The south of India is perhaps the only true preserve of ancient indianness. Sheilded largely from the tumultous invasion corridor down the khyber pass from vedic times down to mughal times. Some of india's oldest temples, oldest surviving cities, saved from the sackings of the ghaznis and ghoris and haphazard, on and off, persecutions of power and wealth contests disguised in religious tones that plagued the middle ages of the north. From tirupati to sabarimala, kanchipuram, thanajvur to madurai..which was the southern re-incarnation of the vedic mathura much of the wonder that was india, is india, in the south. Hinduism was, before the great social reformers of vivekananda and rammohun roy, plagued with ills that ecclesiastical regimes often corrupted faith into. Sati, to untouchability to the abuse of the caste system. When a disillusioned ev ramaswamy left the congress party in 1925 to become the father of the dravidian movement, his was a battle not only against british imperialism, but also against brahmanical patriarchy. He sought to fight casteism in india, but no through reform per se, but by embracing an almost militant atheism. Equality was the be earned and preserved for the deliverance of the people, god was not required, in fact an impediment. His principles that founded the dravidar kazhagamn which with annudurai later became the dmk, was bolstered on such atheist principles. The ideal was not to eliminate the faith and religion of people, but to free them from the ills that were borne in the name of faith and god. Many decades and 3 generations later, the son of karuna is now the crown king of the dmk. On the face of things, continuing an atheist tradition, but, as he has repeatedly hammered home over the past few days, not anti-hindu. His wife is said to be a person of deep faith and it's not uncommon for the karuna family to part-take in religious offerings. The ram sethu may not be the biggest cause anymore, but hindu temples in tamil nadu are facing loot, land grab & ruin. Huge debates are raging on state management of the temples and shrines. Pm modi in contrast has yesterday promised to defend faith, pointing specifically to a shrine near madurai where worshippers are barred from entering for most of the year. So what are the reasonable and serious matters of those who have faith in tamil nadu, tamil hindu pride, that need to be addressed? Are the dravidian netas seriously addressing them? Is this an important dynamic who's time has come, or something which the bjp is foisting as some allege