Dravidian origins

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

Soon after 1859, Shanans began to claim Kshatriya status and the right to
wear the sacred thread. ( I do not have Robert Hardgrave's book with me. I do
not know if this kind of "membership seeking" had anything to do with Nadar's
opposition to Caldwell's book which had been published in 1849.)

In the late 1800s, when the Shanans agitated for entry into a temple in
Sivakasi, the manager first closed the temple. That was considered a partial
victory by Shanans and their opponents. Most opposed to Shanan mobility were
the Maravans, their near neighbors in space and status. A "clean" caste, the
Maravans could enter the temple at Sivakasi. To share it with the Shanans, a
polluting caste according to the ritual definitions of traditional society,
seemed intolerable. More generally, Maravans, with the sympathetic support of
other higher castes in the area, wanted retribution for the wrongs they had
suffered at Shanan hands. Through the use of force and violence, the Maravans
hoped to so punish and intimidate the Shanans as to pre-empt further Shanan
efforts to rise.  The Maravans  launched attacks on Shanan villages and
sections, burning, looting, and sometimes killing. On June 6, 1899, Maravans
marched on Sivakasi where Shanans, who had been expecting the attack,
succeeded at the cost of sixteen lives in driving them away from the town.
The final police statistics showed 23 murders, 102 robberies, many cases of
arson, 1958 arrests, and 552 convictions including 7 death sentences.
(Source: The Modernity of Tradition by L. I. Rudolph and S. H. Rudolph)

But this type of "club" formation and "admission-seeking" was not a European
imposition on India. More than 1000 years before M. N. Srinivas discussed
Sanskritization, tirumUlar has noted the phenomenon.

izikulattOr vETam pUNpar mEl eyta
vazi kulattOr vETam pUNpartE Akap
pazikulattu Akiya pAz caNTAr An2Ar
kazi kulattOrkaL kaLaiya paTTOrE      (tirumantiram 1658)

It looks like a lot of people have taken to heart Subrahmanya Bharathi's
lines:

"Ayiram uNtu iGku cAti en2il
an2n2iyar vantu pukal en2n2a nIti".

They seem to have forgotten tiruvaLLuvar's lines:

"epporuL yArYarvAyk kETpin2um apporuL
meypporuL kANpatu aRivu"

Regards
S. Palaniappan