Renuka Narayanan, Hindustan Times
Chennai, May 24, 2007
First Published: 00:35 IST(24/5/2007)
Last Updated: 00:37 IST(24/5/2007)
Ban caste itself, say Tamil Dalits
“The constitution has made untouchability illegal, but caste is still alive in our society. Our goal is to have caste itself banned,” says Ravi Kumar, a Dalit MLA. A noisy meeting of tribal students in Cuddalore District, south of Chennai, leaves Ravi Kumar hoarse. But he resolutely prepares for his next meeting in his constituency — the historic Vaishnava temple town of Kattumannarkoil.
Kumar is one of the two MLAs from the Viduthalai Siruthaigal (Dalit Liberation Panthers) in the assembly, which has 44 Dalits. His party leader is Thol. Thirumavalavan of the Parayar community, that for centuries announced village deaths by drumming on the parai (a local drum). From the name of this formerly ‘untouchable’ community had originated the derogatory ‘paraiah’. Today, however, 64 per cent of the 1.1 crore Dalits in the state are literate, just 10 per cent behind the state average of 74 per cent.
“This high literacy level among Tamil Dalits is not due to the Dravidian movement,” says Ravi Kumar. “In British Raj, only two communities had a good English education: Brahmins and Dalits. The Brahmins, because they served the British in offices and the Dalits, for serving them at home as cooks, bearers and personal attendants. A Tamil Dalit, Rettamalai Sreenivasan, attended the Round Table Conference in London with Dr Ambedkar.”
Dalit political awareness in Tamil Nadu began as early as 1895 with the Adidravida Mahajanasabha founded by M Chinnathambi. His son, MC Raja, made a Rao Bahadur by the British, published a Dalit magazine Parayar (which also means ‘to speak out’) between 1893 and 1900, with a circulation rivalling The Hindu.
However, the last 40 years of the Dravidian movement have not helped Tamil Dalits because of caste demographics.
“Forward castes, including Brahmins, Muslims and Christians, constitute 13 per cent of Tamil Nadu. Scheduled Castes are 19 per cent and Scheduled Tribes one per cent. The rest are intermediary castes who control political power,” says P Radhakrishnan, Professor of Sociology at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and author of the study, ‘Religion, Caste and State’ (2007).
Says Ravi Kumar, “Of the 234 MLAs in the present assembly, only two are Brahmins: Jayalalitha and SV Shekhar of the Mylapore constituency. Middle castes have run the government for 40 years. So who is responsible for Dalit non-inclusion?” In the 2004 general elections, the Liberation Panthers and another major Dalit party, the Puthiya Tamilagam, were kept out of the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) led by M. Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Atrocities against Dalits continue, mostly perpetrated by the two most dominant backward castes — the Thevars (mostly AIADMK supporters) and the Vanniyars (the PMK’s vote bank). Two years ago at Thinniyar in Tiruchirapalli district Thevars forced Dalits to eat human excrement. Six months later, Dalits were forced to drink urine at Gounderpatti near Dindigul.
“The only radical solution is to ban caste. No wearing caste marks or retaining caste surnames, banning caste-based organisations and abolishing government caste-counting mechanisms like official forms. But will any political party have the guts to do it? Particularly in TN?” challenges Ravi Kumar.
Is this a constitutional amendment whose time has come?
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=56b96ae0-e5f4-454d-8c89-f1f746868380
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times
3 comments
S.Ganesh says:
March 20, 2008 at 10:28 pm (UTC 0 )
In Mayawati’s BSP, avowedly meant for the Dalits, there are many Brahmin MLAs, but in Karunanidhi’s DMK there is not a single Brahmin MLA. He treats Brahmins worse than dirt, obviously because he knows that as a votebank they are too few to help him win elections, but if he could denigrade them he will get crores of OBC votes. That is why he is always playing the caste card. OBCs never deserve any reservation; in fact, the Dalits deserve more quota.
It is only due to the oppression of Brahmins they migrate to the North like us Brahmins who have migrated to Delhi decades ago! What is there for Brahmins in Tamil Nadu, except denigration, oppression, insult and injury? I proclaim that being a Brahmin I AM AN ARYAN, ARYAN AND ARYAN AND NOT A WRETCHED OBC DRAVIDIAN. And I am proud to be so. I will be the happiest if Karunanidhi reads this and responds to me.
S.Ganesh
FROM TAMILNATION WEBSITE says:
May 28, 2008 at 11:58 am (UTC 0 )
FROM TAMILNATION WEBSITE : THE TAMIL TRAITORS OF TAMILNADU
———————————————————-
Reservation deserves to be abolished the same way that terms like Brahmin, Backward Classes, Thevar, Nadar etc deserve to be abolished. Reservation is nothing but a legal way to divide society. Reservation defies the cause of Tamil unity.
Pro reservationationists ironically favour Muslims who only speak Hindi at home or Nayudus and Reddys who speak only Telugu at home. At the same time they treat Tamil-speaking Brahmins and Chettiars as foreign invaders by excluding them . They also claim to fight for the Tamil cause….by dividing Tamil society!!? PMK, DMK, ADMK etc reject creamy layer, support the cruel 2-tumbler system of Southern Tamil Nadu and now demand extended reservation. PMK leader will go Delhi, Hyderabad and Bombay to promote reservation rather than setting up Tamil learning centers in those places. This shows that Tamil Nadu policitians don’t mind loosing their self respect and prefer to worship their Hindi masters than to work for an integrated Tamil society. Incidently the PMK health minister has made Hindi compulsory for medicine, the the DMK surface transport minister has made Hindi compulsory on national roads even in Tamil Nadu.
In the last election which Karunanidhi contested and became is Chief Minister, DMK campaigned to win North Indian votes in Tamil Nadu. To do this they printed election propaganda material in Hindi. Is it not really ironic that this very party which claims to be championing the Tamil cause on one hand sidelines the “forward communitiy” Tamils by eliminating them from the reservation system, and on another hand tries to appease North Indians settled in Tamil Nadu with election propoganda in Hindi. It makes a mockery of the people who died in 1965 revolting against Hindi imposition. Now reservations for Urdu-speaking Muslims (many of them who do not speak Tamil) is probably is another feather in cap for Karunanidhi’s ‘Tamil cause’. PMK’s implementation of medicine labelling in Hindi and the DMK’s implementation of Hindi road signs in Tamil Nadu are proof of the levels that these parties can stoop to hold power in the Union government.
Jayachandran says:
February 5, 2009 at 2:00 am (UTC 0 )
Karunanidhi is a Telugu
Periyar is a Kannada
Ramadoss is a Telugu
Vaiko is a Telugu
It is only expected that they find means to hide their non-Tamil identity and inciting caste hatred is one such method.