Dravidian defensive responses to exposure of ideology

Any counter propaganda effort requires stamina. Hate propaganda such as the Dravidian ideology is built on telling numerous small lies continuously. The sheer cadence would be overwhelming. Which is why Dravidian elites exhibit hyper vigilance traits.

A really well written Twitter thread was doing the rounds a couple of days ago by Shyam Sekhar :

The fall was social, economic and political. It had a triple whammy. But, opportunity is always universal. It's the basic human spirit to somehow regain what you lost. Meet generations that follow people who lost everything & you will see a raging fire within them to succeed.

— Shyam Sekhar (@shyamsek) February 5, 2023

The thread goes on to say how the most privileged castes using Anti-Brahmin hate propaganda were able to create an alliance where they became the leaders occupying all top positions and in the process disenfranchising the Tamizh Brahmins. His thread is absolutely spot on. This is not an upper caste verssus lower or oppressor versus oppressed. Dravidian movement is Tamizh Brahmin versus Non-Brahmin-Upper-Castes. Which is why you see the Cabinet is filled with Non Brahmin Elites !!

Another key point to note is the complete disregard to the lived experience epistemology of the Tamizh Brahmin. In plain English – the actual lived experience of Tamil Brahmins under Dravidian Non Brahmin Elite rule counts for nothing. The non Brahmin elites who I track simply joke about this or share some troll memes. Even when presented with direct evidence of their own leaders from their own castes literally calling for killing of Tamizh Brahmins or proudly recounting cases of criminal physical assault such as forcibly cutting the sacred tufts.

However the lived experience ‘life stories’ of Dravidian Non-Brahmins are elevated sky high. The origin stories of Non Brahmins go like — I spent so so time in close proximity to Tamil Brahmins and <insert> of a psychlc harm happened to me perpetrated by some Brahmin individuals. Now do you blame me for being so resentful ? The spurious “Kasi humiliation sambavam’ of Periyar himself is case in point. Such a weak and dubious story on which an entire century of hate hangs.

Lack of logic and reason

Here is typical response from a leading account @sujays.

If anyone would spit out an ad-hominem snark at “Avani Avittam” in a response to a narration, that should popup dozens of red flags all over the field. It is the clearest indication that the attitudes spring from a different place totally unrelated to social justice which is a civil issue. Even trying to subsume, drown out, and divert the valid claims of social justice. The Avani Avittam event ifself ought to be of no consequence to any one except the anti-Brahmin. Merely a unique custom takes place in any group. As Sartre said : “it isnt evil as much as it is unique”.

Regardless, one would expect rationalists and profuse readers and writers to be able to put together a proper tweet thread or a blog in English or Tamil. We are talking about highly educated and professional Dravidians here not my erstwhile Tamil sparring partners of ArakkarPeriyar, RajuBhaiDMK, IVedaalan etc.

Could this be the problem? The ideology itself cannot be articulated in a rational and civil manner. Only by slurs, smiles, insults, .. seeking to unsettle and unnerve.

What @shyamsek says is nothing new

The landed non Brahmin aristocracy who founded and fuel the Anti-Brahmin propaganda while at the same time exulting at the 100% pure Non Brahmin MLA in Tamilnadu need to be studied. To this group – prestige was tied to land. But that isnt the case anymore. Through sheer intensity of Anti-Brahmin tactics like thread cutting, continuous threats, insults to women, they did achieve one goal is to dispossess the Tamil Brahmin landowners. They moving on to greener pastures isnt the issue. The Anti-Brahmin propaganda is the issue.

The anti brahmin saturation hate propaganda along with implicit exclusion rules – from the DMK particularly and less so from the shadow party AIADMK – and unwritten rules about ‘அதிகாரப் பதவிகளில் இருந்து அப்புறப்படுத்துதல் (removal of Brahmins from authority positions) are not merely loose talk. Mr E.V.Ramaswamy( Periyar) himself wrote editorials complaining that dropping of caste names made it difficult for interview panels to spot and remove Tamil Brahmins. This does not apply to other so called oppressor castes. That is the magic of Dravidian ! They are cabinet ministers in DMK today and call Brahmins pejorative names as “nooliban”.

Irschik has written about this. Sedentariness was seen as high culture by the Non Brahmin elites. So dispossession would be seen as forcing a loss of culture. However this isnt true in the world. It is time the Non Brahmin elites particularly the Vellalas come to terms with modernity. New forms of wealth are held as securities and intellectual properties.

Dialogue and History. Constructing South India 1795-1895, Eugene F Irschick Univ of California (Berkeley)

Where did you get the land – hey Brahmin?

This is floated by Drav elements in Twitter.

Well how did anyone come into possession of land. One has to admit that receiving a homestead from a King is one of the most legitimate forms of property acquisition. Whether it is for clan reasons, religious service , political advice, military help, status enhancement – it does not matter. This is the same logic of how did the Church come into possession of so much land in India, Or the Muslims, or Naidus, or the Mudaliars etc etc.

The bitter truth that Dravidian-Vellalas need to start facing is Tamizh Brahmins are the communities with the deepest and indisputable evidence of domicile. Imagine the audacity of the Dravidians to other and externalize the Tamizh Brahmin even in the face of concrete titles like the Velvikkudi (8th Cent) copper plates that no other community is demanded to produce. Amazing the distance we have lost to the Great Dravidian Lie. Dravidian Elites attempt fabricating a past does not help other than as a cheap stratagem. Illogical arguments such as ‘the Anthanars mentioned all over the Kural” are none but Vellalas are merely lies. Paraphrasing Douglas Murray – even if using sheer propaganda power Tamil society today collectively believes to be true what it knows to be a lie that will only have a severe demoralizing effect on the entire Tamil society.

• Periyar EV.Ramaswamy lamenting how it is getting harder to spot and filter out Tamizh Brahmins from interview panels https://twitter.com/realitycheckind/status/1439246587184783362
• The Kasi “Origin Story” of Periyar – an almost certain hoax https://twitter.com/realitycheckind/status/1420383451405037576