In the very first article I had made it clear that the isolation of the State, as most recently reflected in its bucking the national poll trend, is both imposed and self-inflicted. In my view the island at the south east bottom of India is not Sri Lanka, but Tamilnadu.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 11: Periyar, unplugged!
Left, Right, Centre, Left of Centre, Far Right, Liberal, Conservative and several such sundry stuff: These ideological labels that litter the lexicon are a legacy of the Western academic mindset that believes in categorisation.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 10: Run on temples
The BJP rode to power on the prime poll plank of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The BJP, drawing its lineage from Savarkar’s Hindutva, claims to be an agmark Hindu party seeking Hindu votes for Hindu causes.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 9: Hindutva hits a hurdle here
Tamilnadu, I can claim with absolute assurance, has always been the the most devout State in the country. This is also the State wherein the most virulent form of modern atheism took roots.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 8: Embracing the enemy
It is a numerical coincidence that the Three Language Formula failed for the third time recently. It was nixed by the Constituent Assembly in 1950; shelved by Nehru in 1963; and now shot down by verbal missiles from TN after Modi’s present regime made a draft proposal.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 7: ‘Hindi’tva Hegemony
Let me start with my now familiar invocation: When Sanskrit itself is being challenged, whither Hindi? Really, compared to Tamil, Hindi is a bachcha. It does not have much of a history, let alone literary history. Still, a brief on that brief history would put the present in perspective.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 6: A Century in a capsule
It is time to move from the politics of history to the history of politics. With a small step in this series I am making a giant leap across 900 years to 20th century.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 5: The lost past
It is said historians are like the deaf who answer questions not asked. The ‘authoritative’ nationalist history texts in vogue in academia and public domain are largely south-blind and north-centric.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 4: History-cheaters!
Folklore becomes fact, in the modern mind, only with the emergence of hard evidence. As new findings enabled by cutting-edge science and curious seekers confirm ‘beliefs’, the façade of fiction falls off to be firmed up as history.
Why TN is forbidden land! — 3: Tell-tale twists in the tongue tales
I was pretty much certain many holy feathers would be ruffled. Why drag sacred Sanskrit into an unseemly fracas? What is the connection? It is my firm opinion that the contents of the last column, that harp on how Tamil scores…
