THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
H I S T O R Y N O T E S
DRAVIDATVA AND LIBERATION FROM HINDU NAZIS
Posted by RUNOKO RASHIDI
May 24, 2001
Dear friends and comrades,
In one of my serialized e-mail reports titled "The Black Dravidians of India", I had mentioned how the Shudras (the lower castes within the Hindu caste hierarchy) and the Panchamas (who are untouchable outcasts out of the caste system) share common Dravidian racial origins even though the Shudras look down upon the Panchamas. I had written that the various groupings among the Shudras based on their caste profession were legitimized as "castes or sub-castes" by the British thereby dividing the unity of Shudras. This was a viewpoint given to me by comrade Deepa Pathi and I want to credit her for this view point because I am not a plagiarist to pass on an original view point of another person as my own.
It is also true that the legitimization of groups among the outcasts as "castes and sub-castes" has hurt Dalit unity when Dalits are actually casteless outcasts. On the whole the division of Shudras into various so called "castes or sub-castes" and the Panchamas into "castes or sub-castes" in a legal sense has hurt the cause of Dravidian unity as a whole and caused sectarian strife among the Dravidians which has actually benefited the Aryan Hindus (upper castes) who are the only real Hindus.
I am sure groupings among Shudras and Panchamas existed long before the British came and these groups only socialised and married among themselves. Therefore it may be difficult for me to put the blame entirely on the British for dividing the Shudras and Panchamas into various sub-groups. May be the groupings among the Shudras and Panchamas were given the unnecessary government legitimization and the terminology of "caste or sub-caste" by the British Government for official purposes which lead to the Hinduisation of Shudras and Panchamas in legal parlance as just another caste in the Hindu society, thereby making it easy for the real Hindu Aryans who wear the sacred thread (Brahmans, Kshatriyas and Vysyas) to divide and rule over the Dravidian masses by sustaining a false sense of Hindu identity among the Dravidians (both Shudras and Panchamas), which is what the basic aim of Hindutva is all about.
The need of the hour is Dravidian unity all over India. All Dravidians whether they are Shudras or Panchamas, should unite together based on their common Dravidian racial, linguistic and cultural origins by destroying all caste identities. As an alternative and counter force to "Hindutva" we have to place "Dravidatva". This is what even Ambedkar wanted. Ambedkar was the first to declare that Tamil was the original language of all Dalits (Panchamas) and the so called Shudras. But how many non-Tamil Dalits are accepting Ambedkar's advice and learning Tamil? We have to place Tamil as the linguistic counter-force to Sanskrit, we have to place Ravana as the mythological God and counter-symbol to the Hindu Aryan God Ram and we have to place Dravidian spirituality (which is just a free choice based indigenous pagan and tribal worship of nature and ancient heroes) as the counter-spirituality to Hinduism.
The native Dravidian spiritual practices were high jacked by Vedic Brahmanism to counter Buddhism. Before Buddhism, the Vedic Brahmanic religion did not have idol worship, but, only ritual fires and sacrifices of animals!! To counter Buddhism, Aryan Hindus high jacked the native tribal worship of Dravidian heroes and heroines as Brahmanical Gods or Goddesses and wove stories around them to Hinduise them. For example, Murugan is the God worshipped by tribal Dravidians living in hilly areas of Tamil Nadu and Murugan temples can only be found in hills of Tamil Nadu because Murugan himself was a Dravidian tribal man who married a tribal girl called Valli. But the Aryan Hindus Hinduised him by calling him "Karthikeya", made him the second son of Siva and married him off mythologically to the Aryan princess Deivanai. Like this, many Dravidian heroes and heroines worshipped by the Dravidian masses have been high jacked as Hindu Gods and Goddesses by the Vedic religion of the Aryan Hindus which does not propagate idol worship at all in any of the so called Vedas and Upanishads!!
We have to reclaim the tribal Dravidian Gods from the Hindu Aryan religion. A man called Dr. Deiva Nayagam based in Madras and his daughter are renowned researchers in the ancient Dravidian spirituality and have written many books. Ancient Dravidians did not have any particular religion but only a rational kind of spirituality in which the individual was left alone to pursue his or her own relationship with spirituality. This led to many kinds of cults, nature worship, tribal Gods, worship of dead soldiers and chieftains as heroes who later became Gods. The latter cultural trait can still be found in Tamil Nadu where people build temples to their favourite political leaders and even film stars. But Aryan Brahmins high jacked this highly free spirited, individual based and free choice based approach to spirituality of native Dravidians with their racist and bigoted Hindu Sanathana Dharma.
Buddhism was created to counter the social inequities, poverty, disease and war caused by Brahmanical caste system, but eventually it failed because the Bhikku establishment started behaving exactly like the Brahmans. Thereafter Buddhism lost all its socio-political effect by becoming just another religion with people worshiping the image of Buddha which even Buddha never wanted. Actually when the Taliban destroyed the Buddha statues I opposed it from a perspective of archeological preservation, but true Ambedkarite Buddhists should not bother about destruction of Buddha statues because Buddha himself did not want his image to be preserved and worshipped like a Hindu God. Buddhism is not a religion at all but only a socio-political and a psychological philosophy. It has been heavily Brahmanised and made to lose all of its socio-political fervour.
Legally, Buddhism is not even considered as a separate religion in India and has legal recognition only as a sect of Hinduism. Why hasn't the Dalai Lama or any other Buddhist Bhikku protested this? As long as Buddhism legally remains as a sect of Hinduism in India, there is no point in Dalits converting to Buddhism because it will not have any effect on the Hindu Aryans or the caste system, since Buddhists continue to be Hindus legally. To aggravate this situation, contemporary Buddhism believes in all Brahmanical crap like Karma, re-birth and unquestioning loyalty to the Bhikku establishment which are all worse than Brahmanism and completely disapproved by Ambedkar.
Either there should be a movement to declare Ambedkarite Buddhism as a separate religion and get legal recognition for it as a separate religion in India. Otherwise there is no point in converting to Buddhism because Buddhists are legally considered as Hindus and forced to follow all dogmatic Brahmanical crap in the name of Buddhism.
Therefore the need of the hour is "Dravidatva" culturally, politically, linguistically and spiritually. All Dravidians of India should give up their Shudra and Panchama caste identities and declare themselves simply as Dravidians, place Tamil as a countering symbol to Sanskrit even if they cannot learn Tamil, place Ravana, the Dravidian King of Eelam as the counter-symbol to Ram and return to the Dravidian spiritual tradition of free individual choice to worship or relate to God in any way an individual wants. In the place of race, caste, religion and language we should simply write "Dravidian". Even the name of India or Bharat should be changed to "Dravida Land" (like Switzerland, Finland or Iceland). Only this all round Dravidian unity all over India culturally, linguistically, politically and spiritually can defeat the virus of the Hindu Aryans that has been tormenting and oppressing the Dravidians of India as lower castes and outcasts for centuries!!
This may not happen in one day! But this is the basis for true liberation for all Dravidians all over India!!
Of course, Dravidians can feel free to convert to Islam, Christianity or Buddhism. But converting to Buddhism when Buddhism is still legally a sect of Hinduism and practiced in a Brahmanical way, is simply a waste. Even Ambedkar, I am sorry to say, legally died as a Hindu. Even though he converted to Buddhism, Buddhism was always a sect of Hinduism legally in India and all Buddhists are actually Hindus who come under the legal purview of the Hindu Civil Law. As a legal exponent, Ambedkar knew this very well when he converted to Buddhism.
Let "Dravidatva" liberate and unite all the Dravidians oppressed as Shudras and Panchamas all over India!!
Victory to the ideals of Periyar, the father of Dravidian movement and to the real ideals of Ambedkar, the great leader of the oppressed Dravidian masses!!
As Malcolm X, the militant Black American nationalist said, we should stive for liberation from the caste system "by any means necessary"!!
With regards, Dr.R.S.Sridhar (alias) Iniyan Elango.
(Dr.R.S.Sridhar: tamilhumanrights@hotmail )
Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Revised: May 27, 2001.
Webpage design: Kenneth Ritchards