Stagnation
December 25, 2017
Evolution,
the basic law of life, illustrates how a small microorganism grows into groups
of complex structures - the society. It establishes the magnitude of a small
spark which could later turn the whole forest to ashes. The word evolution
gives us meanings on various levels, from biological to spiritual. The
necessity for change is inherent in all types of evolving societies; stagnation
in this process of evolution would lead to revolution.
The
situation of the society in India is a complex one when compared to other world
societies. The main evil that holocausts the society is a spider web called the
caste. This spider web comes in varied types, sizes and magnitude. Even though
religion has many limitations in uniting people more than it divides, the more
serious threat is the caste factor, which in India has been parasites, preying
on the very few good cells of religion. Bipan Chandra, in his book, refers
communalism based on religion as the disease that we haven’t found a cure to.
If communalism based on religion is the disease, then caste is one of the major
viruses that causes it. Casteism in Tamil Nadu had laid roots which are deeper
than Mariana trench. Man has reached the Mariana trench, but not the depth of
religion and caste which is intertwined to the society by the same process of
evolution.
While
looking at the reforms and social activities that the state has witnessed,
Tamil Nadu is one of the very few societies which has stood up against
brahminisation. But when we look closer, rather than the need to reform the
society, the veiled reason behind the social activities were related to the
usurpation of power. It is however faulty of us to generalize the accusation.
Social reforms engineered by great activists like E.V.R, Narayana Guru,
Annadurai and many more brought about a new revolution in the southern state of
India.
The
Dravidar Kazhagam(D.K), under the leadership of E.V.R, brought in a new style
of reforms by uniting all “backward” castes against the “dominant” ones. This
wasn’t easy for him to do because of the honeymoon which the dominant caste
enjoyed in the society at the cost of the backward. This very argument’s
casteist hue can be eliminated by the use of the words “educated” and
“uneducated” as Tilak did, but the magnitude of E.V.R’s reforms fell outside
the circle of “power” which demanded the casteist colour to it. Brahmin bashing
was a usual thing in the life of a “periyarist” which gave him/her the
authority to ask the unasked questions and pose unprecedented threats to the
existing stagnated society that begged for evolution.
Politics
always needs something with which it could bat and clear boundaries into
peoples’ homes. The small spark which had the potential to bring down the might
of congress during the late 1960s was Casteism, for or against doesn’t matter.
The reform which had been started by E.V.R had turned into fuel for Anna’s DMK.
Again, it is faulty of us to totally accuse Anna’s DMK because the part that it
had played in reforming the society is humongous. However, E.V.R’s treatment to
cure the caste disease, in today’s scenario is raising many questions than it
had answered. Although D.K’s approach of removing thorn with thorns had reaped
fruit during the later part of the twentieth century, it also, has reached the
stagnation point and is in desperate need for evolution.
The main drawback is that many periyarists
were not great visionaries as their leader. Their leader propagated the
importance of self-realization and self-study. He had famously asked his
followers not to believe in him and urged them to find things out for
themselves. E.V.R had realized the stagnation of the society with
mal-structures and the need to reform the hitherto conditions. But in the process
of this evolution, his techniques had left marks which would later play a major
part in the turn of politics towards a casteist direction. Apart from the
financial stability of the backward caste, nothing has improved in terms of
life in the society. Earlier, the dominant class named the so called “low
castes” as untouchables and separated them from the society. But now, the
earlier socially out-casted “low castes” separate themselves as Dalits. However
there is a lot of difference between the two but one cannot dismiss the
underlying similarity which haunts the chances of a reformed society. The
hatred developed between the castes and the villainization of certain so called
“higher caste” had again brought a social imbalance which takes it back to the
square one to the old stagnated society which demanded evolution.
Any mass movement or social reform cannot
be conducted throughout the year and to know when to stop is the quality very
few had possessed in history. The societal changes are inherent in a society
and people who can manipulate the course of the change can be accepted as
leaders. But for that paradigm shift to happen, every atom in the molecule has
to bond together and attack the valency of the society which would lead the
society to a stable state. It also takes a lot of time and sustained work from
every individual in the society to move towards the greener part of the river
bank. However the process of evolution is bound to stagnate and the
corresponding reform has to take place within a certain time period in order
for evolution, the law of life, to continue its never ending path like the
universe which will never cease to expand.By Benolin
5 comments
Nice work guys.
ReplyDeletethanks!
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Delete😀 thanks
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