I do not know Dharman Dharmaratnam to decide whether he uses a psuedonym or not. But I have read him before to know that he writes well and quotes solid history.

Thangavelu on the other hand was harsh. He commented on Dharman’s piece and expressed a severe condemnation of Hinduism.

The Editor of TransCurrents follows the established Tamil political practice in ‘running with the hare and hunting with the hound’. He publishes Dharman supporting the April New Year (which most of us do) and then gives prominent space to Thangavelu who attacks the April New Year on anti-Hindu grounds.

Talk of the duplicity in this journal.

Regardless, April 14 would always be our New Year despite the TransCurrent, Tamil Nation and Thangavelu positions. It is interesting that all these individuals reside overseas while the temples in Sri Lanka were packed with worshipers on April 14. The disconnect is obvious.

Happy New Year!

transCurrents Response:

publishing diverse points of view on an issue or topic is in the finest traditions of ‘ideal journalism.’ its not duplicitous this ‘wise fool’ charges, while the person writing under pseudonym dharman dharmaratnam says one thing,Yelupillai Thangavelu writing under his own name says another. trancurrents publishes both perspectives and leaves it to the reader to decide.

trancurrents is not stating its OWN opinion on this.

by publishing Dharman Dharmaratnam and/or Veluppillai Thangavelu , tranCurrents is not aligning itself with their respective positions. this would be blatantly obvious to anyone with a modicum of knowledgeable journalism or any avid regular reader of this website.

The pompous windbag writing under the name ‘Rajan’ needs a refresher course (perhaps funded by World Bank!) in basic journalism and elementary courtesy.

Anonymous: you lose your argument by choosing to be anonymous. There is no Tamil Nation. The LTTE is about to lose more territory and unlikely to ever regain its earlier clout.

Has Communalism dropped so low that this what we have to witness?

LOL!

“A Tamil nation never was and never will be.” Why don’t you wake up, pull up a table and some Tamil literature and read it. Your remark that a Tamil Nation never was is only laughable and shows the lack of understanding of Tamil history that you have. Either you made this remark without any thought, or you have no clue of what you are talking about or you are a person who is outside of this topic (Sinhalese Extremist, anti-Tamil etc).

Currently there is no Tamil Nation. One part of it is under the acceptable governance of India and another is under the unacceptable, brutal and oppressive governance of Sri Lanka.

1. One of the major drawbacks in counting Chiththirai is that it is not a continuous year. Its cycle consists of 60 years. This cycle of years is useless to record historical events.’
—Several communities have different new year commencement date. The one that is universally accepted and useful calendar system for continuous counting is the current version of the Gregorian Calendar. Then everyone will then understand a time period that is referenced.

2. Thus making a mockery of the decision of the de facto state of Thamil Eelam that endorsed Thai first as Thamil New Year!‘
— Anyone can revisit an issue; TamilNet is right. It is better to correct an error at early period.

3. One of the major drawbacks in counting Chiththirai is that it is not a continuous year. Its cycle consists of 60 years. This cycle of years is useless to record historical events.
— Thiruvalluvar period can continue to be used for continuous year recording. If we look at our seminal periods in our lifetime itself we are using the Gregorian calendar, and it is the right way. For example, if one say that colonial era in Ceylon commenced with the arrival Portuguese in 1505, then everyone will understand pretty quickly.

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister CN Annadurai once illustrated (on the imposition of Hindi in the South) that if we need to go from Madras (Chennai) to New Delhi, then we could use the same plane that travels all the way to London. No particular advantage in buying one for New Delhi and another one for London. Thus English language became the bridge between the North and the South shortly after India’s independence. This principle is applicable in many instances.

4. The change of Thamil New Year has not altered or modified the Panchangam or Thamil Almanac as some foolishly think or argue. What has changed is the reference point (in a circle any point could be considered the reference point) in the Zodiac.
— Absolutely. Any point can be a reference point. And in deference to our past in last millennium period, let us keep the harmless tradition as is, and it has a basis as well.

5. A close look at the six seasons given in Thamil literature reveals that they are out of sync with the actual seasons experienced at the equator. (a) Ilavenil Kaalam : mild sunny period : Chithirai, Vaihasi – Thingal (mid April to mid June) …
— This is why we should keep the mid April birth of the Tamil New Year (holiday)! Imagine celebrating Tamil New Year in Canada in January.

Thank God for our forefathers foresight.

Dharman is spot-on. Thank you Dharman for taking on the Tamil diaspora.

Thangavelu needs what the Maoists calls a ‘re-education’! The six ‘Thamil’ seasons he refers to are derived lock, stock and barrel from Sanskrit literature. If Chitterai is off the mark due to the precession of the equinox, so is Thai for that very same reason. Pongal should be in December, not January.

The astronomy that Thangavelu refers to is Indic, not Tamil. It is derived from Aryabhatta, Varahamihira, Brahmagupta and Bhaskara. There is no Tamil astronomy. All works of astronomy are in Sanskrit.

As an Tamil of recent Indian origin in Sri Lanka, let me refute the Jaffna bias of Thangavelu. The Estate Tamils do not celebrate Thai Pongal. They work on that day. The same holds true of ‘Indian’ Tamils in Malaysia and Singapore. Only Deepavali counts for us as significant. We go to temple on the Tamil New Year in April but even that is overshadowed by Deepavali. Now Deepavali is as North Indian as it can be. It is also South Indian. Thangavelu, the ‘Tamil Nation’ and Karunanidhi can not decide for us what to celebrate, what to prioritize and what to change. That is our sole prerogative, not theirs.

Thangavelu refers to the Sankrit names of the 60 years and the dismissed what he calls the ‘perverted Hindu myth’ behind that. If that is not anti-Hindu, then I wonder what is.

I went through the ‘Tamil Nation’ website and found it extremely ideological. There is nothing called a Tamil nation! We are citizens of India, of Sri Lanka, of Malaysia and of Singapore. And these folks are citizens of England and Canada. A Tamil nation never was and never will be. Wake up and smell the coffee, Thangavelu.

As far as the office-goer is concerned, he has one holiday less.

It is pretty miraculous that not a single debate was held, and no expression except that of consensus! The fact that a secular state has no business in legislating–imposing actually–on matters of traditional calendar apart, Karunanidhi’s government should have at the least, pretended to show some decorum in this matter by inviting scholarly opinion. It fails to name a single scholar who can show how he/she derived this date.

If this is another detested but time-tested dirty political trick, it falls flat. Shouting anti-upper caste slogans is understandable at one level–plus, it is open. If imposing an unscientific and fraudulent traditional calendar is Karunanidhi’s idea of “Dravidising” every single aspect of people’s daily lives, it is another proof of his own senility. In reality, the definition of “Dravidian” is itself a vessel without a bottom.

More here: http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/04/15/progenitor-of-a-new-calendar/