Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi is the first one to say the truth in recent times. He said that the British mandated East India Company to evangelize Bharat and missionaries like GU Pope presented a de-spiritualized version of Thirukkural. After unveiling the statue of poet Thiruvalluvar at Delhi Tamil Education Association Senior Secondary School on 25th July, he said “Thirukkural is not just a code of ethics and morality but an epic book holding the wisdom of eternal spirituality. The term ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’ is found in all the religious texts including Rig Veda and it is far from ‘Primal Deity’ as translated by GU Pope”.
The Governor said, the great sage Thiruvalluvar is one among the brightest suns in the galaxy of ancient sages. The ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’ quoted in the first verse of Thirukkural is found in all Indian languages. The concept of ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’ is in Rig Veda too. It is at the core of Indian spirituality. It is far from ‘Primal Deity’ as translated by colonial apologists.”.
A Raj Bhavan statement said “Tamil language and its literature have given profound and timeless works such as Tholkappiam, Silapathikaram, Manimekalai, Purananooru, and many”. He said and narrated how the author of Tholkappiam having written the great book presented it to Atankot Acharya who was a great scholar in the four Vedas. Governor Ravi said “Tamil Siddhar Tirumoolar’s Thirumanthiram written 3,000 years before the Common Era tells all about spirituality and yoga”. He called upon the youngsters and scholars to shun the colonial interpretation of these priceless books and have a soulful reading of these scriptures to experience their true essence. He accused the British of attempting to destroy India’s great spirituality by distorting Indian history, and culture and colonizing the people’s minds.
While speaking at the centenary celebrations of the ‘palace for the poor’ front building of Ramakrisha mission students home on 27th, he said “the spine of Bharat is Sanatana dharma and this has to rise for the comprehensive rise of Bharat. Some vested interests have created an impression that secularism, as defined in constitution, has nothing to do with Dharma. It is mischievous and distorted interpretation… Dharma is encompassing and inclusive”.
As expected all minions of Dravidian parties started accusing him of following RSS agenda. TN IT Minister Mano Thangaraj, in a Tweet said, “The contributions of GU Pope for Tamil literature is immense. Governor’s speech that Thirukkural did not exhibit his ideology shows his frustration and the comments of such people following Varnashrama Dharma is a challenge given to the entire Tamil society and tradition.”
TNCC leader Azhagiri said “GU Pope born in Canada lived for 40 years in India and translated great Tamil works, including Tirukkural, Tiruvasakam, Naladiyar and so on into English”.
It is not the first time, earlier also TN Governor Ravi, debunked the much touted Aryan theory. On July 10 he said “the country is systematically “ruined” by the British who tried to divide people along several imaginary lines. While addressing a gathering of INA (Indian National Army) veterans, ex-servicemen and their families in Vellore, he said that before the British occupation of India, people could move freely to all parts of the country for education, trade, pilgrimage and settlement.
He said “the geographic regions, north and south of the Vindhya range known as ‘Panch Aryas’ and ‘Panch Dravidas’ respectively were mischievously distorted to create racial divide among people to weaken the country’s unity”. He said British were the first one to use the word Dravidar’ .
In another function, the 54th annual convocation of the Madurai Kamaraj University, the Governor said the British had decided to sustain their empire, weaken the unity of India and destroy its economy, as India was a highly evolved civilization and economy, and this was recorded by the Europeans themselves. After realizing that, he said, “it is not possible to replicate their North American experiment of killing the indigenous population through massacre and the spread of diseases in Bharat, as it was a highly evolved civilization and economy, the British decided to weaken the unity of the country and infuse an inferiority complex in the natives”
The Governor claimed “the British learnt about the waterproofing of ships from the Cholas, and India was a great maritime power and gained other technical know-how; also killed the indigenous industry and the indigenous education system and introduced their rote-learning method so that people could serve as servants of their company”. When the “fire of freedom” started in the country, they created literature about Aryans and Dravidians being races, whereas this was just a geographical distinction, he said. He urged the people not to get carried away by such literature, and instead go to the archives and learn about these issues themselves”.
Lok Sabha MP T R Baalu took exception to his comments that the British created a “false history’ and even before their arrival in the 1600s, the term existed. He, in a lengthy rebuttal, accused him of suppressing historical facts and if he reads Vedic period literature, he will realize who the creators of these divisions are”. He asked the governor to abide by the oath taken during swearing in and stay away from expressing controversial views. Reacting to Governor’s remarks, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan said Dravidian is not an ethnicity derived from people speaking language but an anthropological fact that it is based on inherited genes”. He said “Governor Ravi is continuously proving every single day that he is a product of RSS”.
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