Breaking India - A review

Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan's 'Breaking India - Western interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines' is a detailed work on much under-studied internal security challenge that India faces - "Dravidian and Dalit separatism being fostered by the West in the name of human rights".

The roots of this separatist thought go back to the colonial times, when the British for political reasons concocted the stories of Aryan and Dravidian races. Then Dravidians were made out to have a separate culture and religion historically, and they were shown to have been subjugated by the tyrannical Aryans and 'cunning' Brahmins. Thus Dravidians were made out to be the oppressed original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, who were assimilated into the Vedic culture. Tamil culture was made out to be the torchbearer of this alternative Dravidian culture. Such interpretations were drawn through malicious interpretation of Vedic literature. I am simplifying the story, which is always a dangerous thing to do with history. But the authors have presented a good history of how the alternative identify was created.

This has already caused us national integration problems in the past with the rabid Dravidian political forces in Tamil Nadu. However, that Dravidian movement has lost steam - but not the idea. In fact, trouble is still being brewed up by a group of western think-tanks, academic circles - probably with tacit support from elements in the Western establishment. Add to this the extreme Christian evangelicals who see India as the next big target for evangelicism. They have a vested interest in dividing up Indian communities so as to make them more amenable to conversion. The route they take is to first delink communities from a larger Indian civilization , by promoting divides like the Aryan-Dravidian divide. This sets the stage for missionary activity. However, to convert a community there needs to be a cultural connect that Christianity has to make with them. There is an effort to do the same with Dravidian identity. First, Tamil spiritual works like 'Shaiva Siddhanta' and 'Thirukural' are proclaimed to be non-Vedic in identity. All the good in the Tamil culture was ascribed to these works whereas all the bad was ascribed to the Vedic literature. Then mischievous mappings were done from the Tamil works to the Bible and Christian theology, to show how they derive from the Bible and is thus an impure form of Christianity (Dravidian Christianity). For this the story of St. Thomas visiting India and his persecution has been accepted as fact without verification, and additional embellishments were done on top of that - like claiming that all the Tamil works originate from the teachings of St. Thomas. Now, the stage is set for evangelism, and indeed a lot of NGOs and activists have been co-opted by the evangelicals. It is said that among some communities the conversions are being done at a rapid rate, and this is causing social tensions. The authors elaborate on these issues and provide insightful instances.

In a similar way, the Dalit identity has also been forged and sought to be separated from the Indian civilization. As the authors mention, Westerners have attempted to foster such ethnic divisions in other parts of the world (Rwanda, Sri Lanka), and the results have been disastrous for the people. Wasn't the Indian Partition also a result of such a divide-and-rule policy? They caution that we should maintain our vigil against such attempts at social engineering by a these trouble-mongers.

The book is a work of great detail running into 600 pages, including 200 pages of appendices, notes and references. However, the basic idea is essentially what has been mentioned above. The authors have of course argued their ideas and presented an analysis in a much better way than what this little post can do, and have given extensive examples and instances. It is generally said that history is written by the victor, and hence its always a refreshing change to learn another perspective and then to draw your own conclusions.