IN DEFENCE OF DRAVIDIAN MOVEMENT :

Volume 20 - Issue 14, July 05 - 18, 2003India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

N.NANDHIVARMAN's REJOINDER TO DR.SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY 

Political parties may face decay, political leaders may perish, but the socio-politico changes brought in by the Dravidian movement are here to stay, and the prophets of doom like Dr. Subramanian Swamy will be proven wrong by history once again.

The French Revolution and the October Revolution may be things of the past, but the impact they left on humanity cannot be ignored or brushed aside nor can their ideals be buried in haste. The article by Dr. Subramanian Swamy does not reflect the ground realities. All humans are one, and scientific studies have revealed that there exists a common gene in all human beings and that gene is named after its founder as sangene. The mapping of human genes for 50 years had thrown more light on the oneness of humanity, as theories on continental drift, especially the map fit theory, had proved beyond an iota of doubt that all continents were held together once and drifted.

So to accept that humanity is one and the world is one, science had to unearth mysteries. The common gene in every human being had also proven that theories of race are culture-oriented. While race is disproved, both Aryan and Dravidian theories will have to die. Perhaps Dr. Swamy wants the Aryan concept too to die, and if that were the case, one can welcome to some extent his wishful thinking. The Second World War waged by Hitler propounding the supremacy of the Aryan race, which he demonstrated with the killings of millions of Jews, still reminds us that whoever claims supremacy over fellow beings in the name of his race of birth will be taught a befitting lesson by mankind.

The Dravidian movement, first of all, did not start with the release of the Non-Brahmin Manifesto. The word Dravidian may have had its origin at a later date, but the seeds of the Dravidian movement could be seen in the first available Tamil grammar Tholkappiam, which codifies a rule to remove Sanskrit words from Tamil speech and writing. In this grammarian principle, one can see the first voice of Dravidian awakening. This is the opinion of Tamil scholars in their doctoral theses, and it may appear chauvinistic to those who want to dub the Dravidian movement in whichever way possible. But let us look around us in this Age of Science. The Academie Francias is fighting against the intrusion of Franglais. What the French do now, Tamils much before the Christian era did for keeping away the incursions of Sanskrit. In India attempts are made to remove Urdu and replace it with Hindi. This Sanskritisation will be welcomed but when attempts are made to de-sanskritise Dravidian languages to restore the proximity with the mother of Dravidian languages, Tamil, the same school will voice its protest. This doublespeak exposes the hollowness of men who suffer from a superiority complex for centuries.

The Dalit movement that is on the rise at the dawn of 21st century is a natural offspring of the Dravidian movement. Wherever men claim equality and whenever all human beings seek equal rights, the spirit of the Dravidian movement will live there. No one can say that with the withering away of the Soviet Union, the Socialist movement is dead; the same logic and historical compulsions apply to the existence of the Dravidian movement.

N. Nandhivarman
general secretary, Dravida Peravai