This is installment two of my critique of Dr. Subramanian Swamys claims about the concepts of Aryan and Dravidian. Before I bring up further statements of his, I want to comment some more on the previous set. You can call this post a psychological analysis of the Dr. Subramanian Swamy method of convincing people. The first question I want to ask is why Swamy says the word Dravida was invented by Adi Shankara (he later switches to it was first publicized by, and it doesnt matter - especially given that people register both and a psychological balm follows which erases the latter claim). The intention seems to be to claim, first of all, that it is a Sanskrit word - which is, of course, absolutely unsupported by historical and linguistic evidence. He explicitly says it is not a Tamil word, which is certainly possible. The fundamental motivation for this seems to be to give the impression (to the impressionable) that Tamil - the very word - just dropped out of Adi Shankaras mouth in an irrelevant context just like that. Many will walk away with the feeling that Adi Shankara invented Tamil itself and that helps national integration for those who clap even before something clappable is uttered. Im not saying people like Swamy make these claims consciously - theyre quite unconscious in these situations. The second question is why Swamy had to say that the British tried to hide the Sanskrit root of the word (which we know to be a bogus claim about a bogus etymology). This is simply to support his earlier bogus claim that the British created, fostered and financed the Dravidian movement. Swamy has tried to establish the Sanskrit root of the word and convince his audience with the story about Adi Shankaras meeting with Mandana Mishra and explaining the etymology of Dravida (which story is, again, bogus). This is an audience which takes the eloquence of a speaker who spends a long time telling a story as scientific proof, and all this proves to them that the Sanskrit etymology is correct. And then, finally, given the fact that the British are rascals (what else are they for this audience?) and are expected to lie, the audience gets convinced that Swamy must be speaking gospel truth. So, in short, the psychological method of Swamys presentation about the word Dravida follows the following steps: (1) Place Sanskrit above Tamil by making a Sanskrit scholar invent Tamil (the word) - because many in the audience cant tell the difference between the name of a language and the language itself. 2) Cook up Story One about the invention and indulge the audience in it long enough to make it believe the story is right - because liars often cant tell long stories. (3) Cook Story Two about the British hiding Story One - because the audience unconcsiously nods its head when British misdeeds, real or unreal, are mentioned with confidence, and (4) To sound confident enough when saying all this (more of this confidence stuff in my upcoming posts) so that it seals the proof for the audience in question. (contd.)
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 06:06:48 +0000
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