Anti Brahminism and Tamils

I want to write about it a long time ago, but decided not to, because now in this advanced progressive growth of India and Tamil Nadu, anti-Brahminism is a myth. But there is something we have to write/talk for researching and shocked to know that still there is some anti- Brahmanism going on conjunction with Sri Lanka issue and what happened in Chennai law college (my wife cried for 5 minutes after seeing video from you tube please don't see unless absolute necessary, it was really brutal, no pun intended), it is clear that still there are lot of caste feeling in Tamil Nadu. As my dad always say, don’t talk the following with your fellow country (wo) man

A) About Reservation (affirmation action in India) with anybody

B) About Periyar with Brahmins

C) About Brahmins with atheists

D) About money with anybody (causes belly fire)

E) About sex with anybody (piss/shit in public place is okay but not kiss in my country ask Richard Gere),

F) About minority with majority

G) About majority with minority

H) About south with north

I) About north with south

J) About Tamil in Karnataka

K) About Kanada in Tamil Nadu

L) About north in west (this is something new)

M) About west in north

N) About Hindi with Tamils

O) About Tamils with Hindi

P)  About Muslim with right wing RSS

Q) About RSS with Muslim

R) About Christians with VHP

S) About VHP with Christians

I can go up to Z and alpha, beta etc…. so we can happily talk about food, more food, lot of gossip, more cinema and some cricket that’s all, but my dad is from old school, always want to keep “all happy all time”. But we have to express our opinions in some where, just to unclog our brain so that we can explore more and more.

 I may not point to any reference to substantiate my opinion, because all are my personal opinions and unbiased and some generalization, based on my experience with Brahmins, non-Brahmins, Atheist, Believer, Suppressed Peoples, Backward, most Backward, Forward, Other Backward, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. 

Brahmins contributed a lot for Tamils and Tamil Nadu. I can not imagine Tamil Nadu with out Brahmins. In my opinion, Tamil Nadu with out Brahmins is equal to Bihar (very under developed, see law college video) state in Indian union. Education and Hindu religion are the main for Tamil Brahmins, there contribution to Indian Army also worth to note it here. They helped most of Tamil people to understand Hinduism, work ethics, hygiene lifestyle etc. They uplifted Tamil society from downward sprawl to upward. Now most of the companies come to Chennai (Tamil Nadu’s capital) to start business because of Chennai’ ties work ethics and hard working that is mainly because of Tamil Brahmin’s impact. With out Brahmin’s mantra, we can not marry, can not carry dead body to final resting place, can not enter into new home, can not open new business and nothing can be done with out the presence of Brahmin in Tamil Nadu. We will not and should not forget their contribution towards Tamils. At same time, all castes in Tamil Nadu contributed their own share otherwise we won’t be this advanced in all areas.

But there are some negative aspects of Brahminism are, they are very conservative, domination and fragile. Due to conservative nature of them, they never ever completely assimilate with main Tamil stream. Different food habit, even different hairstyle, Different Tamil slang, Different lifestyle, Different dressing and segregated themselves from main society, they prefer to live near to temples. The main connection point for Brahmins and non-Brahmins is temple, that’s all, after that complete isolation. They created so many illogical customs with in Tamil society. I can list all illogical here, but it required 100 pages.  The most dislikes are, separating time into three parts and one should not do good things on some particular time slot, one should not travel some direction on some days, three persons can’t go to complete a task, if cat crosses on one’s way, they have to return home immediately, one can’t sleep with head pointing to north direction, etc…etc...

Anti Brahmanism was started in Tamil Nadu a long ago, to be specific when Erode Venkata Ramasami Naicker (EVR aka Periyar) went to Kasi in 1904. He witnessed immoral activities of Hinduism in holy city of Hindus.  He got frustrated with Hinduism and its inequality practice. The specific incident is, in Kasi food was served only to Brahmins, and identity is a thread running thru Brahmin’s body crossly, EVR wore a false thread intentionally and entered into line to get food but food servant found EVR is a non-Brahmin based on his moustache. So food servant pushed him down and refuses to serve food, after some time remaining food was wasted and served to dog. Irony is the food service place (choultry) was built by a non Brahmin from Tamil Nadu. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periyar]

Periyar actively involved with Anti Brahminism in Tamil Nadu side by side with his main Indian independence movement. I don’t want to go to details about how he did it but it affected each and every single person’s mind in Tamil Nadu. People who born before 1975s may be affected by “brhaminophobia” or “periyarophobia” depend on which side they born, because of Periyar and unlimited propaganda by his followers, this phobia was even affected in neighboring states as far as Orissa and other religion also. 

The youngest generation completely out of this and they even don’t know who is Periyar and what is Brahmins means to them, now Brahmins living like any body else in Tamil Nadu. Due to economical changes Brahmins came out of segregated places and living with in society and all are happy. We are living in a global village and all are connected with digital cells, and people are moving very fast, endless opportunities, no room for hate in this world. But what ever happened in Chennai Law College makes me think that we are traveling backwards again.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice article. I am totally with you on the contribution of Tamil Iyers to Tamil Nadu and also their lifestyle of segregation. Regarding the current opinion that most Iyers dont support the creation of Tamil Eezham - My opinion is that most Iyers suspect that Tamil Eezham will pave way for Independent Tamil Nadu (i know its just their suspicion). I actually think its the other way round. If India plays a role in preventing the creation of Tamil Eezham, Tamil Nadu's separatist feelings will be legitimized.

http://kalugu.com/2008/11/12/stop-rajiv-bashing-and-focus-on-tamil-eelam/
Thanks Sunderapandyan. You may be right that some Tamils fear that Elam might cause some revolution in Tamil Nadu secession from Indian union. But that is just a fear, Tamil Nadu firmly attached with union. Nothing will happen, depends on what ever happen in Lanka.
Anonymous said…
subba,

Why should we force any one to assimilation?

Segregation is not necessarily an evil thing.. in the prevailing social structure, every section of the society had its own life style & culture, and hence each community lived separately to be able to follow their culture..

There are many negatives from brahmins.. but tell me, are they worth enough to create anti-brahminism..

you wont accept me.. but anti-brahminism is essentially a missionary conspiracy..

To quote one example, the maharaja of travancore issued an order that everyone including dalits can enter guruvayur temple, ..
But the missionaries immediately contacted their british masters and stopped this order being issued.. the reason is obvious..

To quote another example, the saint basaveshwara is a brahmin, who came out of his rigid caste, and invited everyone to follow his lingayat principles.. but now, lingayat is just as rigid as any other caste..

In a society of diverse cultures, segregation is a good aspect to preserve every community's culture..

Comparing to the numerous diversities, different sections of the hindu society had lived peacefully for thousands of years.. inspite of living segregated life..
Senthil
Thanks for your comment. My point is if they could have assimilated, if they could have relaxed life style then people would not buy in Periyar's (or missionary conspiracy as per you) anti-Brahminism.
I think you are misunderstanding the assimilation meaning, it is not like forgot all of your customs and adopt a foreign custom. Take example of Andra community (Reddiar/Naidu), they came from Andra when Vijayanagara Empire try to expand all over south India, 1300-1500 BC. We are very much assimilate with Tamil diaspora, can anybody start anti-Reddy or anti-Naidu movement? Would people buy in? , they happily intermarry Tamil caste like Iyer, Mudhaliyar, Pillai etc…But still now they preserve their mother language Telgu inside home. Take Kerala’ties, they are living all over the world, one wouldn’t believe that they are immigrates, they know how to assimilate.

Subba
oops.. a typo, Vijayanagar was 1300-1500 AC

Popular posts from this blog

Coupon Crazy

Google's Killer Application.

Uncontrolled Musing