India, as a country, is often hailed as the largest democracy in the world. But it has many traits to be termed appositely as the largest Racist power to exist in human history without any exaggeration, as one sixth of the global population is directly affected by it. This nature of its governance could be attributed to the success of British Empire in depriving different ethnic groups, who inhabited this subcontinent, of their actual history and assimilating them under a historical narrative, on communal lines, which favoured exploitation of natural resources of this land by an authoritarian administration of them. Britain was conscious about maintaining this subcontinent as a single political entity to maximize their geostrategic outreach into South Asia and Indian ocean. With the transformation of “British Raj” to “Indian union”, rulers in Delhi construed India’s Union government as an authority that enabled appropriation of all Ethno-National identities of the population under its governance. The constituent assembly members framed a constitution which perceives this country as “
an indestructible union of destructible states” and thereby requiring every state to stand up to the tyranny of successive union governments, since 1950, to safeguard their autonomy.
EXISTENTIAL CRISIS FOR TAMILNADU AS A NATION STATE IN INDIAN UNION
While some of the recent bills and acts, such as CAA, NPR, and NRC are generating dissents from various sections of the society, demanding the restoration of religious harmony, a pernicious machination is on the making without a serious cognizance from the vulnerable population who happen to be its target. Members of union government act coherently, irrespective of party differences, to subjugate ethnic groups whose National and cultural identities have not withered away albeit decades of assimilation process through Hinduism and secularism. Instigation of population migration from Hindi, Bengali, and Gujarati belt states targeting Tamil Nadu and other north eastern states is aimed to achieve these objectives.
Statistical data about Tamil Nadu demographics are indicating an estimated influx of more than 1 crore people from Hindi mainland. This is a consequence of an alarming trend that has taken shape in the past 10 years, which indicates a possibility of a catastrophic increase of Non-Tamils in Tamil Nadu in the following years.
DEPREDATION OF TAMIL ECONOMY
Even a conservative estimate, consistent with the pay scale in Tamil Nadu, would put the annual salary of these Non-Tamil migrant workers at a whopping value of $40 Billion, almost a sixth of Tamil Nadu’s GDP. A significant amount of this is sent back to their state. This is a staggering outflow of the wealth of Tamil Nadu which, otherwise would have been invested back in the state by Tamil workers. An accurate estimation of this economic exploitation is proving to be impossible due to the reservations of the union government in releasing the datas about the migrant population inside various states and this increases the apprehension about the extent of actual wrecks by this migrant population
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Apart from these migrations, there is an emerging pattern of excluding Tamils in union government jobs by rigging exams to replace them with non-Tamils, a direct attempt by the union government institutions to deprive Tamils of their rightful jobs.
THE INCONGRUOUSNESS OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
The Constitution of India acknowledges its citizens only on religious basis, strikingly refusing to recognize their ethnic identities. While the
Constitution regards profession, practice, and propagation of Religion as a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT by granting 4 articles for the preservation of religions, it does not possess a single article for the preservation of ethnic identities.
The preamble of Constitution of the Indian union declares it as a “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic”, a proclaim which lacks to preserve the nature of composition of this union as an “Ethno-Federation”albeit braggingthe approval of various religious practices. ‘As such, the sovereign governments of every state have their jurisdiction purely on linguistic basis and not on religious basis’
INNER LINE PERMIT: A PRECURSOR FOR THE REQUIRED CONSTITUTIONAL PATRONAGE
The north-eastern states of this union act as a beacon for Tamils in their impending struggle for retaining their sovereignty. The states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Assam have acquired an authority to preserve their ethnic identities through the possession of Inner Line Permit rule, which bestowed on their respective governments, the power to give access for outsiders inside their borders.
“Considering the scale of threat, a pertinent conclusion would the demand for an amendment of the constitution to include a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO PRESERVE ETHNIC NORMS AND IDENTITIES and declaring this union as a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of Ethno-Federation“
A state which is founded on linguistic basis should, in principle, have its constitutional head belonging to the same ethnicity. A just form of governance should thrive in eschewing oppression irrespective of its origins. But on the contrary, the constitution in its current form voices for a reservation on the basis of caste to thwart caste oppression and remains disdainful in oppressions faced by various ethnicities.
While the election commission reserves constituencies on caste basis to assure representation from every suppressed caste, the inner line permit demand of Tamils should also include a provision for the declaration of the constitutional head of Tamil Nadu as being reserved for Tamils.
