Dravidian origins

[Vanbakkam Vijayaraghavan]

On Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:13:53 -0800, Swaminathan Madhuresan
<smadhuresan at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

how the tamils received 'Dravidian
>>ethnics' theory- with hostility.
>
>   You wrote about "Padiri" Caldwell, and the hostility and riots against
>   the Reverend's theories. Is this so? Where can i read about them?
>
>Regards,
>SM


"At an early stage in his missionary career, Caldwell became interested in
a toddy-tapping caste known as the Shanars (today called Nadars), and in
1849 he published a book entitled The Tinnevelly Shanars. It earned him
considerable repute, but annoyed the English educated Shanars, who disliked
his ascribing a non-Aryan origin to their group. Some twenty years after
the publication of the book agitation against it was started. There was
great controversy, and some riots occured, and the book was withdrawn from
circulation"
from , Politics and Social Conflict in South India: Eugene Irschilk:
Politics and Social Conflict in South India