In my humble opinion, Dravidian culture can be very proud of its wholesome and healthy worldview. But Dravidianism has 2 sides. One side has rich and ancient heritage in Tamizh… I.e. of great literature, fantastic art, beautiful music, colourful customs and traditions, and the large-hearted cosmopolitanism of a truly open society. There is however another side to Dravidianism … it’s misshapen underbelly, really … and it is dark, sickly and malevolent. This side is afflicted by xenophobia, insularity, racism, parochialism, casteism and political secessionism.
The young firebrand Supreme Court of India lawyer, Sai Deepak is not wrong at all in his bold, blunt and extreme characterisation of this dark side of Dravidianism as a “cancer”. One side of Dravidianism is indeed diseased and this side makes it autophagous… i.e. the bad side is eating up the good side at such a fast rate today that very soon Dravidianism will be represented only by its malignant face or profile. The pathology will completely overwhelm the morphology.
There are a lot of people in Tamil Nadu and in the southern states of Telengana and Andhra Pradesh who see themselves as Dravidians too but then they subscribe to only the healthy part of the culture and reject its pathological strains … They in fact are careful to inoculate and insulate themselves from the baleful, contagious influence of its darker side by never forgetting their true pan-Indian identity. They wholeheartedly acknowledge and accept their primary identity as Indian culturally and as Dravidian geographically … Which is the precise reason why in those states … unlike as in Tamil Nadu … Dravidianism never grew into a virulent toxic or “cancerous” lunatic-fringe ideology of sub-nationalistic jingoism; God-mercifully, in those states Dravidianism remains as a simple but proud sentiment of culture … and has not turned into any hate-cult.
Sai Deepak is therefore right in sounding a dire warning to the other Dravidian southern states of AP, Telengana, Karnataka and Kerala to beware the dark side of Dravidianism invading, corroding and infecting their cultural consciousness which until now still maintains its good health and sanity.
Sudarshan Madabushi