A concerted attempt to alienate tamils from the mainstream Indian consciousness, is already in place. A ‘Chair’ like this at a reputed university only means “sharing the adhikaram'' with forces outside the tamizh nadu, to define what is “tamizh kalacharam”. The chair need not be occupied by a practicing Hindu or a Tamilian with the traditional Tiruvalluvar narrative of our kalacharam. Instead it will be chaired by a person who can be lobbied by various evangelical, secessionist forces without the knowledge of Tamizh makkal. Not many in TN understand this. There is chance that, a genuine Tamil Lover may chair it. The main problem is in sharing the ‘adhikaram’.
Of course Harvard has every right to set it up. But we celebrating the sharing of Adhikaram to a white skinned country’s institution, is just inferiority complexion expressing itself. A university sets up a Chair to ultimately *'influence the cultural narrative'*. Harvard Chair's opinion on Tamizh Kalacharam, Divya Prabandham, Tirukkural, and “Tamil Secularism” will be intended to influence TN policy makers. This is a form of ‘POWER’.
Consider 'Anna university' setting up a Hebrew or Latin or Spanish Chair. . None of the country members having those languages will celebrate that 'Tamilians from Anna University' are studying them. They donot seem to have such an inferiority complexion. If anna university chair makes a claim that "Hebrew was never linked to Judaism", Israelis will only laugh at us. On the other hand, if Harvard chair publishes a thesis that ''Tamil is independent of India n sanatana dharma'', Our Kamal Hassan may even make an award winning movie on it.
Harvard has the clout to influence; I acknowledge it. They have earned that position with their cultural perspective, am only sad and worried about Tamilians celebrating and doing fund-raisers for it. Actors like Sivakumar are making videos praising it. Indians have hardly understood the influence of Academic theories on Geo-politics.
In a similar vein, Sheldon Pollock from Colombia University tried setting up a *Shankaracharya Chair* with Sringeri shankara mutt approval. Rajiv Malhotra disrupted that by meeting Sringeri Shankaracharya n convincing him that by allowing such a chair, the *adhikara* towards shankaracharya's teaching will be seen by columbia university, as being with them. It’s hard not to link these 2 events.
Sheldon Pollock wanted to purge the valmiki ramayana of 'communal hindu elements' and translate it into an egalitarian manual. Harvard also one day may want to purge thirukkural of communal hindu elements to make it secularized and publish it as 'unmayana(the real) thirukkural'. By the time tamilians realize they have been played (will they?), Harvard chair would probably have enough clout with Tamil Institutions to pooh pooh the dissenters. The dissenters may not even get Media space.
I must acknowledge the creativity of western institutions to open up new frontiers of influence. Next in line may be a 'Kannada Chair'.
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