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Agathiyar and Macaulay: Why Tamilnadu adores Bharathiyar, Periyar, Kamarajar and Annadurai?

Our Prime Minister has recently commented that India should abandon the education policies started by Macaulay during the British rule and produce more Sarvapalli Radhakrishnans. Of course, he has the luxary of addressing people (perhaps with a teleprompter) and never answering any questions. Radhakrishnan was born as Sarvapalli Radhakrishnayya to Sarvapalli Veeraswami and Seethamma, from a Telugu Brahmin family on 5 September 1888 in Tiruttani. Tiruttani is one of the six ‘padaiveedu’ (divine house) of Lord Murugan, who Tamils consider as their God and provider of the Tamil language. He had his early education at Voorhes College in Vellore. This was started by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph and Elizabeth Voorhees of the Reformed Church in America. He joined the Presidency College in Madras when he was 16 and got his Masters degree in 1907. The Wikipedia entry found [1] said he joined philosophy by chance rather than choice, which was not uncommon in his days, often dictated by affordability. His undergraduate Thesis was titled ‘The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions’. The criticism of vedanta having no room for ethics was a motivation for his research. This perhaps explains our Prime Minister’s adulation. Radhakrishnan became the President of India and his birthday is celebrated as Teacher’s Day in India. Radhakrishnan grew to be one of the great philosophers in the last century.

Our Prime Minister would not like to recognize that he was in Congress which made him the President following the education he received from the missionary colleges. Osho, who became Bhagwan Rajneesh, was very critical of the choice for Teacher’s day and pointed out that it’s absurd to honor a teacher who has become President, i.e. a politician. [2] This started within a few months after Radhakrishnan becoming a President, which in my view is incorrect. India had just become a Democracy and our population was used to praising the King in his front and so it is not surprising. He served one term as President and may have liked to serve one more term but that was not to be. Radhakrishnan was a beneficiary of the education system started by Macaulay and learned enough to challenge the Christian missionary’s way of portraying Hindusim. William Meston and Alfred George Hogg, advisors of Radhakrishnan commended his Thesis. In turn, Radhakrishnan commended Prof. Hogg as his distinughuished teacher and one of the greatest Christian thinkers we had in India. Our Prime Minsiter and all those criticising Macaulay Education may do well to ask “how did we let Macaulay come here and write our Education policy?” I remember a meme spreading lies about Macaulay being circulated distorting his words. Some blame Moghuls and British for the conditions we were in when Macaulay came (I do not agree with this). In the large scheme of things, his arrival and education policy did help the people of India. Where is India without it’s people?

I wrote this blog on 24 December, the remembrance day for Periyar and MGR, two of the most popular leaders in Tamilnadu in the 20th century. MGR broke away from Karuanidhi’s DMK, started by Annadurai, and started ADMK which became AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), a few years later. Many in India are surprised by the Dravidian movement which has been ruling Tamilnadu since 1967. Some equate it with communism without having any understanding. DMK is as capitalistic as BJP is. Rajaji supported Annadurai when DMK was elected the first time in 1967, more on this later in this blog.

Why has Tamilnadu voted for the Dravidian parties since 1967? To understand this, we need to know Agathiyar. Recently, R. Balakrishnan, a retired IAS officer spoke about the myth of Agathiyar (Agastya) in Tamil. [3] Tamil is among the oldest language still widely spoken. Tholkappiyam, a grammar treatise on Tamil was written more than 2000 years ago. A myth was created by some that Agathiyar was sent from Himalayas during a wedding ceremony of Lord Shiva as the whole population attended the wedding [4]. Earth (which was only the Indian subcontinent in this myth), unable to bear the weight of all devotees, tilted with North going down and South going up. To bring balance, Agathiyar, a dwarf saint, was sent to South by Lord Shiva. Agathiyar saw Deccan to have grown too tall, higher than Himalayas and stepped on it and reduced its height. He thought Deccan had become too arrogant with undue height and had to be taught a lesson.

He brought some water enroute, kaveri river given by Shiva in a small vessel (kamandalam). While he was on a meditation on Deccan (near what is Thalakaveri, origin of Kaveri river), Lord Ganesha comes as a crow and tilts the vessel and Kaveri starts flowing. When Agathiyar reached South, earth regained the balance and was standing flat (perhaps on the nose of a tortoise which stood all the way down, to borrow the words of Narlikar, one of the posthumous Bharathratna awardees). Agathiyar taught the tribes living in south Tamil which was given to him by Shiva. Shiva apparently gave Tamil to Agastya in Banaras as some others were arrogant and speaking in Sanskrit and not respecting Agastya. According to this myth, he wrote the first grammar book in Tamil which no one has ever seen. He is claimed to be the guru of Tholkappiyar whose Tholkappiyam is available now. Their brilliance in creating a myth to control a population is increcible.

Linguistic scholars know the origin of Tamil and Sanskrit. For people who want to know some history, there are many books and I recommend ‘Tamil a biography’ written by David Shulman. [5] Those who want to believe Sanskrit or Tamil is the oldest and better than the other langauge(s) may continue to believe so and not read this book or learn any history. I was in Agartala recently and went to a Shiva temple there. I saw the statue of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha. Perhpas, Murugan is not in their mythology. Murugan, the God Tamils worshipped was accommodated as the second son of Shiva in South and became known as Karthik in some parts of India. Clearly, whether Tamil came from Shiva or Murugan, it does not matter anymore. It can be appropriated and given a date after Sanskrit, which I suspect is the reason for creating such myths!

At Agartala temple taken on 22 May 2025

If I look at Agathiyar and Macaulay, the later seems to be an honest real human being who came to India with people stuck on past glory and introduced education for all. Certainly East India Companty did not come to India with the mission to teach and emancipate the locals. They came to make profits. The UK did not start ruling India to uplift the population here but to loot its wealth for its own benefit. Bengal famine was man (Churchill) made and Sashi Tharoor can talk eloquently about this. He may not like to talk about how uppercastes in Kerala used religion and their association with kings to exploit the people. The UK/Europe, likewise, would not like to characterize Churchill as a mass murderer but would characterize Hitler as one. Coming back to Macaulay, Radhakrishnan ‘s advisors from UK, after teaching him research methodology, appreciated his work and gave him the degree. They did not try to shut him down for showing that the view of Christianity about Hinduism was wrong. They were open minded scholars willing to learn from a student. However, those who created the myth of Agastya, would like the myth to continue and they are not open minded to look at any evidence.

Tamil had been in use all over India in the past. Brahui language spoken in northwest Pakistan/Afghanistan is closely related to Tamil and other Dravidian languages. Apparently, Brahui also means ‘God’s language’. Gandhi gave them a way to appropriate Brahui by saying “Ishwar Allah Tere Naam’. However, their reason for existence is to exclude Islam and hence, Urdu a language really developed in India may be considered foreign soon. Those days, everywhere, God was there for explaining things people could not understand. I suppose, this will continue as long as humans manage to keep earth inhabitable for them and survive. As a proverb in Tamil says, what we could learn is only a handful and we could never learn, is like the whole world (கற்றது கைமண் அளவு கல்லாதது உலகளவு).

People speaking Tamil have eventually settled in what is the state of Tamilnadu today in India. Of course, some Tamils have migrated to Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia [6] where Tamil is one of the official languages. Agathiyar is a mythological individual who was invented to appropriate the people and their language by people who wanted to claim Sanskrit as the mother of all languages. This is the worst anyone can do to someone else. While Prime Minister is condemning the Macaulay education, his party and Governor are trying to propogate the myth today. TN Governor Ravi and his party/group associates are not trying to honour one of the oldest language but trying to appropriate it without ever contributing to it. Tamil scholars have slammed their attempt to recreate the ‘Agashtya expedition’ based on a myth to appropriate what is not their own. [7] According to the report in the Federal website, the organizers of Kasi Tamil Sangam from IIT Madras did not respond to the critique’s comments. Unlike the advisors of Radhakrishnan from UK, the organizers from IIT Madras did not want to listen and discuss but participated in propagating the myth. They are using the IIT Madras created by Nehru who wanted scientific temper to be in the Constitution, to do exactly the opposite. Thinking about it, this is not different from the myth of Agathiyar who was invented to keep the people in dark.

Periyar came from a rich family and joined congress and worked with Rajaji, who was then a tall leader from the Madras presidency. During a visit to Kasi, Periyar was discriminated by the local Brahmins which changed him. In Tamilnadu as well, he did not like Congress party conferences serving food for Brahmins separately. I joined the Indian Institute of Science in 1997 and have written early about its beginning. [8] In this huge campus of about 370 acres, no restaurants were allowed to serve non-vegetarian food. Student hostels had separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian messes and one which served both. In the annual lunch arranged for all faculty and family, non-vegetarian food was not allowed. When I became the Secretary in the Faculty club organizing the annual lunch, I arranged non-vegetarian food for those who prefer that. Not surprisingly, that was a significant majority. While those promoting such myth get annoyed with the ‘minority appeasement’, they promote majority harassment by imposing the minority preferences in public places.

I was in a committee to bring a restaurant in the campus. The committee decided the menu and fixed prices for every item, including vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. When the restaurant opened, only vegetarian items were served. When I inquired with the management, they informed me that some influential people had asked them not to offer non-vegetarian dishes. After complaints from me and others, they started serving non-vegetarian dishes outside the restaurant in an open area. One day, I saw a students group wanting to sit together and the hotel management not allowing them as some of them wanted non-vegetarian and others vegetarians. They wanted to sit together and eat. I complained to the Director that IISc was practicing segregation and the restaurant started serving all items inside. This happened during 2005-2010. I can imagine how it was during Periyar’s time. Most of these staunch vegetarians did not miss a chance to go abroad for their studies, conferences or vacation and rub shoulders with Europeans, Americans, Japanese or Chinese whose primary food is meat, dominated by beef. However, they wanted the public space in India to remain vegetarian. No-one can object to how anyone lived in their home or their food preferences. While using public space, forcing a majority to follow your way of life is unacceptable. Recently, Karnataka CM was accused of having non-vegetarian when some of them were celebrating some festival. This must end. Periyar’s fight was not just about food.

Rajaji as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu did a few things that costed his position twice. During his term as CM before independence, he enforced Hindi and lost his seat. He asked Tamils to speak Hindi on the street and Tamil at home. I have written two other blogs on this issue [9,10] for those who are interested to learn more. Two things he did as CM in 1950s was to close down a large number of Government schools and introduce vacational training (kula kalvi) for students to learn their family skills, carpentry, goldsmith, … Periyar opposed both strongly and encouraged Kamaraj to take on Rajaji within Congress. Rajaji was forced to resign and his candidate for CM was defeated by Kamaraj who became the CM. Periyar asked Kamaraj to fight in Gudiyatham, far from his home, to become a Congress MLA. Annadurai did not field any candidate from DMK. Kamaraj won the election against a communist candidate.

On becoming CM, he re-opened all the schools closed by Rajaji. He stopped ‘kula kalvi’ plan of Rajaji. Kamaraj is called a ‘Leader who opened the eyes of the people through education’ (கல்விக் கண் திறந்த தலைவர்) in Tamilnadu. He is considered by some historians as the first Dravidian CM in Tamilnadu. Later, as Congress CM, when he was trying to impose Hindi, Annadurai led DMK to defeat him. In 1967, when Annadurai won and formed the first DMK Government, Rajaji was supporting him. Let me repeat: Periyar and Annadurai supported Kamaraj to become Congress CM against the policies to deny education for all. Rajaji supported Annadurai to defeat Kamaraj as he did not like some of the policies of Congress at that time. Annadurai as CM, changed the name of the state to Tamil Nadu and led Tamilnadu for two years before passing away in 1969. Like some feel about Patel who passed away within a few years after Independence, I wish Annadurai lived a few more years. Today, in Tamilnadu, one group claims Bharathiyar mentioned Tamilnadu before Annadurai. This is tried after the attempt by TN Governor Ravi to suggest the name of the state to be Tamilagam received a lukewarm response. One of the legislations Annadurai brought was to legalize marriages that were conducted without any rituals sanctified by a religious leader. As I have mentioned in another blog, my marriage was conducted this way.

During the first half of twentieth century several social reformers were fighting against caste based discrimination of fellow humans in Hinduism. Different leaders chose different paths. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism. Narayana Guru did not convert but reformed Hinduism in Kerala and ensured that upper castes do not exploit lower castes. Ramalinga Vallalar denounced all rituals and promoted worshipping only light without any form. He wore only white clothes. Gandhi preached against untouchability and wanted the temples to be opened for all castes. He had a lot of discussion with Periyar and Ambedkar about social reforms. Shahu Maharaj in Kohlapur started schools for everyone including women. When I visited Shivaji University Kohlapur, I was gifted a biography of Shahu Maharaj which was dedicated to some of the reformers including Periyar, image shown below. [11] Periyar chose atheism as he was convinced that much of the population was controlled by religion to keep them in dark. For those who follow Tamil, I would encourage you to listen to the speech in the video of Reference 4 below. For others, I have given the gist above. Periyar and Rajaji remained friends for life and they both lived to mid 90s.

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Bharathiyar’s poems are being discussed in Tamilnadu today with every group making different claims. Bharathiyar is one of my favourite poet. I have mentioned often that he deserved the Nobel in literature except that he wrote mostly in Tamil and in his time, no one could promote him. He passed away when he was only 39 and had written from his childhood until his death. I have read his translation of Bhagavad Gita in Tamil with a long Introduction written by him. He was a staunch devotee of Krishna and wrote many poems on Krishna. He was a liberal at heart and wrote about women’s liberation and abolition of caste as well. He evolved and naturally his views evolved. For those who can follow Tamil, I recommend Sugi Sivam’s speech on this issue [12]. Towards his last years Bharathiyaar wrote “கடலினைத் தாவும் குரங்கும், வெங் கனலிற் பிறந்ததோர் செவ்விதழ்ப் பெண்ணும், வடமலை தாழ்ந்தத னாலே தெற்கில் வந்து சமன்செயும் குட்டை முனியும், நதியி னுள்ளேமுழு கிப்போய் அந்த நாகர் உலகிலோர் பாம்பின் மகளை விதியுற வேமணம் செய்த திறல் வீமனும் கற்பனை என்பது கண்டோம்”. In English “We now understand that the monkey flying over an ocean (hanuman), a beautiful woman born in a fire, the dwarf saint coming from Himalayas to balance the earth (agastya), and Bima who went under water to the Naga world to marry a snake’s daughter are all fictions’. Today, as every political party in Tamilnadu tries to own him and ask their friends to condemn him, the fact is Bharathidasan, who changed his original name of Subburathinam was active in Dravidian politics. Kalki (author of the popular novel Ponniyin Selvan and Congress supporter in those days) started promoting Bharathiyar only after his death and did not appreciate Bharathiyar’s progressive writing.

To conclude, I find those who created a myth of Agathiyar to appropriate Tamil to be more evil than Macaulay who came here and drafted an Educational policy to take education to all. The Union Government introduced the Viswakarma Program recently, which made Rajaji lose his CM position in TN. At the same time, the Government introduced a plan to take students from Gurukul (studying Vedas?) to IIT (13). On the one hand, they claim Vedas have everything that we can ever know. On the other hand, they sneak through a plan to admit students from Gurukul to IIT. If this is not an admission that Vedas do not have everything and in today’s India IIT education promises a good life, what else can be? If one were to think logically, Government should have given a plan to admit students who may qualify for Viswakarma program to IIT and help them update their skills at the Indian Institutes of Technologies. They have introduced a plan to stop the education of people who work with their hands. They introduce special plans to give IIT Education to students who go to Gurukul! Tamilnadu Government rejected the Viswakarma program and introduced another bill to support people who are above 30. Union Government introduced the bill to support youth just after their highschool. I wish a middle ground is found.

No wonder, most people in Tamilnadu today remember the important contributions of Bharathiyar, Periyar, Kamarjar and Annadurai as education for all became a motto in the state. This was continued by every CM after them from Karunanidhi, MGR, Jeyalalitha and now Stalin. The results are clear for those who want to see. Empowering the population can be the only goal for any Government. If a Government tries to promote a myth as knowledge to keep the people in dark, I would be doubtful of their intentions. Home minister wants to remove English and introduce Hindi which neither has great literature as Tamil or Sanskrit nor modern knowledge as English. Is this yet another way of keeping people in the dark? Mohan Bhagawat says he would not care about the Constitution and India is a Hindu Nation. Modi says he and Gawai rose to their positions thanks to the Constitution. I would like our Constitution to guide our growth.

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan Found on 24 December 2025.
  2. https://www.osho.com/osho-online-library/osho-talks/celebration-completion-radhakrishnan-a643cc1a-4ad?p=79716b3b872b30cfa6ab1cf65246c88a Found on 24 December 2025
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlWlMJZwfhA Agashtyar: A relook. Speech in Tamil.
  4. https://youtu.be/EUhLto9aQLc?si=cR4zYuoHVR0HXON7 Listened on 24 December 2025
  5. David Shulman, Tamil a biography 2016 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29940795-tamil
  6. Somewhat coincidentally (helped by Google and AI?) an audio-recording of a speech in Tamil by M R Radha in Malaysia was recommended by YouTube. I would recommend this for anyone interested in learning how Tamilnadu and Malaysia were in those days. https://youtu.be/LdgXUgrZaBw?si=aKEJbglkoc9e_cVw
  7. https://thefederal.com/category/states/south/tamil-nadu/tamil-scholar-tenkasi-to-kashi-agasthya-expedition-217197 (Found on 24 December 2025).
  8. https://earunan.org/2018/05/27/j-n-tata-planned-the-indian-institute-of-science-and-swami-vivekananda-did-not-influence-it/
  9. https://earunan.org/2025/10/21/birth-centenary-of-m-ilanchezhiyan-social-activist-writer-and-an-excellent-academic/
  10. https://earunan.org/2019/09/14/languages-in-india-some-experiences-and-a-suggestion/
  11. Jaysingrao Pawar, “Rajarshi Shahu Chhatrapati: A social revolutionary”, Maharashtra Ithihas Probodhini, Kohlapur. 2013.
  12. திருப்பரங்குன்றம் யாருக்கு சொந்தம் | Suki Sivam Speech | Thiruparankundram – YouTube Accessed on 24 December 2025.
  13. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/government-throws-open-iits-for-students-from-gurukuls/articleshow/122961118.cms#:~:text=India’s%20education%20policy%20is%20undergoing,modern%20scientific%20and%20academic%20inquiry. (Accessed on 25 December 2025)
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Science and humanity!: Gravitons and Lovons

Some of the recent happenings, which influenced me significantly, led me to think about gravity and love. While I cannot mention all those things in this blog, I should point out two. One is the last blog I wrote about the borders in Science and Nations (1). Many have discussed about the border between Science and Religion.  Maybe, I should write Science and Humanity, because I see that most of the religions have not managed to promote love, which is often proclaimed as one of their goals.  Another is a recent article published in the Journal Judgment and Decision Making titled On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound b—s— . (2)

I am almost convinced that many would have compared gravity and love and I am writing this blog without doing a Google search on these words together or a search in science or philosophical Journals. So these are my views, not influenced by others as yet. I started thinking about this analogy when I saw the authoritative article on pseudo-profund b—s—. I am reproducing one statement from the abstract:  “Across multiple studies, the propensity to judge b—s— statements as profound was associated with a variety of conceptually relevant variables (e.g., intuitive cognitive style, supernatural belief)”. Now you see why I thought of religion. Authors quote one sentence from a tweet by Deepak Chopra, a hugely popular influencer: “Attention and intention are the mechanics of manifestation”. This article appears to be an empirical study to understand why some people believe in statements like this, which clearly appear to be ‘b—s—‘ to a Scientist or perhaps, a rationalist. Such empirical studies are accepted as good scientific procedures! The authors point out that “Despite these seemingly commonplace observations, we know of no psychological research on b—s—.” Such justifications are important for a scientific investigation on any problem.

Though all of us know gravity, we still do not know how gravity works. For example, if we have to take a mango (let me use a fruit that is native to where we live) from a tree, you can get a really long rod or tie together small rods with ropes, and tie a scythe at the end. Have a ladder or stool or go to the rooftop. Use this rod to reach the mango and cut it off from the branch by using the scythe. I have seen my father in law doing it in their house many times. Once the  mango is cutoff from the branch, it falls down. Gravity has helped us now. Mango was bound to the branch physically and a scythe was used to cutoff the link. Why does the mango fall down and not stay where it was or go up, when it’s link is cutoff! Of course, we all know it is due to gravity now.

We know electric and magnetic fields and we know that the opposite charges (poles) attract and like charges (poles) repel. Most students in physics may have done some experiments to look at the line of forces acting on magnetic materials. How does the earth pull the mango down? There are some speculations about ‘gravitons‘ which are hypothetical elementary particles that mediate the force of gravity. The wikipedia page on graviton looks reasonable (3). Basically we have a rope made of gravitons, that we cannot see, and it has pulled the mango down. Beyond this invisible gravitons, we know how gravity works. We can do experiments, make predictions, others can repeat our experiments and we all come to the same conclusions. Though, ‘graviton‘ cannot be seen, gravity is science!

Now let us look at how two people are attracted. We say they are in ‘love’ with each other. May be some one has done an empirical study, like the study on b—s— and come to conclusions about which two individuals may fall in love. I am not aware of them.’Love at first sight’ is a phrase commonly used. It is there from our Ramayanam (for Tamils, Ramayana for others) and the great poet Kamban says ‘அண்ணலும் நோக்கினார்  அவளும் நோக்கினாள்’ (‘annalum nokkinaar avalum nokkinaal’ which translates to ‘Rama looked at Sita and Sita looked at Rama at the same time). They fell in love and we have an epic. Do we have ‘lovons‘ that was mediating between Rama and Sita? Though they both fell in love, their marriage happens after Rama wins her in a contest and it was arranged.

I come from a background in which arranged marriage is still common and ‘love’ starts post marriage and it has worked very well for the most part. From the day of marriage, husband and wife live together and ‘love’ or affinity develops over a period of time. As I knew this would be the case in my life, and I really didn’t want to challenge this practice, I have somehow ensured that I would not possess any ‘lovons‘ or in case a girl were to send ‘lovons‘ to me, I would be transparent. It seems like, this attractive force of ‘love’ which could operate through the ‘imaginary particle lovon‘ can be controlled by humans, who have been conditioned to grow in a certain way. I do realize that, irrespective of the surroundings, some individuals can transmit and receive ‘lovons‘ and when they say they are in ‘love’, we cannot ask them to prove it. We have to accept it. I am not aware of any experiments that can be done to measure the ‘forces’ operating between them.

As with gravity, love is also attractive. If we have only attractive forces, it will be fatal and I am sure, many would have heard this term ‘fatal attraction’. When the mango falls down due to gravity, it will be crushed. We need to counter it with some repulsive forces, such as a cushioned bag, to collect the mango when it falls so that mango is not hurt and then taste the king of fruit. Even as I write, my love for mango is kindling my emotions and my mouth started watering. My love for mango started working. The gravitational force between earth and moon is balanced by the centrifugal force as they revolve around themselves and also the sun, resulting in a stable orbit. Between two people who are attracted by love, there has to be a ‘repulsive force’, one can see this as the space required for the individuals to exist independently, for a stable relationship. If this space is not provided, ‘love’ would not be enough to hold them together.

This article on ‘profound b—s—‘ concludes that those who are religious tend to accept ‘profound b—s—‘ more readily than others. Every religion promotes love. I come from a ‘shaivite’ family (people worshiping Shiva’ and we say ‘அன்பே சிவம்’ (anbae sivam, which means Shiva is nothing but love’) Christ said ‘love thy neighbour’. I am not sure if scientists will ever be able to explain the forces of ‘love’. That is for philosophers, I suppose. If only we can find ways to promote love, world will be a great place. We may never be able to discover ‘lovons‘ but we know love is real, may be not scientific. We may or may not be able to discover ‘gravitons‘ but we know gravity is real and scientific.

Perhaps we should stop comparing science and religion. Perhaps we should start giving equal emphasis for science and social science in schools and colleges. Without a doubt, religion has been used to exploit people and and kill each other as well. Religion does not encourage questioning and science does. Faith by definition cannot be questioned. Science starts by questioning what we observe. Ideally religion should promote love and science could be indifferent to this. Did Einstein say “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind’? (4) I have also heard people saying ‘love is blind’.

  1. https://earunan.org/2016/09/20/borders-in-science-and-nation-the-need-for-them-and-the-need-to-have-a-healthy-disrespect-for-them/ Accessed on 24 September 2016.
  2. http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html Accessed 24 September 2016
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton Accessed 24 September 2016.
  4. 4. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins161289.html Accessed on 24 September 2016
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Pillaiyaar and Periyaar!

If you have read my earlier blog on ‘God as a partner in crime and quid pro quo’, you may have known how Pillaiyaar, the elder son of Shivan, commonly known as the elephant God, played a crucial role at a defining moment in my life. However, from my earlier days, I say the name of ‘Murugan’ anytime I think of God. He is the second son of Shivan, popularly known as the God of Tamils, people speaking my mother tongue. I generally don’t ask or pray with any specific request. Any time I go to a temple/mosque/church or any other divine worship place, I just say ‘Kadavulae, Murugaa, Sivaa, Sithaiyaa’ and end there. Sithar is Shivan too and He is our family God. Kadavul is God in Tamil.

I come from a very religious family and religion was there in everything we did in our way of life. I studied in TVS High School, Madurai, perhaps the best school in Madurai and was blessed to have great teachers. Every morning, we did have prayer in school which included a hymn on God and also one on T. V. Sundaram Iyengar who founded the TVS establishment. TVS in Madurai can be compared to Tata in India. Madurai had TVS Bus service, running local city transport when I was young. It was known for its punctuality. You could watch the bus coming to a bus stop and set your watch! They run many successful businesses and academic institutions.

After my MSc in IIT Madras, I did not want to go abroad as going to Madras itself was somewhat scary for me. I was born and raised in Madurai until I was 20 years old and lived in a secure environment well protected by a large family and friends. GATE was just introduced for postgraduate admission and many of us wrote GATE. I skipped GRE and TOEFL. I ended up in IIT Delhi to do an MTech on chemical analysis. After  my MSc at IIT Madras, the course was a big let down and one of my friend left the course. For me it was more useful for personal development. I could get my MTech degree with 9.88/10.00 grade points and got  my first publication as well.

During my MTech, I finally wrote GRE, TOEFL and AGRE. Also, I figured out that if I could live in Delhi, I could live in USA as well. For someone from Tamil Nadu, in some sense, both are foreign. Though I did learn some elementary Hindi, I was more comfortable in English, after Tamil. It would take two days to reach my home in Madurai, from either Delhi or America. I only applied to Universities that had no application fees. I accepted the first offer that came my way and went to the Kansas State University. As I was getting ready to leave, I received a letter from the International Student Center at KSU. It warned: ‘You are coming to a far away place to a country very different from yours. Be aware that you may have a cultural shock’. I couldn’t have learned much about life in the USA but I really did not have a cultural shock when I landed in the USA. I did have my first cultural shock when I returned after my studies to work in Kanpur!

Twenty years ago, on the day of Buddha Purnima, I went to Bithur, 18 km from the IIT Campus in Kanpur by bicycle with a friend of mine. Bithur is a very important town for Hindus and there used to be a board there claiming it to be the centre of Universe. Besides, it is believed to be the birthplace of Lava and Kusha, the twin sons of Rama and Sita. Also, Sita was supposed to have entered the earth in this place, on the banks of the holy river Ganges. I was very curious to visit and when I did, it was very disappointing. It would be difficult to grow in India without listening about Ramayana and Mahabaratha. Now the Government wants these to be taught in schools and I don’t like this idea. In any case, when most in India revere Ramayana, it was saddening to see the Lava-Kusha Janmastan (birth place) in such a terrible condition. It has not been maintained at all. I am surprised why all those who talk emotionally about Ramayana don’t do anything to maintain places like this.

Coming from Madurai, which boasts of a unique city festival, Chitra festival (April-May every year), I am very much used to huge crowds and enjoy being in the crowd. It happens during the full moon day in the Tamil month of Chithirai. Every year, the newspapers would mention that 5 lakh people attended the festival (0.5 million). The crowd I saw in Bithur during the Buddhapurnima (another full moon day) was too much even for me. I suspect it could be several millions. Taking a dip in Ganges during such an auspicious day is considered holy and it seemed like everyone was there.

Ganges in that place looks far from clean. I had gone to Rishikesh where I had a nice bath. I told my friend that taking a dip in that place would be tough and I might have neither the immunity nor faith. We decided to cross the river and walk upstream until there were no more people and take a dip. There were no permanent bridge but a temporary one was made out of big barrels. The barrels with big holes were kept and a wooden bridge was made on top of these barrels. A boat could go through a barrel.

There was too much crowd and the bridge had no place empty. I wondered if the area of the bridge would be almost the same as the foot print of all the people standing on the bridge. Even in that crowd, there was some order and you could join the crowd moving in one direction or other. One barely moved and the human wave was crossing the bridge. Suddenly, some security and police came with some lathi (a stick to beat the crowd) and was shouting. No one was beaten and everybody was being pushed away from one barrel. I was worried about a stampede. Then I saw a boat from my left side approaching the barrel. The boat had some ‘purohits’ or ‘brahmins’ being taken somewhere. The occupants of the boat did not want to have any human being standing on the bridge while the boat crossed. There could have really been a stampede at that time. Thankfully Pillaiyaar was still watching and no untoward incident happened. However, I was shocked looking at the faces of the occupants. They had so much hatred and contempt on their face, shouting away the people standing on top of the bridge and the police were helping them. Weren’t the people on bridge fellow humans too?

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I never had any such experience during my stay in Tamil Nadu. I have read about some groups not being allowed inside temples. I have read about the priests throwing ‘viboothi’ on the ground for some group of people as they were inferior. I have myself not seen such acts. I was thinking to myself. If such an incident were to happen in Tamil Nadu, some one could have jumped on the boat and beaten the hell out of the occupants. People had learned self-respect. Someone called Periyaar had fought against oppression and instilled confidence and respect among the population that has been suppressed for long. People in Bithur chose suffering and put themselves in a lot of discomfort and let the boat pass through. I was squeezed from all sides and luckily no one had any major injury or lost their  life. It could have happened. I hope such things don’t happen there any more.

I witnessed many such events during my stay in Kanpur.  People were treated without any respect or dignity. Most of them accepted such treatments without questioning them. I read the following news in the Hindu today. The Prime Minister of India is being warned by the priests:

Shrikant Mishra, one of the main priests at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, who officiated the rituals when Mr. Modi visited the temple after winning the general election, says the belief about the Kaal Bhairav temple is a “shastriya parampara” or classical one. “Kaal Bhairavji is considered Dandapani or one who can mete out punishment, therefore anyone who visits Kashi has to pay obeisance to him first. If the BJP leadership here has sent a word to the Prime Minister, it is not wrong,” he said.” (1)

This, I see is a major problem among the Hindu way of life. That God will meet out punishment if you don’t pay obeisance to Him first! Of course all my friends will quote from any number of books that this is misinterpretation. God is all love and is not looking for your petty obeisance. You only have to live a life following some ethics. I was pleased to read the response of A R Rahman when he was issued a fatwa. If the Prime Minister can be warned this way, you can imagine what our priests can do to the ordinary people. I wish every state had a Periyaar in India. If not, these priests would have ensured that we continue to live in an imagined glory without trusting our own skills.

We can still look forward to a God who would come in the future and relieve us of all our worries without trying what we could. Or course, we can also realise that God wants you to look after yourself. If not, the ocean would have drinking water and all the energy in the key board or pen or your shirt would have been usable. If you want drinkable water and usable energy, go figure out. That is what God has told you clearly and loudly. Those, who want to cheat you in the name of God, would like you to believe otherwise. Be wary of them. That is what Periyaar told us. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are far more progressive than Gujarat when it comes to all indices based on human development. It may not be the case when it comes to investment today. We have learned very well that growth is not just some rich people making more money! If not we would not have witnessed the American economy collapse in 2006-07 and Obama getting elected in 2008. It is in your hand to learn what you need to take care of you and your family. God is with you and (s)he is not going to help you, if you don’t do your work.

(1) http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/modi-asked-to-seek-divine-help-to-break-varanasi-visit-jinx/article7660114.ece

 

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God as a partner in crime and quid pro quo

When George Bush started a ‘pre-emptive’ war on Iraq, he said ‘God is with us’. The USA won the unprovoked war and innumerable innocent lives were lost. One of the following conclusions could be drawn: 1) God was indeed with George Bush and helped him win the war 2) God was not with George Bush but could not do anything about the loss of innocent lives (this would not agree with any definition of God) 3) God was not with George Bush but chose not to do anything about the loss of innocent lives.

Third choice can equally be interpreted as God does not take any side and does not intervene in human affairs.  Might is right in the earthly affairs. Democracy is a mild threat to might but it is no guaranty against injustice. The USA likes to follow the rules. George Bush amended the US law which prohibited preemptive attack on another nation. He got bipartisan support for this unjust war, as God was with him.  A whole country can be fooled without much difficulty and who can argue against patriotism! The God of the might then turns out to be the most potent. If we would like our God to be the most potent, we need to grow in stature in the world.

I come from a surrounding where people pray to God to get a cure from common cold to passing JEE. There were specific promises to the God that on getting this favor, some thing will be done in return.  This could be breaking coconuts, lighting lamps, shaving off one’s head, money in the Temple Hundi …. you name it. I have seen people carrying out the promise when their wish came true. I always wondered what was done when it did not come true or when the deal was not kept. God perhaps never bothered about individual promises and was not keeping track.

During my youth, I prayed to God with specific promises for personal favors on a few occasions. One was when a new-born child in our close family circle was in a serious condition. I had a silent prayer and promised to God that I would do something if the child survived. The child did and I kept my promise to God.  In the next few years, we had another young relative in serious condition and I made the same offer to God. This young relative did not survive. For some reason, I thought I should still keep my promise to God and did. God must have tried hard and the efforts must be rewarded, not the end result.

People around me had Murugan as their favorite God. Bathing Him in milk was often a promise to get something from Him. I remember carrying a pot full of milk (Paal kudam) when I was a kid during a specific festival known as Paal kudam. Devotees would become hysterical as they carry the Paal kudam towards Thirupparankunram, one of the six temples of Murugan. I was carrying the Paal kudam with no emotion whatsoever.

Another occasion I prayed to God was when I wrote the entrance exam for IIT Madras, MSc admission. Unlike the other two incidents mentioned above, this was in a lighter vein. Just for the sake of it, I prayed that we will give a ‘milk bath’ to Vinayagan, the elephant God, brother of Murugan. I thought Murugan was getting far too much milk and Vinayagan did not get any share. The deal was complicated. Myself AND a friend of mine should both get admission to IIT Madras. He was a top ranker and I was a reasonably good student. We both made it and as a bonus, two more of our classmates got admission. One of them was a christian! They were both good students too.

Now we were in some kind of a shock and denial. Many temples of Murugan do this routinely and at that time I was not aware of Vinayagan temples doing this. My friend asked me, where should we do this now? We had our own Vinayagan temple in front of our house where we lived all our childhood. I told him that we would do it in that temple and he agreed. We arranged a function and did do what is known as ‘Paalabhishekam’ or giving the statue a milk bath. Until that time, I had not witnessed such a ritual in Vinayagan temples. To our surprise, when we reached IIT Madras, there was a Vinayagan temple in the woods. We accidentally walked through the temple on our first day and there we witnessed the same event once again. It was an incredible sight.

Selection was based on the performance in the exam and as long as God helped us perform better, it would be alright. I hope the God did not do anything to favor us at the cost of another more deserving student and that would be unlike God. Often when my students ask me about God and religion, I tell them this: When your experiment works if you want to thank God, go ahead. When it does not work, don’t tell me that you have prayed to God. Better sit in the lab and fix it.

If you look at the world today, it would not be difficult to identify the major causes for conflict. One is energy and another is water. Iraq war was not for restoring democracy. I was born in Tamil Nadu and work in Karnataka and our states fight for water, even when India and Bangladesh seem to have some water sharing agreement. However, if you look around, both water and energy are available in plenty. Two thirds of our earth is water and everything is energy (E = mc^2). The trouble is that portable water and usable energy are not freely available. For that, you need to understand and make efforts. Clearly, God wants you and me to work. If not, ocean could have drinking water and the energy in my pen could be used readily.

In the recent days, I have been reading about so many murders in the name of God. I have also read news paper reports about large amounts of cash and Jewels being deposited in the Temple Hundis. The common perception is that this is a share from ill-gotten wealth. Fortunately for God, none of the Lokpal bills (anti-corruption bill in Hindi) have any provision to touch God even if God were given a good share of the loot.

I must add one thing before concluding.  I have seen this in India. People who grow by cheating a system eventually suffer even if they had given a fair share to God. May be one life-time is not enough to see what happens to a country or group, which in the name of God commits atrocities. May be the law of nature or God will eventually make things even. How can I ensure that no one blames God for killing another person? The nation-states of today should ensure that.

 

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Rosa Parks and Mooka Nadar: Recent tales from the world’s “oldest” and largest democracies!

I am a native of Madurai, India and lived there for 20 years, largely during the 1960s and 70s till I finished my B.Sc. in Chemistry (1982) at The American College, Madurai. In 1986, I went to the U.S.A. for my Ph. D. and postdoctoral work and lived there for a little more than 8 years. I returned to India at the end of 1994 to join IIT, Kanpur. All through my stay at Madurai and in the USA, I had not heard of Rosa Parks or Mooka Nadar. What unites them is the courage of conviction they displayed against discrimination, risking their own lives. Rosa Parks, though imprisoned, survived and the USA eventually changed its ways. Mooka Nadar was killed and India changed its ways too.

I learned about Rosa Parks when my elder daughter was in middle school.  A social science text book for Class 7, CBSE (Central Board for School Education, India) had one small section on Rosa Parks. There is a page in Wikipedia on Rosa Parks  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks) and one can learn more about her from Google. In short, it was a period when the buses in the USA had segregated the white and black passengers. However, if a white person enters the bus and could not find a seat in the White section, people of color have to get up and give the white person his/her seat.

On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks was returning from work and was very tired. She refused to get up and give her seat for a white man even when the other black persons in the bus at that time, stood up and gave their seats. The bus driver, a white man James Blake, called the police and had her arrested. She was found guilty of misconduct and fined. She was eventually acquitted and segregation based on color ended in the USA. She became known as ‘the first lady of civil rights’ and ‘the mother of freedom movement’. Rosa Parks day is observed on 4th February (her birth day) and December 1st (the day she was arrested) in the states California and Ohio. I was in Portland, Oregon during the summer of 2013 and found a road named ‘Rosa Parks Way’.  I found out more about it in the web later and you can too (http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/07/if_rosa_parks_way_naming_is_an.html).

I had not known Mooka Nadar until the last year, nearly 7 years after I had learned about Rosa Parks. I had not lived in any of the places where Rosa Parks was born and lived (Alabama) or settled later (Detroit). I was born and lived in Madurai for 20 years and I had not known Mooka Nadar. Today (1 February 2015), I found about 4,79,00,000 results (in 0.40 seconds) on Google when I typed Rosa Parks. Mooka Nadar is relatively unknown, even to a person like me who was born and raised in Madurai.

There was a period in India when segregation was prevalent and casteism was accepted by every one. People of ‘Nadar’ caste were not allowed to enter the temple. Mooka Nadar decided to defy this ban and entered the famous Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai. He was identified immediately and lynched. Nadars filed a complaint and the Court in those days, with Judges of British origin dismissed the case as Mooka Nadar should not have entered the temple in the first place. It does appear like there is a street named after Mooka Nadar in the centre of Madurai city, though I do not know for sure if it is named after this same person. Google has 81,200 entries but I suspect most of them are not about this person. Today, no one based on caste can be denied entry to any Temples in India legally.

I learned about Mooka Nadar last year from a book authored by my namesake, Arunan.  His book on ‘Thamizhakathil Samooga Seerthirutham Iru Nootrandu Varalaru’ (Social revolution in Tamil Nadu: History from the last two centuries) published in 2013.  This book is well researched and written and I would recommend it to any serious reader who has an interest in this topic. Amazon lists several books by this Author Arunan, who does not use an initial (http://www.amazon.in/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A976389031%2Cp_27%3AArunan&ie=UTF8&qid=1422773832). The last book listed in this page in amazon.in (found today) is an edited volume following a symposium on Shock Waves we organized. The titles of his other books indicate to me that we not only share our names, but also views on many things. Perhaps, not about communism and I cannot comment on it until I read the books.

The USA has not shied away from discussing racism and has been taking steps to correct it. India has taken enough steps to prevent caste based discrimination but has not been as open as the USA in discussing it. It has repeatedly ensured that ‘caste’ is not included in the UN discussions.  How wrong our perceptions could be about who is the big bully, among these two democracies. While all over the world, such discrimination and exploitation of the weaker section has existed, one real mark of a civilized country can be seen in the way it treats the marginalized sections. I wish, India will become more honest and less hypocritical, in admitting our mistakes from the past, correcting them and marching towards a modern and civilized country. In closing, two quotes: 1) One Thirkkural that I like most (widely believed to be more than 2000 years old):

பிறப்பொக்கும் எல்லா உயிர்க்கும் சிறப்பொவ்வா
செய்தொழில் வேற்றுமை யான்

The essence of this Thirukkural, known as the Veda of Tamil, is that by birth every one is equal! 2) “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Rosa Parks. http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/store/posters/rosa-parks-poster?gclid=CM73-cyCwMMCFVIV7AodZRsAUw Don’t give up or give in, when you see discrimination.

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