Dear All
Please read below important talk by Aravindan Neelakandan
The book website can be accessed here ... http://www.breakingindia.com/
It is called "Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and
Dalit Faultlines"
venkat
______
From: aravindanneelakandan <aravindanneelakandan@yahoo.co.in>
Subject: [breakingindia] Madurai disscusion of the book: March 6.
Book Readers' Club at Madurai had arranged for an introductory lecture
on 'Breaking India' book at Arvind Eye Hospital auditorium. Here is
the summary of my speech. The talk was bi-lingual and for a Tamil
audience:
"This book is the result of more than five years of research. The book
because of the enormity and complexity of its subject matter is liable
for narrow interpretations which we want to avoid. This book is
neither for nor against any community in India. It is for Indians as a
whole irrespective of their creed or language or caste. This book
talks about the faultlines in India - those manufactured and those
real which are liable for foreign interventions. You can see the map
of India in the cover. It is the map of a Balkanized India. India
divided into a Dalitstan, a Dravidstan, a Moplahstan, a Mughalstan
etc. Rajiv Malhotra, the principal author of this book, found this map
in the room of a Western scholar and found that he was talking about
training Dalit youths to Balkanize India. He was shocked and started
investigating and this is how the whole work started. This book is
very important for us as Tamils. Every one who is interested in saving
Tamil culture as an important part and parcel of Indian civilization
should read this book.
"We as Tamils have taken some of these manufactured faultlines as real
and have built a world-view and polity centering around it. This has
made us pawns in an international power game unknown to us. Both the
Aryan and Dravidian identities have their roots in the identity
politics of Europe and colonial needs of the empire. Nor are these
identities conferred on us by colonial scholars and administrators
very flattering. How many of us Tamils, who have been taught to
cherish Bishop Caldwell, as the forerunner of Tamil racial pride, know
that the same man considered Tamils as an inferior race to the white
race?
"In this book we have brought out these facts. Today the very same
identity politics is driven by geo-political needs. There are world
conferences held to forge a new ethnic-linguistic-religious identity
to Tamils, an identity that has no roots in history but an identity
that will cut us off from the rest of India. Meanwhile our culture
and whatever we Tamils hold as the most sanctimonious to our identity
like Saiva Siddhanta and Thiru Kural have become objects of a well
planned appropriation - a mechanism that has been active for more than
two centuries. We have documented a conference held at New York, to
which Hillary Clinton sent a congratulatory message that went well
beyond the conventional wishing. In that conference papers were read
that stated that Thirukural was a derivative of the teachings of St.
Thomas. Many legitimate serious Christian scholars have opposed this.
We have documented that also. There are many crackpot theories and
this is one more which we can safely ignore. But such identity
manipulations based on crackpot theories assume dangerous proportions
because they are supported by an institutional mechanisms. What
happens if such theories are allowed to snowball and deepen the
faultlines and create new faultlines in a developing country like
India?
"We took two examples of such identity manipulations that have
followed their logical conclusions: one is Rwanda and the other is Sri
Lanka. In Sri Lanka we have shown how the identities of
Aryan-Singhala-Buddhist and Dravidian-Tamil-Saivaite were imposed on
the population by western scholarship as well as the colonial
administrators. We have shown how native scholars -both Tamil and
Singhalese- opposed this categorization and we all know the results -
a bloody civil war that raged for decades and which has left Sri
Lankan Tamils in international refugee camps. In Rwanda it was worse.
The social groupings of Hutus and Tutsis became racial categories
under Belgian colonialism and resulted in a full blown genocide. Now
Let me also tell you another one important thing that we have
documented in this book. These racial faultlines do not have any basis
in reality. They are based on a Biblical myth - they of Noah and his
curse on his elder son Ham. These racial categorizations have been
repeatedly falsified by science. Molecular biology has shown
repeatedly that the racial categorization does not stand the test of
science. We have made an extensive documentation of this in the book.
Equally false is the tribal and non-tribal divide which Risley a
colonial anthropologist created. The book shows how this divide was
created, its motives as well as its falsity. In India the tribals and
the so-called non-tribals are not categories but a continuum.
"So what is happening? A colonial framework is imposed on us and
academic as well as political establishments reinforce and in turn get
influenced by that framework. This makes India a fertile ground for
calculated interventions by global forces. The fabricated frameworks
deepen and mis-portray issues like the Dalit problem. We are not
denying that the Dalits need justice. In fact we are saying in this
book that they need justice. Our institutions -government as well as
social- should become responsive to their problems. But what do
western interventionists do? Using the pseudo-scientific colonial
racial categories they try to portray India as an apartheid state.
They gloss over all the efforts taken to mitigate and fight for social
justice of Dalits. They try to make this issue an instrument for
embarrassing India and making India subservient in international
fora. The western interventionists, and they come in different cues,
from academics to activists, have a well built institutional
mechanism to do this, in the form of government agencies, NGOs and
think-tanks. But we Indians, on the other hand do not have a
sustained, intelligent, Indic institutional mechanism that can study
our heritage, our problems and our challenges and opportunities in the
emerging global scenario. This book brings out these facts clearly,
cohesively in a well-documented manner. The local phenomena are seen
in a global context which is one of the most important aspect of the
book. So you should read this book if you are a concerned Indian
citizen, for the sake of India, for the sake of yourself and more
importantly for the sake of posterity - so that our children will not
end up in refugee camps."
Most of the people were visibly moved. This was not a Hindutva crowd.
It was an assorted crowd which had even some Dravidianists and a
Muslim. Many came and said that they were happy someone has taken
effort to do this. All the books I took for display were bought by the
audiencde. If more such events are organized the book will become a
best-seller in Tamil Nadu. I also found that the book fills a very
important need of the people who see things happening around them and
sense a pattern to them but are in the dark as to how to connect the
dots.
I thank Sri.Suryanarayanan the convener of Madurai reader's club for
arranging this event and taking care to make this a success. Also my
thanks to Sri.G.P.Srinivasan who is putting forth his efforts and time
wonderfully, searching for such forums throughout Tamil Nadu and
beyond for making this book trigger an intellectual debate.
-----------
A group has been formed to discuss and disseminate this critical subject
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/breakingindia/
--
A comment
From: Ram Seshadri
Dear Thiru Neelakandan
This is a fantastic speech that should be memorized and delivered by
thousand other Neelandan like people around the state of TN. I just
returned from Chennai and the signs of this massive change that this
book (breakingindia.com) predicts are everywhere. Anyone from this
state will realize this in 2 seconds if only they opened their eyes
and mouths to speak out. Instead they are busy shopping with their
newly printed dollars while the currency dies and the country cries. I
spoke to a number of people in TN while I was there about the coming
changes and they were in denial.
The last statement from Thiru Neelankandan about becoming refugees in
their own state could become a reality. I don't how else to state it
plainly without being labeled an alarmist.
This is a debate that we should have had 10 yrs ago by the so called
intellectuals in Indian. Instead, we the NRI's, are having it now.
It's a shame we have to go back and break this news to our brethren in
India. We should be in the action phase now but let's start at least
now in spreading awareness so that mass actions can begin a year from
now.
Thank you for Thiru Malhotra and Thiru Neelakanadan for your time and
courage. Let's work together to make your book immortal.
Ram Seshadri
Please read below important talk by Aravindan Neelakandan
The book website can be accessed here ... http://www.breakingindia.com/
It is called "Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and
Dalit Faultlines"
venkat
______
From: aravindanneelakandan <aravindanneelakandan@yahoo.co.in>
Subject: [breakingindia] Madurai disscusion of the book: March 6.
Book Readers' Club at Madurai had arranged for an introductory lecture
on 'Breaking India' book at Arvind Eye Hospital auditorium. Here is
the summary of my speech. The talk was bi-lingual and for a Tamil
audience:
"This book is the result of more than five years of research. The book
because of the enormity and complexity of its subject matter is liable
for narrow interpretations which we want to avoid. This book is
neither for nor against any community in India. It is for Indians as a
whole irrespective of their creed or language or caste. This book
talks about the faultlines in India - those manufactured and those
real which are liable for foreign interventions. You can see the map
of India in the cover. It is the map of a Balkanized India. India
divided into a Dalitstan, a Dravidstan, a Moplahstan, a Mughalstan
etc. Rajiv Malhotra, the principal author of this book, found this map
in the room of a Western scholar and found that he was talking about
training Dalit youths to Balkanize India. He was shocked and started
investigating and this is how the whole work started. This book is
very important for us as Tamils. Every one who is interested in saving
Tamil culture as an important part and parcel of Indian civilization
should read this book.
"We as Tamils have taken some of these manufactured faultlines as real
and have built a world-view and polity centering around it. This has
made us pawns in an international power game unknown to us. Both the
Aryan and Dravidian identities have their roots in the identity
politics of Europe and colonial needs of the empire. Nor are these
identities conferred on us by colonial scholars and administrators
very flattering. How many of us Tamils, who have been taught to
cherish Bishop Caldwell, as the forerunner of Tamil racial pride, know
that the same man considered Tamils as an inferior race to the white
race?
"In this book we have brought out these facts. Today the very same
identity politics is driven by geo-political needs. There are world
conferences held to forge a new ethnic-linguistic-religious identity
to Tamils, an identity that has no roots in history but an identity
that will cut us off from the rest of India. Meanwhile our culture
and whatever we Tamils hold as the most sanctimonious to our identity
like Saiva Siddhanta and Thiru Kural have become objects of a well
planned appropriation - a mechanism that has been active for more than
two centuries. We have documented a conference held at New York, to
which Hillary Clinton sent a congratulatory message that went well
beyond the conventional wishing. In that conference papers were read
that stated that Thirukural was a derivative of the teachings of St.
Thomas. Many legitimate serious Christian scholars have opposed this.
We have documented that also. There are many crackpot theories and
this is one more which we can safely ignore. But such identity
manipulations based on crackpot theories assume dangerous proportions
because they are supported by an institutional mechanisms. What
happens if such theories are allowed to snowball and deepen the
faultlines and create new faultlines in a developing country like
India?
"We took two examples of such identity manipulations that have
followed their logical conclusions: one is Rwanda and the other is Sri
Lanka. In Sri Lanka we have shown how the identities of
Aryan-Singhala-Buddhist and Dravidian-Tamil-Saivaite were imposed on
the population by western scholarship as well as the colonial
administrators. We have shown how native scholars -both Tamil and
Singhalese- opposed this categorization and we all know the results -
a bloody civil war that raged for decades and which has left Sri
Lankan Tamils in international refugee camps. In Rwanda it was worse.
The social groupings of Hutus and Tutsis became racial categories
under Belgian colonialism and resulted in a full blown genocide. Now
Let me also tell you another one important thing that we have
documented in this book. These racial faultlines do not have any basis
in reality. They are based on a Biblical myth - they of Noah and his
curse on his elder son Ham. These racial categorizations have been
repeatedly falsified by science. Molecular biology has shown
repeatedly that the racial categorization does not stand the test of
science. We have made an extensive documentation of this in the book.
Equally false is the tribal and non-tribal divide which Risley a
colonial anthropologist created. The book shows how this divide was
created, its motives as well as its falsity. In India the tribals and
the so-called non-tribals are not categories but a continuum.
"So what is happening? A colonial framework is imposed on us and
academic as well as political establishments reinforce and in turn get
influenced by that framework. This makes India a fertile ground for
calculated interventions by global forces. The fabricated frameworks
deepen and mis-portray issues like the Dalit problem. We are not
denying that the Dalits need justice. In fact we are saying in this
book that they need justice. Our institutions -government as well as
social- should become responsive to their problems. But what do
western interventionists do? Using the pseudo-scientific colonial
racial categories they try to portray India as an apartheid state.
They gloss over all the efforts taken to mitigate and fight for social
justice of Dalits. They try to make this issue an instrument for
embarrassing India and making India subservient in international
fora. The western interventionists, and they come in different cues,
from academics to activists, have a well built institutional
mechanism to do this, in the form of government agencies, NGOs and
think-tanks. But we Indians, on the other hand do not have a
sustained, intelligent, Indic institutional mechanism that can study
our heritage, our problems and our challenges and opportunities in the
emerging global scenario. This book brings out these facts clearly,
cohesively in a well-documented manner. The local phenomena are seen
in a global context which is one of the most important aspect of the
book. So you should read this book if you are a concerned Indian
citizen, for the sake of India, for the sake of yourself and more
importantly for the sake of posterity - so that our children will not
end up in refugee camps."
Most of the people were visibly moved. This was not a Hindutva crowd.
It was an assorted crowd which had even some Dravidianists and a
Muslim. Many came and said that they were happy someone has taken
effort to do this. All the books I took for display were bought by the
audiencde. If more such events are organized the book will become a
best-seller in Tamil Nadu. I also found that the book fills a very
important need of the people who see things happening around them and
sense a pattern to them but are in the dark as to how to connect the
dots.
I thank Sri.Suryanarayanan the convener of Madurai reader's club for
arranging this event and taking care to make this a success. Also my
thanks to Sri.G.P.Srinivasan who is putting forth his efforts and time
wonderfully, searching for such forums throughout Tamil Nadu and
beyond for making this book trigger an intellectual debate.
-----------
A group has been formed to discuss and disseminate this critical subject
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/breakingindia/
--
A comment
From: Ram Seshadri
Dear Thiru Neelakandan
This is a fantastic speech that should be memorized and delivered by
thousand other Neelandan like people around the state of TN. I just
returned from Chennai and the signs of this massive change that this
book (breakingindia.com) predicts are everywhere. Anyone from this
state will realize this in 2 seconds if only they opened their eyes
and mouths to speak out. Instead they are busy shopping with their
newly printed dollars while the currency dies and the country cries. I
spoke to a number of people in TN while I was there about the coming
changes and they were in denial.
The last statement from Thiru Neelankandan about becoming refugees in
their own state could become a reality. I don't how else to state it
plainly without being labeled an alarmist.
This is a debate that we should have had 10 yrs ago by the so called
intellectuals in Indian. Instead, we the NRI's, are having it now.
It's a shame we have to go back and break this news to our brethren in
India. We should be in the action phase now but let's start at least
now in spreading awareness so that mass actions can begin a year from
now.
Thank you for Thiru Malhotra and Thiru Neelakanadan for your time and
courage. Let's work together to make your book immortal.
Ram Seshadri
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