X-posting this beautiful post by Stan_S
ramana wrote:
SS, if you look at South Indian history, you find that Tamils were embracing and welcoming people of other languages- Telugu, Chera and Kannada. There were princesses from these people. How did Tamils become insular, chauvinist and takleef types? Isnt against the grain of Tamil worldview? Was it the East India company association that nurtured the grievance mentality?
It seems like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Sanskrit were understandable in bits and pieces by most folks of the region, around 1000-1500 years back. I would attribute it to fluid dynastic/sectarian lines, advisors and courtiers spoke different languages and practiced different belief-systems within the dharmic fold, widespread tolerance was practiced to keep everyone happy. In fact, two of the five greatest Tamil epics, Silappadikaram and Manimegalai, concern Jainism and Jaina princes story of deceit, love, war, destruction, piety and remorse.
All this pigeonholing-into-a-box thing and Tamil-exclusivism came about not so far back. The first "us vs. them" that solidified caste-divisions came with Khiljis deep raids into Pandya country. It is not clear if caste divisions prior to the Khiljis were hereditary, but they were certainly fluid enough and respected in many sense, even though that would be hard to believe for the current-day sufferers. At the very least, there was no loss of H&D in losing a battle to "them."
Quote:
The more visible middle level castes include the land owning castes such as Vellalar, Ahamudayar (Servai), Maravar (Thevar), Kallar, Konar (Yadavar) and the Telegu speaking Naidus; trading castes such as Chettiyar, artisan castes like Kusavar or Kuyavan (Potter), Kotthan (mason), Thachan (carpenter), Kollan (blacksmith), Thattans or Nahai Aasari (goldsmith); and the servicing castes such as Ambattan (barbers) and Vannan (washermen). The more visible castes among the Scheduled Castes in Ramanathapuram district are the Pallars, Parayars and Chakkiliyars.
The Pallars were rulers once upon a time who went into bad economic fortunes and social apathy due to losses in wars etc. The word Pallan comes from those who were agriculturists in the low-lying lands (pallam), which was their subsistence after they went down the social hierarchy. The word Parayan comes from those who would beat the drum before a war (parai-saatrudhal). Some of them were accused of colluding with "them" and pushed down the ladder. Their prime job today is to beat the drum before family ceremonies and religious/social functions. Sakkiliyars are cobblers who ate and still eat beef. The trend I see is that social downgrading happened when folks lost wars to "them" or were associated with lost battles in some sense, either as betrayers or suspected-betrayers or descendants of betrayers, or started associating with trades related to cow-products or eating beef. Most likely, someone would dispute this "trend."
The EIC did not help and in fact, did a lot of stuff in engendering this divide. In fact, some of the "folk-stories" about the deceit of the Pallars is most likely myth-making that developed much later during the EIC-days. When the Palayakkarars (polygars) such as Kattabomman, Maruthu Sagotharargal, Dheeran Chinnamalai etc went head on against the EIC, the EIC indulged in much of this myth-making to divide and betray some of the caste-oriented folks. Further along came takleef against the Brahmins because they commanded a far higher proportion of the IAS/ICS/admin stuff than population figures for the Brahmin community. We can go on and on about how the Brahmins were successful, but in one brief line, they just used the skewed system much better than the rest. AIT did nt help matters and it formed the crux of the "us vs. them" battle of ideas which is only now being put down, slowly but steadily. The embers are still there, thats why caste-takleefs need to be, are and will be taken care of.
I used to hold anger at some of the reservation nonsense, but in hindsight, its good to move on and work harder if things are skewed against you. There will be peace sometime sooner than we think. In TN, caste is a hierarchical thing with the "non-existing" Brahmins being blamed by the fake-politicos for anything and almost everything. But most folks and their uncle knows that it is the so-called OBCs that indulge in some of the egregious acts. The area, which was/is now a strong Christian belt, is the prime rib metaphorically-speaking, in fact the center of the Palayakkarar wars.
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