Dravidian Politics & Surnames

Since the 1950s, the Dravidian politicians have been promoting the eradication of surnames among Tamils. They claim that this will eradicate caste and eventually eradicate caste discrimination. 

However, after half a century, it seems like the whole idea backfired on the Tamil society.

According to the census conducted in 2011, 20% of Tamils are Dalits. Usually, people from the Dalit castes do not use surnames. 

However, the remaining 80% of Tamils have surnames. These surnames are mainly titular surnames used by everyone in a particular clan. Some surnames are paternal family names.

To understand this, we have to look at how castes are distributed in Tamil Nadu. Unknown to many people, castes are not based on occupation alone. It is actually regional. 

In one of my previous posts, I explained about the landscapes in the Tamil land and the different tribes that inhabit it. The modern day Tamil castes descended from those tribes that occupied different parts of the country centuries ago.

The 5 Landscapes of Tamilakam

Although their surnames were removed from mainstream media, they hardly intermarry with someone outside their caste.

Of all the marriage that happened in Tamil Nadu in the year 2011, only 1.3% were inter-caste marriages. It makes one wonder why the eradication of surnames did not help promote inter-caste marriage.

What was the real motive to remove surnames more than 50 years ago?

E.V Ramasamy Naicker

One of the founding father of the Dravidian politics is Periyar. His actual name is Erode Venkata Ramasamy Naicker. Periyar was not even a Tamilan. He belonged to the Balija caste. His mother tongue was Kannadam.

Periyar was based in Tamil Nadu. He went on a crusade to eradicate surnames in Tamil Nadu.This practice was then continued by the other Dravidian politicians after Periyar's era.
 
But why? What do they gain?

Most of us know that surnames like Mudaliar, Thevar, Servai, Kavundar, Udayar are used by none other than Tamils themselves. 

We know that people like U.V Swaminathan Iyer, V.O Chidambaram Pillai, U.Muthuramalingam Thevar, G.K Moopanar , Ariyanatha Mudaliar, Marudu Servai are all Tamils.

But A.Vijayaraj Naidu is not a Tamilan. So if he wants to get into Tamil Nadu politics, he needs to remove the Naidu surname. Else it will be difficult for him to gain the Tamil support via the usual democratic means. 

A.Vijayaraj Naidu @ Captain Vijayakanth

By the way, A.Vijayaraj Naidu is none other than Captain Vijayakanth. He could some day become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

The Tamils of Tamil Nadu began to slowly realize this and have on several occasions questioned it.

'Tamil Naatai, Tamilar than aala vendum' 

(Tamil Nadu should be ruled by Tamils)

The idea of removing Tamil caste surnames did not eradicate the various castes, it only helped the none Tamils to gain political power in Tamil Nadu.

Ask yourself this question. Can someone from Tamil Nadu become a powerful politician in non-Tamil states like Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka?

NO.

It is not easy for a Tamilan to become a high profile politician among the natives of another state. But people from other state can do it in Tamil Nadu by hiding their surname.

Besides concealing non-Tamil origin, the other motive of eradicating surnames is to erase the history of certain Tamil castes. 

The same strategy of removing surnames is also used by many Tamil writers and editors in Malaysia. 

If you write something to the Malaysian Tamil newspaper, the editors will  most probably remove the surnames in the article before publishing it. But there won't be problems in publishing non-Tamil surnames like Rao or Nair.  

Have you wondered why?

Chinnaiahpillai Ganesan Mandrayar @ Sivaji Ganesan

Recently, someone from the Malaysian Tamil Writers Association picked up an argument with me. He turned it into a caste war. 

He was angry because I mentioned Sivaji Ganeson's full name as Chinnaiahpillai Ganesan Mandrayar. He did not like the word Mandrayar and wanted me to remove it.

I was puzzled that Sivaji's surname became an issue for this man.  
It does not matter to me who Sivaji was but truth should be told as it is. 

It is not right to remove his surname just because some writer in Malaysia don't want real facts to be published. I find it insulting to Sivaji himself.

There are so many other things he could have spoken about. Sivaji's acting skills, the movies, his charity work etc but he chose to highlight the surname and turn it into an issue.

So what if Sivaji's actual name is Chinnaiahpillai Ganesan Mandrayar? Will that stop the millions of Sivaji fans from watching his movies? 

Ilayaraja and his son Yuvan Shankar Raja are Dalits but that did not stop the non-Dalits like me from listening to their songs. Millions of people love their songs and most of the fans are not Dalits.

We all know that the Tamil speaking Chettiars were among the earliest people to trade in Southeast Asia. Their descendants are still around in Malaysia especially in the state of Malacca. We call them the Malacca Chetties. 

Imagine what will happen if we erase the word Chetty or Chettiar from being published. The history of one community will be gone. Some day someone might even claim that the Malacca Chetties were not even Tamils.

Raja Mariamman temple of Johor. Founded by the late Koothaperumal Vandayar.

There was another incident few years ago. It was concerning the Raja Mariamman temple in Johor. That temple was founded by the late Koothaperumal Vandayar with the help of the then Sultan of Johor in 1911, H.R.H Almarhum  Sultan Sir Ibrahim Ibni Sultan Abu Bakar. 

This is why the temple which was initially known as Mariamman Temple was renamed as Raja Mariamman (Royal Mariamman) Temple. It was renamed to express his gratitude to the sultan.

When someone wrote about it few years ago, the editor who published the article purposely removed the word Vandayar because he did not want people to know that a Vandayar built the temple.

Similarly, there were attempts to remove the word Kavundar from the name of freedom fighter Dheeran Chinnamalai Kavundar. These people didn't want others to know the full name because of the word Kavundar.


So what if the clan identity is revealed? Are we going to ignore their sacrifice? Does that make Dheeran less Tamil than the Tamil news editors themselves?

If we can accept non Tamils like Periyar or Vijayakanth and dance to their tune, why can't we accept our own Tamilans for who they really are? It is not right for any editors to alter their name simply because of a surname.

There are some out there who claim that surnames are erased for the sake of Tamil unity.

Let's be practical. 

The Chinese do not prevent their surnames from being published in the media. In fact, there are more Chinese clan associations in Malaysia than Tamil clan associations. Their clan members share a very close bond with each other. They form self help groups and provide assistance to their clan members. They even have clan temples and only members of the clan are allowed to manage it.

But when a Tamil clan does the same, it becomes an issue for everyone. The media paints a negative image and turns it into a caste war. 

For me, the real Tamil unity happens only when we respect and accept the various castes, tribes and clans within the Tamil society.


Eradicating surnames will only cause the Tamil people to some day loose their own identity. Tamil Nadu is already an example of how non-Tamils are taking over the affairs of the state.