How stupid is that? Well! Let assume you are in your flat or home, and all your windows and doors are closed. For example if your home is air-conditioned, or is currently running an air-conditioner, it is quite possible that you will keep your windows and doors closed. Now, you sleep the night peacefully, wake up in the morning, and then when ready to leave for work or school etc., you open the front door. Do you at this time, ever expect a situation where there will be no air to breathe? Exactly!

So the american leaves the comfort of their home, arrives in a country or land where things are not exactly american. That is there are instances when electric power will be unavailable for more than couple of hours a day. And then when water may not flow so freely from the tap. This is true for most other developed countries, however America has a special place in global consumption per individual. More importantly is the fatuous ability of the american to place themselves over society.

From this land, a kid who has spent all of his life, comes to India.  Modern India, where water does flow reasonably specially in large cities. But the kid lands at his parent’s home town, where water is not that easily accessible via the tap. Particularly if there is a problem with the motor that pumps the water from the well to an overhead tank, till gravity does its duty to enable free flow. At this juncture, the stars misalign, and there is water in the bathroom. His dad calls out to him, from near the well, the source of the water for the bathroom. Instead of attempting a futile bid to fix the water pump, he asks his son “Go bring a bucket”.

The son looks curiously and asks his dad “what is a bucket?”

This thread is called ‘poonool’ in Tamizh, or ‘janeau’ in sanskrit. The sect is called Brahmin, supposedly a caste as per some literature that is also called scriptures or vedas. I may appear cynical here, but there is no other way to describe a text that divides humans into groups, and advises treatment based on this. The most fiendish and heinous reserved for the meekest of them all. While many philosophers in the Hindu religion have attempted to explain this immoral practice, by ascribing a stoic purpose as in division of labour. But no one, but the few that have disowned the religion itself have actually preached that these texts be shunned for the sake of a better society. Even the most learned of them all, within the religion, have been able gloss over this, and also the practice itself, and yet let believe they are walking in a higher plane of consciousness.

Religious bigots exist in all religions. Hindu religion is not the exclusive abode of these kind. Also every religion segregates the general populace from its priestly clan. Also in many religious divisions, it is not uncommon for the priestly kind to belong to a particular family, or bestowed upon descendants. However strong this chain of succession and power, they have all been broken at one time or another, and the rights being transferred to another family, person or group. But the brahmins, and the Hindu religion, can be proud that they have managed to hold their position of superiority over others, across centuries, rulers, kingdoms and dominions. Literally forever. There is no equivalence in history, ever!

Once a priestly class, that lived within the four walls of temples, they now have meandered their way into many other professions. Although inspite of all the poverty that some claim that this sect endures, they are yet to be found doing menial labour anywhere. Blessed with the power of education; result of their unwillingness to ‘work’ and more importantly access to influence, they have bulldozed their way to all fields, and many times wrested control. Many have given up key tenets of their sects from yesteryears; eating meat, consuming alcohol, smoking cigarettes and indulging in other vices. But they still hold onto their threads. Yes, many do no wear it regularly, but they do every once in a while. The point however is even though many dont wear it, their perception of superiority over the human race is still resolute.

This thread is just a piece of small fibers strung together, it is easily broken if pulled hard. But yet the rest of the population simply watches and waits. With limited access Hindu gods, they will have to do just that, until of course the ‘thread’ people decide otherwise.

But then we are splitting hairs. Taliban in any form is regressive and will bring about destruction. No matter how progressive they may seem to be, their love for the strictest form of Islam, subjugation of woman and their rights, followed by a quick implementation of the Sharia should hold no surprises. Taliban is not the most regressive regime in the world, today or for that ever. Saudi, Myanmar, regions or territory held by ISIS and many others are good examples. Then there is also China and North Korea among many other nations that are ruled by a single party system or a dictator even today.

In the image above, the countries in the dark-orange are countries considered to be ruled by some form dictatorship, single party system or other forms of government that are not considered truly democratic. That is, based on the assumption that the countries that are shaded gray, are actually acceptable forms of democracy. Having lived in the US and in India, i can tell you that both countries have made strides in tearing down rights and laws that support individual liberty and privacy. The change in the US, started soon before after the 9/11 incident. In India, the rapid progression to a lawless and regressive state, started with the coming to power of Modi, in 2014.

A few years ago, Kerala, under the rule of the Left Democratic Front, cleaved a significant mark in their attempt to change the rules of and dictates of the cursed caste system. A lot of jobs and roles in Indian society has been thrown open to people of all castes and creed. However there remains a few vestiges that are closely held by the so-called upper caste, as the last bastion. One such is the role of a priest. A priest in the Hindu religion is a brahmin. For ages, these kinds have held onto certain positions in society. They have used this position to impose their power upon others in the Hindu society and maintain their supremacy. Given the sentiments off the populace, and the influence religion holds on average citizens, and most importantly the fear that the wrath of God may be wreaked, has directly contributed to the brahmins ability to retain this pole position.

But this is now changing. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, add few other progressive states, have been successful in crafting public opinion, against this superiority and the caste system in general. The Dravidian movements in Tamil Nadu, and the Communist led reform movements in Kerala have been ideal birthing place for these ideas. Brahmins are no longer a superior class, and that they can be challenged. Both these movements also demonstrated their hatred to the religious sanctions to the existence of caste system and called up on people to disown religion and gods, and pursue life filled with rationalist thought and scientific temper. While the upheaval did change many things, it did not displace gods, their temples, and the priests inside. This last bastion of the brahmin class will survive these movements a few more decades, as we now know.

While there were attempts to change, or even introduce the ability of non-brahmins to become priests in temples in both these southern states, they never did achieve fruition. Non-brahmins have lead prayers, and become priests in temples, but that only in temples that were built specifically by caste leaders. Lower caste Hindus were not allowed to enter temples for a long time. First the temple entry had to be broken, and it was. Next step would be the ability of non-brahmins to perform rites within a temple, ie a temple of repute, or one that was previously managed by a brahmin priest.

In 2017 this did change, in Kerala. The Travancore Devasom Board, one of largest temple management boards in Kerala (TDB manages Sabarimala temple, amongst others), decided to break paths and appoint 19 Dalit from the Ezhava community as priests to various temples, under their control. This number is expected to grow. Tamil Nadu under the leadership of Karunanidhi passed a law in 2006 to appoint non-brahmin priests in temples managed by the HR&CE, a department of the government. Training and recruitment were announced and undertaken in right earnest. However, nothing much happened till 2018, when the first appointment of a non-brahmin priest was finally possible in Tamil Nadu also.

Kerala is planning to continue the new norm in the other major Devasom, Cochin Devasom Board and the Guruvayoor Devasom Board. More non-brahmins are being trained and prepared to become priests in temples managed by the government managed Devasom boards. Tamil Nadu too, where things are running a little slower, is planning to increase the numbers over the years to come.

I wait with bated breath to see a world when priests are not member of any particular caste. My rationalist ideology actually goes much further than all this. But for now, i will let it be reigned in, and manage expectations based on societal ability to change. Also there is a need to talk about the “thread”, and that too will be saved for another post, another day.

The beat command that the drill instructor called out to make sure that we march in coordination. As an individual in the squad you have to time your left foot forward, at the exact moment of hearing the sound “LEFT!”, and the right on “RIGHT” and so on. I think joined the scouts – sea scouts – when i was in my 7th grade at school. We had to assemble at school by 7am, on the only day when we got an off (our school worked on Saturday too, except for the second Saturday of each month). After doing this for quite some time, i started actually enjoying the marching drills and practising for an upcoming parade etc. I stayed with my scout squadron for a good three years.
Every Sunday, and then almost every day in Jan, during the practice sessions for the annual Republic Day (Jan 26th) Parade, i was getting used to “left-right-left” drilled into my head.

Making the turn !!

Fast forward in life. I am sitting in an Auto (autorickshaw), in Chennai, heading home. Once we reach the residential colony, there will be a few turns the driver will need to make, before i will get to my place. And i will need to instruct him to make these turns. Obviously! One was wonder why this has to be called out. Well, the interesting twist lies in how i am able to provide these turn instructions to the auto driver.

Visualise a street layout for a moment, where you have to drive straight ahead and make a turn at the T-Junction at the end of the road. I tell the auto driver, “go straight and make a left turn.” These instructions are obviously relayed in Tamizh, to allow the driver to understand them better – “straight-a poyi last le’ left-la thirumbunga.”
The driver has instructed, heads down and at the end of the T-junction veers the auto toward the left. I start to get excited now. I begin to instruct him louder, “turn to the left. turn to the left!”
The driver continues as if he’s not heard anything at all. I now put my hand out and tell him again “turn to the left, turn to the left, left! left!!”
The driver now slows down looks behind and tells me “saar left la dhaan sir poren (I am heading left as you indicated)”.
Well, it is quite obvious that he was doing the right thing. Except, my hand as I was instructing him was pointing to the right. I had been trying to tell him to make the turn in that direction. Yes!! The Right Turn!!
All along I had meant for the driver to go straight ahead and make the right turn. My brain just processed it the way I think and visualise my left and my right.

I don’t quite recall when I began to have this problem. Of mixing my left and my right. Only when it comes to making these turns. It has nothing to do, with possibly being ambidextrous; I learnt of this much later in my life. It had nothing to do with my ability to use my left hand or my right hand appropriately.
But when it came to making turns I had a big problem, indicating which direction to turn. Giving instructions to make turns; I would have to literally second guess every single left or right turn that needs to be made.
There are moments when I would doubt if I was actually saying the correct thing, for example, ‘make left turn’. And I would have to try writing with my left and my right hand to clearly understand which was left and which was right.
This craziness goes a bit further because I would start doubting my ability to write with my left or right hand. Meaning sometimes I would wonder, thinking I was actually able to scribble on my palm with my left hand, thereby leading me to wonder if that was actually my right hand. Then I have to write again with the other hand, ie right. Depending on the time available to give an instruction to an auto or a cab driver I would keep doing this between my left and right hand for quite some time before finally deciding the right turn; I mean instruct the driver to turn to the ‘correct’ side.

I don’t wear a ring on my finger. Nor do I wear a watch on my wrist. With no material indicator on my finger or wrist, it becomes extremely difficult to use one of these markers to determine my left and my right hand. The only indicator that I could reliably use was my ability to write or sign. This works many times, but every once in awhile I’m stumped. I suddenly feel I can sign perfectly well with my left hand, as I can with my right. Luckily I am yet to cause a material incident as a result of this affliction. And so till then, i go Left, Right, Left !!!

The “foreign-hand” is not new to India politics, having been effectively used by Congress themselves during the 70s and 80s. It inched to a slow death as it started losing its sheen, and economy and development slowly gained momentum. But it never fully disappeared. Pakistan was a lovely place to keep bashing. And Pakistan for its part loved to be a part of this equation, by constantly sending terrorists into Indian territory. But the power of foreign-hand to win or convert election dissipated. Well, that is until Modi and his BJP came to power in 2014.

The farmers have been protesting at the outskirts of the capital, New Delhi, for over 6 months now. They are protesting against three farm laws that were improperly pushed through the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The passing of these bills was in itself almost illegal and done so only because the government didn’t have any other mechanism to make it law. Why this hurry, you must ask? The answer to this question is possibly another hand, foreign or domestic, but is surely not a friend of the farmer or the ordinary people. Modi has shown that his government favours a very specific set of industrialists, probably the biggest financiers to his party and feeds his hunger to stay in power. And therefore found it very convenient to deflect the ire of the general populace. He quickly invented the foreign-hand yet again, gives it a new lease of life in Indian politics. All this because Rihanna tweeted in support of the farmers.

History repeats itself, they say. Joseph Goebbels is alive and well in democratic India.

7. Sexual assault.—Whoever, with sexual intent touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the child or makes the child touchthe vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual assault.

– “THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL OFFENCES ACT, 2012” from https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2079/1/201232.pdf

The judge presiding the case Justice Pushpa Ganediwala read this clause and found that there needs to be “skin to skin” contact.
No where in the clause above, the definition specifies the need for skin to skin contact. The judge should have looked and read these words “with sexual intent” and “touches” which is the first statement in the definition above. I dont think a lot dictionary and thesaurus is required to translate that intent existed when man touched a 12 year old’s breasts, and more importantly he “groped”, and touch does not require that the skin from his palm makes contact with the skin on her body. By this token, any male has a free hand – ie wearing a glove to go around and grope children. Without fully understanding the premise of the POSCO Act, this lady reduced the sentence for a sick man to 1 year, and under the regular Penal Code.
I posted the picture from a newspaper quite intentionally to drive the point that the judgement was offered by a lady justice. Although a gender analysis may not be warranted, it still strikes me as a odd that a woman would have found in her, clemency for such an indvidual who is nothing but a pevert.

In good news that followed, the Supreme Court has already stayed this judgement and sentence, thereby for now upholding the earlier conviction under POSCO. The Supreme Court’s track record of recent times has not been stellar either. But i am quite confident they will overrule this erratic judgement. But then again, they have surprised me enough to keep my fingers crossed.

We supposedly write up these fancy new laws to help and empower children, women and families. But soon we have lawyers willing to take big money from the rich and powerful, only to dice up the sections, parse the words and chew the spirit of the law. A judge in the court of law is therefore the voice of reason; the person who finds a balance between these desperations and spirit of the law. I do fully understand that this can be counter-intuitive when the person accused is actually not guilty of the crime charged. But, i just said, the voice of reason would therefore make the final judgement. I dont have seen the full judgement copy to comprehend the basis of the judge. But no matter what, the logic of touch requiring “skin to skin” contact is rather bizzare.
The POSCO when it was passed in 2012, was done with a lot of criticism that the law was not stringent enough. And verdicts and rulings like these, only helps to attenuate the effect whatever is left on the books.

For now the impact of this judgement is delayed, thanks to the SCI. So that again is a step forward. I can only wonder what is in store on this now!

The 2011 census, now just about 10 years old, shows the percentage of the different categories that are considered lower castes, or collectively referred to as Dalits.
The percentage of the Scheduled Castes in relation to the total population is 16.6%. However, surveys conducted after that has put this number at a higher value of almost 20% of the total population.
The Scheduled Tribes in the country, counted in 2011 total to about 8.59% of the total population. This number has now inched a little higher and is closer to a rounder 9% in the surveys conducted later.
A big block of the population falls into the grouping called “Other Backward Caste” or OBC. This group includes almost 2500 entries across all the States and UT in the country. In 2011, OBC totalled to a huge 44% of the total population. This number seems to have edged down about 41% in more recent surveys.
The High Caste Hindus are really a small minority in the country, adding up to only about 22% of the total population. They also hold a high percentage of wealth, about 41% of the total wealth of the country, clearly disproportionate to their percentage of the population.

Until recently the asymmetric influence exerted by the Hindu high caste (HHC), although clear to the discerning eye, was always downplayed, and never really paraded or glorified as a virtue. Even during the previous BJP run government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, or even during the various Congress governments and non-Congress too. The many different social revolutions across the country and the upheavals it resulted in, did not change the power and influence or wealth controlled by HHC, although it did cause them to be more careful.
None of these social causes, it appears now, to have dramatically changed the outlook and perception of the Hindu caste system and its social relevance. In many other countries, regional and historic differences were displaced and classism took its place, ie rich vs poor etc. The advent of Modi seems to have altered the thinking even more and provided it with a boost that it badly needed from years of education against it. Though Modi himself claims he is not a member of this clan, it is clear that he and his government, actively or otherwise helping the masters that feed him. There are the corporates, and they are indistinguishable from any major government anywhere in the world. However, only in India does a group of people that do not belong to a clan, speak a common language, or hail from a particular region from the country holds power over the government. Simply because of their birthright, yes only because they are born a brahmin, the bane of the caste system in India.

Physical attacks and abuse of Dalits in India is not new. They have been happening throughout history; gaining Independence, and having the Constitution written by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar has not in any measure solved or addressed this problem. Granting special reservation in education, jobs etc. has allowed to fuel hate even further. What’s different in the recent past has been the celebration of this persecution, be it rape of Dalit woman or physical abuse of all Dalits. The State Governments run by BJP has felicitated the perpetuators of these crimes and thus encouraged these crimes. Add to this the BJP government carving out a special reservation for economically weaker sections (read this as supporting the upper caste), granting credibility to the theory that reservation on caste basis is flawed. The resurgence of the Upper Caste Hindus (read Brahmins), who are a minority in the nation, wanting to affirm their supposed place in the caste pedestal is alarming. But then they have a government that is willing, and therefore they are able to get away with not just vocal assertion but also indulge in violence. The tacit approval of the state and a judiciary that is only as effective as the ability of the administration to collect and present evidence on these crimes of hate. What’s more, as per recent news, we have managed to take this great tradition to foreign lands. The only issue is the case in the US focusses on the subtle harassment that is cumbersome to prove. In India for example, we don’t even bother about these cases, we just simply accept it.
All said and done, for now, the atmosphere is cloudy, with a huge chance of deluge.

1. Population Enumeration Data (Final Population), Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs.
2. Handbook on SOCIAL WELFARE STATISTICS, Government of India Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment Department of Social Justice & Empowerment Plan Division
3. Upper caste Hindus own 41 per cent of India’s total wealth. Wealth Ownership and Inequality in India: A Socio-religious Analysis, Business India, February 14th 2019
4. Attacks against Muslims, Dalits grew sharply in India under Modi: US report, Indo-Asian News Service Washington February 10, 2017
5. Casteism Camouflaged as Culture, Harvard Political Review, Akila Muthukumar Sep 30, 2020

In an attempt to narrow down our focus, we chose to look at the discrepancy in access to healthcare for women in rural areas. Available data (little) showed that men outranked women in accessing and utilizing available healthcare average approximately in the ratio of 2:1.

While there were particular women-centric issues, the bigger problem seemed to be access and availability of Primary and Secondary care in these areas. Lack of doctors and associated medical professionals in these areas worsened the problem, even if infrastructures were available. The women associated problems therefore were worsened, because available professionals also were skewed to the male gender, making it socially inappropriate and psychologically abstruse. The answer it seemed, after some difficult debate, was to increase infrastructure and facility in rural areas. One problem we overlooked, in this chicken-egg problem was, where will the doctors and other medical professionals come from? We neglected, given the time we had left to answer the workshop problem, was developing medical colleges in every district in India.

India has about 739 districts, as per the latest counts, spread across its States and Union Territories.  The prospect of proposing that we develop and setup about 700 medical colleges and hospitals over the next 5-10 years, seemed ridiculous. It was not just an economic issue, but also a problem with effort, time and other resources. We quickly gave up on this and moved on to look at other options.

However, this challenge it appears is not as daunting as it seems. To start with, India today has over 541 medical colleges, that produce more than 80000 MBBS professionals every year. And this number is only growing in leaps and bounds every year. It is only pertinent to highlight the inequality that most of these are based in or near large cities. However, if we were to apply a simple law of averages, and assume a higher rate of 50% within urban areas (ie large cities), that would mean almost 270 colleges are situated in districts spread across the states. Then of course there is the bias towards southern and other more developed states versus the others. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Maharashtra to name a few have a disproportionate share of these medical colleges. But still, the gap for the rest of the country is not as daunting, as originally thought, ie building about 700 odd medical colleges and hospitals across the country.

There is a success story to share. Tamil Nadu has in the past few decades, managed to revolutionize its socio-economic status amongst other states in the country. Especially its social development index has zoomed ahead in comparison to many other states. Ranked at 11^th position in the country in 1990, it is now in the 3^rd position as per reports from 2019. There are many reasons attributable to this. According to me the single biggest reason is the “noon meal scheme” relaunched by the Tamil Nadu government in 1982.

NUTRITIOUS MEAL SCHEME
^{In between all this political maneuvering, MGR went ahead with his emphasis on the rural economy, cottage industries, strengthening last-mile connectivity, and, importantly, his social welfare measures. On 1 July, MGR joined the children of Pappakurichi village, in Trichy district, for lunch, to inaugurate the now celebrated Midday Nutritious Meal Scheme. The meal programme initially covered 56.9 lakh rural schoolchildren, providing them a meal of about 400 calories a day. Extended to the urban areas from September 1982, covering, in all, over 52,000 centres, including 31,000 schools, it took the number of beneficiaries up to 65.7 lakh children. The scheme provided employment to 1,80,119 persons, of which 1,58,387 were destitute women. The cost of the programme was Rs. 133 crore per annum. Attendance at primary schools would go up to 96.2 per cent among the six to 11 age group and to 66.03 per cent in the 11 to 14 age group. The nation had rarely seen a scheme of this magnitude. From 15 January 1983, the scheme would also cover 1,50,000 old age pensioners, orphans and destitute widows. In 1987 Nedunchezhian would put the number of total beneficiaries from 1983 at 92 lakh.
MGR: A Life’ by R. Kannan}

However, another notable achievement has been the ability to service and provide healthcare. Tamil Nadu has 57 medical colleges, spread throughout the state. There are four districts as of 2020 that do not have a medical college; two of them Ranipet and Tirupathur, both which were new districts that came from trifurcation of the Vellore district in Aug 2019, third is Thenkasi district separated from Thirunelveli district in Jul 2019, and the fourth is Mayiladuthurai that was carved out the Nagapattinam district in March 2020. Each of the parent districts, from which these new districts were created, have one or more medical colleges within them. As recently as October 2019, the state received approvals to develop 6 new medical colleges in the state. And there are proposals to develop another 3 more. These medical colleges together provide more than 5000 MBBS admissions and may actually be higher if the seats available from the new colleges are added.

This development is an initiative that was driven solely by the State government. There was no prodding or any planning from the Central government. If any Tamil Nadu had to get the required buy-in from Medical Council of India, and also the required approvals from the Centre to begin these institutions. It was not easy, and given the funding requirements, these were always going to be tough choices. Tamil Nadu today enjoys its pride in place with respect to SDG and indices that measure these because of the twin initiatives – improve education and availability and accessibility to healthcare.

As I indicated before many of the states, south of the Vindhyas, and some of them above too, have addressed the accessibility to healthcare using the same method of starting more medical colleges within their states. The issue then remains with a select few northern and northeastern states. If these states begin a similar initiative, the national problem can be slowly broken down. There is going to be a lag of about a decade or more before tangible results can be observed, but there is no looking back.

1. ^{T.N. retains third spot in SDG index; Sanjay Vijayakumar The Hindu, Dec 31st 2019}
2. ^{HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX ACROSS INDIAN STATES; SBI, Ecowrap Issue No: 94 , FY19, Mar 8th 2019,}
3. ^{Status of Human Development, TN Human Development Report 2017}
4. ^{MGR: A Life’ by R. Kannan; Book Excerpt: MGR, the Man Who Fed 66 Lakh Children With His Nutritious Mid-Day Meal Scheme, July 1 2017}
5. ^{Tamil Nadu govt to set up medical colleges in 11 districts, add 1,650 seats; Business Standard, Oct 26th 2020}

Mother of all languages!
While there were clues and hints of this, i had not paid a lot of attention before. The younger and much more ignorant me, actually, more importantly, political leanings, lead me to believe and dismiss earlier indications as Thamizh chauvinism. I failed to distinguish this, and see the real love its speakers and followers had for this classic and original language. It was common opinion that Thamizh began sometime in the 3rd Century BCE. Although there are several sources that dispute this even today.
Now there is more evidence, thanks to recent excavations at Keezhadi that have pushed the date even back by another 300 years, to the start of 6th century BCE. But i see the usage of the Tamili script that was discovered here at Keezhadi were used by the most common man, for example, inscriptions on a clay pot, to indicate ownership or sales. Only goes to show that if the language was used for reading and writing by common man, there must have been in use, along with some form of institutionalized knowledge dissemination (education), to ensure reach at the lowest level of the hierarchy. While this speaks volumes of the culture and traditions of the Tamil people, there is more to this about the antiquity of the language itself. The evolution must be at least another half-century or even a full century before this discovery. There are of course evidence of writings on stone walls and rocks, that are actually tough to date. But the use of script and form, help place them as before or after a dated finding.
The evolution of the Tamili (or otherwise called Tamil-Brahmi) script also helps place the language before every other language in use in the sub-continent today. All other forms of Dravidian and proto-Dravidian languages are all dead now, and possibly way before the beginning of the common era.
After almost 2500+ years of evolution, with a strong collection of classic literature, grammar and poetry, all of them dated possibly as old as the language itself, only goes to show that there is more to be learnt on how Thamizh evolved and established itself in the southern tip of sub-continent, and then spread out to the remainder of the world.

Tamil vs Thamizh!
Let me attempt to fix this now and forever. Thamizh is written as “தமிழ்”, and hence the correction in spelling to enable better pronunciation. Like many languages have unique letters and pronunciation, the tongue-twisting “ழ” (Zha) is considered this language most beautiful contribution. In the anglicized dictionary, the “Zha” is to represent this sound, but the sound is actually the extreme for “ல” (la) “ள” (LLa) thicker form, and then pull the tongue further into the mouth to create the “ழ” (Zha) sound. Unfortunately even in the Thamizh speaking population, many find it difficult to get this right. Hence i think people believe this is an original.
Thamizh and Malayalam, both of which i speak and understand, share many of these consonants, that are unique to this Dravidian language. Kannada, Telugu, Marathi are other languages that share some special consonants that are purely Dravidian, or Thamizh origination (those that i know of). But if you evaluate the script, letters and usage, there is clear evidence that the Tamili script contributed all its learning to almost all languages of the sub-continent, even as they were influenced and or infused with foreign languages, or simply drifted away.
Sanskrit came much later, but even then and today, this language was restricted in use. Today there are only about 25000 people who claim that Sanskrit as their mother-tongue. The number will increase given the central government partiality to popularize and induct this brahminical language on the people here. Not that i have anything against the language, but a big problem with its speakers and proponents. The colour of saffron and as bearers of the flag of casteism, which are intricately entwined with the speakers of this language.
Thamizh on the other hand was the language of the masses. The Sangam culture made it very clear, that even though there existed a class hierarchy, the language and education were not restricted to the upper class. The Sangam literature is replete with discussions on how the language has its own power structure, and how its speakers and literary artists could further its use and application. The love for the language and its growth as is evident even today seemed tightly coupled with mass population.

National Language of India
If there is a language that should hold the pride of place as India’s National Language, it must be Thamizh (Tamil). Having birthed so many of India’s languages, there can be no other choice. Not surely by the count of speakers. Because like the erstwhile Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu once said, “if we were to decide the national bird by count, then it should be the common crow, that should be India’s national bird, and not the regal peacock that it is today”. National Language is a position of pride. And for a country as diverse like India, what better language to chose than Thamizh; one that originated here, and also nourished other languages.
Today India has no National Language, only official languages which are two, and 22 others are listed scheduled languages. While these are also called regional language, Thamizh is clearly not a regional language. If it all, it is also an international language, with official sanctity in other countries. Thamizh was provided with a special classification, as a “Classical Language”, but now there are many in this category and some which are not even half the age as Thamizh. But more importantly, Thamizh is not a dead language like Sanskrit. It is a thriving and growing language. It survived 2500 or more years to get here and borrowed little from other languages, unlike others. It is about time that we declare and call this is our true National Language, with pride.