12-02-2004, 11:47 PM
A portion of a post from another forum..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dravidianist movement started off as a highly casteist and racist movement. Initially, they divided the population of Tamilnadu into 3 races: Aryans, Dravidians and native tribes (See, V. Kanakasabhai Pillai). According to this fantastic hypothesis, Brahmins were Aryans. All the upper-caste non-brahmins (esp. Vellalas) were Dravidians whose homeland was, uh... Tibet, from where they came to Tamilnadu. The "lower castes" were divided into a set of tribes and denied any Dravidian pedigree. So, in the initial decades (end 19th -early 20th century), the Dravidianist movement was entirely catering to the upper-caste non-brahmins. Its sole agenda, as evident from the manifesto of the Non-Brahmin movement (1919) was to deny the brahmins their place in the public sphere, and this culminated in the Montague-Chelmsford Act. EVR, who subsequently headed the Dravidianist movement was a Balija Naidu from Andhra Pradesh, and displayed a condescending attitude towards the Harjans. In all personal matters including matrimony he remained a casteist. He advocated the ethnic cleansing of the brahmins</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dravidianist movement started off as a highly casteist and racist movement. Initially, they divided the population of Tamilnadu into 3 races: Aryans, Dravidians and native tribes (See, V. Kanakasabhai Pillai). According to this fantastic hypothesis, Brahmins were Aryans. All the upper-caste non-brahmins (esp. Vellalas) were Dravidians whose homeland was, uh... Tibet, from where they came to Tamilnadu. The "lower castes" were divided into a set of tribes and denied any Dravidian pedigree. So, in the initial decades (end 19th -early 20th century), the Dravidianist movement was entirely catering to the upper-caste non-brahmins. Its sole agenda, as evident from the manifesto of the Non-Brahmin movement (1919) was to deny the brahmins their place in the public sphere, and this culminated in the Montague-Chelmsford Act. EVR, who subsequently headed the Dravidianist movement was a Balija Naidu from Andhra Pradesh, and displayed a condescending attitude towards the Harjans. In all personal matters including matrimony he remained a casteist. He advocated the ethnic cleansing of the brahmins</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->