biswa,
the so called lower castes, have racial memories of glory. no one was a 'scheduled' a few centuries ago. being conquered was equivalent to slavery, and the tamil tribes were no better, no worse, than the mores of those days.
at the dawn of the 20th century, the tamil brahmins, with the newly acquired power through education, sealed their fate, by openly claiming themselves as 'aryans', and the only linguistic group in india, termed the rest of the castes as NB. this they effectively sold to the british overlords, and it is only in tamil nadu the hindus are divided thus.
... in a historic sense, it is only fair that the rest of the tamil tribes elevate themselves to the level of a fair share of the cake. after all, tambrams, who throughout the centuries, by and large, were at the mercy of the castes for their susbsistence, for a brief period in history, could afford to dance only because the british wanted clerks versed in the english language, to churn the machinery of the Raj.
we soon bit the hand that fed us, never realizing, that with the exit of the british, much as we despise them, our privileges came to nought.
history has a way of righting the wrongs, i think. though some wrongs, i do not know, how they could be righted. like the Holocaust. could the jews ever be righted. or what wrongs did the jews commit, that historically their 'wrongs' could be vindicted?
i dont know.
ps.. even the newly arrived group to the tamil tribedom - the catholics have a miniature racial memory. when P.G.Panneerdas of the VGP fame, died suddenly in his prime, it is said, that his death was a punishment from jesus himself, because vgp promoted the t.v. series ramayana. dont know if you give credibility to this, but again, in all the catholic churches of tamil nadu, masses were said in penance, and catholics vowed not to watch ramayana.
such is the extremes of faith in india. good or bad. so be it. thaththaasthu.
