Community Concerns
I am a proud Nadar, as anyone who has read my blog for more than a few weeks will know. And the greatest source of pride for me arises from my communities flexibility and its ability to adapt and thrive under adverse conditions. One of the biggest strengths for our community has been the "Self-Respect" movement, supported by great stalwarts such as Periyar, Annadurai and WPA Soundarapandianar (my ancestor) and the Justice Party. Through this, Nadars rejected the albatrosses associated with organized religion, such as large and costly ceremonies for marriages, namings, engagements, coming of ages, ear piercings, head shavings and the like.
These ceremonies were conducted by Nadars with minimal fuss, with the administration of the ceremony being done by a family elder. There was very little wastage of money on unnecessary, and mostly inexplicable customs and ceremonies.
In my opinion, this is one of the major reasons Nadars saw the meteoric rise that they did in the past 50-75 years (along with a firm commitment to women's education and a sense of community). During this time, the traditionally prominent communities such as Brahmins, Chettiars, Mudaliars and Gounders struggled through layer over layer of "traditions" and "customs" that had accumulated over the generations, thereby taking a huge financial toll on them, thereby reducing their competitiveness in business - While Nadars, a young and hungry caste with no such encumbrances jumped eagerly into the breach and with their "low overhead", quickly established numerous businesses across the globe.
Now, I see that things have come almost a full turn. It is now the turn of the Nadars to be overwhelmed with unnecessary expenses and ceremonies as part of what should be an event distinguished by divine simplicity - A marriage.
I fear very strongly that we have gotten caught up in these ceremonies to the extent that we will not be able to fight the next rising (and unencumbered, hungry) caste that will challenge us in the perpetual battle for financial supremacy.
These ceremonies were conducted by Nadars with minimal fuss, with the administration of the ceremony being done by a family elder. There was very little wastage of money on unnecessary, and mostly inexplicable customs and ceremonies.
In my opinion, this is one of the major reasons Nadars saw the meteoric rise that they did in the past 50-75 years (along with a firm commitment to women's education and a sense of community). During this time, the traditionally prominent communities such as Brahmins, Chettiars, Mudaliars and Gounders struggled through layer over layer of "traditions" and "customs" that had accumulated over the generations, thereby taking a huge financial toll on them, thereby reducing their competitiveness in business - While Nadars, a young and hungry caste with no such encumbrances jumped eagerly into the breach and with their "low overhead", quickly established numerous businesses across the globe.
Now, I see that things have come almost a full turn. It is now the turn of the Nadars to be overwhelmed with unnecessary expenses and ceremonies as part of what should be an event distinguished by divine simplicity - A marriage.
I fear very strongly that we have gotten caught up in these ceremonies to the extent that we will not be able to fight the next rising (and unencumbered, hungry) caste that will challenge us in the perpetual battle for financial supremacy.
Comments
did you try talking to ur parents from escaping a big wedding? I admit I tried.. real hard.. does'nt work.. so grin and bear with it..
It is crazy with so many formalities and smiling at some many strangers...
but looking back it was great fun and a great memory me and Rajan
- Vinitha
These rascals were the most unsecular politicians we had in TN. They went around advocating cutting the sacred threads of brahmins.
Just an off the topic doubt. Are you using ideamani.com as url forwarding to your blog? If so, then am interstd in registering a domain for my blog. It's an effective way of crisscrossing the indian blog ban also... Pls do reply
Ok, that was by the way. What I really wanted to say was - everything happens in cycles. In cliche-speak, "what goes around comes around" :)
@k, the crux for me was that Nadars have benefited from social change, but then we should not go too far to the extent that the cycle, that Shyam refers to, starts all over again
@peak, no
@Shyam, I dont mind the anon comments all that much, its just a lack of trust in ones own beliefs. And you got to the heart of my post - the cyclical nature of life.
which multiple actors, states, governments, civil society and
individuals all play a part.
States invent social categories to map society and to depict the
objects of social policy so that they can collect taxes, provide
services, maintain law and order, enforce legislation.
States often work under the positivist illusion that social
categories are objective, "out there," needing only to be actualized
in administrative records. They do not recognize that the very act
of naming creates or transforms reality.
When the ruled experience the consequences of being categorized,
they often respond by denying or challenging the naming that has
taken place.
The construction of difference is not the exclusive domain of the
state or of elites.
Groups and individuals that constitute civil society confront states
in a contest over the content and consequences of discursive
formations and social constructions.
The debate in the U.S. about the ways to represent racial categories
in the 2001 census, whether to provide predetermined categories or
let respondents give their own version, illustrates the role of the
state data apparatus in the construction of difference.
The state must have categories in order to make social policy.
Somewhat surprisingly, the American state did not assert that its
categories were objective. It recognized they were political: the
categories represent a social-political construct designed for
collecting data on the race and ethnicity of broad populationgroups
in this country, and are not anthropologically or
scientifically based
And the state was not the only actor. There was strong opposition
to self-designation by parts of the black community, fearing the
effects on black-targeted
legislation if numbers were reduced by defection to mixed race
categories. That seven million persons chose to report themselves in
the 2001 US Census as multiracial suggests the fluidity of social
categories.
More than a century back, the Census of India under the British raj
too provides an example of how states can take a lead role in naming
and ranking social groups.
From their reading of classic Sanskrit texts, raj officials inferred
that Indian society consisted of discrete social groups with firmly
ascribed rules of conduct and specifically ranked positions in a
social hierarchy. They reified the meaning of texts that native
interpreters were in the habit of using more flexibly
Starting in 1888, raj officials used the census in ways that were
supposed to lend scientific precision to these social categories.
They defined and enumerated: Brahmans, literate persons who perform
ritual functions, advise authorities on correct Hindu conduct, and
occupy the top of the socio-religious ladder; Gujars, herdsmen, of
modest social standing; Jats, sturdy cultivators; Nadars, laborers
who climb the coconut palm and whose polluting work of making liquor
relegates them to the lower end of the social ladder.
Such listings created both a certified reality and resistance to
it. The certified social designations became the basis for social
policy, which further confirmed the categories.
The census story does not end with a document-creating state
freezing social phenomena in stereotypical categories run, the
state did not succeed in imposing a neo-Brahmanical view of Indian
social structure.
Civil society groups countered the census descriptions by organizing
self-help caste associations. The associations mounted legal,
administrative and political challenges to the names, occupations
and histories that the census imposed on them .
In the case of the cocopalm-climbing Nadars, their caste
associations presented evidence to the authorities that many of
their caste fellows had left the polluting work of palm liquor
production and become merchants, and that by history they had been
regional lords Hence they were incorrectly named, characterized, and
ranked. Nadar associations vigorously lobbied the authorities to
change what the census said about them and encouraged thousands of
Nadars to offer a different occupational description to the census
takers.
In the Nadar story we see the creation and re-creation of identity
and status as a result of interaction and contestation between
state and civil society.
I just happend to read your blog through a search on indira nooyi.. i was thinking that this guy is writing good stuff till i came yo the last one here.. You pissed of me by talking about a community.. Man, I really cannot accept anyone who speaks ill/well about any community.. all are one dude.. why are you so proud of being in your community? there is more to be ashamed of as well.. check out things that happen daily in TN... Please avoid that.. Don't flame me.. I am not a person who hates any particular community, but hates everyone who talks abt communities and all those useless stuff.
When history dawned on the Nadars, traditionally known as Shanars, they were found principally in the two southern districts of Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari. Palmyra climbing and toddy tapping were their traditional occupations. The entire family was engaged in producing different palm products such as fermented juice, jaggery, baskets, mats, cots, and roof beams.
Trade in a small way supplemented their livelihood. Local caste associations (sangams) grew out of this channel of commerce. A tiny fraction of the caste, known as Nadans, were wealthy landowners. In the Hindu caste hierarchy the Nadars ranked very low because of their association with alcohol.
The Nadars have had a turbulent and colourful history. Their struggle to rise above their depressed condition through self respect movement, Claiming for Hindu Kshathriya Status and few more taking up conversion to Christianity assumed dramatic forms in a series of escalating confrontations between the caste and its antagonists.
Hostility to the efforts of Nadars to establish a new status resulted in a series of violent outbursts culminating in the riots of 1899 known as the Sivakasi Riots. Their old name of ‘Shanar’ was abandoned and the honorific title ‘Nadar’ was adopted. The Justice Party government adopted the term in all public records from 1921.
Because of their sensitive response to social and economic change over the past century and a half, the Nadars have today become one of the most successful groups in the South, in both economic and political terms, and command considerable respect. From among their numbers have come leaders in business, industry and other professions; With foresight, the Nadar community elite controlled management of local temple festivals and established a network of institutions such as schools, colleges and hostels.
From the breast-cloth controversy through the sack of Sivakasi to the Nadar Mahajan Sangam, the Nadars’ rise, exemplifying the processes of mobilization in Indian society, provides rich material for an analysis of the social life of a community in change