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Karnataka
What Caused Veerappan?
Guna, a Tamil writer from Karnataka
Pala
Nedumaran and Guna
October 2000
Comment by
tamilnation.org
- please also see
1.
History of Bangalore - "The building of Bangalore began when the
Vijayanagar emperor gifted Kempagowda a large piece of land.
Kempegowda was a Yelahanka Prabhu chieftain at that point of time.
Kempegowda used the revenue from the land for the development of a town, and
he encouraged foreign merchants, artists, and artisans to settle down in the
town..." and
2.
A grand dream
- "The history of Bangalore is the story of the realisation of a
grand dream, the dream of Kempe Gowda I. His dream to build a new capital
was triggered off by his visits to Hampi, the beautiful capital of the
famous Vijayanagar Kingdom. The grandeur of Hampi during the first
Vijayadashami celebrations in 1515 A.D. and again during the coronation of
King Achutaraya in 1529 A.D. must have greatly impressed Kempe Gowda. He
expressed his desire to the king. The Vijayanagar ruler not only granted
permission to his chieftain to build a new city for himself, but also
donated 12 hoblis (revenue subdivisions) with an annual income of 30,000
varahas (gold coins) to meet the expenses for the venture. "
more
 After
nine long years, things seem to be turning around. The
abduction of the thespian Rajkumar by
Sandalwood Veerappan is a nodal point in the anti-Tamil
politics, which the Kannada zealots have been meticulously
peddling since the seventies of the last century. It
is politics by other means, which has unfolded in the
style of Veerappan. It indeed marks the
transformation of the outlaw into a person who has chosen to
pioneer the cause of Tamils national liberation.
The States Reorganisation in 1956 led to the marginalisation
of Tamils in the areas, which were acceded to from the erstwhile
Madras Presidency to the new-found Greater Mysore. The
city of Bangalore, which itself was founded.... in 1537, was
predominantly Tamil in its demographic composition.
Kollegal, which was largely Tamil, was acceded to Greater
Mysore, as Chittoor district was annexed to Andhra Pradesh and
the huge Idikki district to Kerala. Though asked whether they
wanted the Kolar Gold Fields to go with the diminished Madras
State when the States were being reorganised, the headless
leaders among the KGF Tamils preferred to remain with the
Greater Mysore. The plight of the KGF Tamils has its
fountainhead here.
With the fond hopes of carving out a fair deal for
themselves, the Tamils in Karnataka contributed their mite to
build up the new State. Their share in turning
Bangalore into a blooming modern city is quite big.
Kannadigas in Minority
The Commission for linguistic Minorities constituted after
the States Reorganisation was meant also to take care of the
interests of the of the Tamils in the traditionally Tamil areas
which gradually became either colonised by the Kannadigas and
Telugus or were unjustly acceded to the new-found State of New
Mysore. The Dravidian and "Indian" pipe dreams of
Tamil Nadu leaders so blatantly betrayed the Tamils.
It was merely ritualistic window dressing for the
Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities to submit a drab and
farce annual report to the President of India on the question of
protection of the linguistic minorities in Karnataka.
It was a commission that seldom lived up to our expectation.
The whole exercise proved to be sham when the Kannada Chaluvali
Movement rose particularly in the capital Bangalore.
With Kolar, Bellary and Chitradurga districts with major
chunks of Telugu population; Kolar Gold Fields, Bangalore,
Bhadravati and Kollegal being predominantly Tamil; Belgaum,
Nippani, Bidar going largely Marathi-speaking; the district of
North Canara speaking Konkani; South Canara district being the
traditional homeland of Tulus; Kodagu being a land with its own
language, history and culture; and the sizeable spread over of
the Urdu speaking population, the actual Kannadiga population is
just around 37 per cent in the State.
Suppressed Fact
This demographic anachronism made the minority Kannadigas to
live with a hazy majority complex. It caused the
Kannada psyche to go aggressively chauvinistic in its
expression, rather than evolving into the linguistic national or
nationality consciousness seeking the right of
self-determination.
Other non-Kannadigas often raise a question: "Why Tamils
alone are being targeted by the Kannadigas?"
They have to understand the historic backdrop of the
anti-Tamil preoccupation of the Kannada Chaluvali movement.
The districts of Kolar, Bangalore, Mysore, parts of Mandya
and Tumkur formed the kingdom of the Gangas. It was
known as Old Mysore after the States were reorganised.
Though the Ganganadu was often ruled by non-Tamils, the
mainstay of its population remained Tamil; and they were called
as Thigilaru by the Kannadigas. Ganganadu was
the traditional homeland of the Thigilar.
This historical fact was sought to be suppressed by the large
influx of the Telugu-speaking Reddies from the Ceded Districts
of the former Madras Presidency for over a century.
With the expansion of Bangalore as the capital of the New
Karnataka and the formation of the Bangalore Development
Authority, the naive and boorish Thigilars' virgin lands were
taken over by the State. Reddy colonisers sought to
usurp what was left out with them.
The Reddy colonisers in the Old Mysore region acquired
aggressive overtones through their initiation into the Kannada
Chaluvali ideology. Founded by theTelugu Brahmanical
interests as a reaction to the virulent anti-Brahman politics of
the neighbouring Tamilnadu, the chauvinist orientation of the
Karnataka politics came as a boon to the land and power hungry
Reddy usurpers.
Film based Tamil Politics
Modelled on the film-based Dravidian politics, which the
Telugus and other non-Tamils in the Tamil country cultivated,
the Chaluvali politics chose to nurse a similar film-based cult
in the thespian Rajkumar, though he is of Tamil-Telugu
parentage. Thus grew the genie. So,
Tamils were meticulously targeted.
Their right to learn their mother tongue was gradually and
systematically marginalised. Job opportunities to
them were almost brought to a naught. The Gokak
Report and the anti-Tamil riots that followed in 1982 was its
logical tide.
But the Karnataka Tamils seldom resisted the anti-Tamil
goblin, thinking that things will gradually settle to find
reason. The treacherous leadership of the Dravidian
parties were the first cause for the meek submission of the
Karnataka Tamils before the aggressive overtones and gestures of
the Chaluvali politics. The reason was that the
leadership of the Dravidian parties were invariably non-Tamil,
though their cadres and sympathisers were Tamils.
Then came the interim order of the Cauvery Water Tribunal in
1991 and the well-planned out State violence unleashed by the
very Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr. S. Bangarappa.
His mute genocide took the toll of around 1,000 poor and
wretched Tamils, and caused an exodus of over 1½ lakh Karnataka
Tamils to Tamilnadu. The loss to their property was
worth hundred of crores.
Enslaved Tamil Nation
Karnataka Tamils under the grip of the Dravidian ideology
stood stunned, benumbed and dismayed over the turn of events
over the last three decades. They could not find a
way out of the drifting sands. Events gradually led
them to look at the Dravidian tale of Tamil-Kannada natal ties
with mistrust and discover that it suits only the non-Tamils to
yoke the Tamils in Tamilnadu. They realised that
Tamilnadu has let them down.
How could an enslaved nation redeem its kinsmen elsewhere?
They realised that the Dravidian ideology was chosen and nursed
by a Malayali T. M. Nair and a virulently Telugu Pitty
Thyagaraja Chetty of the former Justice Party, and fostered by
E. V.
Ramasamy Naicker (a Kannadiga),
C. N.
Annadurai and
M.
Karunanidhi, (both Telugus),
M. G.
Ramachandran (a Malayali) and Jayalalitha (a Kannada Brahman
on her mother's side), Tamils have thus lost their very
linguistic Tamil national identity through the Dravidian trap.
On the contrary, Kannada, Telugu and Malayali ethnic
consciousness grew strong with the formation of the new States
of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
Alien Invasion
The alienation of Tamils in Karnataka has indeed a blessing
in disguise, as their intellect could rediscover the fallen
Tamil from the debris of their history. Kannadigas
have helped the Karnataka Tamils to open their eyes.
What was the cause for the fragmentation of the Tamils into
irreconcilable castes and the caste-based politics that taunt
the Tamil country? What distorted the Tamils'
national consciousness?
A search into these domains taught that the alien
invasions alone were the actual and primary cause for the
peoples world over, and their becoming the oppressed.
If so, whose invasions led to the fall and enslavement of the
Tamils?
Were they the
so called "Aryan" invasions that came through the Khyber and
Bolan passes as the European historiography had concocted?
The probe began. Kannadigas indeed stand out as teachers to
Tamils, by negative examples.
We find that most of the invasions on the Tamil country were
from Karnataka. It began with the Kalabhra
invasions around 250 A. D., and their pillage over the Tamil
country for over three centuries. Then came
the Chlaukya, Hoysala, and Vijayanagara Nayakka invasions on the
Tamil land. The Telugu Pallavas ruled over the
Tamils after the Kalabhras.
Then came the question of studying the history of those alien
invaders. We find in the Sangam Tamil Classics frequent
references to a semi-barbarian and ferocious stock of people who
roamed around beyond the Vénkadam (Thirupathi) hills.
They served as mercenaries to many of the ancient States,
particularly the Mauryas. They were called
Vadugar in Tamil classics. These Vadugar got
split into Eastern Vadugar and Western Vadugar, as was the case
with the German barbarians breaking up into Eastern and Western
Goths. The Eastern Vadugar gradually became Telugus.
The Western Vadugar, who were called as Kósar in the
Sangam literature, became the Kannadigas. The
northern fraction of these Kósar were called as Mārattar;
and they became the Marathis
later. The northern segment of the Telugu Vadugar in
Kalinga broke into
Oddars
or Oriyas.
The first ever territory that the Kósar or the Kannada
Vadugar occupied in the former Chera country was the Tulunādu,
as the Tamil literary evidences tell. Then they came
down to the present Mysore, then called as
Erumainādu. It was thus called as it was
conquered by a Vadugan called Erumai. He participated in
the Thalaiyālankānam battle against Pandyan Nedunchezhiyan of
the Sangam Age.
The successive invasions of these Vadugar barbarians and
their overrunning the Chera, Chola and Pandya empires of the
antiquity was the cause for the fall of the Tamils and their
subjugation and classification into low class aborigines.
Brahmanism, as an apartheid way of life, in fact, had its
origin only in the Chera country (Kerala) through the legendary
person in Parasurāma.
Whereas the Aryan concept had its root in the north.
The British colonial intellect confused Brahmanism with
Aryanism, and had imposed a false historiography by branding
Brahmanism as an import from the north. Though born
down the extreme south in the Chera country, Brahmanism was
carried into the Chola and Pandya countries only through the
Kannada and Telugu (or the Vadugar) Brahmans.
Manu Smruti, which was written in Karnataka, was
adopted as the social code by the court of Pulikesi II, the
Chalukya monarch. The Chalukyan epigraphical
eulogies of mānavakula
or
Mānava Dharma would show it. It was the Vadugar colonisers
who imposed birth-based caste discriminations and untouchability
on the Tamils in the Chola and Pandya States.
These findings helped the enlightened among the Karnataka
Tamils to disown and discredit the Dravidian ideology and
rediscover their Tamil identity. So the beacon is
now in the hands of the Karnataka Tamils.
Rajkumar not Kannadiga
Veerappan's initiation into Tamils' cause was during the 1991
anti-Tamil carnage in Karnataka. He was a
witness to the Kannada chauvinist outrage on the Tamils, and was
therefore drawn into the fray to defend the Tamils in the border
district of Chamarajanagar. It had left a deep
scar in his mind and had in fact was troubling him within.
So he chose to avenge for the violent sufferings and
humiliations which the Karnataka Tamils were subjected to in
1991.
The irony is that Veerappan is a Karnataka Tamil.
He was born at Gopinaththam that falls within 10 kilometers west
of river Pālāru, a tributory of Cauvery, that marks the border
delineating Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Gopinaththam is right
inside Karnataka after the Tamil-speaking Kollegal was annexed
to it during States' reorganisation. Whereas,
the thespian Rajkumar's father was from Singānallur which next
to the Coimbatore Town on the Coimbatore-Sulur Road. He was a
Telugu speaking Idiga. His mother was Lakshmiamma, a Tamil.
More so, the term
Idiga
was a Telugu derivative of the name Eezhavar, which means
those who were originally from Eelam or the island of Sri Lanka.
Such a person could later become the icon of Kannada chauvinism
in Karnataka!
The gloom of the Dravidian dupe fades out while the Tamil
seeks the right of self-determination. Karnataka Tamils stand
out as the beacon light.
The social environment that drove Veerappan into the forests
as a sandalwood smuggler or poacher had lit in him the fiery
fire of Tamil nationalism, as he had witnessed the State
sponsored anti-Tamil violence for ethnic cleansing.
So, Veerappan has don a new role.
The myth of Aryan-Dravidian dichotomy
is going to suffer its fatal beatings in the process; and,
sure, the Tamil will stand up to seize the skies.
The Tamilnadu Tamils, who are stuck up in the marshes of
nasty caste politics thrust on them by the Vadugar-Dravidian
bluffs are going to be shaken and roused finally by Karanataka
Tamils. There is no escape from it! Karnataka Tamils will
catalyse the Tamil awakening. It seems to be their history's
destiny. Veerappan has identified the enemy. So, he blows the
conch for the cause of Tamils' liberation, and the restorations
of their land and glory. |
