HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Subject: On `vaaymai' [ was Re: ADDENDUM : A puzzle ]
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 16:44:01 GMT

In article <Aug.19.15.44.48.1992.2599@endeavour.rutgers.edu> surendra@endeavour.rutgers.edu (Arun Surendran) writes:
>
>			ADDENDUM
>			^^^^^^^^
>
>
>	We have had raging debates over the 'truth' and 'what is right'
>	and who was 'correct'. Here is something to ponder about :
>
>	A righteous man who believes in 'truth' and 'non-violence' was
>	walking down a road which, at some point, split into a fork.
>	Just as he was approaching the fork, a cow ran past him into
>	one of the road formed by the fork and quickly disappeared
>	around the curve. A minute later a man with a big butcher's knife
>	(apparently the butcher) came running .. He stopped this man (our
>	hero) and asked him 'Which road did the cow take?'. 
>
>	Here is the dilemma : If the man points to the right path, he
>	would be a party to killing an animal, hence would have gone
>	against 'non violence'. But if he does not give the right path,
>	he would by lying (violating truth). What would he do?
>
>	What would YOU do?
>		   
>	AC Suren
>

      I have dealt with this same question in one of my
 earlier articles in `alt.culture.tamil' titled `What is
 truth ?' I presented a different story but facing the
 same puzzle.
      ThiruvaLLuvar gives an answer to this question in
 his thirukkuRaL
  " vaaymai enbathu yaadhenin yaavuyirkkum
    theemai izhaadha solal. "
                  [ In K.Srinivasan's Adhami scheme ]
 VaLLuvar says that `vaaymai' is really speaking without
 harming any living being. [ For an elegant translation,
 please ask Rengaswamy Rajamanickam. He stopped posting
 kuRaL translations nowadays. ]
     I don't know of any word in English or Sanskrit 
 meaning the `vaaymai' defined by VaLLuvar. `Truth' or
 `Sathya' don't exactly mean `vaaymai'. 
     In the puzzle given by A C Suren, if the man speaks
 the truth or sathya and points to the right, the animal
 will be killed. Here the subject is the animal and not
 the man in question as A C Suren is writing. What I mean
 is that the question is not whether or not the man will
 be a party to killing cow but the life of cow. The man
 will be speaking the truth according to VaLLuvar if he
 replies so that cow's life is saved.
                                              S.Pandian.
                                       sp2@cec1.WUSTL.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
From: jsg9939@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (J. Sreedhar )
Subject: Re: Reservation for temple priests
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 05:12:24 GMT

>In article <1992Aug18.125338.17216@ms.uky.edu> aras@ms.uky.edu (P. I. Arasu) writes:
>>	In reply to RT's post:
>>	From your posts I gather you are miffed at brahmins being 
>>	affected by reservations. Fact is previously 96% of the 
>>	population was complaining about being left out. Today 
>>	every body is. 
>>	In my class of 40 there were 5 brahmin students (I studied
>        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>	in govt engg college). So 4% of the population still enjoyed
>        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>	much more than 4% of the seats. So you talk as if brahmins 
>        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>	are completely excluded. That is bulls**t!
>        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Perhaps the named person should take a basic course in Statistics!

I am reminded of a similar incident that happened here in Urbana-Champaign.
Let me recount it:

 The EE PhD qualifying exam here is quite intense. A friend & I were 
 asking a senior (Indian) student about this exam, and the performance
 of Indian students in previous quals. The senior mentioned casually
 (among other things) that while one X had passed, Y had failed. My 
 friend immediately exclaimed."Oh my God! That means only 50% of the
 Indians who take the quals pass!!"
From: srini@ireq-num.hydro.qc.ca
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Ottawa Canada, contact needed.
Date: 18 Aug 92 15:49:27 GMT
Reply-To: srini@ireq-num.hydro.qc.ca (K.Srinivasan)
Organization: IREQ, Hydro-Quebec, QC, Canada
Originator: srini@acr

Could some one from Ottawa be kind enough to contact Dr. Vijaya Bharati
(Grand Daughter of Mahakavi Bharatiyaar), and ask if she would be
willing to participate in the 'vaaNi vizhaa' (Navarathri Celebration)
arranged by Canada Tamil Cultural Society, Montreal. This is one of
the smaller and non-political associations in Montreal. Most of the
audiance will be of Sri Lankan origin. Participants from both India
and Lankan origin. The function is on October 3 or 10.
For more info, she can call Mr. Shanmugaraja at 514 333 615O.
Or send me e-mail. I can convey the info.

K. Srinivasan
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
From: aruna@tree.egr.uh.edu (Affable)
Subject: ilankai pop song
Reply-To: aruna@tree.egr.uh.edu (Venkatachalam Aruna)
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 14:31:13 GMT

 I could recollect only one popular pop song.

  chinna mAmiye, un chella magal engE
  pallikkuththAn chendrAlO, padikkaththAn chendrAlO
  ada vAda marumagA, en azhagu manmathA
  ......................................
   aiyO pAvam avalai ondrum sollathE
   ...................................

Cheers,
Venkat

--
venkat@jetson.uh.edu                  | If you love something,set it free.
venkat@menudo.uh.edu                  | If it comes back, it is yours.
aruna@tree.egr.uh.edu(NeXT mails okay)| If it does not, it never was.
(713)-923-7773(h) & (713)-743-4250(w) |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xref: sparky soc.culture.tamil:848 alt.culture.kerala:134
From: samaddar@siemens.com (Sumitro Samaddar)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Re: Sex Ratio, Population growth
Date: 12 Aug 92 19:05:13 GMT
Reply-To: samaddar@siemens.com
Followup-To: soc.culture.tamil

srini@ireq-num.hydro.qc.ca writes:

>2. Population increase: In spite of the dis-incentives, like
>   parliament seat allocation, national ressource allocation, lack of any

Since 1971, parliamentary seat allocations have been frozen as disincentive
towards population growth. eg; U.P. had 85 seats in all Lok Sabhas since
then.

Curbing Population growth is not just good for the country, it is good
for the state as well. Having a large but poor poulation is no good.

Sumitro
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian,alt.culture.kerala
From: Veeramany.Sthanumurthy@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Veeramany Sthanumurthy)
Subject: Re: I HATE TAMILS
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:23:32 GMT

In article <BswJv1.Iu2@news.cso.uiuc.edu> bsmg9810@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Bhaskar S. Manda) writes:
>sramacha@skat.usc.edu (Sudarshan Ramachandran) writes:
>>"I hate Tamils. I *really* *HATE* Tamils"
>>This string is present in the sub-conscious memory locations of most non-Tamilians
>	     ^^        
...
>>overtly, but the point is that this feeling _is_ there. Tamils, aka "Madrasis"
>>are, IMHO, the most hated sect/group/community in India. 
>		^^^^^^^^^^
>>Why ? If 8 out of 10 (figuratively)  people have reasons to hate us, then there	 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
>>must be something wrong somewhere (within us?). 
>	Son, your facts, English and opinions are screwed up.
>	Got nothing else to do ?
>
>	Bhaskar (UIUC)

Of all the responses on this topic this is the most ludicrous
one. Since subtlety may be misplaced (:-) I will clarify:
Pointing out English mistakes in SCTamil!

:-)
Sthan.
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
From: Veeramany.Sthanumurthy@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Veeramany Sthanumurthy)
Subject: Re: What went wrong?
Summary: Not I told you so.
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 20:42:19 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.223025.18975@menudo.uh.edu> aruna@tree.egr.uh.edu (Venkatachalam Aruna) writes:
>In article <1992Aug21.180752.5844@ms.uky.edu> aras@ms.uky.edu (P. I. Arasu)  
>writes:
>> Is anything wrong?
>> 
>> There are 496 articles in soc.culture.tamil and
>> 	  987 articles in soc.culture.indian at my site at present.
>> Surely there is a lot to talk about here!

But, unfortunately most of it seems to be talking "at"
each other rather than talking "to".

Let us not fool ourselves here. There are all kinds of
polarizing forces at work. Being an unmoderated forum,
they are getting unrestrained expression. I am not sure
it is all bad either. But, there are definitely some
problems. I will try to list mine:

1. Lack of focus: There is absolutely no focus to
any of the discussions (some glaring exceptions come
to mind - but I will not name them for obvious reasons.)
Mostly, this is due to a lack of any effort on the
part of the pariticipants to stick to the issue.

2. Lack of decorum: There is no love lost between several
groups of posters which gives rise to this. An email
correspondent expressed happiness at the comradeship in
SCT. It obviously didn't last very long.

3. Lack of good faith: In spite of the widely differing
opinions, excellent (advertised and otherwise) academic
achievement-wise or otherwise of the various posters
there seems to be no effort/desire/willingness to acknowledge
fallibility. Again, no names.

4. "I HATE TAMILS": For all my efforts to question Sudarshan's
method and conclusions, all that has happened so far in SCT
leaves me wondering if I was just indulging in wishful 
thinking too.

>to find out the thread for caste/reservation/brahminism/
>periyar started from that posting.

>Yes. I agree with Arasu. In fact, healthy discussion
>about controversial matters is good to know the every

All that heat was "healthy discussion"? I can't wait for
the discussions to become more heated.

>side of the issue.Only thing, we can avoid is personal
>attacks. Whenever we're bored with serious issues,
>we can resort to Raghavan's kadikal. Well there may be
>somebody who may resort to serious matters to escape
>from "bite".(porukkamudiyaamal) ;-)
>
>>  (You not included Mr Venkat  :-))
>
>  Thanks for not including me, Arasu.

I think Arasu was talking about Sridhar.

>> -arasu
>Venkat
Sthan.

PS. What cracks me up is the "Anbudan" "Natpudan"
which sometimes follow a diatribe!

PPS. I still hope cooler heads will prevail, all
my misgivings nowithstanding.
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
From: lkumar@umiami.ir.miami.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: ``nALaiyum namakkAga  ...  ''  from ILangkumaran
Date: 13 Aug 92 23:54:58 EDT
Organization: Univ of Miami IR

			
			nALaiyum namakkAga  ....
			========================

	vazhakkam pOlae  vangak kadalil
	arunan indRaikku ezhundhan;

	sidhanaik kaddirgaL
	siRagai virithana;
	seeRip pAindhana ! 

	sooriya namaskaram oru pakkam;
	soosagamaga sAthi sanadai sila pakkam !

	vEriya kathirgal vizhithuk kondana;
	vellicham kAtti puviai Ayndhana !

	sinnath thEvu thAn Sri-Lanka --
	sikkalgal, oru sila solliladangA !

	varuNa vAdhangal vazhakkam thAne !
	adutha desangaL anniyar polE  !

	India - Pakistan  kaRuvi kondana ...
	Pakistan - Afganisthan puyalum amaidhiyum;

	Iran - Iraq ezhaandu yudham ..
	Kuwaitin maElaE pugaiyal ezudhina kELvik kurigaL ...

	madhiyak kizhakku ...
	madhathin paeyarAl jeeva-marana pOttigaL ...

	yugangallukku munnalae mudinthu vitta puratchigaL  ...
	yugoslaviavil yuddha aRaikOvalgaL ...

	LA vazhiyilE - thollaindha amadhiyai; 
	TheduginRadhu nEdhi dEvathai !!

	pacific payanam ..
	peru mOchu vittana, kathirgal ---
	pEsia vArththaigaL ivai thAnE;

	" manithargaL engum manithargaLe !
	  manathal unarvAL punithargaLe !!

	  Thoongi ezhugaiyil [*] migath ThooyavanE !	[*] At birth
	  Thoongu munnAl [*] niram mARinAnE !!		[*] Before death
	
	  pAsamum nEsaum purindhu vittAl
	  pArilae eAthu piNakkugal, vazhakuugal ? " 


	sindhani vinaiyAl iyaRkaiyin vizhigLail
	kOrthukkondathu nErum nerupum;
	puyalum iddium thAkku munnAl
	kathirgaL thangaL karuthai ezhudhina;

	viswaroopam therigiRadhu !!

		"nAlu varuNagaLal  azhiundhu poGathE manithA !
	 	 nAnaga kattinAl thAn, en Ezhu vaRNangaLai kaNbai !!"

	Ezhu nirangaLin ezhilil mayanginaen;

		"kizhakke pOnAl, meRkilAe vaRuvai !
	 	 thikkugaL koodA mayai thAnE ..
	 
	 	 madhamum innamum madiyum veRigal "

	vazhaindha villayai,  needhi pOdhani!

		"alaiyum, kuzhuvum [*] irandumAe en vidhigaL --	
	 	 Araindhu pArthAl,iRaivanum oruvan !! "
		
					[*] wave&quantum theories

	iravu vandhathu - 
	manthin kaRaiyai
	nilavilum  kAttina !!

	adutha kOLai [*] thEdi 
	payaNam thOdarnthathu  -- 	[*] planet

	piriyA vidaiyai, 
	indha kavijhan 
	kaiyai asaikkiRAn;
	" sindhikka theRintha intha kathirgaL
	  karuupu kathagan [*] poRiyai thAndumA ??"	[*] Black Hole
	kavalai kOlgiRAn;

	puthiya kONathil --
	puthiya pArvaigaL ...

	nALaiyum namakkAga --
	vAnavil varalAm !!

	thaniyAga thavipethaRkku ?
	iNaindhu nindRu  vAraveRpOm ........ !!
	iyalbhai kalandhu inbuRuvOm  ....... !!!


natpudan nallam vizhaiyum,

ILangkumaran.

===============================================================================
	
Xref: sparky soc.culture.tamil:1374 alt.culture.tamil:1226
From: prem@cs.montana.edu (M.P.Premkumar)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,alt.culture.tamil
Subject: Re: Please be Accurate to avoid flame wars.
Date: 18 Aug 92 14:48:14 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, MSU, Bozeman Mt 59717

In article <1992Aug18.022710.27894@wuecl.wustl.edu> bs@wucs1.wustl.edu (Bala SWAMINATHAN) writes:
>In article <l908k1INNcvu@aludra.usc.edu> rammohan@aludra.usc.edu (Karthikeyan Rammohan) writes:
>>	Mr.M.P.Krishna Raj,
>>		Let me tell you that my neighbor, who supposedly
>>belongs to the backward caste(even though he is a well off
>>person,economically) got into guindy, after getting 24/50 in the
>>entrance exam and 43% , while my brother with 42/50 in the entrance
>>exam and 94% still could not get into any govt college.Are you trying
>
>If that is true, it is very sad. I know for sure that there is a minimum
>of 120/200 to be scored in Physics, Chemistry, and Maths (for Engg.)
>and 140/200 in all of these put together. This is the minimu marks
>required for applying for Engg. as for as, to use your term, backward
>castes are concerned. And for athithiraavidars the minimums required for
>professional courses were, I think,  100/200 (i.e. 50%). This was true,
>at least, during the academic years ending 1983,84, and 1985 and in 1989.

I think there is a confusion here. What Mr.Karthikeyan Rammohan referred to as 
43% is I think the entrance marks percentage(it must have been 48%). And you are
right if a person has to get admission in Govt. colleges he/she has to secure
atleast 140/200(MPC). And I think the person Mr.K.R refers to had this eligibili
-ty. May be that person got more marks in MPC and managed to get the seat. So
Mr.K.R why don't you clear the confusion and give the full details of the marks
of both the candidates(if you want to).


>
>I do not understand how that person got into guindy with 43% (which is
>86/200). If I must believe you, then I would think that since that person
>is economically well off (as you say) he would have wielded money power.
>Please understand that in that case it does not matter if that person is
>from backward caste or not.
>
>S_Bala
>
>[[[ rest of the article <personal attacks> deleted ]]]
>
>>ram
>>
>
>

Sincerely yours,
M.P.Premkumar
Organization: Physics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
From: rst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (R. Sritharan)
Subject: Re: A threat from....
Organization: Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, Nashville, TN, USA
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 19:57:23 GMT

In article <2A93DBB3.8878@orion.oac.uci.edu> sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu (M. Sundaramoorthy) writes:
>In article <weYwdd600VB=A8ofcK@andrew.cmu.edu> ag3l+@andrew.cmu.edu (Arun K. Gupta) writes:
>>
>>I read with interest the article on Abdul Kalam, India's
>>foremost rocket scientist, on S.C.T.
>>
>>I just wanted to ask: how many of you know that the Space
>>Center in Trivandrum (where the satellite launchers are
>>built) was one of the targets that the LTTE threatened ?
>>
>>Technology development and terrorism don't go together.
>>You can have an Abdul Kalam or the LTTE, not both.
>>
>>-arun gupta
>>ag3L@andrew.cmu.edu
>
>	What kind of technology you are talking?. The technology in which
>	Abdul Kalam is involved is nothing different from LTTE's kind. 
>	After all his products are going to be used to target Pakistan and
>	terrorise Pakistanis. Any way we have different a name for state
>	terrorism.
>
>	Remember, Enrico Fermi's statement on nuclear bomb: "why see the
>	destruction, see the beauty of physics".
>
>	Now Kalam would quote Geetha and become a most respected patriot.
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't want to comment on the LTTE part; I am not interested.

Dr. Kalam has been involved with the Indian space program for
a long time. He has contributed to SLV program and such. I don't
think it is appropritate to throw mud on him.

-- rst
>	
>	Your comparison is not a right one.
>
>M. Sundaramoorthy
>sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu 
Xref: sparky soc.culture.tamil:1235 soc.culture.indian:28703
From: babu@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Natarajan Sureshbabu)
Subject: A poem on caste wars
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 01:55:47 GMT

Guys,
here is a poem on caste differences. I have written it
as a marabukk kavidai, ( with the grammer of 
pidiyathan uruvumai..... ) i.e. kali virutham according
to jayaraman ( i am sorry if i am referring to the wrong person)


		sAthikaL illaiyadi 
		___________________

	maRayinai pidithavar malaiyinum uyarvena,
	paRayinai pidithavar palarilum kuraivena,
	iRaithathu kuRamagal iRaivanO? madayarO?
	muRaiyidum enadhidar tholaithidu murugOy!


	chiRappinil uvarvinar, izhivinar pirippathu
	piRappena   ninaithavar aRivili manidharO?
	thiRamudan  pasunirai   nadathidum kadavulO?
	aRathinai   uraithidu   aranganE!  ariyE!


	idupavar   periyavar  iyambinaL kizhaviyum,
	eduthilar  cheviyinil pulavarin mozhithanai,
	vadupada   adithanar  azhithanar azhinthanar,
	koduthidu  aRivinai   saduthiyil aranE!

					- Na. Suresh Babu-


Notes:
-----  (That kOnaR guide style :-) )

1st stanza:
	maRayinai pidithavar --  vEdhiyar
	paRayinai pidithavar --  paraiyan
	iRaithathu           --  vidhithathu  ( iRai - vidhi)
	kuRamagal iRaivan    --  murugan

2nd stanza:
	piRappena            -- piRappu enRu
	thiRamudan  pasunirai   
	nadathidum kadavul   -- pasukkali mEythidum kaNNan
	arangan              -- srirangam kadavuL
	ari		     -- vishnu

3rd stanza:
	iyambinaL	     -- kooRinAL
	kizhavi		     -- avvai
	1st line refers to, 'ittAr periyAr idAthAr izhikulathOr',
	by avvai
	
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
From: mvishnu@morse.uwaterloo.ca (m vishnu)
Subject: Re: A SIMILARITY
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 01:52:07 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.001658.13038@ccu.umanitoba.ca> sriniva@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Rangarajan Srinivasan) writes:
>Dear netters,
>
>	There is a similarity between the people
>belonging to Forward Caste in T.N. and the
>srilankan tamils. Somebody in the net quoted that
>very few students from 18 out of 22 districts in
>Srilanka (i don't remember this figure exactly)
>in eng. or medical colleges. Similar case with FC 
>people in T.N. sometime ago. There are hardly 10% of
>FC people in Tamilnadu and srilankan tamils are 
>about 20% in srilanka. Discrimination scheme is 
>also quite similar.
>
>	So when the FC people in T.N. could bear and
>live with the reservation policy etc., why did our 
>srilankan brothers took weapons in their hand?
>May be, some knowledgeable netters would be able to
>throw some light on this query?
>
>sri


You are very correct in saying that the position that 
was enjoyed by Bramins in TN was enjoyed by the 
upper caste (vELaaLa) Tamils in Sri-lanka.

The Sinhalese dominated government, after the 
independence, reversed that situation, So far so good. 

However,
the Tamil people took up arms mainly because of 
periodic anti-tamil ethnic riots organized 
by the government in which thousands of innocent
Tamil civilians were killed.  The SL got its
independence in 1948 and there was major riots
in 1958, 1963, 1977, 1981, and 1983.  After 1983
many victims joined the LTTE and other Tamil
groups.  In the mean time SL government passed
a legistlation in the parliament that there
can be no enquiries regarding the riots!!

So the analogy of Bramin in TN and VeLaaLa in TE
stops somewhere there.

Meenan Vishnu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
From: crathina@ritchie.uwaterloo.ca (C Rathinavelu)
Subject: Looking for a person.
Originator: crathina@ritchie.uwaterloo.ca
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 19:34:16 GMT

   I want to know whether "Dr. R.Vaidyanathan --- Ph.D. (1984),
Department of Linguistics, Bombay University, Bombay" is 
working in North-America or in TIFR,Bombay. Please inform me
if anyone knows about his present office address. Thanks in
advance.

Panivuden,
C.Rathinavelu

"Speech is much more ambiguous than writing" - MCR.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,alt.culture.tamil
From: mvishnu@morse.uwaterloo.ca (m vishnu)
Subject: EVR part 4
Originator: mvishnu@morse.uwaterloo.ca
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 18:35:39 GMT


More on EVR from the PhD thesis of Charles Ryerson, "Regionalism and
Religion, The Tamil Renaissance and Popular Hinduism".

(opening paragraph of chapter 4, which is on EVR)
Bharati Dasan was deeply influenced by a remarkable Tamil leader, 
E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker.  This chapter will view Naicker as one of those
who, to use Geertx's words, "if they did not wholly make up the 
history of thier times...they surely embodied it."  Ramaswamy Naicker,
called Periyar (The Great Man), is a metaphor, summing up and embodying 
much recent Tamil history.  It was he who popularized "radical socialism" in
Tamil Nadu in a manner that spoke to many Tamils.

Madras city, Christmas day, 1973.  Three o'clock in the afternoon.  The
body of the ninety-four year old "Great Man" was raised from its
platform and taken down the steps of Rajaji Hall-- a hall named 
for Priyar's great Bramin antagonist, C. Rajagopalachari, who died
almost precisely a year earlier.  A ninety minute funural procession
wended its way through the center of Madras while hundreds of thousands
of Tamils crowded close to the cortage. At times the crowds
were unmanageable.  Black-shirted followeres and khaki clad police
joined together control the hysterical masses.  Twenty five thousand 
people packed the Periyar Thidal at the junction of .....

(to be continued...)

Meenan Vishnu