Arundhati misses Buddhist casteism, Wigneswaran massages Hindu imperialism
[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 2014, 12:18 GMT]Brilliantly exposing the legacy of Hinduism in the political, social,
cultural and economic oppression committed in India by a small section
against the vast majority of the masses, Indian writer Arundhati Roy in
an article last month said: “Now, the caste system is up for export.
Wherever Hindus go, they take it with them. It exists among the
brutalised Tamils in Sri Lanka.” She sadly misses the caste structured
Sinhala-Buddhism, with which now India’s Hindutva makes an unholy
alliance through a genocidal route, in the process of empire building
and consolidation of the traditional forces of oppression. Meanwhile,
the Sanskrit sloka-reciting NPC chief minister Wigneswaran, attending
World Hindu Conference in New Delhi last month, was appealing to
‘Sanaadhana Dharma’ for the salvation of Tamils, writes an academic in
Jaffna.
New Delhi's President Pranab Mukherjee releasing postal stamp commemorating Anagarika Dharmapala in October 2014
Arundhati’s passing statement on
Tamils in the island, coming in her otherwise powerful article upholding
the Ambedkar-advised Buddhism to Dalits in India, may imply and lead to
misunderstanding that caste exists only among Tamil Hindus in the
island, they were migrants from India bringing caste with them, but the
‘native’ Sinhala-Buddhism is free from caste. This myth is often told to
the gullible by the genocidal conquistadors of Sinhala-Buddhism and by
some advocates arguing in favour of conversion to ‘Tamil Buddhism’.
The
fundamental flaw in Arundhati’s article is confining the origins of
caste exclusively to Brahmanic Hinduism. She also confuses Varna that
was theoretically constructed from the Brahmin point of view, especially
applied on to them by themselves and imposed on others, with Jaathi,
which had altogether different origins. English has only one word,
caste, for both.
Arunthati’s
reference to Karma and rebirth as theoretical justification to caste by
birth is also not exclusive to Brahmanic Hinduism. It is shared by
Buddhism and extended to even gender so that women can’t straightaway
aspire for Nirvana.
From time to time there were revolts in
South Asia against such oppressive religious constructs and the foremost
of them could be seen in the Tamil Bakti movement, in which a woman
Kaaraikkaal Ammai, a hunter Ka’n’nappan or a Pa’raiyan Nanthan were
shown as attaining salvation straightaway through devotion, defying
norms of Brahmanism, Buddhism or Jainism. It later inspired the rest of
India but compromising elite oppression was always reconfirming itself.
Arundhati
speaks of Dalit Sikhs, Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians, noting that
conversion has not changed the status. But, if she wants to talk about
‘Sri Lanka’ then there exist Dalit Sinhala-Buddhists too. [Dalit is of
course a Marathi word, meaning “broken people.” But it is a word of
Dravidian etymology and it has to be. The word, by D/ N interchange, is a
cognate of Nalintha or Nalivu, meaning ruin, destruction, affliction,
distress etc., in Dravidian.]
However, these are relatively minor
issues in getting the thrust of Arundhati’s article, “India’s Shame”
written on 13 November and published in the December issue of Prospect
Magazine.
Tamils have to read it carefully and absorbingly in
understanding the inner mechanism and larger dimensions of the New
Delhi-Colombo partnership and the role of India’s leading media houses
in the genocide of Eezham Tamils, in the on-going genocide, and in the
destruction of Eezham Tamil militancy that sought a new construction in
South Asia, achieving something against caste and gender oppression
besides ethnic oppression.
Unfortunately, intellectuals in India
were blinded from seeing the dimensions when the unprecedented genocide
in South Asia was taking place in the island.
C.V. Wigneswaran at World Hindu Conference
Meanwhile,
attending the World Hindu Conference organized by Vishva Hindu Parishad
at The Ashok Hotel in the Diplomatic Enclave of New Delhi last month,
the NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, addressing in the very country
of the genocide partners, was appealing against the persecution of
Hindus by SL military and Buddhism in the island. He was appreciating
the VHP and the Modi government.
A diaspora delegate who attended
the conference cited a fellow delegate from Colombo telling him that
Buddhism is not a threat to Tamils but Islam and Christianity are worse
threats. This is a typical talk that always originates from certain
Colombo-centric sections envisaging ‘reconciliation’ and partnership of
traditional elite in the pursuit of material gains and domination. New
Delhi Hindutva also thinks in the same way and it is prepared to export a
new religion to suit the purpose. A small example is the ‘Gitopadesha’
panel seen in the renovated hall of the Wesleyan Jaffna Central College,
where the Indian consulate in Jaffna held an education marketing
meeting recently.
“Our forefathers had worked hard to preserve
the Hindu society in the face of successive assaults by Portuguese,
Dutch and English colonizers, who wielded their religions as weapons
against the Hindus,” Wigneswaran said at the conference.
“Hindus
[…] have a situation not too far off from what was faced under colonial
rule - religion being used as a tool for oppression and control,” he
added.
Claiming that he “was fortunate to have been initiated
into traditional Vedantic Hindu thought,” Wigneswaran said, “The
electorate to which I have been elected as Chief Minister and where I
spent nearly a decade as a judge, the Northern Province in Sri Lanka, is
steeped in Saivite thought and practices. Fortunately I do not pursue a
pedantic, parochial, partisan participation in my Religion!”
What
parochialism and sectarianism he exhibits by making the above
statement, alienating and degrading the religion of the people he claims
to represent; what spiritual supremacy he implies to his school of
religion, making no difference from the claims of the Western
colonialists of the past and with what brand of religious imperialism he
is put to insinuate himself into the country of Eezham Tamils, need
careful perusal by all Tamils all over the world, especially by the
Tamil mutts and the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu.
The Vedantin's contempt for voices coming from Tamil Nadu is well known.
Wigneswaran’s
speech has to be read against the backdrop of Arundhati’s article in
Tamils preparing themselves for the coming times.
Indian Consul [second from right] at Jaffna Central College. The background shows Gitopadesha panel
