CHENNAI: Governor RN Ravi on Monday reiterated that Robert Caldwell was a school dropout who came to India to evangelise the country. Recently, when Ravi said this, there were huge protests from political leaders.
Participating at a function in Raj Bhavan to release the books ‘Culture of Bharat as detailed in Ancient Tamil Literature’ and ‘Culture of Bharat as detailed in Tamil Inscriptions’, Ravi said, “Caldwell wrote a book on the grammar of Dravidian languages and that became the intellectual basis for all those people and the Dravidian movement to say that they are separate. People did not question who this man was.”
“Caldwell was a school dropout but he claimed to be a philologist and a linguist. He is a school dropout picked up and sent here on a mission to evangelize. Where did he study philology? Where did he study linguistics? But his work became a rallying point for the vested interest of people who try to destroy the identity and culture of the people. That picked up momentum post-British, after Independence. In the social, cultural, and intellectual space, they try to create a false narrative,” the governor said.
He also said the ‘Break India Project’ was launched by the British to divide and destroy this country. “They knew that they could not replicate their application of colonising America in India. In India, people may speak different languages, and eat different foods, and there are different races. They may be located in different geographical area. Yet, there is something that binds them together as a family. For a person from any part of India his dream is to visit Rameswaram once in his lifetime; go to Kashi; go to Badrinath; Dwaraka and Puri. These institutions have kept the diverse people as one family.”
Ravi’s remarks on Caldwell inaccurate, latter had a doctorate, says CSI bishop
Tirunelveli: Denying Governor RN Ravi’s claims on Caldwell, Rev. ARGST Barnabas, Bishop of Church of South India (CSI), Tirunelveli Diocese, said that Caldwell had received a doctorate from the University of Glasgow. Addressing reporters on Monday, Rev. Barnabas showed them documents to back Caldwell’s doctorate. Bala Prajapathi Adikalar of the Ayyavazhi sect, who accompanied the bishop, also condemned the governor for his comments on Caldwell and Vaikundar. “Ayya was fighting against Sanatana Dharma’s followers, who did not allow women of various communities to wear upper garments,” he added.