V. Thangavelu

This refers to Raveen's comments on "Brahmins" and Eelamists. I am one of those who have used very strong language against Tamil Nadu Brahmins- the gang of Cho, Ram, and Dr. Subramanian Swamy. Balachandran. Now I will like to add the name of Mani Shanker Aiyar (he still has Aiyar tagged to his name) who is an Indian Congress Member of Parliament also to the gang of four. I am afraid Raveen is taking a simplistic approach to a complex and deep-seated malice. Simply because he knows a few Brahmins - he thinks that they are not that dangerous as they seem to be. Especially we should not criticise them because that will be counter-productive! I am asking why these Brahmins are not thinking the way Raveen thinks? That is, it is counter productive to criticise Tamils who stand up for their language as "chauvinists"?

The crusade against caste conscious Tamil Nadu Brahmins was an uphill task. It was a fight against entrenched vested interests that have exploited gullible Tamils for centuries. The caste system is an evil introduced by the Brahmins, which have eaten every fabric of the Tamil society. It has corroded and corrupted the Tamil society to the extent that Non-Brahmin Tamils are equally caste conscious as the real Brahmins!

If not for the social revolution engineered by Periyar the Tamils would still be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the master race. I do agree that there are different categories of Brahmins. Let me make myself clear that I have no quarrel with North Indian Brahmins (Adel Behari Vajpayee, L.K.Advani and crowd are North Indian Brahmins). I have also no heart burning with Brahmins in the service of temples. My quarrel is with those Brahmins like Ram, Cho etc who have given up their vocations prescribed by Vedas (there are six of them) and taken up other jobs and therefore they no more qualify as Brahmins! I have also no quarrel with poet Bharathi who gave up his "poonool" and who was ostracised by caste conscious Brahmins.

Is it a coincidence the Brahmins are ganging up against Tamil Nationalism? They oppose Tamil Eelam; they oppose Tamil as the language of education in LKG and UKG. Why? Brahmin students offer Sanskrit as one of the subject for Plus 11 instead of Tamil. Why? There are thousands of Tamil Nadu Brahmins working in USA, but not a SINGLE Brahmin has joined the fifty or more Tamil Sangams functioning in USA! Why? Has Raveen addressed his mind to these questions?

Recently State Education Minister Anbazhgan told a meeting that Bhagawat Geethai has swallowed Thirukkural (vizhungkividdathu). On hearing that Rama Gopalan, a Paarppan and President of Hindu Munnani declared war on him for comparing Geethai with Thirukkural. But is it not a fact that Geethai says that the four castes are divined by god and god himself cannot alter it even if he wants to? On the contrary Thirukkural says that all are born alike but the work they do dictates their varied worth. Is these two philosophies then not diametrically opposed to each other? Is it not an insult to the intelligence to the Tamil people that the job of temple priests is still based on caste and not on learning or good conduct? N. Satyendra of Tamil Nation thinks that Periyar threw the baby (Hinduism) with the bath water (casteism). I don't agree and I am convinced that Periyar threw both of them out for good reason because they are complimentary to each other for survival!