News Tamil Nadu

Dravidian Model Hypocrisy: Yes To Jesuit Ideology And Dravidian Propaganda, No To Hindu Concepts Of Thirukkural In Schools

September 6, 2024
The Commune

The DMK has reportedly bowed to pressure from Dravidianist factions, resulting in a contentious situation where the ruling party struggles to balance conflicting interests over which ideology will prevail in schools. The recent Teacher’s Day celebration at the Government Girls’ School in Ashok Nagar, Chennai, sparked controversy when the motivational speaker invited for the occasion quoted Thirukkural and discussed Hindu philosophies such as karma, rebirth, and past lives. This provoked strong reactions from Periyarist and Dravidianist groups, leading to severe criticism of Tamil Nadu DMK Minister Anbil Mahesh on social media.

In response to the backlash, Minister Anbil Mahesh swiftly initiated an inquiry. He ordered the transfer of the school’s headmistress, which was notably quicker than the government’s response to caste conflicts in other parts of the state. Chief Minister MK Stalin, currently on a tour in the US, addressed the issue via his X handle. He announced plans to develop and implement new guidelines for regulating school programs in Tamil Nadu. These guidelines aim to ensure that all students receive progressive and scientific education. Stalin emphasized the importance of fostering individual growth, ethical living, and sound ideas for social development in students. He reiterated his commitment to promoting scientific thinking: “Science is the path to progress.”

This has sparked significant backlash, as critics argue that the DMK is only targeting issues related to Hinduism while permitting other activities to continue unchecked in schools. Netizens have reacted by sharing old videos of an MLA making fear-mongering statements about suicide and a Christian pastor claiming to have incorporated advocacy for Christianity into the social sciences curriculum. Additionally, there are videos promoting atheism in schools that have also gone viral.

In one of the videos, Virugambakkam DMK MLA Prabhakara Raja is seen delivering a fear-mongering speech to school students about NEET-related suicides while promoting the DMK’s anti-NEET agenda and instilling fear among the students.  He said, “You know how many died of suicide because of NEET? You know who died by suicide first? it was Anitha, do you know how many marks she obtained? she got centum in Biology, Maths but she couldn’t become a doctor and her cutoff was 196 marks. Rights of such students must not be grabbed right? how many of you want NEET? hence on behalf of DMK  we are getting signatures from schools and colleges you have to speak to your friends circles too, only if we gather more signatures central governmnet will feel there is no need for NEET. We are doing it perfectly online without using papers.”  They questioned whether conducting spiritual discussions in schools is considered wrong, while preaching about suicidal thoughts is deemed acceptable.

In another video, a man is seen spreading blantant lies about the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Ayodhya Ram temple land dispute case. He claimed that the court’s decision was based on religious belief rather than evidence, and was making these assertions in front of government school students. He stated, “Have you ever heard of someone being born from the head? Think about it, is it possible? Can someone be born from the legs? It’s all imagination that we believe in and we are made to believe in it. But that belief eventually becomes like a reality, and this is happening in our society. An important judgment has been released, yes it’s the Ayodhya case judgement. What’s the judgment? There was already a Babur mosque, with all claiming that the place where Ram was born, was standing the mosque. Hence, to build a temple, on 6 December 1992, the Babur mosque was demolished. Then there was a case regarding who the land belonged to, and today the judgment was delivered that the land belonged to Ram. How does the land belong to Ram means, the court stated that there has been a belief for a long time that Ram was born there, and in the belief of one, another cannot be interrupted. That’s it, it’s that simple in our country. The court haven’t asked that if there is any evidence.. no, it had asked, but they could not provide any, because where there hospitals, anyone oversaw deliveries, or anything, what was there?”

The incident happened in 2019 when the AIADMK was in power.

In another viral video, controversial Christian catholic priest Joe Arun is seen openly admitting at a Loyola College conclave that he had incorporated Jesuit ideas into the Tamil Nadu state syllabus while serving on the curriculum setting council. He claimed these ideas were included in social science subjects from classes 1 through 12.

Joe Arun said, “The state government of Tamil Nadu asked me to revise the syllabus from first standard to twelfth standard social sciences syllabuses. I was one of the mentors who decided. If you go and see today’s first standard students’ social science notebook, plenty of Jesuit ideologies are injected into it. Nobody knows. More and more Majlis and all are inserted there. You will see only pictures in the first standard students (book), it’s my idea. I told these people that if a Theni teacher teaches geography, she first has to take the sand of Theni and ask what this sand is before studying wetlands.”

It is to be noted that Joe Arun was part of the textbook committee when the AIADMK was in power. However, this Rev. Fr. C. Joe Arun, SJ, has recently been appointed as the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Minorities Commission.

During the examination held on 13 July 2024, TNPSC included a question that states, “Who is certified as, “Socrates of South Asia” by UNESCO a unit organisation of United Nation?” perpetuating the propaganda endorsed by DMK and other Dravidianist organizations, aiming to portray E.V. Ramasamy Naicker (EVR) as an international leader. Despite repeatedly debunking this falsehood, with UNESCO itself making a statement that no such award was given to EVR, TNPSC persists in promoting it.

For over 40 years, this falsehood has been propagated through numerous articles and research papers about E.V. Ramasamy Naicker (Periyar). Despite their claims of upholding facts, neither the media nor the so-called intellectual circles have ever addressed this blatant misinformation.

In February 2021, a petition was submitted to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court calling for the removal of a misleading statement from Tamil Nadu school textbooks. The claim falsely stated that UNESCO gave Periyar the title of ‘Socrates of Southeast Asia’, which is factually inaccurate.

The Court directed the relevant textbook committees to review and take necessary action within 12 weeks. The petitioner, advocate Muhammad Razvi, highlighted that several Class 9 and college textbooks published by the Tamil Nadu government wrongfully credited this title to Periyar. He also stressed that India is not part of UNESCO’s recognized Southeast Asian countries, further disproving the claim.

It seems that anyone can influence students with various ideologies and misinformation, but if someone teaches ethical values from Thirukkural, the DMK government will respond by transferring them and creating issues out of it.

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