00:00 Namaskar. Welcome to another episode of editorial. M.K. Stalin, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister s son,
00:07 Udaynidhi Stalin made a statement yesterday. In the statement he said that Sanatana Dharma
00:15 should be eliminated. Because Sanatana Dharma goes against the concept of social justice.
00:23 Let us deep dive into this. Let us get right into the show. Okay. So, let us first understand what
00:33 he said, what Udaynidhi Stalin said. Let us first understand that. And let us first understand it
00:39 theoretically. What he said, why he said, what does he believe instead. So, let us understand that.
00:47 Then let us understand its practical ramification of what he said. How is that going to make,
00:54 what difference will that make? So, let us understand that. And then let us sit and draw
01:00 our own conclusions. So, that is the way I would want to go with this particular topic.
01:06 So, first let us understand what he said. What he said was that in his view that Sanatana Dharma is
01:16 incompatible with the concept of social justice and should be eliminated. He further went on to
01:23 say that Sanatana Dharma is like malaria and dengue and so it must be eradicated and not opposed.
01:31 The young minister contended that the concept, that is Sanatana Dharma concept is inherently
01:38 regressive and it perpetuates division amongst people based on caste and gender and fundamentally
01:46 contradicts the principle of equality and social justice. This is what he said.
01:52 So, now since we know what he said, let us try and understand why he said what he said.
02:02 Now, Udainidhi Stalin belongs to a party called Dravida Munnetra Kadagam, party that
02:11 came into existence based on the Dravidian movement.
02:15 Dravidian movement was initiated by a man called Periyar.
02:22 Now, Periyar, his entire name is Erode Venkataramaswamy Periyar was born in 1879,
02:33 in what was then called as Madras Presidency to a Kannada businessman and later he joined his
02:42 father s business. As time progressed, he joined Congress in 1919 but left Congress. He left
02:50 Congress because he believed Congress was dominated by Brahmins then. His anger at the Brahminical
02:58 society as Brahmins started from then. At least it got recorded since then. He started the self-respect
03:07 movement aimed to removing social injustice and inequality. He enforced marriages to be performed
03:14 without priest and religious liars. He propagated need of birth control and rallied for support to
03:20 abolish Devadasi system and child marriages. Earlier on when he started his movement, he
03:26 started it with trying to bring about a lot of social reforms, social reforms in Hinduism.
03:32 That s how he started his movement and then it went on to be an anti-Brahmin movement as it
03:42 progressed. He believed in the idea of Tamil saint Thiruvalluvar and hence held faith in the idea of
03:49 single formless God. He found conversion to Islam and Christianity as a way for lower caste to
03:56 escape Brahmin oppression as he thought both these religions created better societies than Hinduism.
04:02 Periyar was also against Mahatma Gandhi because he saw Gandhi not totally rejecting Brahminical
04:09 ideas and practices. Now please understand the flow of Periyar. Periyar had initially,
04:17 he moved out of Congress because he thought he was against Brahmins. He thought that he was against
04:23 the Brahminical society. He thought Congress was dominated by Brahmins. He went on, he started his
04:28 activism by wanting to create social reforms, social reforms in Hinduism which included things
04:34 like stopping child marriages, birth control for women and so on and so forth. But that went on
04:41 to be against the Brahminical rule which he thought Brahmins were oppressing the society
04:49 and that slowly but steadily went on to be an anti-Hindu movement. So, from being anti-Brahmin
04:57 to my understanding, to my understanding, I could be wrong in this, but to my understanding,
05:02 from being anti-Brahmin, he went on to be an anti-Hindu wherein he believed that a Christian
05:12 way of life or a Muslim way of life could give you better society. This is what Periyar believed.
05:19 This is the same Periyar that created this movement in 1924 that demanded entries for Dalit
05:27 in temples in Kerala. He was known for most for his self-respect movement that aimed, which I
05:34 told you that aimed at generating pride for lower caste, his campaign against imposition of Hindi
05:39 in Tamil Nadu in the origin and all anti-Hindi movements later on in South India. He found Hindi
05:45 a tool of Brahminical domination of Tamil Nadu and so on and so forth. So, from there on,
05:50 from 1924, he had a lot of movements that he professed, he propagated in Tamil Nadu and in
05:58 South. So, and his movement started gathering, the gamut of his movement became larger from
06:06 anti-Brahmin to anti-Hindu to anti-Hindi and so on and so forth. Now, this is what
06:12 the spectrum of his activism was. Now, this gave birth to something which is called as
06:20 Dravidian Nationalism. Dravidian Nationalism basically is a movement like I told you,
06:28 which was led by Ramaswamy Periyar who demanded an independent Dravidian state,
06:33 which included all four Dravidian speaking states in South India, which is Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
06:38 Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Those days there were no Andhra and Telangana, so all those four
06:43 states. The movement failed because while he got a fairly good support in Tamil Nadu, the other
06:51 South Indian state he did not get support. He did not get that support for a separate state.
06:56 So, that he did not get. This is broadly what Periyar was and this is broadly what Dravidian
07:02 was. Now, before I go to my next topic, let me tell you, Dravidian Nationalism was thus based
07:08 in three ideologies. The basic ideology that Dravidian Nationalism was based on was dismantling
07:13 of Brahmin hegemony, revitalization of Dravidian language, which included Telugu, Kannada,
07:19 Malayalam and Tamil, social reforms by abolishing of existing caste system, religious practicing
07:25 and recasting women's equal position in the society. This is what the Dravidian movement
07:32 was based on. This is what Dravidian ideology is. To sum up, to sum up Periyar, I will read out a
07:40 poetry that Periyar had written. I will read it out in English obviously, where he said that there
07:47 is no God, there is no God, there is no God at all. He who invented God is a fool. He who propagates
07:57 God is a scoundrel. He who worships God is a barbarian. This sums up what Periyar thought.
08:06 Now, let us go back to my editorial. Udainidhi Stalin founded his or his father, grandfather
08:17 and so on and so forth, founded his ideology on this particular principle. So, what he stood there
08:25 and spoke was based on this principle, based on Periyar's principle, based on Periyar's belief,
08:31 Periyar's teaching. This is what he spoke there. Now, let us go, we understood the theory,
08:38 we understood why he said what he said or what he was thinking and what made him say what he said
08:42 and all that, we understood that. Now, let us understand the ramification of what he said.
08:46 Now, I am going to stick to politics and I am going to stick to practical
08:52 politics. Now, his statement that Sanatana Dharma is like malaria dengue and it should be eradicated
09:01 and not opposed, this particular statement went against the basis of what India Alliance was
09:09 formed. If you remember a couple of days back, I had told you, in fact, I had gone for that
09:15 press conference, I came and told you that the line was beautiful, "Judega Bharat to Jeetega
09:21 India". This was their line and I told you it is a fabulous line, fabulous line. You see,
09:27 Judega Bharat is not just about Hindu Muslims or Hindu Christians or Judega Bharat is about
09:33 everybody, isn't it? By saying that Sanatana Dharma is like malaria, is this how he is going
09:41 to do Judega Bharat? So, the basic concept of India Alliance was shaken. Now, Stalin incidentally is
09:49 a very important player, important leader in the India Alliance scenario. He is a very important
09:55 leader. So, somebody like Udayanidhi Stalin coming and making this statement at this particular point
10:01 in time, at this juncture is definitely, definitely going to harm the larger concept of India Alliance.
10:10 This is what I believe. Number one. Number two, because you belong to a political party that
10:17 needs to abuse Sanatana Dharma, if that is what you are going to do, then there is no difference
10:22 between DMK and communal party. There is absolutely no difference. If it is your ideology to abuse
10:32 a religion and that is where, how you are going to survive, that is your survival strategy,
10:38 that is your gaining popularity strategy, then what is the difference between you and a communal
10:44 party? Then there is no difference between you and a communal party. And with this statement,
10:48 I think he did exactly that. So, now I do not see much of a difference.
10:53 I do not see much of a difference. So, that is my point number two.
10:58 My point number three and a point that I had made in my Saturday's editorial too.
11:04 This is dangerous for India Alliance and what is most important for India Alliance to sit today
11:12 and do is call everybody again, this time for a serious meeting rather than just saying,
11:18 "Hi, hello" and then next day everybody flying back. A serious meeting where they say, "Listen,
11:23 this is what our communication strategy is going to be. You are not aligned even in communication.
11:30 One person is after Adani, the other person is after Sanatana Dharma. Where is your strategy
11:37 going? Where is your communication strategy going? What are you aiming at? Who is your enemy?"
11:43 So, from a sheer communication point of view, like I told you, from sheer political point of view,
11:51 let me tell you, I think if they do not sit together, they do not plan a focused communication
12:00 strategy, I think this India Alliance will go haywire and will go all over the place.
12:07 Whatever the reasons are, if you see NDA, at least the NDA parties, maybe they are completely
12:14 overpowered by BJP and completely under the influence of BJP, maybe that could be the reason,
12:19 but whatever the reasons are, you will not find an NDA party going all over and making statements
12:23 which are radically different to what the BJP believes. And same way, I do not think in India,
12:28 you should have parties going and making their own statements, making their own enemies,
12:32 making their own strategies, making their own issues. It cannot work that way, can it?
12:38 So, this is my point of view. So, three points that I would want to derive out of this particular
12:44 statement that Uday Nidhi Stalin made and let me know what you think. A lot of you may agree to me,
12:52 a lot of you may not, which I understand. So, please let me know what you think and
12:56 please write your comments below and I will wait for that and till I see you next time,
13:02 that is tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.
13:10 [Music]
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