The University of Madras had some time back removed from its curriculum Thunbakeni , a short story by late Pudumaipithan, which portrays a SC/ST woman who had left India to make a living as a plantation worker in Sri Lanka.

On the surface, it may seem an “unwise” decision. But the university could no longer afford to allow anything even remotely seen as denigrating SC/ST after a major shift in the composition of students pursuing university-level Tamil courses.

“Today, a majority of the students pursuing a degree course in Tamil are SC/ST. While I am against approaching a literary work with a coloured view, I must also take into consideration the vicious atmosphere that exists on the campus. A SC/ST students will certainly squirm at the pathetic condition of a SC/ST character though it is a fiction,” said the former VCK MLA, Ravikumar.

For example, in the Tamil department of the University of Madras, of the 11 students pursuing MA, six are SC/ST. Six out of 11 M.Phil students are SC/ST. Importantly, all five PhD scholars are SC/ST. The fact remains that though the department could admit 20 students in MA, it could not fill the seats.

Ma. Rajendran, former Vice-Chancellor of Tamil University in Thanjavur, predicted that in 20 years from now, all Tamil teachers in schools and colleges and scholars at universities could be only from among the SC/ST. He attributed this pattern to the socio-economic conditions in Tamil Nadu.

“Of course, most of the Tamil students are SC/ST as students from poor families lack the wherewithal to pursue other courses,” said Dr. Rajendran.