TN Castes: a Brief Social History - Introduction
Sudalai Madan
Dear Netters:
Right from the inception of this newsgroup, caste issue is one of
the serious issues discussed with emotions. Whatever other topic we start,
finally it ends up in caste discussion. Though there are few flame postings
and name callings, most of the discussions are decent enough to view through
the poster's perception. Right from the beginning, I insist that unless we
liberate from our fictitious caste identity, we are going to have all the
problems such as caste apprehension, domination, reservations and its misuse
and caste violences.
There are some people in this net who think that not_talking about the
caste will solve all the problems. But I feel that shying away from the issue
will only aggravate the issue. Some other netters think that castes exist
because of caste based reservations which is totally untrue. As long as our
strict marriage customs continue castes will continue for ever, though there
may be very little changes because of love-marriages (after coming to the US
this term sounds very odd:-). After all, maintaining school certificates and
caste records started only after the British came to India. Castes and caste
based marriages exist for many centuries.
In one of his recent postings, SP compiled the discussions and highlighted
the point that caste should be abolished and we should do something about it.
Parthasarathi complained about why Brahmins are held responsible for
everything. I share his concerns though I do not agree with his comparison of
the problem with Srilankan ethnic problem (I don't want to go into the details
because that will somehow bring ltte). Though Brahmins created the caste
system many centuries back, other upper and middle castes are equally
responsible in keeping the divisions alive. Especially in the context of TN
history, the Vellala communities equally share the blame for oppressing the
Dalits and exploiting their labour. In this century the Vellalas conveniently
point the finger towards the Brahmins whereas they are still responsible for
the oppression of Dalits directly and indirectly. They are also partly
responsible for the misuse of the caste based reservations but they also
blame reservation issue along with the Brahmins. By this, I do not liberate
Brahmins from the casteist problems. Brahminism is still a strong force in
India and TN and they provide the intellectual support for the continuance
of the caste system.
It is better to learn the social history of Tamil Nadu before blaming
Brahmins for everything. It is better to understand how the Dalits have been
wronged by the Brahmins and Vellalas before complaining about caste based
reservations for the Dalits. (The `dumb' Kurams need not learn any history
because he needs only slappings from the Dalits. I would have done it if he
talks in front of me as he is still writing in SCI). I will post an article on
the social history of Tamil Nadu in many parts which clearly presents a true
analysis of the caste issue. It is the translation of Prof.Rajgowthaman's
article entitled `paarppanarum vELaalarum thamizhakamum' appeared in
`niRappirihai', issue 4 (1992). Prof.Rajagowthaman is working in Central
University, Pondicherry and has done much research on the Dalit issue. His
recent book on `Dalit literature' is well known among the Tamil literary
circles.
Please read the complete article before coming to any judgement about the
article or the author because it does not spare any party of the issue.
Sudalai Madan
Sudalai Madan
[Translation of Prof.Rajgowthaman's article entitled `paarppanarum vELaalarum
thamizhakamum' appeared in `niRappirihai', issue 4 (1992).]
For thousands of years, the human race existed with a socio-economic
structure comprising of religions, lands, compound families, many traditions
etc. But this system faced a drastic change due to the various European
revolutions in the 18th century. For the first time in Europe, industries and
cities were created - consequently capitalist class and middle class were
established - sea voyages and communications were developed - countries and
patriotism etc were defined. In order to acquire the necessary raw materials
and to sell the excessively produced goods, the Europeans started sea-voyages
leading to the discovery of new continents. The businessmen learnt about the
ancient treasure of the eastern nations and were interested in capturing
new markets and exploiting them. They were more after the raw-materials and
treasure than the seizure of the lands.
When the European companies landed in the east and west coasts of India,
they were very delighted to see the tyrant Hindu and Muslim kingdoms and the
`sanadhan Hindu Dharma' which professed the devision of the society based upon
birth and oppression of the lower castes. When the Dutch, the French and later
the British came to the southern most part (the present Tamil Nadu), they found
the Tamil and Telugu speaking Brahmins and Vellalas and the minority Satriyas
as the ruling communities.
* * * * *
Brahmins were leading the Hindu religion and the caste hierarchy whereas
the vellalas were powerful on political and economic grounds. Brahmins were
having "devine" powers from the ages of the Pallavas. Even before the vellala
Chozhas transformed into Tamil Satriyas during the 9th century A.D., Brahmins
introduced puranas, epics and smrithi dharma sastras to Tamil society. They
convinced the Pallava and other Satriya kings to accept puranic Hindu religion
unifying all individual faiths and independent group worships. The chozha king
`RajasUyam VEtta' perunaRkiLLi and the Pandya king `palyaahacaalai'
mudhukudumip peruvazhuthi are two old examples. `paripaadal' and `kaliththogai'
hint at the spread of puranic Hindu religion and its leading Brahmin community.
Moreover, during the regime of Chozhar before Pallavar, Chozhar after
Pallavar, Pandiyar and Naickers, Brahmins played the role of ideological
advisers for the rulers. The graffities from the Chozha-Pallava period have
lot of references to `donation of villages' (Brahmadeya kiraamangaL) to
Brahmins by Vellala and Satriya kings.
The rulers guaranteed the economical prosperiety of Brahmins. In turn,
Brahmins offered ideological advice to the rulers through sanadhan dharma, god,
temple, yagnas etc. When Chozha regime was followed by the `latter' Pandya
kings, the inner rivalry among the kings helped the `northern' Malikkaaboor and
Madurai based Sultans to rob many Hindu temples which were thus far preserved
by Brahmins. In order to stop this loot and also to protect the temples and
Brahmin priests, Telugu Naicker kings captured Tamil Nadu. These Telugu
Naickers established a 300 year rule which perpetuated the `sanadhanic'
oppression and cruelties in every village.
In general, Brahmins accepted all types of rulers who donated them fertile
lands for performing poojas and vedhantic rituals. They got along well with
Shudra landlords, Satriyas of Pallavas, Chalukya, Maratha, Rastragooda and
Paanar dynasties at different times. They could manage with the Naickar rulers
of Andhra aara veedu, Sangama, Saluva and Thuluva. When the Europeans came,
they became close to them, though they treated the local beef eaters as
`pulayars' or untouchables. In the beginning they acted as agents for British
but later in the 19th century they sent their wards for English education and
started settling in good government jobs in the urban side.
.....To be continued
Sudalai Madan
Sudalai Madan
[Translation of Prof.Rajgowthaman's article entitled `paarppanarum vELaalarum
thamizhakamum' appeared in `niRappirihai', issue 4 (1992). - part II]
In the hierarchy of social domination, next to Brahmins and Satriyas (1)
came the land-owning and politically influential Vellalas and then below them,
the communities involved in handicrafts, agriculture etc. Lastly, the labourer
castes were treated as untouchables by Hindu-Dharma Sastras. These three
categories constituted the majority of Tamils.
In the beginning of the `latter' Chozha period (piRkaalac chOzhar: 9-13
century A.D.), the Vellalas had the ruling power in villages which were not
given to the Brahmins as `Brahmadheya villages'. They carried titles such as
vELaan, araiyan, udaiyaan, aazhvaan, kizhavan etc. They were collecting the
land taxes and implementing the government orders. When the Chozha regime
ended in the 13th century, Vellalas became prominent landlords.
When the Andhraites started ruling Tamil Nadu from the 15th century,
Andhra's ruling castes also participated in land-ownership and village
administration along with the Vellala castes. During this period, many huge
lands belonged to the temples (temples acquired lands as donations) were leased
to individuals for agriculture. Thus the kings, Saiva-Vaishnava temples and
Saiva-Vaishnava Vellalas (or Tamil-Telugu Vellalas) owned almost all the lands.
The vellalas basically shared all agricultural products with the kings.
When Telugu Vijayanagara emperors were ruling Tamil Nadu, village
administration was modified to Andhra model. New administrative positions were
created and Andhra castes like Senabhovar, Gowda, Reddy, Thalaari occupied
such positions which later became `karNam', `maNiyam' and `thalayaari' etc.
Andhra, Kannada army chiefs were given lands for salary which was called as
`padaippaRRu'. These lands led to the formation of colonies like `naayakka
mangalam', `paaLayappattu' etc.
During Andhra rule, `donation' villages were of three types: The first
one, called `paNdaaravaadaa' villages were possessed by the Andhra kings. The
second type called `amara' villages given to `amara nayakkars' and
`paaLayakkaarar' in order to serve the kings during the wartimes and the third
type was called as `maanyappU' donated to Brahmins for religious practices.
There were also a few army leaders and landlords from `maRavar' community
based on Pudukkottai, Sivagangai, Ramanatha Puram etc and some Pandya
descendants of Tenkasi, who frequently fought and compromised with the Andhra
kings.
When European companies came and started business in Kadalur, Tharangam
Badi, Chennaipattinam etc, Tamil Nadu was thus dominated by Brahmins, vellalas
and minority Satriya castes. Andhra kings and Andhra land lords are included
here. In fact some Andhra Vellalas, consequent to their stay in Tamil land for
more than three centuries, became very proficient in Tamil poetry etc and
became Tamils.
The Vellala communities (next to Brahmins) were powerful in god-religion
aspects and land-ownership and were known as Caste Hindus. Those who were
doing handicrafts and other power-independent profession were known as other
Hindus. Those who did farm labour, cattle maintenance and scavenging etc were
known as untouchables. Moreover, from the Pallava regime, temples, kings,
and others with the permission of the kings, were keeping the lower castes as
bonded labourers or slaves.
* * * * *
Footnote 1.
In TN history, there is no separate caste classification called Satriyas.
Only the landowning Vellala families (for kings) and `maRavar' and `naickar'
families (for army personnel) were involved in the Satriya profession of
ruling.
--
Sudalai Madan
"caathi iraNdozhiya vERillai
uzhaikkum canangaL oru caathi
uzhaippai uRinjum maRu caathi"
Kathiravan Krishnamurthi
> * * * * *
>Footnote 1.
> In TN history, there is no separate caste classification called Satriyas.
>Only the landowning Vellala families (for kings) and `maRavar' and `naickar'
>families (for army personnel) were involved in the Satriya profession of
>ruling.
>--
> Sudalai Madan
>"caathi iraNdozhiya vERillai
> uzhaikkum canangaL oru caathi
> uzhaippai uRinjum maRu caathi"
"saathi enpathE oru sathi
saathi oru niyathi enRavan kapOthi
saathi illai enpathE neethi
veethi engkum muzhakkam seiyadaa saami!"
Kathiravan
Sudalai Madan
[Translation of Prof.Rajgowthaman's article entitled `paarppanarum vELaalarum
As we saw earlier, Tamil Nadu was a place where the society was divided
by birth based castes and also was male-dominated when the Europeans came and
introduced the western bourgeoise thinking, ideologies and political system.
They also brought other aspects of European renaissance such as Christianity,
monthly salaried job schemes, job based educational system, English language,
text books, printing machines, publishing companies, individual property
documents, court, law, police, prison, railways, postal and telegraph services,
newspapers etc etc.
Because of these socio-political changes, new issues came into existence.
There were voices of dissatisfaction among the salaried class and Swadeshi
capitalists. Also there was a competition among the dominating castes in
finding a birth in the new power hierarchy which led to new political
alignments.
The `hitherto' dominating Tamil castes, Brahmins and Saiva-Vaishnava
Vellalas bound to take diametrically opposite stances. Before the arrival of
Europeans, these two castes did not have to face alien cultural practices under
foreign rulers and hence kept their traditional role of protecting Hindu
religion, its caste practices and the male-domination ideology etc. Even the
periodical Muslim rule did not continue to create any major cultural impact on
them. During the Andhra rule, Andhraites maintained the similar caste based
society in Tamil Nadu. But the British came with bible and bullet and
introduced an alien culture which is totally disagreeable to the Hindu Sanadhan
Dharma. This caused major differences among the Brahmins and Vellalas which we
will see separately in detail.
* * * * * *
It was a shock for the Brahmins who were supposedly sacred according to
the Hindu-Dharma. The British culture of beef-eating and their unmindful
attitude towards castes initially provided a shock to the Brahmins but they
wanted to capture the dominant role in the new socio-economic set up and hence
accepted the British culture. They did not feel comfortable with the
religion-independent English education though they found it much easier to
learn because of its plain literary aspects compared to Vedic education. More
than that English education provided the `power' to dominate over other castes.
In the beginning, i.e., in the 17th and 18th centuries, they (vellalas
too) acted as agents for the British businesses but their status changed in the
19th century. They understood the fact that they could never retain the
power while living in their `Brahmadeya villages' (which were donated by
satriya kings three hundred years back). So they migrated to urban areas in
order to acquire English education and obtain higher jobs in the government so
that they could capture the neo-political power. Though they left their
traditional power in the villages, the new educational degrees like B.A, M.A.,
B.L. etc and the new positions like collector, Tahsildar, Munshif etc provided
them enormous powers. Thus they occupied the new social postions without
liberating from their old `sanadhan' values.
Now the British needed new labour from the land-owning society for
establishing the new economy and productivity based society. They realized the
importance of breaking the caste and ritual ridden Hindu religion. Education,
judiciary, law, government jobs, the rise of marriage age, conversions to
Christianity, urbanization etc all started the damage to Hindu dharma. This
opened the gates for the middle level castes to enter into professions other
than their caste-professions. The Brahmins themselves were not reluctant to go
for medical profession even if it involved dissection of dead bodies or for
leather industries, even if they had to work in a stinking environment.
Seeing this trend, `sanadhan' Brahmins started REINTERPRETING puranic
Hindu scriptures and rituals to present a rosy picture in the name of
reforms. (It is a purely an intellectual exercise being done by some people
even today).
Moreover, due to the increase in the ownership of individual properties,
there was an increased demand for legal profession. The tendencey to go for
legal action grew up due to the fragmentaion of land-owning society and its
compound families. The lawyers with degress like B.A., B.L., ec started
earning a lot of money (these lawyers only later participated in Swadeshi
politics). Brahmins occupied almost 90 % of these jobs.
In spite of all these developments, some of them were not ready to
completely give up their old village-type society or religious superiority.
For traditional power, they needed to retain all `those' supertitious and
orthodoxial practices whereas for `modern' power they had to forego them. Some
stayed back with their traditional lifestyle and some played a dual role, i.e.,
they practiced all orthodoxial practices inside their house but outside they
acted just opposite to such practices. As a result of this, they also became
leaders of modern political concepts, even if it is athiesm or communism.
Thus Brahmins acquired economical and political domination apart from the
religious powers after the arrival of the Europeans.
In the next posting we will review about the Vellalas.
.... To be continued
Sudalai Madan
[Translation of Prof.Rajgowthaman's article entitled `paarppanarum vELaalarum
Tamil vellalas' stand was quite different from Brahmins. Having lived as
landlords and businessmen, they possessed agricultural lands for themselves,
occupied positions like `dharmakarththa' etc, enjoyed the pleasure of Kaviraja
Pandithars' `kokkOha' songs and the company of `the Dasi's, quite often pleased
with reading `thEvaaram', `thiruvaacakam' etc, comforted with many gourmets and
swallowed herbal lehiyams for digestion - in other words lived a typical Tamil
bourgeoise lifestyle. They still continued abusing the lower castes and
exploited their labour (in some villages this practice continues even today).
By the time these Vellala landlords got awakened from their bourgeous
lifestyle, they saw the Brahmins already capturing the whole share of the new
political power provided by the British administration. Now, without any
hard efforts, they wanted to get into power. They were very confused on this
and hence divided into many groups. Some accepted British authority and
started bargaining with them. Some converted to Christianity and accepted
higher positions like bishop, `aayar' etc in the Christian institutions. (Here
I would like to remind the netters about the big procession of the Dalit
christians in Madras a few years back with placards saying "caste first, Christ
next". It is true that christianity is dominated by these Vellala castes.)
There were some others who accepted British rule but opposed the White
missionaries and Christianity. One such group was headed by Yazhppanam Nalloor
Arumugam Pillai, known as Arumuga Navalar, indulged in denigrating
Christianity, in his enthusiasm to protect `Saivaism' from Christianity. He
was especially more interested in protecting the status of Vellala castes which
considered Murugan and Saivaism as great. He cound not stand those Caste
Hindus and Brahmins who went for English education. He even opposed Ramalinga
Vallalar's `camaraca canmaarkka neRi' though Vallalar himself was from Saiva
Vellala community. He called Vallalar's poems (arutpaa) as `marutpaa' and
called Vallalar's wife as `immoral' lady. One can conclude Arumuga Navalar
as a `saiva sanadhani' who accepted British rule from following quotes found in
his `pirabhandath thirattu':
nammudaiya caiva camayikaLuLLE cilar annai vasthiram puththakam
kalvi muthaliyavaRRin poruttuth thaankaLE thankaL kaippaNaththai
iRuththum, thankaL piLLaikaLaip paathirimaar vIttilE kIzhch-
chaathiyaarOdum pOsanam cheiviththuch chaathi asaaraththaiyum
camaya acaaraththiyum izhappiththu avarkaLOdu thaankaL kalanthu
avviraNdaiyum izhakkiRaarkaLE... thaankaL caiva camayikaLenRum
ciRithum naaNaminRith thalaiyeduppudanE paaraattath thodangu-
kinRarkaLE ! chI chI .../
(pirabhanthaththirattu 1954, pp 53-54)
His only aim was to project Saiva religion and Vellala castes' interests
and some of the Saiva mutts in T.N. helped him.
There was also a fourth trend among the Vellala communities which we will
discuss in the next posting because this is getting too long.
Kathiravan Krishnamurthi
anpar sangkarapaaNdiyarin katturai migavum theLivaaka
varalaaRu uNmaikaLai pulappaduththum vaNNam
amainthuLLathu. nanRi.
Kathir:
aaRumuga naavalar was a pompous zealot. He was not
spiritual. He challenged vaLLalaar in thillai and
lost the spiritual battle. vaLLalaar could light
a lamp with water as fuel. aaRumuga naavalar ran
back in ignominy. While raamalingar preached
equality and was very secular naavalar revived
"casteism".
>Arumugam Pillai, known as Arumuga Navalar, indulged in denigrating
>Christianity, in his enthusiasm to protect `Saivaism' from Christianity. He
>was especially more interested in protecting the status of Vellala castes which
>considered Murugan and Saivaism as great. He cound not stand those Caste
>Hindus and Brahmins who went for English education. He even opposed Ramalinga
>Vallalar's `camaraca canmaarkka neRi' though Vallalar himself was from Saiva
>Vellala community. He called Vallalar's poems (arutpaa) as `marutpaa' and
>called Vallalar's wife as `immoral' lady. One can conclude Arumuga Navalar
>as a `saiva sanadhani' who accepted British rule from following quotes found in
>his `pirabhandath thirattu':
naavlar's poem or whatever:
Even his urai nadai was pompous. No stopping.
No small sentences. He would drag on and on.
Long winded was his style.
sankarapaaNdi's post:
> nammudaiya caiva camayikaLuLLE cilar annai vasthiram puththakam
> kalvi muthaliyavaRRin poruttuth thaankaLE thankaL kaippaNaththai
> iRuththum, thankaL piLLaikaLaip paathirimaar vIttilE kIzhch-
> chaathiyaarOdum pOsanam cheiviththuch chaathi asaaraththaiyum
> camaya acaaraththiyum izhappiththu avarkaLOdu thaankaL kalanthu
> avviraNdaiyum izhakkiRaarkaLE... thaankaL caiva camayikaLenRum
> ciRithum naaNaminRith thalaiyeduppudanE paaraattath thodangu-
> kinRarkaLE ! chI chI .../
> (pirabhanthaththirattu 1954, pp 53-54)
Transl
"People from saiva faith [veLLaalar] for the sake of education and
economic reasons are going to the missionaries and
mixing with the lower caste and losing their aasaaram
without any sense of shame. yuck! yuck!"
> His only aim was to project Saiva religion and Vellala castes' interests
>and some of the Saiva mutts in T.N. helped him.
Kathir:
This series is very eye opening and factful. I take pleasure
in quoting saint raamalingar's arutpaa. This paa is very
moving and only a saint could have composed this.
Crisp, humane and meaningful lines follow:
"vaadiya payiraik kaNda pOthellaam
vaadinEn; pasiyinaal iLaiththE
veeduthORiranthum pasiaRaathu ayarnthE
veRRaraik kaNdu uLam paththaithEn
neediya piNiyaal varunthukinRaar en
nEruRakaNdu uLanthudiththEn
eedil maanikaLaai EzhaikaLaai neNYchu
iLaiththavar thamaik kaNdE iLaiththEn"
-saint raamalingar
Brief meaning:
When the plant [payir] wilted and dried my mind
suffered. My mind suffered when people who inspite of
begging [iranthum] house to house [veeduthORum]
could not sate [aaRaathu]
their
hunger [pasi]. My mind suffered when people suffered from
long lasting incurable diseases [neediya piNiyaal]
. My mind wilted [iLaiththEn]
along
with people who wilted under poverty but still
preserved self respect and dignity[maanikaLaai].
The difference will be obvious. While vaLLalaar was
a saint naavalar was an ordinary saiva zealot.
Anyway
"periyOrai kaNdu viyathal ilamE
siRiyOrai kaNdu ikazhthal athaninum ilamE"
So I would not call naavalar any names.
anban
Kathiravan.
Sudalai Madan
[Translation of Prof.Rajgowthaman's article entitled `paarppanarum vELaalarum
In the last posting, we saw the confusion of the Vellala communities and
their many different stands towards the British politics. The fourth trend
of the Vellala community was fighting the Brahmin domination. This reaction
can be called as `Vellala politics' as opposed to the Brahmin politics. The
Vellala politics had three different streams which we will see here one by one.
1. maRaimalai adikaL
He negated the political struggle against the British and greeted the
British administration and British educational system. His main aim was to
struggle against Brahminism on the socio-cultural front and used
`Saiva-religion' and `pure' Tamil as the ideological weapons. He travelled all
parts of Tamil Nadu and Tamil Eezham and lectured on Vellala civilization,
Saiva religion (as the old Tamil religion) etc. Because of him these concepts
of Vellala civilization and Saiva religion are accepted as Tamil civilization
and religion. To spread this ideological viewpoint, many Saiva Siddhantha
Mahaa Samajams, Saiva Siddhantha Sangams etc were inaugurated in TN and
Yazhppanam. The patrons and propagandists of these Sabhas were only Saiva
Vellalas.
There were systematic efforts to couple Saivam and Tamil, and Vallalar,
Manikkavasakar and Thirunavukkarasar became symbols of Vellalaism. Saiva
mutts, Karanthai Tamil Sangams, Pandithurai Thevar's Tamil Sangam, Senthamizh
Selvi (magazine) and Saiva Siddhantha Noorpathippu Kazhagam (publishers) etc
ventured into the developement of the Vellala tradition and Saiva religion.
2. Justice Party
Among the new middle class bourgeiose developed during the British rule,
Brahmins constituted the majority. But in the overall south Indian society,
Vellala led castes counted the majority. Tamil Vellala and Andhra-Malayalee
upper castes wanted to cash this majority issue and united under a `Dravidian'
umbrella. Hence Tamil, Vellala, Saivaism etc were pushed to the backstage and
the new concept of Dravidianism or non-Brahminism was brought to the forefront.
Poppili-Panakal Rajas, Raos, Rajulus, Telugu Chettys, Malayalee Nairs, Vellalas
and a few educated Adi Dravidars joined together under the banner of Justice
Party (formerly `then inthiya nala urimaich changam'). Under the British
administration, only the people with immovable property had voting rights and
also the popular Indian National Congress boycotted the elections. Because of
this, Justice party won the elections and Tamil-Telugu `Dravidars' were
occupying the chief ministership of TN in the years of 1920-21, 1923-26,
1930-32 and 1932-37.
3. Self-respect movement or Periyar
The third component of Brahmin opposition was Periyar's Self-Respect
Movement. After 1927, Periyar E.V.Ramasamy Naicker, a Kannada Vellala, led a
new concept of "atheism-Dravidianism" in the place of "Saivam-Tamil". He
thought that Brahminism and caste based oppression thrives because of Hinduism
and breaking the hold of Hinduism would only end the Brahmin domination. "If
the Dravidians had to win over the Aryans-Brahmins, or, in otherwords, if the
Dravidians have to win back their self-respect, atheism should be the right
ideology". Though the new bourgeiose politics does not allow caste and
religion based domination as a matter of principle, the culture and social life
(examples.. temple worship, marriages, birth-death rituals etc) is built on
Hindu-Varnashrama Dharma. Self-Respect movement opposed this and hence the
educated Vellalas of the new generations and the middle and backward castes
participated in this movement vigorously.
.....To be continued.
Sudalai Madan
[Translation of Prof.Rajgowthaman's article entitled `paarppanarum vELaalarum
Before completing this article, let us briefly review the relation
between Tamil and Vellalas and also the benefits for Tamil due to the
Brahmin-Vellala politics. From the early days of history, Brahmins involved in
Vedhanta studies and Sanskrit education. They also influenced the rulers to
follow Sanskrit culture. During the Pallava and Chozha days, most of the kings
adopted Sanskrit culture. While this was going on at the higher level, the
culture of the majority of the common people was the native tribe culture which
was slowly being corrupted by Sanskrit culture through Hindu temples.
In the case of Tamil literature and education, most of the Tamil poets and
devotees were from Non-Brahmins, especially Vellala communities. Sambandhar,
sundarar and a few Azhvaars were exceptions. It is to be mentioned here that
(in the recent past) Cenkuntha Muthaliyars claimed `Ottakkoothan' to be from
their community and some other Vellala community claimed for Kamban. Till the
beginning of this century, Tamil teachers and students were from Vellala
communities such as Pillai, Chetty, Muthaliyar etc. Kanchipuram Mahavidwan
Sababathy Muthaliyar, Somasundaram Pillai, Muthuveera Upadyayar,
Koozhaiththambiraan, Neerveli Sankara Pandithar were well known Vellala
Pandits.
For 200-300 years, the Vellala Pandits were involved in writing and
singing on Saiva Gods, Goddesses' breasts and their romances and also on
Vellala-sathriya lords, their army leaders, Zameens etc and how the women
acquired sexual warmthness (kachchu aRuthal, thEmal padaruthal etc) when these
men came on procession etc. Thus the Tamil language from these Vellala Pandits
(not the commoner's Tamil) became a weapon to fight Brahmin domination. As a
part of this Brahmin opposition, Vellala movement involved in reviving ancient
Tamil pride. (In the mean time, Brahmins involved in the creation of modern
Tamil literature, which we will see shortly).
Professor P. Sundarampillai researched the history of Saiva Adiyars
whereas Vedhasalam pillai (maRai malai adikaL) studied Manickavasakar and
published the Tamil pride in English. When the British education system was
introduced, there was a dearth need for Tamil text books and hence all Tamil
epics and Saiva puranas came to print (from palm leafs). Thus publishing Tamil
text books helped Tamil revivalism. Old palm leaf writings `hitherto' uncared
in Vellala homes yielded money. New publishing houses were started and
their business and publications were largely owned by traditional business
Vellala castes like Chettiyar.
Vellala-Dravida politics gained new momentum because of publishing 2000
year old `pathuppattu', `ettuththogai' etc. Thus Tamil development helped
Vellala dreams to come true, though Bharathiyar, Tiru.Vee.ka. et al used the
Tamil spirit for fighting the British imperialism.
While Tamil revivalism was going on one side, the new capitalist
communication media, viz. newspapers and magazines revolutionized the
relationship between the writer and reader. The traditional way of writing in
poetic language with many rules and restrictions was replaced by prose writing.
The new and simple Tamil stories, essays and news reached the reader very
quickly and effectively which was the essence of commercial readership. A
writer could reach millions of unknown readers due to the big investment on
press, paper, publishers, distributers, advertisement etc. This new concept
fetched a lot of money and fame for everybody who was involved. That was
sufficient for Brahmins leaving their Sanskrit education etc. and hence
entered into the modern Tamil development. Whether it is fictional literature
or literary criticism, they became successful whereas the Vellalas were still
living in their own `Saiva Siddhantha' etc. Tamil literature nurtured by
Vellalas for many generations was now led by Brahmins.
This is the reason Brahmins controlled the modern Tamil media from the
beginning of this century. The newspapers and magazines such as Viveka chintha
mani, the Hindu, Dina Mani, Ananda Vikatan, Kalki etc, the popular writers
Kalki, popular cinema producer Vasan until the present day best sellers
such as Sujatha, Balakumaran etc are all Brahmins.
In brief wherever power, money and fame can be obtained, Brahmins occupied
the top positions. Vellalas and other castes just wanted to imitate them but
at the same time complained about the Brahmins. The Dalits, who never had
any politics of their own, had to accept the politics of the rulers whether
they are Brahmins or Vellalas. It is time for them to realize their
subjucation by both the politics, to follow a new politics of their own and to
achieve their `real' liberation.
[End Prof.Rajgowthaman's article]
Some of the references used by the author for the above article:
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Arumuga Navalar, `Pirabhandath thirattu' (1954)
2. maRai thirunaavukkaracu, `maRaimalai adikaL varalaaRu' (1959)
3. ma.po.civagnanam, `thamizhagaththil piRa mozhiyinar'
4. a. maathavaiya, `padmaavathi cariththiram' (1898, 99, 1924-25)
5. mayilai ceeni Venkata Samy, `Tamil literature in the 19th century'
(1962)
6. Noboru Karashima, `South Indian History and Society' (1984)
7. Dr. A. Krishna Swami, `The Tamil country under Vijayanagar' (1964).
S. Sankarapandi
(Posted for Damu)
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Date: 01 May 1993 16:59:33 -0500
From: IYE...@ucsvax.ucs.umass.edu
Subject: Thanks for the educative article on soc. hist. of TN
To: ssan...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
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Nanbar Sankarapandi avargale:
Your article on the history of castes in TN was very educative and I
thank you for that. I attempted to post this in sct but my "post" command does
not work. I would appreciate if you can post this in sct.
Here is my few cents worth of opinion about his article and in general
about social history of TN.
In schools (or for that matter in our education system) we hardly talk
about castes (I suppose the perception that it is a sensitive topic is wide).
Personally I am amazed about the American attitude about their past and I
wonder if we can learn from them about discussing openly our past (I mean the
decimation of American Indians and their culture by white settlers and also
that about slavery is widely acknowledged without feeling too guilty about the
past and allowing this feeling to destroy the present). I agree with a lot of
sct makkal that it is better to bring our past and discuss it.
Overall the article was very useful, educative and in my perception seems to
reflect the sorroundings in which I grew up. I can't but agree with his
conclusions that the "Dalits" ( to me this word means people who feel that
there is something wrong with the current system and that it has to be changed
for the better) have to adopt their own political organization and fight for
their beliefs instead of blindly apeing some group or groups.
It strikes me that (from previous articles of yourself, Partha, SP,
Sundaramoorthy and other friends and my own perception about the society in
which I grew up) there is in general a group of people who could be called
"Brahmins" (strictly sociological and not based on birth;brahmins was chosen to
fit the description in Prof.Rajgowthams article) and these people seem
to be dynamic and seem to adjust to any new situation rapidly without
protesting too much. My humble opinion is that people (independent of their
origin) who create "situations" (for better or worse) are leaders and this is a
sociological definition too (at least in my book). These people are doers. I
understand the frustration of doers and people with vision about sociological
brahmins standing in the way and not going along with them (several past and
present incidents in TN discussed in the net in the past and currently). By
definition I believe soc.brahmins are survivors and are therefore pro
establishment (this is not meant in any demeaning way as different people have
different ways of life). Therefore inspite of frustrations doers should
understand that, that is just the way some people are and once they have
accomplished their vision the other people would come around.
I am quite familiar with pro-establishment values as I grew up in such a
sorrounding (I suppose there are quite a lot of people who grew up in such
sorroundings and have been conditioned to think that it is the best way to
survive). Having said that and understanding the frustrations of doers I would
say that such doers times are worth spending correcting situations or acting to
create new situations rather than complaining about what soc.brahmins write in
newspapers/magazines, etc or how strongly pro establishment they are. I
beleive that we have slowed our progress enough by infighting, mistrust and a
lot of ignorance on the part of all of us. Let us do something about
correcting the situation.
Thanks for posting my opinions and thanks again for the article (it really
helped me to focus(I hope!) some ideas I have had about this subject all along)
Damu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If u beleive in some value u have to fight for it (and should not of course
complain as to why other people do not conform or appreciate such values. If
there is some benefit in conforming they sure would come around it).-my
learnings in living in this country
______________________________________________________________________________
To lighten up a bit some original kadi's
"Idli, vadai, vengaya sambhar, dosai, perandai thuvayal, madulampazham
pacchadi, seppankizhangu muruval, thayir vadai, aviyal, poritha appalam, pal
payasam, kalyana mangai orugai,etc" parthu "Table" peru moochu vitatham (gasp!
gasp! gasp!). Atharkaga?
paysam, kalyana mangai, etc." ithayellam parthu "Table" peru moochu vitatham.
um! um! Um
May sigh! allava, athanalthan --------- Damu
--
S. Sankarapandi
ssan...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Sudalai Madan
I thank those netters who appreciated the article by Prof.Rajgowthaman,
those who read the article completely patiently, those who have skipped the
article as insignificant and finally those put my address in their kill file
for posting this article.
Now, I want to briefly write about the status of TN castes after the
independence, or more appropriately, the British left.
As we saw earlier, during 1920-1940, the Vellala movement (Justice party
or `then Inthiya nala urimaic changam') became stronger because of their ruling
of the Madras state. Congress party in TN also felt the influence of the
Vellala movement and there were some redistribution of power inside the
congress party and hence some vellala leaders replacd Brahmins in party
positions. There were some vellala youths quit congress along with Periyar.
Periyar represented the third trend of the vellala movement and got more
support from the becakward communities also. Seeing this trend, the other two
Vellala movements viz the Tamil revivalists and the Justice party landlords
changed their strategy and started entering into Periyar movement (self-respect
movement and later Dravidar Kazhagam). It was purely an opportunist move to
oppose the Brahmin domination and they were not really very serious in the
eradication of the caste system.
Thus Periyar movement helped the Vellalas to fight the Brahmin domination
and establish their ruling structure. It should be acknowledged that during
this process, few backward communities utilized the opportunities to some
extent. This also had an effect in the Congress party and Kamaraj utilized this
for bringing up the Nadar community from the oppressed level to a hiher level,
though christianity also helped the Nadar community at the social level. These
newly developed communities have been doing the same mistake of the Brahmin and
Vellala communities in organizing their caste folks, indulging in nepotism etc.
During the early DMK rule, the caste based reservations were partly used
by the above-said backward classes and misused by the Vellala classes by
slowly introducing the pseudo-Vellala subsects. For example, Saiva Pillaimar
is a forward community whereas thuLuva Pillaimar or Veeragudy Pillaimar were
introduced into the backward list because of their poverty. thuLuva or
veerakudy Pillaimar are negligible in numbers whereas saiva Pillaimar is a
dominant community. The saiva Pillaimar changed their certificates into
thuLuva or veerakudy in order to get the benefits of reservations whereas to
the outside world they are still Saiva Vellala. This is just an example. All
other Vellala communities like Muthaliyar, Chettiyar, Reddiyar, Naidu, Gounder
etc all started misusing the reservations.
During the pre-MGR DMK rule and MGR rule, the newly devleoped backward
communties also joined the Vellala communites in misusing the reservations.
This was mainly happened in the urban side. There were also a small
populaton of the really deserving backward communities benefitted during
this period but the purpose of reservations was made a mockery.
Just before MGR died, the most backward communities organizes under the
name Vanniyas and started fighting for their due share and the Vanniya movement
clearly exposed the Vellala movement. As usual, the Vanniya movement wanted to
follow the Brahmin and Vellala movements and started the polititical party, PMK
(pattaLi makkaL katchi). In the beginning, when they fought under the name of
Vanniyar sangam, they were against the Dalits and latter realized that they
should coordinate the Dalits (you can see the parallel of the Vellala movement
taking some of the backward communities just for fighting the Brahmins) and
hence PMK incorporates some Dalit leaders also. PMK also follows the same
corrupt pseudo-democratic paths of the Brahmin and Vellala movements and tries
to bargain their power with them. The media (majority brahmin and minority
vellala) still reminds the people about PMK as a caste party. They often write
like "PMK, the political outfit of the Vanniya sangam" etc. We can easily
visualize them to become equivalent to the Congress (or fill with any other
like Janatha, BJP etc) of the Brahmin movement or DMK/ADMK of the Vellala
movement.
Let us also briefly see the religion, language and culture in the hands of
Brahmin and Vellala communites after the British left. Tamil is accepted as
the language of identity and the government whereas the Sanskrit was sent to
the temples and rituals. English has become the tool of all the elites from
the Brahmin and Vellala communties to empower the common folks. Anti-Hindi
agitations in beginning stated to ensure the equal rights of the Tamils but was
betrayed by Anna and DMK leaders to accept the English domination.
Invariably all the Vellala communities identified with the Hindu religion
though the Tamil revivalists claimed Saiva Religion as the Tamil religion). On
the one hand they utitized the awakening caused by Periyar for achieving the
political power, but on the other hand they went after all the stupid Hindu
rituals and practices. Those Vellala Tamil revivalists talked of `cow', `bull'
about the Vedha, Gita, upanishads etc, and talked high about the Saiva
literature etc. On the other hand, the majority Vellala communities went for
all those Gita, Vedha etc and keep vomitting the Brahmins' reinterpretions.
They do this deliberately in order to identify themselves with the `superior'
Brahmins and distance themselves from the Dalits. The newly developed castes
like Nadar, Gounder etc follow the same. At the same time they will identify
with DK/DMK for political reasons and criticize Brahmins for every problems.
I have seen many of my own friends who actively campaign for DK's ideologies
but conduct their weddings with brahmins and all the rituals.
It is getting too long. I will stop here.
I have another request. Does any one has the access to the complete
Mandal commission report. I read from one of the Tamil magazines, "puthiya
Jananayakam" that Mandal commission does talk clearly about the Tamil Nadu
castes under the heading "TN: Non-Brahmin movement to Tamil revivalism". The
magazine has published some parts of it in Tamil and it has clearly given how
reservation policy has been misused by the Vellala communities and what should
be done in order to reach the real backward communities.
Unfortunately both the pro and anti-Mandal reservationists did not let the
people to know exactly about the Mandal commission report. Both sides created
so much emotional outbursts. If anybody has an access to the report or some
English publications which discuss pros and cons of the report unbiasedly.
Otherwise, I will translate the excerpts from the Tamil magazine.
V. Nagarajan
jAti and power in TN!
I have a few quarrels with Sankarapandi's thesis:
(i) There is an underlying presumption that Periyar's movement was
"pure" and got "corrupted" by opportunistic politicians. There is
no basis for such a presumption when in fact it was a quid pro quo
arrangement - EVR received mass and media exposure while the other
side borrowed his ideology to lend substance to their otherwise
empty rhetoric.
(ii) The evolution of the OBC List in TN traces an interesting and
complex path. The vanniars at one time sought to be classified as
forward castes but in more recent times have decided that it would
be economically advantageous to be classified as OBCs. During the
british rule, different communities petitioned to be included in the
OBC List and they indeed were with few exceptions. The british also
used the List as a part of a larger program to "reform" kaLLars and
maRavars as these communities were assumed by and large to engage in
thievery and formal education was one of the measures proposed to
induce them into alternative professions. There is an interesting
essay by one P. Ramakrishnan in E&P Weekly (that appeared some time
in the last five years) outlining this complex issue. He has written
a book recently on the subject but I have not been able to find it here.
We also should bear in mind that the jAti system is such that there
is a hierarchy even within a caste group such as vanniars. The
identification of the different subcastes within a larger group is
a new phenomenon. Among the "brahmins", there are numerous endogamous
groups such as iyer (vadamA, vAthima, brahacharNam,..), iyengar (vada-
kalai, thenkalai,..), etc. Therefore to speak of these newly-invented
monolithic entities as historically contiguous is incorrect.
(iii) The dAlits (again an agglomerate of different jAti groupings)
have always been excluded from any political process. Even though
some of the founders of the Justice Party were, what we call now,
dAlits, they were quickly sidelined and were dealt only the crumbs.
The real oppressors of dAlits in our villages are the OBCs. Having
tasted economic and political power for the first time, many of the
OBCs are unwilling to share it with the dAlits.
On a slightly unrelated note:
(iv) I don't mean this to be incendiary, but I would like to ask those
of you who have the habit of routinely accusing the brahmins or the high
castes of bigotry and racism, have you treated the dAlits as your
equals? Reform, like charity, must begin at home.
- Nagarajan