If there is one man who animates Brahmins like no other, it is EVR/தந்தை பெரியார். Yet, it is impossible to have an honest conversation about him with these Brahmins. The mere mention of his name is enough to rile up the pack to foam at the mouth with inane denunciations. Ironically, the comment by one the members of this pack that concerns barking dogs is apt for what they are themselves doing. When will it ever occur to these people that when a UN body heaps high praise on somebody, there must be something to it and deserves cool and rational examination? Well, when there is snow fall in Chennai I suppose.
periyar's words were meant to hurt. and they still do after close to a 100 years.
that today's tambrams are no way close to the attitudes or have the socio power influence of 100 years ago is one reason that we cannot relate to why someone should have such vitriolic hatred towards us, and against whom, we have no weapons, what with all our supposed intellect and brains.
periyarism won the day dmk was elected, and over 40+ years, the face of the ruling clique and power has changed in tamil nadu. back to what it was traditionally, the brief 100 years when the brahmins held a shadow sway under the management of the british was but an aberration. we were never the ruling or the influential class, and today, we are no more in tamil nadu, even in numerical presence.
periyarism jolted the society. today a tambram family is closer to periyar's ideals of a modern family - small in size, educated and free thinking women, more rational than not and above all, a strong belief in education. other communities have followed, and today, if a cobbler or a latrine cleaner has hopes for his children for social mobility, it is thanks to the concept of reservations. that we all have to agree, for without that, we would elements of rajaji's kula kalvi still in place.
it is only when kamaraj came, that kula kalvi plan was dropped. today when i see the kula kalvi plan, i cannot understand how someone can be so insensitive as to the aspirations of the people, and their absurd but intense faith in improving the lot of their children. in that context, whether it be our grand fathers or rajaji or even periyar, these were all people of their times.
today even periyar is passe. the young generation do not even pay obeisance to his name, let alone to his policies. with the passing of MK, there is not even a politician worthy of name who is familar with periyar as a person. he has passed on to history, to be venerated, and forgotten. same as gandhi, nehru or kamaraj.
thoughtful people from those communities that receive aid through reservations, have come to question the way it is implemented today. the concept of creamy layer is challenged. but above all, it is the area of open quota that is the most surprsing in its outcome - most of those who secure the highest marks are not brahmins anymore. perhaps there is some truth, that given good food environment education family encouragement and schooling, it is not the genes but what is provided to the person, that is conducive to good marks and result
even more surprisingly, that bastion of tambram studentship, iit madras, one can count with fingers, the number of tambram b.tech students now adays. instead the mass hordes of them are from andhra, of all castes, products of the iit entrance machine factories initiated by chandrababu naidu and now run efficiently by his successors. again a proof, anyone with proper stuffing can enter any university.
none of my relatives managed to get into iits. all of them went through the numerous private engg colleges that dot the outskirts of chennai, and all of them are abroad barring one. and earning well enough too. none of these wanted an IT carrier in india, though the same in singapor or australia or uk or usa appear to be ok. our entire thought process and concept of where we would like to work, has changed. today it is global. in a way, this was started by the british 120 years ago, and then it was burma, ceylon or malaya. today it is farther away. none of this is due to periyar, though some would like to blame him for this diasporic situation too.
still, it is interesting to see the intense reaction here, comparing myself or nara to dogs, and the certain other folks to the sun or the moon. what arguements, rational or otherwise, can be presented against such intensity?
addressing us as dogs cats or by any other epithets, does it not show an absence or willingness to produce cohesive arguements backed by facts?
except to look around us. many of us abroad, especially in usa or canada, have children, who have risen to heights, which even in present day india it is impossible. i think there are half a dozen indians in obama's circle of administration, including a distant nephew of mine. how many of us can imagine such an access to the upper echelons of new delhi?
.. and then think of the cobbler or the vettiyan or the latrine cleaner..who has been condemned to the same tasks since times immemmorial. that is when atleast some of us, can appreciate the cruelty of our caste system and its subsequent crimes of humanity. the quota system or denial of certain priviliges is but a small price, i think, in order to correct historic wrongs - wrongs that we ourselves did not perpetuate or maybe even sympathize, but thanks to history, we inherited.
atleast, i think so.
