Kuruba Party of Tamil Nadu - DMMK

It’s interesting and encouraging to know that our Kuruba brothers in Tamil Nadu have overtaken us in Karnataka and are getting organized politically. Just before the recently conclude elections in Tamil Nadu, they started a party called Desiya Makkal Munnetra Kalagam or DMMK. With the aim of fighting for the rights of the downtrodden and suppressed people. The party founder is Mr Muthusamy. The other objectives of the party are to conserve the forest cover, conserve the culture of the soil and also fight corruption.

The party was launched in march 2011 and they demanded 25 seats for their party in the grand alliance which the major parties of Tamil Nadu like the AIADMK and DMK were stitching together.  Their claim was that Kurumbas formed a majority in 25 constituencies. But unfortunately they made a wrong choice and aligned with the DMK which was routed in the elections and as far as I know none from the DMMK won the elections.

But nothing to be ashamed of , our brothers in Tamil Nadu have made the right decision. They have started a Kuruba Party like our brothers in Maharashtra who have started Rashtriya Samaj Party. I think this is the way forward have your own party otherwise other parties will just utilize you and dump you as they have been doing since the past 64 years. People of other communities have won the elections using our votes, but they have not done anything to our community, they have done favours to themselves and their community like the Lingayats and Vokkaligas of Karnataka. They win the elections by begging for votes from different community people in their constituencies, but once they win the elections they do things only to their respective community people, like getting them jobs, allotting them tenders etc, and also visit their swamijis mutt to show their solidarity with their community.

So in the castiest society we are living at present, much cannot be expected from the castiest so called dominant castes, who instead of leading other communities from the front are trying to suppress them for their selfish gains. We should fight our own battle and not depend on them. We should take other backward and deprived communities also with us toward political empowerment and only way to do that is to have our own political party, so that we can demand things rather than beg for things.

The best example of such a party is the PMK which is openly a Vanniyar party and has done so very well to have several MLA’s from that community elected. We will not or might never not claim the Chief Ministers seat, but will have several elected MLA’s who will be the voice of our and other backward classes. Good luck for our brothers in their effort, they are heading in the right direction. Success will be theirs sooner or later.

Kurumbas of Tamil Nadu

Not many people know that a large population of Kannada Kurubas live in Tamil Nadu, the region surrounding the Nilgiri Hills all the way down the Western Ghats on the Tamil Nadu side. They have their distinct costumes and culture. The most important thing which differentiates them from the rest of the people of Tamil Nadu is their language, they speak Kuruba Language a dialect of Kannada. Even though they have been Tamilised due to living in Tamil surrounding areas , they still manage to speak Kannada with a Tamil accent though.

According to some unofficial estimates their population is around 40 lakhs, which is a good number. These Kurubas are descendants of the Pallavas, after the fall of the empire they took shelter in the forests surrounding the Western Ghats, as a precaution and survival tactic from their enemies, this move of taking shelter in the foot hills of western ghats took their civilisation backwards from the peak during the Pallava Period to the present day low. These Kurubas don't have any connections with their brothers in Karnataka, this link was lost long time ago and the Tamil Nadu Kurubas have their own rich history and traditions. This also points towards an argument that the founders of Pallava dynasty may well have been Kannada speaking Kurubas who gradually took up Tamil.

Then their is second group of Kurubas in Tamail Nadu who are found again in districts bordering Karnataka, they might have been the recent immigrants or settlers who went there during the rule of Mysore Maharajahs, Mysore rule went down south as far as Salem in Tamil Nadu.  These Kurubas were local chieftains and feudal lords of the Mysore kingdom and many have the surnames as Hegde or Gowda. Then there is still recent Immigration of Kurubas to Tamil Nadu mainly Chennai, which started after Independence, and as far as I know there is a street named Kurumbar Veedhi near Triplicane, Chennai. People in Karnataka should show a bit more interest and support their fellow Kannadigas who are still living a life of poverty in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Kuruba Gowdas and Gotras

Kuruba Gowda's are one of the ancient communities of Karnataka and India. The fact proven by their ancient customs and traditions. Kuruba Gowda's trace their origin to the first humans who took up animal husbandry as a way of sustaining their families and formed settled communities. Humans were nomads many thousands of years ago, they sustained their families by hunting and gathering food, gradually they started to tame animals, animals which in character were docile, non aggressive, easy to tame and control. Sheep's, cows and goats fitted all these characters and were among the first to be tamed by humans. Cattle being larger were tamed after the sheep's and goats.

So the first humans in fact were all Kuruba Gowdas(shepherds), they tamed the sheep and travelled along with their herds to wherever the grazing fields were, so in truth these Kuruba's created only temporary settlements, but there livestock was their lifeline, gradually they started to develop methods of growing grain. Rice and wheat were tamed from the wild and these Kurubas started to grow them in large scale and this allowed them to settle down in one place and grow the grain year after year. This allowed them to settle down in permanent settlements, once this happened vast majority of Kurubas abandoned their traditional profession and branched into other communities like farmers and agriculturists, but still there remained a good number of Kuruba Gowdas who stuck to their traditional profession, providing milk and meat to these settled communities.

Once settled communities were formed and plenty full of grain provided food security all round the year, they started looking at making their life better, communities developed from these early settlers, Goldsmiths, Iron smiths, Pottery makers, washer men etc, etc developed into distinct communities. But Kuruba Gowda's remained the pioneers and innovators, they built Temples and started praying to their own distinct gods, the priests of these Temples remained Kuruba Gowdas. They developed the Gotra system to prevent inter marriages among the Kuruba Gowda's, which was an innovative method and remains testimony of the knowledge of the Kuruba Gowdas.

They built several kingdoms but did not take up education in big way, while the branched out communities over took Kuruba Gowdas in other spheres of life, a priest class was formed, numerous gods and customs were invented, progress was made in education, new methods to make life better was implemented, universities were built. All these started due to the first taming of animals by the Kuruba Gowda's.

Today Kuruba Gowdas are lagging a bit in modern education, thanks to their ancient profession. Majority of Kuruba Gowdas still stick to their ancient profession of sheep rearing and agriculture, efforts should be made to help them get modern education.

Goralamma - The Sheep Women

Goralamma in Telugu means Sheep women, Gorra is sheep amd amma is women or mother depends on how one interprets it.  Goralamma is the honorary title given to my paternal grandmother who lives in a tiny village called Bandarlapalle in Chittooor district of Andhra Pradesh bordering Karnataka, not far from where I live in Kolar Gold Fields. I can't remember a single occasion when she has left her home or the village, maybe once in the last 30 years to attend the marriage of my uncle and her favourite son some 15 yrs back.

She has not changed even a bit since my early memories of her going back 30 years, now I  am 34 and she looks the same to me, bright shining eyes, good vision and hearing and an amazing set of teeth. She has a wrinkled face, a bent back and probably would not weigh more than 35 kilograms or so. Her memory is amazing, remembers even small incidents which happened several decades ago, and knows everything happening in the family and the village. Her family is not small she has 6 children, 21 grand children and 10 great grand children and remembers each and everyone. I am being the only one in the family to have gone abroad is her favourite grandchild I think or I would like to think.

She is a women of real character, she probably got married in her teenage years, and lost her husband when her children including my father were still small and she took on herself to bring them up single handedly. The local village landlords did indeed give her a tough time, but she survived along with her children, thanks to a small plot of land and some goats. She had a couple of goats which were the life line of the family providing milk and some money. Those goats gradually grew in numbers and sheep's were added to her herd. My uncle i.e my fathers older brother gave her a hand in sheep rearing, since she had a huge heard of sheep she was called Goralamma.

Another reason she wants people to call her Goralamma, is the superstition that if they call her by name or call her as Avva (Grandmother in Telugu) she might die soon. Whatever the reasons, she struggled to bring her family to a certain social standing and paved way for prosperity, thanks to the family profession of sheep rearing. Now she is a proud Kuruba Gowdathi, queen of her little empire.