The Tam Brahm segment

Viewing a Karthik Kumar stand-up act recently made me think more about a pet peeve I have had for long.

His stand up comedy (at least the ‘second decoction series) seems to be focusing on one ‘segment’ of Tamil people that is very active on social media / online services and upwardly mobile. The same segment that ‘Put Chutney’ (at least their ‘Bat Man in Chennai’ which made them so popular) kind of YouTube channels focus on. The same segment that bloggers/Tweeple like Kris Ashok (many times) & Ramesh Srivats (only sometimes) too focus on. I think there are multiple Facebook pages around this topic too, some of which I have seen shared and seen in my timeline. (1)

Now, who IS that segment? Chennai-born/bred Tam Brahms. Notice that, “Chennai born/bred” — Not every Tamil, not even every Tamil Brahmin. May be some Non-Resident Tamil Brahmins can be added to it, that is all. I am from 160 Kms south of Chennai (Pondicherry!), grew up in a Brahmin household and most of those stereotypes don’t fit me. Stereotypes like ‘forced to learn/enjoy Carnatic music’, ‘forced into IITs’ just did not exist.

So, what is my problem with that? What is the peeve? My peeve is the way books/movies (typically from the North of India but even otherwise) showcase as if ‘Tamil’ means that segment and nothing else. You know what, brahmins represent less than 3% of population in TN and Chennai brahmins might be 0.5%, if at all. You want to stereotype all of Tamils based on them? Sure, those are the people who likely moved to Delhi/Mumbai in the 60s/70s and likely to the US in the 90s/00s. But still. (2)

My biggest irritation is when even non North Indian / non Chennai Born Tamil Brahmins / non Brahmins put up with it. Wonder if it is just out of having no other choice or out of the need to ‘belong’. I have friends/relatives who never knew what IIT was in their small towns, talk about how their family ‘always’ wanted them to be IIT-ians. (No they are not IIT-ians now, just random private colleges). Even non-TBs talk in those terms sometimes. Guess this too is part of the ‘Sanskritization’ phenomenon!

Now, how long will this sustain? How long can Put Chutney cater to only these people and others who ‘wannabe’ like those? How long can Karthik Kumar sustain his stand up act with just this audience (or content about them)?

History might be a guide.

Vikatan/Kalki etc. have moved on from catering only to the TamB audience (not necessarily Chennai Bred) to beyond. If you see issues from the 40s and 50s, you will notice that majority of the articles catered to the Brahmin community. Even jokes from the 40s and 50s that get republished now (look for those Deepvali malars) typically have brahmin language in them. By 1980s, it was all gone — with increased literacy and more people taking to reading magazines, things changed.

So there is hope that one day, these online platforms would also evolve too (3), and such Chennai TamBrahm focused content will exist only within their niche and not be clubbed as ‘Tamil’ in general. (4)

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1. This is not the only Tamil niche on Twitter for sure. There are so many sub-cultures within Tamil twitter — Some that I know of (with my limited use of Twitter) are Srilankan, Magazine-reader type, Meme driven, Fans of actor type, Dravidian (or anti North Indian), Dalit etc.
2. If you notice a tinge of jealousy in this, you are not off — This has been the argument of most people when I argue this. It — the Chennai/non-Chennai argument — started right when I was in REC, Jaipur, within our Tamil groups there
3. PutChutney actually seems to have moved on to cover quite some genres, from their recently activities
4. Or may be, this is the one thing that North Indian media will always get fooled about haha