NOTES FROM A BROTHER IN INDIA:
THE BIGOTRY OF HINDUS WITH REGARD TO SKIN COLOUR
BY INIYAN ELANGO, M.D.*
EDITED AND POSTED BY RUNOKO RASHIDI**

I would like to add some observations to our previous exchange on the bigotry of Hindus with regard to skin color.

Most Hindus (whether upper or lower caste) are "brown" skinned (with shades from dark to very fair) with "caucasoid" features.  Dalits all over India and a few lower caste Hindus in South India are those with black skin and indigenous features.

Lower caste Hindus in South India (Tamil Nadu) tend to be black skinned because, unlike the rest of India where the caste system was introduced by the Aryans by enslaving the indigenous Dravidians, the caste system was introduced in Tamil Nadu by making the Dravidians (Tamilians) accept the caste system under the garb of "religious conversion" by making the black Tamil kings convert from Buddhism and Jainism to Hindu caste religion.

Tamil kings in the south successfully resisted Aryan invasion for centuries.  While the Tamils (Dravidians) in the rest of India succumbed to the Aryan invasion, the Tamil kings in the south held out against the Aryans for many centuries.  The Brahmans, the wily priestly caste people of the Aryan Hindus, decided to quell the Tamil resistance through a cunning mixture of spirituality and sex a millennium ago.  (The Aryan invasion is said to have occurred in India 3,500 years ago around 1500 BC).  Tamil kings desiring Aryan princesses married them and in the process bringing in the Brahmin priests and the bigoted Hindu caste religion in the Tamil kingdoms of the Cholas, Pandyas and the Cheras in the South of India a millennium ago.  Thus the Tamil kings were done in by their sexual desire and religious tolerance.  Recorded Tamil history and literature is itself 2,500 years old.  The Tamil language is dated to be several millenniums old.  Tamil is the language of the Black people and is considered as the oldest language of India.

Therefore the Aryan castes of "Kshatriyas" (royals) and Vysyas (traders) are absent in Tamil Nadu.  But the Aryan caste of Brahmans are present in Tamil Nadu.  These Tamil Nadu Brahmans are a wily lot who are vehement in preserving the bigoted values of Hinduism.  These Brahmans have been divided the Tamils into the touchable "Shudras" (the lower caste Hindus who are landlords and traders) and the untouchable outcaste Panchamas (Dalits).  Thus the lower caste Hindu Tamils who are also Dravidian have been made slaves of the Hindu values and willingly accept the superiority of the Brahmans and the caste system.  In the Tamil Nadu region it is mostly the Dravidian lower caste Hindus who attack and torment Black Dalits.

Historian Romila Thapar, in volume one of A History of India, observes as follows:

"The main stress in the ordering of castes appears to have been the division of society into brahmans and non-bramans (in Tamil Nadu).  Among the non-brahmans there is as compared to north India, little mention of the `Kshatriyas' and the Vysyas' but the `shudras' are prominent.  The `Shudras' were divided (in south India) into the clean Shudras whose touch was not polluting and the unclean Shudras (Panchamas-Dalits) who were debarred from entry into the temple.  The picture which emerges suggests that the Brahmans were in control of powerful positions and that the non-Brahmans were more or less working for them.  The Brahmans naturally emphasized caste loyalties and caste assemblies, since this would prevent a wider basis of unity developing amongst the the non-brahmans (Tamils)."

The above phenomena is peculiar to the region of Tamil Nadu where the Dravidians have been pitted against fellow Dravidians by the cunning and wily Brahmans who spearhead the Hindu caste religion.  In the rest of India all caste Hindus, where upper or lower caste, are all Caucasoid and brown skinned.  Dalits are all starkly differentiated by their indigenous features and black skin.  It is not uncommon to find fair skinned people among Dalits, just like some fair skinned African-Americans.  But it should be observed that even fair skinned Dalits are differentiated by their indigenous features, while Hindus whose colour varies from dark brown to ivory are easily differentiated by their caucasoid features.

Sources:  Without Malice: The Truth About India, by Iniyan Elango
               A History of India, by Romila Thapar

End of part 1

*Iniyan Elango, M.D. graduated from the Madras Medical College in 1989 with a degree in Medicine and Surgery.  He subsequently studied and traveled extensive in Europe and the United States for three years.  He is the author of Without Malice: The Truth About India.  Dr. Elango can be contacted at tamilhumanrights@hotmail.com

**Runoko Rashidi is an historian and writer currently coordinating an educational tour of Aboriginal Australia for July 2000.  To schedule lectures, order audio and video tapes and acquire information about the tour contact Rashidi at RRashidi@swbell.net or call (210) 648-5178.  Visit Rashidi's Global African Presence web site at http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html