On Thursday, July 15 at 9 pm (India Standard Time) Dr. J. N. Manokaran will discuss the Bible’s impact on the development of the modern Dravidian consciousness. Please zoom with us @
Meeting ID: 899 2918 3268, Passcode: 140150
In their book, “Breaking India” (2011), Hindu apologists Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelkandan acknowledge the Bible’s singular impact upon “Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines.”
They have good reasons to hate Christianity: Nearly 50% of Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu is now Christian. They devote at least four pages to condemning “Vishal Mangalwadi (the) heavily-funded western evangelical” for championing Christianity that (they claim) is aimed at “breaking India.”
My wife would be very grateful if I were funded moderately enough to buy (or rent) a house for her after 46-years of marriage! Be that as it may: in case you do not know, the last chapter of my book “Why Are We Backward” was my response to Malhotra’s vicious attack on William Carey. In that chapter I presented the case that William Carey is the Father of Modern India. That, hopefully, will be the title of our book on Carey, when I am able to revise it.
Why Did Independent India Reorganize Nearly 584 “Princely” States as “Linguistic States” (such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat)?
Pre-independent “Princely” states were created by force. Modern Linguistic States was a “civil” arrangement according to languages because … in Genesis 11 the Bible says that God created “nations” by dividing one people-group (the descendants of Noah) into different “nations” by separating them linguistically.
In Genesis 12, God called Abraham to follow Him so that HE could make Abraham’s offspring a “Great Nation.”
What’s the difference between a nation and a great nation?
A “Great Nation” is many people groups, tribes or races with distinct identities, living together in one territory, under one law, and one system of governance.
A Great Nation becomes greater in proportion to how faithful it is to the law of the living God. That is the vision of a “Great Nation” that the Bible brought to India.
Israel was never one “nation” or people-group. From the beginning it was 13 tribes or people-groups (Joseph having become two tribes).
Bible translation turned our dialects into literary languages, infusing them with biblical worldview — including the biblical ideas of nation and great nation. The Bible, as we will see in another lecture, brought to India the virtue of nationalism. Sadly, even western evangelicalism no longer remember that that virtue came from the Bible. Our National Anthem (“Jan, Gan, Man”) expressed that biblical vision of a great nation most powerfully — please do google the English translation of the Anthem and read it prayerfully.
After Solomon, when tribalism or people-groupism took over nationalism, Israel split into two “nations” — Judah (the two southern tribes) and Israel (the ten northern tribes.) The descendants of Israel became two nations once they had two territories and two governing structures. Once Israel ceased being a ‘Great Nation’ it self-destructed. Post-exilic prophets such as Ezekiel looked forward to the two ‘nations’ being re-united into one Great Nation under the Messianic Shepherd.
Rajiv Malhotra is correct: The Bible created modern Tamil language and the Dravidian quest for identity, justice and dignity. That powerful movement liberated Dravidians from the oppressive Aryan hegemony even though the (irrational)
Beginning with Periyar, (irrational) Rationalists hijacked the Bible initiated and inspired movement. Therefore, now it is apparent to most people that the god-less Dravidian movement is incapable of liberating Tamil Nadu from corruption and oppressive dravidian rulers . . .
The Dravidian movement has been corrupted because our state controlled education mis-informed Dravidian leaders. They (like many Christians) think that God does not act in human history . . . therefore, their forefathers must have liberated them from Aryan oppression with their own efforts — just like Gandhi liberated India or Godse liberated us from Gandhi. In the absence of a sovereign God who is alive and active, there is no need for god-less people to live under the Messiah’s Kingship to be free from the corruption and tyranny of their own sinful “Dravidian” leaders. That is a topic we will consider in other lectures.
Here is a summary of Thursday evening lecture by Dr J. N. Manokaran, a Christian thinker and prolific writer. He is the South Asia Regional Director of the Community Bible Study International. He will discuss that the social conflicts in the early decades of the nineteenth century in Tamil Nadu set in a motion a momentous social revolution that ultimately impacted the entire nation.
From the early decades of 1800s until the latter half of the nineteenth century, a protracted battle was fought for the rights of women to cover the upper part of their bodies. Running parallel to it was a linguistic revolution when the Dravidian family of languages received due attention following the work of Bible translators. The emergent consciousness of the Dravidian people then manifested itself in Justice Party that gave voice to the majority people of Tamil Nadu—a political revolution.
These historical developments explain why Tamil Nadu is different; what the Dravidian Model is; and, why the Dravidian Model is egalitarian. The key question is: How did the gospel shaped the public discourse; public policy and people empowering projects in the land of the Dravidians
