Guv blames British for distorting Aryas, Dravidas

VELLORE: The geographical regions, north and south of the Vindhyas known as ‘Panch Aryas’ and ‘Panch Dravidas’ respectively were mischievously distorted to create a racial divide among the people to weaken the nation’s unity, Governor R N Ravi said here on Sunday, blaming the erstwhile British rulers for this.

The country was systematically “ruined” by the British who tried to divide people along several imaginary lines, Ravi said addressing a gathering of INA (Indian National Army) veterans, ex-servicemen and their families. Before the British occupation, people could move freely to all parts of the country for education, trade, pilgrimage and settlement, he said.

The term Dravidar or Dravidian represented regions including those in present-day Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala. While leaving India, the British not only partitioned the country, but had left ‘some 600 independent countries.’ The Governor thanked

Sardar Patel for uniting the country by removing the artificial and sinister divisions.

Earlier, addressing a gathering inside the historic Vellore fort on the occasion of the 216th anniversary of the 1806 Sepoy Mutiny, he said “we have defeated the designs of the British who wanted to destroy the identity of India by creating divisions of caste, creed and race. Calling for proper research of the history of Vellore, including the Sepoy Mutiny, he said this was the first war for Indian Independence and was not a mere mutiny. This was a fight for independence as people from many parts of the country participated in it, he said.

The British legacy of various divisions resulted in uneven development which was now being rectified so that any citizen anywhere was eligible for all the nation’s benefits, he said. Though TN’s gross enrolment ratio (GER) was higher than the national average there were parts in the state where the GER was very low. Such lopsided development could be rectified only if the nation was looked at as a family, he added.