Slamming the Dravidian movement, Governor Ravi said, “Even today, there are people who want to destroy Sanatana Dharma. … Sanatana is where everything is inclusive. As all the other faiths are divisive, the world is looking forward to Sanatana Dharma,” – Pramod Madhav
Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi courted a controversy after he termed Robert Caldwell’s book A Comparative Grammar of Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages fake. The Governor’s statement came while he was speaking at an event commemorating the 192nd birth anniversary of social reformer Ayya Vaikunda Swamikal.
Governor Ravi claimed that Caldwell and others were recruited by the Britishers to target the poor and marginalised, and that they did not even finish their education.
“They had a society called the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), and started recruiting school dropouts by providing them with basic training and sending them to India. People like Robert Caldwell and George Uglow Pope were sent to India,” Governor Ravi claimed.
“Robert Caldwell, who failed to finish his formal education, did not even pass school, authored a fake book called Grammar of Dravidian Languages. They started closing all the native schools, running here for a long time.”
“Only missionaries are allowed to run the schools, and they will only get admission when they are baptized. They started targeting the people who were poor and marginalised and in this background, they started targeting the southern districts of Tamil Nadu,” the Governor said.
At the event, the Tamil Nadu Governor also said there was an overall attempt to destroy the Sanatana Dharma.
“In 1600, when the East India Company came to India for trading, one of the tasks given to them was to evangelise India by changing their faith and bringing them to Gospel. When the British Government took over, to make their colonial empire endure, they started strategically destroying the Sanatana Dharma,” Governor Ravi said.
“They also targeted institutions that were owned by society through policies. It is well mentioned in the Charter Act of 1813, passed by the British Parliament. Henry Templeton, the then British Prime Minister, in his speech in the British Parliament, called evangelisation of India not only their duty but also a necessity,” he claimed.
Also slamming the Dravidian movement, Governor Ravi said, “Even today, there are people who want to destroy Sanatana Dharma. They are the followers of those who collaborated with the British, mourned on August 15, 1947, our Independence Day, and observed it as a Black Day.”
“Sanatana is where everything is inclusive. As all the other faiths are divisive, the world is looking forward to Sanatana Dharma,” the Tamil Nadu Governor said. – India Today, 5 March 2024
› Pramod Madhav reports for India Today in Chennai.
Filed under: india | Tagged: christian missionaries, dravidian movement, g.u. pope, r.n. ravi, robert caldwell | Comments Off on Governor Ravi calls out early missionaries Robert Caldwell and George Pope – Pramod Madhav
