Tamil Student Movement - Why Now?

Quite a lot of people on  social networks don't understand the reason/timing of Tamil Student Protest Movement - after four years of the war. Writing this post to outline my thoughts on the same. 

Murder of Rajiv Gandhi

To understand the current Tamil Student Protest Movement across arts, engineering, medical and law colleges, we need to look at the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. Thanks to this unforgivable act by LTTE, it lost the Tamils Support & TamilNadu Logisitcs Chain for the continued war. And the support for Eelam was always interpreted as support for LTTE in TN - the organization that killed a beloved Indian PM.

That is why, the Tamils did not protest - even when the genocides organized killings were happening in Sri Lanka.

Street-Smart Karunanidhi:

Whatever your opinions are about Karunanidhi, everyone will agree on his street-smartness. Rather than being reactionary like Jayalalitha shutting down colleges after the protest started. Karunanidhi shut down all the colleges (arts, science, engineering, etc. ) even before the first whisper of protest happened. So the protest movement never had a chance to take root then. 

Media-Blanket

Worst of all, the media channels in India & newspapers continued to ditto the Srilankan army press releases - rather than finding out the real truth. But thanks to the growth of online media & rise of new Tamil Channels, Tamil people came to know the other side of the story. 

Sustained Influencer Movement:

Over the last four years, a lot of key influencers in media & entertainment  have been giving a lot of support, credibility to the entire Tamil Eelam movement. e.g. Dialogues in Aayutha Ezhuthu. This resulted in simmering Tamil Support for Srilankan Tamils - but not knowing what has to be done to show the support. 

Final Nail in Coffin

So when US brought a resolution against Srilanka in UNHRC, it gave the movement a new meaning. So the Loyola Students first started the movement - followed by multiple colleges, giving a lot of credibility to the movement. 

What Next?

While Vaiko & Co. would like to see the movement continuing, I expect it to fizzle out. Do expect the Congress(including Chidambaram) not to win even a single seat from Tamil Nadu in the upcoming Loksabha elections. 

My Earlier Posts on the Topic

• Indian Tamils Don't have any Tamil Pride
• Renewed Srilankan Tamil Movement
• Is Genocide Happening in Srilanka?

Sneha-Prasanna Shock Wedding & My Losing Connection with Tamilnadu

Though i have rarely seen Tamil movies in the last 5 years, I am used to tout my Tamil gossip knowledge as my connection with Tamilnadu & especially with Kollywood. So I was shocked to read about  the upcoming marriage (or) affair of Tamil movie stars - Prasanna and Sneha.

It seems that I did not know the rumor that every Chennaite knew. It made me realize that I am becoming a part-Delhite now and losing my touch with Tamilnadu slowly. Sad but true. :(

Anyway my wishes to Prasanna & Sneha for a happy marriage. And hope this does not end up as another famous celebrity divorce - after a few more years.

Who is Bodhidharman? The Tamil Story Behind Shaolin Monks

Unlike Hollywood movies, generally Indian history movies generally deal with the known Indian historic heroes rather than the unknown and unheard heroes. So it was surprised when i saw "7aum Arivu" trailer. For the first time in my life, I came to know a great historic Tamil Personality - Bodhidharman.

Who is Bodhidharman?

Wikipedia says,

Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century and is traditionally credited as the leading patriarch and transmitter of Zen to China. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the Shaolin monks that led to the creation of Shaolinquan. Scholars believe that Bodhidharma was a Tamil born in Kanchipuram, Tamil nadu

Yes you are reading it right. China got its world-famous Shaolin Monks from Tamilnadu. 

So the next time, you see a kung-fu action movie, remember that Tamil culture has its unique impact in it.

Hindi Diwas

Some days should not forgotten! And Today (Hindi Diwas Day) is one of them! The sad day when Indian parliament (the 'supposed' pinnacle of its democracy) decide to pick the language of the majority over others as the single official language of the nation. If you don't know me, my views are

1. We all have to recognize that India is actually a 'nation of nations' - which united for the first time on August 15, 1947. Thanks to its policy of princely states, even the British did not completely control the Indian sub-continent. 
2. Personally, my 'tamil' culture & my 'religion' are the two things that contribute to my identity. And culture is maintained and a lot of times synonymous to the language. So in my dictionary, enforcing the language of the majority is the same as enforcing the religion of the majority on me. Leninist China can do it with its mandarin but not a democratic India. (Even you think all people in China speak Mandarin, please google)
3. Not all the languages of India are mutually intelligble. 

15 years later, 70(official estimates)  - 500 (other estimates) tamils lost their lives to fight-off against this Hindi. You can read more about it @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_anti-Hindi_agitation_of_1965. Thanks to it, other languages can be used as the official language by other states. (Point to Note: Not even half the states have Hindi as their official language)

On a side-note, the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 was led by another 'Anna' who fought against the majority Congress in the state. And the new "Raja" belongs to Anna's DMK Party. To prevent more Rajas rising up, sadly another 'Anna' has to rise up.. :)

Renewed Srilankan Tamil Movement

With the Srilankan Army nearing a military win against LTTE, people have started believing that the 25 Year Tamil Struggle Against Srilanka is nearing the end. Sadly they are mistaken that a win in this battle would end the war. Srilankan Army may crush LTTE but I don’t see an end to Sinhalese – Tamils Conflict.

While the international observers may have forgotten that this civil war started as a struggle for freedom, justice and equal rights, the real stakeholders of the war – Srilankan Tamils have not forgotten this fact. Even after 25 years of war, those issues have not properly been addressed. And the current political leadership in Sri Lanka is showing any signs of their intent on addressing those issues

Sadly, People forgot that a Community can be faulted for breeding terrorists when they live in an eternal fear for even speaking in their mother tongue. As Hitler showed, handling a victory with arrogance sows the seed for another, greater war. With the increasing support for Srilankan Tamils among Indian Tamils, don’t be surprised to see the arrival of another Srilankan Tamil revolutionary organization rising out of the ashes of LTTE.

Google News in Tamil

Are you one of those who fear that you will start forgetting Tamil script sooner or later?
Are you one of those who want a one-stop website to know everything happening in the Tamil World?
Are you one of those who love Tamil?

Then Google has come up with a great gift for you.. Yeah.. Google News is now available in Tamil... I still find Google News in English to be the only place where you get to know the latest and important news. And I am happy that Google News has come out with a version in Tamil..

Here is the excerpt from Google News Blog

"It's not every day that you get to launch a product in a more than 2,000-year-old language spoken by more than 70 million people. That's why we're excited to tell you that Google News is now available in Tamil. Tamil is one of the most widely-spoken languages in India, which is no mean feat considering that there are 22 official languages here."

Thank You! Google News Team!

And start reading Google News in Tamil

Tweetup : Chennai Twitter Meet-Up

Twitters in Chennai are meeting tomorrow at Amethyst Cafe for a casual meet up. If you twitter, don't miss this event since you can get to meet early tech adopters of India. Don't even need to make a guess with regard to organizer of the meet-up. It is Kiruba, who is behind Chennai's first Twitter Meet-Up. He was the one who organized Chennia's Blogger Meets in the earlier days, thus setting up a trend for other Indian cities to follow.

 

For more details visit http://tweetup.pbwiki.com/

 

Personally, I would have loved to attend the event. But Coming from Tirunelveli, just for the Twitter Meet-Up is next to impossible. So, I am missing the meet-up. :(

D.Viswanathan, Thanks for the fun!!!

Hindu reports that the two campuses of Anna University in the city – MIT Chromepet and Guindy campus – will be declared “tobacco-free” zones today. Sorry for my Deja-Vu! But there has been a ban on sale and use of tobacco products, including cigarettes, beedis, and chewable tobacco products such as pan masala and guthka, even before I entered the campus on June, 2002. In my four years in the campus, I have never seen any body selling or using tobacco products in public. [Thanks to the punishment that was swift and tough]

And D. Viswanathan, who likes his photo on the front page of newspapers, uses No-Smoking Day(March 12) to get his name on the front page. He has proudly announced to the press that Anna University is the first educational institution in the State to give effect to such a ban, when it has been there for ages. But what he fails to mention is that Anna University is the only campus where cell phones are banned and students are not allowed to wear t-shirts in campus - both classes and hostels. [100% ridiculous rules born in the creative mind of D. Viswanthan]

But the killer comment was

"Emphasis would not be on punishing, but on ‘reforming’ students."

Viswanathan, If you want to really reform something, reform the teaching methodologies that belong to the last centurey, reform the age-old bureaucracy in the campus that hinders students' innovation and creativity, reform the teaching community, etc...


But anyway, thanks for the fun you provide. Hope to see more of these killer comments in the front page.

Don't Ban Jallikattu

Do you pluck your eye if a dust particle falls in it? No. But if you believe in PETA Activists, that is the way to go w.r.t Jallikattu, an ancient Tamil tradition. Like their environmentalist comrades who wanted to ban TATA Nano to address the problem of lack of mass transit system in metro cities, the PETA activists wanted to ban Jallikattu to stop cruelty of animals. If they really wanted to stop cruel practices like spraying chili powder in the eyes of bulls or giving it local brew, they should ensure legal mechanisms to prevent these cruel practices rather than asking for an outright ban of Jallikattu. [But Kumaraguru even disagrees with the claim of cruelty to animals in Jallikattu in his Economic Times article - Ban on Jallikattu]

In their passion for preventing cruelty to animals, PETA activists cross the fine line of intrusion into another man's beliefs and customs. They are right in believing that animals should not be tortured in the name of a sport. But what they don't understand is that Bull Chasing is an ancient tamil tradition/sport that has survived for 3500 years. And it is very much part of Tamil culture. To the extent, that any Tamil movie set in the rural villages of Tamilnadu is incomplete without a 'Jallikattu' scene. Also Jallikattu could bring in much needed Tourism revenues to the arid & dry southern parts of Tamilnadu. So Please don't ban Jallikattu citing sporadic cases of animal cruelty.

Controversy for Controversy's sake

Why should Sania Mirza has to face controversies after controversies? Why should Tamil Actress Shriya face a police complaint for wearing an outfit that is 'very very modest' compared to her costumes in movies?
These issues shows the rising trend of 'controversies just for the sake of controversies' in India. :(

It is a pity that most of these controversies center around women celebrities. And most of us(including me) neglect these controversies... Justifying our self that they are paying the price for their celebrity status. If left unchecked, these controversies for the sake of controversies may become the glass ceiling for women in public life. And the best way to deal with the people creating these controversies is to cut off their incentive.(like the what the Associated Press did as a week long experiment with regard to Paris Hilton). It is time Indian Media stopped giving air time in news channels or space in the newspaper columns to these kind of organizations who go after controversies for the sake of controversy.

News - Nice Steps in the Right Direction

Found two interesting news from the blogs i follow in Google reader.

MapmyIndia GPS Navigator - If any of us has traveled in a developed nation, one thing that entered our "must buy" list would have been a GPS navigator. Today, read from Vicky's Blog - Navigation Made Simple that a GPS navigator has been introduced by MapmyIndia recently. Though the services is available only in major cities and the design looks pretty rudimentary, it is surely a nice step in the right direction. [Will buy a GPS navigator only if my home shows up on it.. :)]

Ergo - A Free all-colour tabloid from the publication house of "The Hindu" targeting the young salaried professionals(IT industry) of Chennai. Another nice step in the right direction. (Though i have to wait till January 1, for the website - Ergo to be completely up). Thanks Metroblogging-Chennai for the news.

LTTE's increasing support in Tamilnadu

It has been sixteen long years since the youngest person to become the Prime Minister of India was assassinated by a foreign force. In a world that changes every second, that is surely a long time. I was only six during that unfortunate incident. And I don't remember any of the things that happened. What i remember? Regret and Sadness with which my father explained - how one of the most beloved organizations in Tamilnadu became a villain in a single day.

LTTE! You betrayed our trust then! And showed that terrorists can never be trusted! (A lesson Pakistan is learning now!)

Sixteen years is a long enough time to forget our love/lovers... How could anybody wrong a person who has forgotten the incident that happened on May 21, 1991 - a monumental historical tragedy which LTTE deeply regret. Most of us(Indian Tamils) have forgotten and some have forgiven. As seen from the increasing support that LTTE is receiving these days - "JNU Tamil Students term slain Tamil Tigers a martyr". Today LTTE is again becoming a 'Tamil' Movement. M Karunanidhi - the cunning politician is again ready to carry the flag of this great Tamil cause. :(

For those people who wanna support LTTE, please remember

• Once LTTE had the 'guts' to target a former Prime minister - a representative of our Indian nation, thereby targeting India itself. If it serves its cause, it will do it again, again and again.
  
• LTTE is a terrorist organization without any democracy in its ranks
  
• It is an organization that cleansed all the other brother organizations to create a monopoly for itself.(if you are fighting for a cause, you partner... you don't murder)
• An organization if had been given the chance to form its own nation would have started - A Greater Fight for a United Eelam with Tamilnadu(India)

P.S: I am not asking you to stop supporting Srilankan Tamils in their struggle but asking not to support a terrorist organization(LTTE). And I disagree with various activities of Srilankan government too - http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/01/stories/2007110156091500.htm

Related Post:

• LTTE's Air Strike
  

PMK - Floating New Front for Next Assembly Polls - A Nice Joke

PMK(a regional - Northern Tamilnadu and a 100% casteist party), known for its specific skills to partner with the right party(or winning party) in each election has proudly proclaimed that it will float a new front for the next Assembly Polls. For a second, I believed this news on Hindu - 'PMK will float new front for next Assembly Polls, says Ramadoss' and started smiling that finally Ramadoss would come to know his true support base among the public.

But..

Why would somebody comment this early about the Assembly elections that is four years away?
If somebody is really intent on forming a third front, they would have started their work secretly rather on the public domain.

Then all the topics that i learnt in my negotiation class came to my mind. Ramadoss is just trying to increase his leverage in the future negotiations for the number of contesting seats in the next Assembly and national elections. He is trying to show off to the future partnering parties that his best alternative to a negotiatied agreement(i.e. forming a third front) is not that bad and his party has all the capabilities to do that.

Sorry Dr. Ramadoss! I don't think J Jayalalitha or M Karunanidhi (or Stalin) would fall for such a trick. They also knew that you can never dream of forming a third front since teaming up with Vijayakanath (the present so-called third front) is next to impossible for you. And you don't have the guts for the same.
Who would like to lose his son's cabinet berth for some pipe dream???

India indebted to Karunanidhi for his 'unmeasurable' love for Tamil

This post was invoked by the wish list of an old man who knows he won't live long enough to see them - "Strive to make Tamil an official language, Karunanidhi tells youth".

Wherever i go outside TamilNadu, one of the questions popped up by my friends & strangers alike is 'Why u Tamils never learn Hindi?'. So let me answer that question before i move to benefits that country has reaped of 'Tamils never learning Hindi'.

• One of the key reasons is the man who is presently the esteemed CM of TamilNadu - Read "TN ready to fight against Hindi dominance - Karunanidhi". This great man while ensuring that his children & grandchildren learnt Hindi, made sure that the other Tamils were ignorant of the fact that your life is tough in India without knowing Hindi.
• If you want to know the historical reason, you have to go and read the newspapers of January & February - 1965. It was during these days Tamils - a 30 million crowd stood up as a single unit to fight against the implementation of "Hindi as the only official language of India". We, Tamils have always believed that "You could be a patriotic Indian without knowing to read or speak Hindi". But the men at the centre during those days thought otherwise. This led to one of the greatest protests led by the student community in free India. If you are interested in History or would like to know about the sad demise of a national party in TN, read the editorial - 'Hindi against India'

What has this protest of 1965 ensured?

• It ensured that English stayed as one of the official languages of India. It prevented the quick death of a large number of regional languages - Tamil, Telungu, Marathi, etc. More importantly, it stopped the further advance of the Hindi extremists. With hindsight, this protest ensured that most of the Indian students learnt English leading to a huge pool of English speaking graduates. It prevented India going the China way with regard to languages. Benefits are plain and simple. Without the protests of 1965, the software boom would have never occurred.

So whenever you meet a Tamil who does not know Hindi, just remember that he is still paying the cost for the prosperity that is being unleashed in India by the software boom. And if you meet a Tamil 20 years from now who is still does not know Hindi, remember - 'Havoc that an impossible dream by an old man can cause?'.

- By a Tamilan who still does not know Hindi

P.S: If you feel otherwise, I would like to hear from you. Post a comment or mail me at srobinb4u[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]in

Reservation in TamilNadu - My Opinion

This was my toughest post ever. On one hand, it is the first time someone(Karthi) requested me to write on an issue. In the other hand, I fear my opinions may hurt a few people including a few friends of me. That was one of the reasons I consciously avoided posting on the Reservation issue on my blog. (Even this post has been there in my blog for more than a month for want of publishing) Another constraint is that - the only demographic profile that i know of is TamilNadu making me ineligible to comment on the whole of India. So restricting the reservation issue to TamilNadu to make it much more meaningful for the people who read this.

Is the reservations really bad?
I have studied four years in a college which has around 60% caste-based reservation but none of us cared or gave a damn for this issue. We accept it as a reality and found a way to live with it. A few things I observed from my U.G. College is

• The policy of having around 60% reservation in my U.G. college ensured a very good representation of students from rural, semi-urban and poor families. This diversity in Anna university really benefited me as a person since I was exposed to certain hard realities of life[like how important 50 paisa is to a few people with economical constraints - have waited with my friends for hours in bus stop to climb a white board bus & leaving all the yellow board buses just because they were a few paisa costly]. This even made my transition from 'poor' CEG to 'rich' IIM a bit difficult
  
• Most of the students who entered the college through General Quota came from the developed urban cities
  
• Most of the students who went to M.S. for higher studies belong to the forward caste since Exposure & Networks that a forward caste student had was greatly superior to that of other caste students
• My Class Topper entered the college through the quota
  
• But I am also sure that the average of the SC/ST students will be much lower than that of other forward caste students.
  
• If somebody says that caste does not play any role in TamilNadu. Just think why Arvindaswamy & Madhavan are favorite actors for Manirandhanam. If you say it is only in Cine-field, then read this. In 2005, a retiring HOD of a well known Government supported Engineering college in central TamilNadu filed a FIR under TN anti-conversion bill[Only case of under that bill in the state] against his successor since he does not want someone who did not belong to his caste to occupy the post(that has belonged to his caste for ages)

Ok. But what does the sons and daughters of the FC people had did to deserve this punishment of caste based reservation?

The network and exposure that their parents had developed is a very important advantage for them. For example, if my parents had ever lived in North India, they would have ensured that I learnt Hindi in my young age itself. (My children would surely learn Hindi!!). Similarly the learning & experience effects and also the network built is a big advantage to them which can be offset by reservation. But still I believe there are lot of other better ways of affirmative action.

My Personal Stand - I don't welcome reservation but I don't oppose reservation too...

P.S: I am more a socialist than a capitalist... And expecting my arguments to be shredded into pieces in the comments section.. :)

Displeasure of D(MK) with Maran

When I read about the tiff between the Maran family & M Karunadhi's, never thought that it was worth a post . But on seeing fellow blogger's coverage of the events - Asif and Badrirag, I also decided to come up with my own version of the events.



Few Key things to know - to understand the whole controversy:-

• Stalin is in firm grasp of the DMK's party structure with very high loyalty to him running among its ranks
• Though Azhagiri claims that he is in charge of the southern part of TamilNadu, the reality is little different. Except for Madurai, it is Stalin's supporters who control the party. [Remember, I belong to southern part of TamilNadu]
• Stalin after the entry of Maran into political picture, started seeing him as his major competitor rather than Azhagiri Especially because of his dynamism and popularity with the common folk

So Stalin used this golden opportunity to get Maran out of the place from which he gets all the attention and fame. His argument was since MK already warned the Maran family not to publish the result, it is their fault. For this reason(not to allow Maran family to rise up as his competitior), he has even patched up with his half-sister Kanimozhi (soon-to-be the Delhi arm of DMK).

Hmm Politics! How exciting it is!!!

Water - A source of life & Perennial Conflict

After the recent Cauvery tribunal verdict, there has been tension reported in Karnataka, especially in Bangalore. (Read the news here). Hope any untoward incidents like the one that happened in 1991 do not happen this time around. If any violent incident occurs, Bangalore is sure to lose the status of "Silicion Valley of India".(atleast in the minds of the Tamils)

It was reported in Indian Express that there were sporadic incidents of violence in the Tamil dominated areas in Bangalore. We have been living as a single nation for more than 50 years. But Still how far apart, people in each State have been. [What is the logic behind targeting a community for the verdict by a national body in which they have no role to play?. This escapes my mind.]. These incidents shows how much racism is still prevalent in india.

If communities/States/Nations fight for water now itself, fear to think of the up-coming days of global warming, when it will be more tough to find water on this beautiful earth.

GOD, Please Save this Earth!

My Take on Tamil Nadu Elections

As someone who has keen interest in politics right from my childhood days, if I did not have a post on the recent state elections in TamilNadu it would be so wrong on me. So here are my analysis and opinion:

First of all, hats off to the people who for the first time elected a minority government to the state. Also a strong opposition in the assembly means that whenever the opposition wants to talk something, they won’t be removed (i.e. thrown out) from the assembly. Also it will be interesting to note what strategy that Jayalalithaa follows whether she is going to follow Karunanidhi’s footsteps of zero attendance in the assembly or she is going to be a constructive opposition leader. Let us wait and see.

Since there was no visible wave this time around, small factors in each and every district played a major role. Vijayakanth was a major factor who reduced the victory margin in lots of constituencies with his 8% vote share. Except for the vote from his fans, other votes are from people, who are angry with the inability of both the Dravidian to think constructively and long-term future of the State. What that means is the votes are not transferable to any of the Dravidian parties if his party aligns with them next time around. But his victory in Viruthalacham is commendable since he contested in one of the bastions of the PMK. His party would have got more votes if they had been able to get good people (i.e. people who can and will spend lots of money in elections) to stand for elections. Especially in my constituency, Palayamkottai just looking at the face of the contestant, I changed my decision from voting DMDK to DMK.

Another factor for the strong showing of the DMK in the southern districts is the Karthick factor. The Tamil actor who recently took leadership of the State unit of All India Forward Block (AIFB) stole a lot of votes from the traditional ADMK vote bank (Thevar community) especially from the rural villages. On the other side, the other Tamil actor Sarath Kumar who jumped at the last hour from DMK to ADMK for purely personal reasons, made sure that traditional DMK stronghold Tuticorn district shifted hands to the ADMK fold. He too was able to swing young people from the rural villages of the Nadar community to ADMK.

Voters voting on the basis of caste are causing a lot of shame to Tamil Nadu politics. Is there any way to counter this in our Indian politics? Added to this, Cine actors and actresses who are not even educated holding sway over the Tamilnadu politics is a curse to the State. But the Lok Parithan the party started by IITians polling more than 34,000 votes in 7 constituencies offers hope to me that someday educated people of the next generation won’t shy away from the politics. They have taken the bull by its horns. Hope that they don't allow this hope to die in people’s hearts. If they have contested in my constituency whether I will vote is totally different matter (We will keep that explanation for some other post).

The factor which worked largely in the favor of the DMK was its coalition arithmetic. It benefited largely from the Congress strong pockets as seen in KanyaKumari District. The myth that the PMK commands the Vanniyar community in the northern districts was broken this time around as seen by the poor showing by the PMK whose conversion ratio of the seats contested to seats won was poor compared to its alliance partners. Also the most of the seats for the opposition party, ADMK came from these areas.

The biggest surprise was the fact that Chennai which was a DMK stronghold whichever side the wave may be favored Jayalalithaa to Karunanidhi. Her changed action in the last two years was a major factor in the reversals. If this has been done in the whole of the five years, she would have been invincible in the elections. The factors that lead to her downfall was the fact that 80.000 government employee families voted against her. Their happiness can be seen from the heroic welcome they gave to Karunanidhi while he entered the Secretariat, a thing unheard in the history of TamilNadu.

Will this government last the whole five years?. Mostly ‘yes’ according to my opinion. But let us wait and see. Just remember, “In politics there are no permanent friends or foes”.