In the second part of this series on the anti-Dharmic origins and journey of the Dravidian Movement, drawing from scholarly literature, I had stated that “caste” and “tribe” as we understand them today, are ethnocentric categories created by the Christian European coloniser based on ethnographies of Bharat’s society and social organisation prepared by Christian missionaries. I had ended the piece with the following questions: One, what were the motivations of the colonial-missionary combine in seeking to understand and document the ethnography of Bharat? Two, how did they go about this exercise? How much of a role did European Christian theology and ethnocentrism play in framing the purpose and methodology of the exercise? Three, what was the role played by the “native” in aid of the exercise? Did the “native” understand colonial intentions and evangelical motives? If yes, why did he continue to cooperate and collaborate with the colonial exercise to the detriment of Bharat?
The first question may give the impression that documentation of Bharat’s “ethnography” was undertaken for the first time during the British colonial period. However, literature reveals that the interest of Christian European missionaries in Bharat’s social organisation predates the formal establishment of the British Raj. In this piece, I will present a broad snapshot of early missionary work in Bharat which birthed both “caste” and the “Dravidian” identity.
Yukti 