Topic started by B.Anand (@ ppp-181-164.bng.vsnl.net.in) on Wed Jul 19 09:33:32 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I am a new entrant to this group. As I went through the old topics and their responses I find that there are many places where brahmins are maligned without any reason. This shows the animosity that is prevailing between the non-brahmin and brahmin community. Those who do so are under the wrong notion that brahmins are not loyal to tamil and the tamil land. They might also say that brahmins had illtreated them on the basis of caste. To a large extent that is a fact also. But those are past. I have had chance to mingle with many brahmins. Like us they also identify themselves as tamils. They are also proud of tamil literature. If you happen to see the annals of tamil literature there are many contributions from brahmins. Subrahmanya Bhrathi, Kalki-Krishnamurty, Vaduvoor Durai swamy Iyengar, U.V.Swaminatha Iyer -- to mention a few.
Those of you who have read kalki will know how patriotic he was. In his works especially Tyaga bhoomi he criticizes his own community for their racial attitutes. He was an advocate of TAMIL ISAI. We know of Soorya Narayana Shastri who changed his name to PARUDI MAAL KALAINGAR as it is sanskrit and to show his loyalty for tamil. How many of us would have done so or will do so? There have been many brahmins who have revolted against caste bias and have fought against the same. Saint Ramanuja was the first to fight against non-touchability. Is not he a brahmin? Even if you take our own fellows, are we not fighting on the basis of caste? My own grandpa says caste X is inferior to ours. How can we blame brahmins? This is the case with many of us. The caste riots in southern tamilnadu are not triggered by brahmins. So let us not squarely blame one community. We are also as bad as the brahmins in caste matters. Be rational when you make a point. Do not be driven by passion. As far as I have seen, many politicians who claim themselves to be fighiting for the cause of Dravidians are demagogues exploiting peoples emotion. Equip yourself with evidence to bolster your claims, before ever pointing it out. BRAHMINS ARE ALSO TAMILS! Do not forget it.

Regards
Anand.

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Sreekishen "Not So Bitchy Anymore" Nair (@ spider-tk033.proxy.aol.com) on: Wed Jan 31 14:38:37
  
  abc, Karthik and Srinath,
  Pleased to meet you all!
  Well, first i would like to say that i am glad that at least we can discuss some things here without getting too overheated... i think we can all agree that this TRUELY is a rare and precious event in the forum!(that is, discussing without mud-slinging or intellectual resentment) Cheers to Us! LOL!!!!
  Secondly, I must express my sympathies for my dear B.Anand.. i have carried this thread a good distance away from his original intent, which was a discussion of Brahmin Bashing.... we went from that topic, to religious in/tolerance, to Babri-Ramnjamnaboomi, to the lives of gays in America. Out of respect for B.Anand, i will withdraw any further irrelevent issues after, with your permission, i make this one last comment.
  Karthik, i appreciate your honesty in bringing your doubts to my attention, and i respect your skepitcism... however, i will not waste your time or anyone elses here in the forum by trying to prove the veractiy of my story... suffice to say that being openly gay during the 1980's in a very conservative part of America was not easy and at times could be life threatening. I was not the only one to witness this kind of marginalization... many other people (both gay and hetero) have. Michigan isn't like New York or California... multiculturalism is a new concept here, and some people continue to regard it as a threat. And this was particularly true in an area called Ferndale Michigan (where my freind was murdered, and where the chapel in the aforementioned post is located), a place where (at that time) even the police would side with ones hypothetical aggressors if one were gay (thankfully, Ferndale is no longer like this, owing to the fact that gay business women and men have performed an economic miracle in the township) I dont like to recount the memories of that time, yet i brought the issue up here to provide an analogy... many gays in America could act with the same amount of resentment and counter-violence that Hindus and Muslims have acted, and reacted, with towards each other in India. My point being that at some point one has to put her or his foot down and try to stop the cycle of hate with its obstinante formula of aggression, vengence, and counter-vengence. That is all I'm trying to demonstrate here. There has to be other means by which greivances can be articulated without scapegoating, or blaming an entire group for the actions of a few of its members.
  Earlier in this thread i provided examples in which Hindus, Muslims and Christians were able to not only tolerate each other in community life, but were able to actually accept each other and articulate that acceptance through community rituals... i do honeslty believe that these should be the models on which religious interactions should be based. At the very least, they seem to be stateing that , though our religions may be different, and though we come at the world from different angles, we are all sharing the same space, and have to feel for each other to some degree because of that. As the good Shiv stated in his new post regarding the myth of "racial purity", life is too short, even if we Hindus are going to get reincarnated, life is far to short to allow insignificant differences to rend asunder our mutual spaces in a conflagration of conceptually driven hate.
  Anyhoo, it was nice to share ideas with all of you, and to hear yours as well...and i would like to know more of your perspectives, but i think out of respect to B.Anand we should try to wrap it up soon as we have taken his thread here and turned the subject into a few different directions. Peace my friends !!!!!:o)
  
  
• From: Sreekishen Nair (@ spider-tk033.proxy.aol.com) on: Wed Jan 31 14:45:12
  
  One more thing ,
  Sorry to be so long winded... i willingly admit that i'm full of a lot of hot air!!!!!!LOL Cheers!!
  
  
• From: jj (@ ) on: Wed Jan 21 20:36:08
  
  you know why because brahmins were like whites long time ago
  
  

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