The absurdity of social justice for Sambookan and Soorapathman in Tamilnadu

Soorapathman was a demon king who was killed by Lord Murukan as per ancient legend.  It may be hard to believe that in 21st century Tamilnadu there is a strong demand for social justice for this act of violence !  Similar is the demand for cancelling Ramayanam because of the incident where Sambookan is slain for performing yagam.

Soorapathman as a social justice decoy

Warning this may offend very religious minded, but when these impinge on real life law and punishment, you have to analyze these critically using modern tools.

I have always compared it to the following.

Lex Luthor was defeated by Superman on several occasions.  Everyone knows Lex Luthor, a President of the United States was a philanthropist who believed in science and social justice.  In one comic –  Superman even strapped Lex to a rocket and send him to another galaxy !  Now imagine there was an ACTUAL political movement by the Democratic party. If they claimed affiliation with Lex Luthor as injured party demanded that their enemies be actually punished!   This is what is happening in Tamilnadu. 

Now, there are obvious problem with implementing this. For example: How do you decide which group you see today was on which side of the war?  What if Naickers (EVR Periyars’ caste) were fighting on the Murukan side ?  That can be pretty bad !!  There will be those who say “but  there are social effects today that can be linked to these crimes”.  A non argument.  Social justice must be based on empirical data which is easy to collect. Just measure the distribution of the beneficiary castes.  This is the foundation of #core3.

So how did such an absurd talking point come to the forefront in 2020.   It can be directly traced to “Periyar” EV Ramaswamy who himself issued a clarion call to kill Tamil-Brahmins as a response to these mythological crimes.  You dont have to believe me  -watch from the horses mouth. His speech in Karaikudi in 1971 after the famous Dravidian Kazhagam win over K.Kamaraj. 

 

 

In Tamil ( Tamil Triglossia alert. My transcript is as spoken by Periyar himself)

 

The English Translation – where he actually calls for killing Tamil-Brahmins , he even calculates the maths of killing.

The most startling thing about this speech is : He spoke this after the famous victory of DMK defeating Kamaraj in 1971. You would think that in victory there would be grace and rapprochement. 

Most of the current Dravidians you see on social media are inspired by these speeches of Periyar EVR.   Their fathers and uncles would have been part of the audience. Understandable.

Comment : The Dravidian movement is a a crossroads. There is nothing more that can be done in terms of redistribution of Tamilbrahmin jobs or education opportunities.  The DMK has done as far as is possible by a de-facto boycott of Tamilbrahmins in their political party as allowed by the Representation of Peoples Act.  For the past several decades, in Tamilnadu Govt Jobs and Govt Edu Tamil-brahmins have minuscule representation. In order to  prevent the backward groups from looking inwards, the Dravidian elites are raking up these illogical ghosts from the past to stay relevant and safe.