CHENNAI: Governor R N Ravi, on Saturday, said that social discrimination issues persist in Tamil Nadu even now, since the socio-spiritual movement of Vallalar Ramalinga Swamigal was hijacked by politics. Contrary to this, since the socio-spiritual movement of Sri Narayana Guru was not hijacked in Kerala, that state is bereft of social discrimination issues now.
The governor made this observation while addressing the Samarasa Suththa Sanmarga Youth Conference at the Raj Bhavan.
“Look at our neighbouring state, Kerala, things were not better — Kerala was almost equal in issues like discrimination. But in Kerala, a socio-spiritual movement by Sri Narayana Guru began; politics did not hijack it. As a result, today, we don’t hear any news about social discrimination. Contrary to this, in TN, we read about incidents of social discrimination every day because Vallalar’s movement was hijacked by politics,” he said.
“From our state archives, I was shocked to know that in 1839, as many as 70,000 people of Chennai submitted a petition to the then governor against the discriminatory policy adopted by the British for admission in their schools - compulsory baptising of children,” he said. Ravi also pointed out that as chancellor of TN universities, he came to know that between 2001 and 2020, the state had more than 6,000 PhDs only on three or four political personalities. He exhorted the students to do research on Vallalar Swamigal.