British evangelicals divided India in Aryans and Dravidian

Colonial administrators and evangelists were able to divide and rule the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, based on imaginary histories and racial myths – to the extent of inventing an entire race called ‘Dravidians’.

British Colonial administrators, such as Francis Whyte Ellis and Alexander D. Campbell, studied the grammar of Tamil and Telugu and proposed that these languages might belong to a different languagefamily from other Indian languages. Another British administrator, Brian Houghton Hodgson, invented the term ‘Tamulian’ to refer to what he considered to be the non-Aryan indigenous population of India. While Ellis and Campbell proposed a linguistic theory, Hodgson had a race-based perspective.

But the catalyst who is credited with the construction of the ‘Dravidian race’ was a missionary-scholar from the Anglican Church. His name was Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814–91), an evangelist for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, who combined the linguistic theory of Ellis with a strong racial narrative. He proposed the existence of the Dravidian race in his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Race, which enjoys extreme popularity with Dravidianists to this day. Bishop Caldwell proposed that the Dravidians were in India before the Aryans, but got cheated by the Brahmins, who were the cunning agents of the Aryan. He argued that the simple-minded Dravidians were kept in shackles by Aryans through the exploitation of religion. Thus, the Dravidians needed to be liberated by Europeans like him. He proposed the complete removal of Sanskrit words from Tamil. Once the Dravidian mind would be free of the superstitions imposed by Aryans, Christian evangelization would reap the souls of Dravidians.

4 comments on “British evangelicals divided India in Aryans and Dravidian”

Sankar
December 20, 2018

There are still many people today who promote or believe the Aryan/Dravidian theories so articles such as this are needed. Keep up the good work. That Bishop Caldwell wanted to delete Sanskrit shows that he had zero understanding of its vibrational importance in spiritual enlightenment.

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Sanatan Dharm and Hinduism
December 20, 2018

Reblogged this on GLOBAL HINDUISM.

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Linga
May 21, 2021

I am a Tamil Saivite who worship lord Siva, Maruga and other Tamil Hindu gods, I am not a Christian. I find the North Indian claim that the European Christian missionary created the Aryan / Dravidian theory to divide and conquer India is very disingenuous. In Fact many Europeans such as Max Muller claimed that the North Indians were Indo- European and related to them, and proved that Sanskrit, Latin and Greek( The big three as they are known ) are all related.

They openly identified with the North Indians as their ethnic cousins and ridiculed the dark Southern Indians as non European ( Australoid ) and natives like Australian natives. The above article is a nonsense although appear to argue that there was no Aryan invasion in to India and challenges the received wisdom of many archaeologists , anthropologists findings on Indus valley civilization and beyond that the North Indians and South Indians are completely different races and the Southern Tamils at one time occupied the whole of India etc.by simply using the words and phrases like ” racial myths” “imaginary history ” etc. This article fails to challenge the latest DNA evidence which unequivocally proves that the South Indians and East Indians are totally different from the North Indians.

By blaming the Christian missionary the Hindutva lunatics disingenuously are trying to claim Sanskrit was a local language and not introduced in to India by invading Aryan barbarians from Central Asia.

I am a Hindu but I will not fall for these nonsensical North Indian propaganda that Sanskrit is Devabasha and Tamil is Niesha Basha etc. In fact Tamil is much older than Sanskrit and has contributed to Indian civilisation more than Sanskrit. For Hinduism Tamil and Sanskrit are like two eyes. Tamil language must be recognised as a Primary Classical language and language of piety by Indian government.

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- Sanatan Dharm and Hinduism
  May 22, 2021
  
  Let people here your opinion. British Indians!
  
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