerk positions; divided into 108 castes; cunningly deceive each other for selfish interests; serve the enemies within the religion with servile attitude; work for the development of fraudulent venal in politics; to sum up, the dignity is in disgrace and values are in shambles. What is the reason for this state is a very important question.

In the entire Madras presidency, there is not a single Tamilian who is adorable for other Tamils. Similarly, there is no Tamilian who is not disgraced by other Tamils. On reaching a better position, they never hesitate to discredit and ditch the one helped, recommended for their development. It is very rare to find a Tamilian who doesn’t try to dump the one who aided his development. Why being faithful and refraining from ditching the one helped remains a non-existent virtue? Is the second question.

Such state of affairs is almost not prevalent among Muslims, Christians and Brahmins. Why? This is the third question. 

The content in these three questions might sound bit exaggerated, and it might be true. But mostly it is true, and most of the folks would agree. Hence it is important to pursue an answer to these questions, isn’t it?

In Madras Presidency (Dravidian nation) 3% of the population are Brahmins, 8% to 9% are Muslims, 1% are Christians. Despite so small in numbers, they are leading a dignified, independent, disciplined life that intimidates the enemies. If one tries to find the reason behind it, the answers to these three questions will unravel itself.

Reasons

• Tamils don’t have a foundation. They are not aware of who they are, their legacy, what belongs to them, their heritage, and hence they don’t have any basic premises. It is quite natural that a foundation-less building would develop cracks, reverberate to external impact, and none would be willing to live in it. When someone is not aware of their own heredity, would obviously stoop down in dignity to please others and meet their goals.
• Tamils don’t have an identity. They need something else to identify themselves. Hence they identify themselves as non-Brahmin, non-Muslim, non-Christian etc.,
• Brahmins, Muslims and Christians also label themselves as Tamils. If we say someone does not qualify to call themselves as Tamils, they say “am born in Tamilnadu I speak Tamil and hence am a Tamilian”. In spite of their oppressive nature and arrogant behaviour, Tamils, even Tamil scholars vouch for the identity of those people as Tamils.
• Tamils don’t have any distinct identity, characteristics, or lifestyle
• Tamils don’t have unique literature that is free of Aryan influence
• Tamils don’t have a distinguished leader to lead them
• Those who consider themselves as important members of Tamil clan doesn’t have any interest in the development of members of the clan. They have no moral responsibility or affiliation towards their own society. They are just not bothered about how contemptuously others from other societies treat their people
• Tamils are never going to have self-esteem or dignity because they have no basis to claim that they possessed any dignity, and it is affected now. Now, due to recent struggles, they believe they have attained a new status that is way beyond their reach otherwise. If a Tamilian tries to think through to find whether they had any dignity in the past, they would not be able to find any evidence to fortify the claim.

Many Kings claim that they belong to upper caste. Many farmers do the same. In some Dravidian states, most of the people take pride in claiming they belong to upper caste. Few old men say about 30 to 40 years ago as a tradition, in rich households, to give birth to ‘good children’ they used to employ ‘upper-caste men’. In Tamilnadu and Kerala, even today in few households it is common to see 2 or 3 brothers marry the same girl and live like Pandavas. Similarly, a man would marry 2 or 3 siblings from the same family and live like Aryan gods. In Dravidian states, one can find a particular caste practice prostitution as their ancestral business; the father, mother, brother act as manager, cashier, accountant and agent for the ‘commodity.’

Notwithstanding this, Tamils simply believe they are from a lower caste, below Brahmins and they deserve to be treated the way they are being treated. We are trying to outline all this to establish the fact the ‘Personalities’ from Tamilian society simply doesn’t care or never going to care in future about the insults thrust upon them. The affluent Tamils never spend a single penny for the betterment of Tamil society, but on the other hand, they spend it for the benefit of the enemies who are responsible for the injustice.

The state of affairs with learned scholars among the Tamils is much worse. Like a farmer proudly declares he was born to a Brahmin, these people say Brahmins are born as Brahmins, while they would attain the stature of Brahmins by virtue of their deeds. One could hardly make any difference between these two people in terms of intellectual capacity. They degrade themselves much more badly than the degradation meted out by Brahmins.

The Officers, who have carried the tag of Tamilian to get a Government job, on getting it, simply lose their mind by the ecstasy of cool breeze from the overhead fan, ‘Master’ chanting by a peon, servile attitude of the public, goes on to claim ‘these dirty idiot non-Brahmins have no brain, and they have no etiquette. They are quite unfit for any sympathy’. They simply desert themselves from their clan to become a member of another one, which they consider is superior.

Those who reached higher positions of the hierarchy, in order to further their ascent, identify themselves as higher caste members and consider others as low caste. They believe Brahmins have a superior brain and start aping them. They never allow others to reach higher positions and try to oppress them, joining hands with Brahmins.

Lawyers represent and contest for their own enemies.

Tamil landlords imitate the higher castes, consider those work for them as Sudhras and oppress them. They always stand in anticipation of favours from upper caste people.

Finally, the industrialists. For these people, there is only one ultimate goal in life, making money! They are simply not bothered about who is oppressing whom, and what injustice is meted out to anyone. Caste or race doesn’t count as long as they could make money. They simply stay loyal to influential people and achieve their goals through money.

When the situation is like this for lords, rich people and scholars, consider the plight of the cadres. When the family is in dire straits, how long could they keep talking about policies and principles in vain? There could still be some steadfast cadres.

These people don’t even expend 1% interest shown in their own development, pride, the welfare of importance to eradicate the disgrace and humiliation meter out to them or their people. Hence what other reason could we site for the disgraced state of affairs of Tamils other than Tamils themselves?

But look at Brahmins. They eulogise Gandhi as ‘Saint’, ‘Mahatma’, ‘God’ etc. In fact, Gandhi is not a member or chief of Congress. But they catch hold of someone from enemies and make him a ‘Leader’ and tune him to play to their own interests. They don’t utter a single word about their race in Congress, but they ensure the entire organization functions for their benefit. People from our race have no freedom in that movement. They simply have to dance like monkeys to Brahmins’ tune. As an exception if someone starts thinking about the welfare of himself or his race, he will be targeted, even if he is a King or Mahatma, he will be ridiculed and thrown away in an instance.

They don’t have any organization for themselves, but they ensure everything gets done through Congress. There is none without affiliation for the caste of race among them. They never feel feared or ashamed to exhibit their affiliation publicly. Iyers, Sasthris, acharyas of the society, without spending a penny, without holding any position in any organization, just by publishing a statement, are able to achieve all their goals and tune the entire society to work for their benefits! What else can we site as the reason for their superiority in society other than, their affiliation for caste, an affiliation for the race, ability to differentiate themselves from others in the society, everyone including men and women work with the same mindset as the prime reasons? Isn’t the same goes well for Muslims?

(Kudi Arasu – 27.11.1943)

They call us Brahmin-haters. They ask why we should make Brahmins responsible for some other person’s deeds. Even members raise this question in assembly. If it is someone’s deeds, why should he wear sacred thread? Why should he label himself Brahmin? Why he has different hairstyle? Why he isolates himself and lives in Agraharam? Why his wife wear saree in distinct style? If it is someone’s deed, why should Brahmin follow it? It is he who labels as Sudra. If they say as per Sastra, Purana and religious scriptures, it is our duty to work for his welfare, and without any efforts, he will grab all the fruits of our labour, how can we accede in silence? We are struggling to change this pattern and situation. We don’t have any personal vengeance against Brahmins.

(Viduthalai – 22.11.1957)

You should think about it. Do Brahmins have two parties? In terms of thinking and strategizing, Sir CP Ramaswamy is like Himalayas and Rajaji is like the bedrock of Indian Ocean! They condemn and complain about each other strongly. They have talked ill of the other in private discussions with me. But when it comes to rearing the wellness and benefits of their community, just see how disciplined they are!

All Brahmins are very disciplined. But just look at our plight. We are working to remove the disgrace thrust upon for the past 2000 to 3000 years. We don’t have any inclination towards gaining vote or any position of gain. I told this last time too. If someone takes the baton and leads us, am ready to work as a cadre.

Let eradicating Brahmins be my goal alone, Let annihilation of caste also be my goal alone. But when it comes to raising voice for separation of Tamilnadu from India, I request a unified voice from each one of you. Let’s not try to concur on other principles, but unite on the separation of Tamilnadu and fortify our struggle. You lead, I will come behind you. Our friend MP Sivagnanam says “He called me, thanks for that. But I will never concur on releasing ourselves from the rule of North Indians”. But who called you? Am just calling those who are willing to separate from India.

In those days visiting a prostitute is considered a prestigious deed. Some people used to tie one end of the towel to the door of prostitute’s house, holding the other end and shout “Please leave me, I have to go” to gain the attention of the passers-by. This is to deceive and make people think that the prostitute is so fond of him, she doesn’t allow him to leave! The act of these people reminds me of those stories. They are trying to make an impression in the society that we are earnestly waiting for them to join our struggle. If they are righteous, instead of weaving fallacious stories they should honestly say ‘I don’t like this, am not interested in joining you’. Other person says ‘I don’t like the way he operates’.

I would like to state the following to MP Sivagnanam and the other person ‘I neither complain nor worry about it. At this dire situation, when the enemy is threatening the very livelihood of Tamils, don’t we have a moral responsibility to lend shoulders? Is it the Tamil tradition?’ If Tamils backstab and become traitors in favour of the enemies, what does it exposes? Is it the characteristic of Tamils? Is this a new struggle? It is there for thousands of years. Now we are struggling for past 30 – 40 years. We are gaining some ground. Will it reach its end soon?        

(Viduthalai – 15.12.1957)

Written by Periyar E.V.R.

Translated by Ramu. Palaniappan

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