Besides calling for the eradication of Sanatan Dharma during the infamous Chennai conference on Sept. 2, Tamil Nadu Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin stated that the policy of Sanatan is that we (meaning the non-Brahmin castes) should not study. Last month, during the convocation function of a college in Thoothukudi district, TN Assembly, Speaker Appavu noted that during the earlier periods, only seven per cent people could study in India. The same Appavu, while speaking in a Catholic institution in Trichy in June 2022, stated that it was the Christian missionaries who made education available to all; they also brought social justice and the Dravidian movement is an extension of their work. He had also noted that the Catholic missionaries are the main reason for the growth of Tamil Nadu; it was they who laid the foundation for the state; but for the Catholic missionaries, Tamil Nadu would have been a state like Bihar. Later when questions were raised about his speech, he explained that he only spoke the ‘history’.
Similar statements by different leaders of Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), the movement founded by the late EVR and the DMK are common in Tamil Nadu over the past several decades. After all, DMK was born out of DK in 1949. Whenever the DMK comes to power in the State such statements become more frequent. But this time there is all- out attack against the indigenous education system, particularly after the introduction of National Education Policy. The main reason for the DMK leaders to speak along the above lines is to emphasise that those belonging to non-Brahmin castes were denied education during the earlier centuries by the Brahmins, who dominated the system. Besides, they also try to perpetuate the impression that the process of giving education to all was initiated only by the British. The impression that education was not given to all the Indians before the arrival of the British was a false narrative created by the colonial rulers and the missionaries to subjugate us. Till today the DK, DMK and the Leftists have been parroting their views to obliterate our history and divide the communities. Unfortunately, majority of the educated people themselves are not aware of the facts, as the education system dominated by the Congress-Leftist and the DMK eco-system in Tamil Nadu do not allow people to know the true history.
But what is the truth? Bharat was a pioneer in education and had always been known for her superior education since the ancient periods. We all know that the first university in the world was established by our forefathers about 2700 years earlier. Nalanda university was considered Asia’s premium university, as students from our neighbouring countries including China got their education here.
The first book on medicine and surgery was written here around 2600 years ago. Chanakya wrote his Arthashashtra, the first book on politics and economics around 2300 years before. There have been outputs of the highest intellectual order over several centuries continuously in diverse fields. As for the Tamil region, the great saint Thiruvalluvar wrote Thirukkural around 2100 years ago. For several centuries continuously since the Sangam age (600 BCE -300 CE) and before, there have been continuous literary and spiritual works of the highest order in Tamil. The authors of these works were from different backgrounds, including women.
There were women who devoted their lives completely for intellectual pursuits since the earliest periods. Intellectual giants such as Gargi and Maitreyi contributed to the Vedas. In Tamil Nadu, Avvaiyar who lived during the Sanagam age contributed more than fifty verses to Puranaanooru. The one who wrote Thriuppaavai that is sung in all the Vaishavaite temple across the world, was the eighth century Tamil woman – saint Aandal.
How could Bharat, including Tamil Nadu and other regions, could have had great scholars making seminal contributions in diverse fields without a well-developed native education system in place during the ancient periods?While addressing the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London in 1931, Mahatma Gandhi stated that the literacy had declined in India during the 50-100 before and said the Britishers were responsible for it, thus paving way for the “beautiful tree” of indigenous education to perish.
The Sri Lankan – born historian and expert on India, Ananda Coomaraswamy noted that the ‘alien and rootless’ education system introduced by the British ‘destroyed the social balance in which, traditionally, persons from all sections of the society appear to have been able to receive fairly competent schooling.’ American author Will Durant observed in 1930: “Only 7 percent of the boys and 1.5 percent of the girls receive schooling” with school goers averaging just 4 percent. He noted that by then the schools were extracting high fees, making it difficult for most to get education. The above details clearly reveal that the indigenous education system was widespread across India giving opportunities to all the sections of people to learn, the British who destroyed the Bharatiya education system, even while making improvements to their school education in Britain.
So the criticisms being levelled against Sanatan Dharma is completely unfounded. Clearly this is another colonial-missionary narrative kept alive by the DMK to tarnish the image of our Dharma and Tamil culture. At least now, the DMK and associates should try to learn the true history of Bharat and Tamil Nadu and refrain from levelling baseless charges against Hindu Dharma. Otherwise, they will be thrown into the dustbin of history much sooner than their expiry periods.
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