To bring seven castes under one nomenclature of “Devendrakula Vellalars” based on the recommendation of TN government, Lok Sabha, on March 19, passed The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order Amendment Bill 2021. Though none of the MPs from TN were present in the Lok Sabha when this issue was presented and discussed, the bill was passed smoothly with support from opposition parties. This is seen as a welcome move by all in the society to ensure harmony and the first step towards removing this community (Devendrakula Vellalars) from the Scheduled Castes (SC) list. The Central Government has responded positively and assured all necessary steps towards this.
While citizens feel happy about this development and see this as a step forward to achieving social harmony, promises made in the election manifestos released by a few political parties in TN (DMK and Congress) have come as a shocker.
In the manifesto released by DMK (page No.259), it is mentioned that “Anjugam Ammaiyaar inter-caste marriage assistance scheme will be restored and implemented with increased financial assistance of Rs. 60,000 and 8-gram gold for Thaali (mangalasutram) to the SC groom who weds a girl from another community”. A similar promise was made by TN Congress in its manifesto.
Though this is presented as a scheme to promote much-touted inter-caste marriages as panacea for a casteless Hindu society, in effect this would promote enmity and hatred between communities and divide Hindus further. As such, Tamilnadu witnesses the ill-effects of “Drama Love” that is currently encouraged by a fringe political group at the behest of anti-Hindu forces. Such incidents cause disturbance at both the family and community levels. If this is further encouraged in the election manifesto of major political parties, social cohesion will surely take a beating.
Statistics show that caste clash trend is on the rise in TN for the past 50 years, thanks to the ‘social justice’ (rather social injustice) policy pursued by the Dravidian parties. They were advocating ‘eradication of caste system’ in letter but were fuelling the caste divide among Hindus in spirit for their own cheap political gains. Branding the national leaders and freedom fighters under the narrow identity of caste is the outcome of the retrograde policies pursued by the Dravidian parties till now.
It is well established that the caste divide cannot be wished away by ‘eradication of caste ’, but by strengthening Hindu identity.
A recent judgement of the Madras High Court ruled that inter-caste marriage couples have the right to choose the caste identity of their child. If this is not perpetuating caste, what else is?
While the government in the centre is trying all its possible ways to bring social unity and social justice, TN political parties and to some extent judiciary are labouring hard to keep the social divide intact and pitting Hindus against Hindus.
The need for Hindu unity and Hindu identity grows by each passing day.
