Pa. Ranjith’s outburst sparks debate on caste

Dravidian ideologues unhappy after he spoke against invocation of Tamil identity

Tamil film-maker Pa. Ranjith of Kabaliand Madras fame has triggered an ideological spat between Ambedkarites, Periyarists and Tamil nationalists after his public outburst against director Ameer for seeking to delink late medical aspirant Anitha from her possible identity as a Dalit girl.

At a meeting here, Mr. Ameer had said that there was no need to underscore the Ariyalur girl’s caste while fighting against the NEET. Instead, she should be seen as a Tamil girl.

Strongly disagreeing, Mr. Ranjith demanded that Tamil society accept that Dalits are oppressed and must not gloss over the issue by invoking Tamil identity.

This has led to an intense debate over the issue of Dalit suppression and Tamil identity.

Writer and Dalit intellectual Stalin Rajangam said that Mr. Ranjith’s emotional outburst “stripped the fake masks worn by Dravidian ideologues and Tamil nationalists”, which explained why sympathisers of Dravidian ideology and Tamil nationalist ideology were united in their criticism of the Kabali director.

“Both Dravidian and Tamil nationalist politics favour the backward castes. In my opinion, if Dravidian parties give power to backward castes to maintain their hold on political power, the Tamil nationalists provide ideological justification to caste hierarchy,” Mr. Rajangam said.

Mr. Ranjith touched a raw nerve by stating there is no social justice in Tamil Nadu. “The questions that he raised against Tamil nationalists can be asked of the Dravidian movement as well. If the former talks of Tamil identity and suppresses any talk about caste, the latter talks about non-Brahmin identity and does not talk about caste,” Mr. Rajangam said.

Dr. Satva, who organised an event last year in which some doctors embraced Buddhism, said, “Tamil nationalists try to discredit Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Periyar by saying that they are non-Tamils. Not only that, they also try to alienate Arundhathiyars, one of the most oppressed castes amongst the Dalits, by positing them as Telugu or Kannada speaking community.”

‘Credit to Periyarists’

Arul Mozhi, spokesperson, Dravidar Kazhagam, said that while Mr. Ranjith’s outburst distorted the focus of the event to make it an ideological fight between Dravidian ideology, Tamil nationalist ideology and Ambedkarism, she agreed that the grievances of Dalits have to be taken into account.

“Let me tell you that there were no brutal killings of Dalit boys for marrying upper caste women in the 1990s like how we see today. The shift among the backward classes towards violent casteism happened after Dalit intellectuals and Tamil nationalists started attacking Periyar and his ideology. Slowly they began projecting Periyar as anti-Dalit and non-Tamil. Both these approaches resulted in Dharmapuri and Naickenkottai,” she contended. It was unacceptable to say that Periyarists/Dravidian parties did nothing for the welfare of Dalits. “It is a fact that leaders such as Thirumavalavan could rise because of Periyarists,” she said.

Stressing that all kinds of ‘identity politics’ need re-evaluation, Karthick RM, assistant professor, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, felt that it is not useful to pitch narrow strands of Dalit politics and Tamil nationalism against each other.

“We cannot be forced to take sides after pitching a narrow Dalit politics against a narrow Tamil nationalism. Instead, we should work towards a broad politics of solidarity that recognises caste and national questions, but is not constrained by them,” he said.

Source: The Hindu dt 17.9.17