Dear Shri Gane,
It may be a fact that tabras as a caste will become completely extinct by 2035 or some time later or even earlier.
But the Tambrapartika, in my view, takes some simplistic views in analyzing the reasons for this extinction. The basic problem or issue is that our hindu scriptures (and consequently, our tabra way of life) do not envisage the kind of freedom, education, liberty, equality, emancipation, etc., for our women. But in our (rather misplaced) aping of western notions & ideals, right from the pre-independence days, we have been allowing lot of freedoms to our women and it has been our custom to eulogize and extol each and every such step. In this process we have forgotten the Manu Smriti words—
पिता रक्षति कौमारे भर्ता रक्षति यौवने ।
रक्षन्ति स्थविरे पुत्रा न स्त्री स्वातन्त्र्यं अर्हति । । ९.३ । ।
Even the usually highly extolled and oft-quoted Bhagavdgeeta does not seem to consider that there is any equality between man and woman; for example BG V-13 says that the
सर्वकर्माणि मनसा संनस्यास्ते सुखं वशी ।
नवद्वारे पुरे देही नैव कुवन्नकारयन् ॥
This shows that only men have the qualification to become yogi and women who are दशद्वारपुराs are not considered.
Now, I have no quarrel with women's emancipation and all that but I only object to the tendency to lament about such emancipated tabra girls being enticed by the modern (& western) slogans of equality of all humans and the meaninglessness of caste itself, thereby leading to the extinction of this caste itself. Let us, then, decide whether we want our daughters to go in for higher (and still higher) educational qualifications or whether, as a caste, we can take a decision that tabra girls will not be sent to college but trained to be good & efficient housewives and will be married off as early as possible.
Instead of doing something definitive and result-oriented, like the above, this Tambrapatrika makes absurd observations like tabras not inculcating "pride and a sense of belonging to the community, groomed them into forging the conviction that Tambrahms have India's richest social, spiritual, cultural heritage that many non others envy, and reared the children into strong conviction about the uniqueness of being a Tambrahm and bred a strong loyalty to the community?", "hindi learning", and so on.
Let me again state that emancipation of women will lead to its natural after-effect viz., annihilation of the caste eventually. We have to choose between the two. There is no point in crying like "koozhukkum aasai, meesaikkum aasai". (One can't drink thick porridge if he wants to keep his mustache clean.)Discussing this topic any numbers of times, will not change the fundamental truth stated above.
