Anti-Hindu hate propaganda has reached the US as well with Dravidianists organising janeu cutting skits in New Jersey. What’s worse, they enacted the play with kids and took immense joy in indoctrinating them with hatred as well. The Dravidian organizations that organised the event works with Equality Labs which is hell bent on demonising overseas Hindus in the name of eradicating the caste system. But their real target is Hindu Dharma which they have no qualms about accepting.

The first thing a anti-Hindu brings up while arguing with a Hindu against Hindu dharma would be somehow connected to the caste system. All the conversations about the caste system initiated by such people starts with demonising Brahmins. In that, Dravidianists’ first weapon to attack Brahmins is janeu. Even though janeu was worn by almost all jatis regardless of the varna in old times, now that most of them have given it up, Dravidianists have made it as the sole identity of Brahmins.

One can often see them feel for the “thread” in every issue. They feel it’s a great comeback to post the picture of late CM and DMK chief MK Karunanidhi pulling the janeu of a kid and laughing. The kid was disguised as Thiruvalluvar the saint poet. Dravidianists often post the picture saying this is how Brahmins should be dealt with and that the latter’s “shika” is in the former’s hands.

The picture was re-created with EV Ramasamy in Karunanidhi’s place and enacted as a play in New Jersey. The Periyar Ambedkar Study Circle(PASC) in America had organised an event to commemorate the 140th birth anniversary of EV Ramasamy. As a part of that, kids were made to enact a play in which one kid disguised as EV Ramasamy is made to pull the janeu of another kid disguised as Thiruvalluvar.

With a voice over imitating EV Ramasamy saying they’ve imposed the Brahminical Vaidika symbol on you, the janeu is forcefully removed from the poor kid acting as Thiruvalluvar. Adults surrounding the kids cannot hide their glee when the Periyar kid pulls the thread and throws it away. The propaganda peddled by Dravidianists is that Thiruvalluvar was a secular poet and the Tamil civilisation was secular. They have been trying to prove this by meddling in archeological finds, especially the Keeladi excavation.

They claim that Aryans aka Brahmins saffronised Thiruvalluvar and put the janeu and tripundra on him. Thirumavalavan, the chief of VCK, which is an ally of DMK, had proudly said during the 2021 assembly election campaign that Karunanidhi threw off Thiruvalluvar’s janeu and redrew his appearance in line with Dravidian standards. This hate filled ideology is sowing its seeds in foreign countries as well. It has linked hands with the likes of Equality Labs which has been trying to demonise successful Hindus in the US in the name of abolishing the nonexistent caste system in the country.

The man helping the kids, KRS aka Kannabiran Ravi Shankar claims to be a Berkeley University PhD scholar and working as a visiting professor in a Paris university. However we couldn’t independently verify these claims. He is a virulent Hindu hater often targeting Brahmin women. From an innocent Brahmin woman who is well-known for her spiritual discourses to the Finance Minister he has abused many Brahmin women unnecessarily. 

In 2018 he had laid out a “syllabus” for Dravidianists to follow in countering leaders like H.Raja who speak out boldly about the farce of Dravidianism and Periyarism. He advised them to heap lies on BJP and Sangh leaders and gave some examples, “lie about Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s sex life and tell the story of Guruji Gowalkar having intercourse with a cow”. He peddles lies in the worst form about Hindu deities, the height of which was claiming that saint poet Andal herself accepted in one her poems that she was a Devadasi. 

About the former Chief Secretary of TN, Girija Vaidyanathan, he tweeted “A snake will bite with no regard for time. A Pappathi(slur for Brahmin women) will strike at the right time. Pappathi> snake” meaning a Brahmin woman is worse than a snake. He tweeted it with indirect implication to EV Ramasamy’s famous quote “if you see a snake and a Brahmin together kill the Brahmin first”. He claims to have learnt sanskrit from a Brahmin teacher and boasted that he used Hindus’ own fingers to poke their eyes. Imagine such men teaching kids about Hindu dharma and Tamil culture as a part of the Tamil diaspora.

Coming back to PASC America(PASCA), it was founded by Tamils at the behest of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam(DVK), an arm of Dravidar Kazhagam. KRS has met Dravidar Kazhagam chief K.Veeramani in the past and was recently given audience by CM MK Stalin himself. PASC has been partnering with the Dismantling Global Hindutva group and Equality Labs in furthering the hateful ideology. PASCA was a key supporter of the DGH conference which called for dismantling Hindu dharma. The organisation had also sponsored a symposium in University of Michigan in which speakers called for destroying Hindu dharma claiming that the caste system cannot be dismantled without destroying Hindu dharma.

Coalition of Hindus of North America has called out PACSA for indoctrinating innocent kids who are unaware of the complexities and social dynamics of the caste system with hatred for a specific community. It said that the act is similar to “removing a yarmulke from a Jew’s head, a hijab from a Muslim woman’s head, a turban from a Sikh’s head”. Motivated by Dravidian leaders’ hate speech, foot soldiers of the Dravidian Movement have harassed innocent people many times.

They have snatched the janeu of old Brahmin men walking back from temples in the past goaded by Dravidian leaders. In 2015, from a small boy of 12 years to a 78 year old Brahmin were attacked by the same DVK cadres. In 2019 the same DVK organised a “protest” in which pigs were forcefully made to wear janeu on Aavani Avittam(the day on which Tamil Brahmins, Kshatriya Kula Vanniyars and a few other castes change janeu) as a result of which one of the poor beings died.

Now, the same organisation is whipping up sentiments and teaching kids to physically assault whoever wears janeu. It should be noted here that even though Dravidian organisations peddle that only Brahmins wear janeu and use it as a license to get what they want, the reality is different. Even the Valluva jati, to which poet Thiruvalluvar is believed to have belonged to wear janeu. Many castes in Tamil Nadu have given up wearing janeu regularly now. But some still have the habit of wearing it during marriage and while performing final rites.

In the US there will be members of other castes from North India and other South Indian states who wear janeu. What message does the skit send to the kids who performed and watched it? To assume that anyone who wears janeu is a Brahmin and removing it from them even using physical force is justifiable? Such dangerous acts should be nipped in the bud and hopefully sane Bharatiyas in the US realize it and put an end to it.