News Tamil Nadu

Dravidianist Separatist Thirumurugan Gandhi Says Tamil Brahmin Dialect Is Casteist While Other Tamil Dialects Are Not, Here’s Mari Selvaraj’s Old Video Busting The Claim

January 5, 2024
The Commune

May 17 Movement founder Thirumurugan Gandhi, known for his hate speeches against Hindus particularly the Brahmin community, has sparked controversy with a recent tweet questioning the linguistic exclusivity of Brahmins.

All-in-all commentator Dr. Sumanth Raman (a Brahmin), had commented on the incident wherein a Muslim lady wearing a hijab makes casteist jibes at Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by invoking her Brahmin identity. That video was shared by DMK IT Wing functionary Padma Priya (a YouTube beautician who joined Kamal’s Makkal Needhi Maiam but later jumped ship to DMK).

Responding to Sumanth Raman, Thirumurugan Gandhi said, “Which community/caste has its own dialect other than the Brahmins? Kongu, Madurai, Nellai Tamil dialects are spoken by all communities. Brahminical dialect is not spoken by any other caste except Brahmins. The Brahminical dialect is racist in its own right. If Brahminical dialect is used to maintain friendships among themselves, to find their caste identity and to assert their caste superiority in public, how can we call it apart from racism?” Gandhi expressed concern that the Brahmin dialect may be employed to “assert dominance” in public settings.

The video of Tamil director Mari Selvaraj’s remarks during an award show surfaces the internet. Hailing from Tirunelveli, Selvaraj highlighted the absence of a unique dialect in Tirunelveli, noting the various dialects affiliated with different caste communities. He clarified that movie representations often portray different Tirunelveli dialects. The director’s statement seems to challenge Thirumurugan Gandhi’s selective perspective, as captured in a video.

“There’s no slang exclusively for Tirunelveli. I want to register that here. The Tirunelveli slang shown in cinema is different. In Tirunelveli, there’s a slang for every caste. That’s the problem there. If you look minutely, they can identify the caste based on the slang someone speaks. They’ve identified a separate slang for cinema but Tirunelveli slang is not like that.”, Mari Selvaraj says in the above video.

“I call my mother as ‘yemmov’. ‘Yemmov sapaadu iruka?’ (Mother, is there food?). My friend calls his mother as ‘Aatha’ and another friend calls as ‘Amma’ and one other friend calls as ‘Amme’. There are so many differences in just the way one calls Amma”, he says.

 

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