Dear Sri Kunjuppu,
In the northern part of the Country, continuous onslaught of foreign Races have affected the culture of Hindu Society in a big scale. This subject has been dealt by many scholars.
How ever, I would attribute three important factors for the changes in Brahmins' social outlook in South.
First and foremost is acceptance of changes by Brahmin Community according to reality.Second is migration of Brahmins from villages and the exposure to western education. Third is the economic independence of Brahmin
women.
Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
dear brahmanyan,
i will agree with you 100%. also i would like to append a few more reasons, as i think, it is no ONE reason, that causes such a wholesale attitude change at the grass roots level of a community..
- 100% literacy of men and along with it an exposure to western thought and civilization; no one can deny its influence on us, albeit in different levels and shades. the white woman had to fight hard for the vote; our ladies got it in a platter at the dawn of free india - probably the first ever opportunity for most of them at that time to exercise a right on to itself, without supervision of the manhusbandfatherbrotheruncle.
- it is my own suspicion that our women voted for the reformers while our menfolks, even here to this day, are feeling the sting of the slapss received about 50+ years ago. p.a.krishnan, has observed this in an essay in அக்ரஹாரத்தில் பெரியார், in a tangential manner, at the sight of the whole nanguneri agraharam shutting down at the urge of the women who closed the kitchen, to witness a reform meeting at the road end, which they all congregated and watched from nearby thinnais. my mom, incidentally, would never disclose whom she voted for, inspite of my dad's repeated efforts
, one of those rare occassions when she would not comply to his wishes.
- the increasing sense of fairness among our menfolk. especially in an urban environment where facilities for the girls were as easily available as the boys'. even the poorest brahmin families of the side streets of kapali koil, used to send their daughters, along with their sons, to the shorthand typing institutes. from there it was a straight path to a government job (the same route was followed in palghat, except there, the route lay in a one way ticket to bombay matunga). so through need they discovered the earning power of the girls to supplement family expenses, and also sowed the seed of the girls saving up for their own wedding (mrs K followed this route and was fortunate to get into corporate high level secretary position which stood her in good sense through the pre marriage years)
- the concept of having small families overruled the need to have sons. my fil had 4 daughters till the much wanted son arrived, and then they stopped having babies. my sibling had only 2 daughters, and i am sure, between hubby wife there was this agreement to limit to two. if both were daughters, it was a natural development to treat them gender neutral re opportunities education expenses etc. the only double whammy here, is that the parents ended up spending what in previous era re marriage plus all the costs associated with hostel bound college education.
truly, i revel in this modern era, for i think, this is the era that bharathi dreamed of a புதுமை பெண்.
. i do not wring my hands at hearing the occassional 'misdemeanours' of some of our girls, but these are no better/worse than what our sons have been enjoying for centuries (t.janakiraman describes some of these antics very well in மோக முள்).
truly a golden era for all women folks of india law wise and opportunity wise. all thanks to ambedkar and nehru, and for this alone, i feel indebted to them.
thank you and best wishes sir.
