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Dravidians are an ethno-linguistic people group predominantly found in southern India, Sri Lanka, but also Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and the Maldives. The historical origin of Dravidians is a highly contested topic with theories that are often heavily politically motivated. But an increasing number of archaeological, linguistic and genetic studies seem to slowly uncover an ever-developing yet consistent story. Dravidians probably started out from the southwest of Iran (around Zagros mountains) when migrants from the Proto-Elamite period of the Elam civilization, probably in a bid to escape the increasingly domineering Sumerian civilisation and to spread their own culture (proto-elamite scripts are...

Previously, the Iron Age burial site of Adichanallur in southern Tamil Nadu had revealed an impressive collection of iron implements, currently housed in Chennai’s Egmore Museum, dated between 1000 BCE and 600 BCE.Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, while addressing the Tamil Nadu Assembly Monday, said: “It has been found that the date of the iron artefacts ranges from 2172 BCE to 1615 BCE. The results have reiterated the fact that the Iron Age of Tamil Nadu dates back 4,200 years, which is the oldest in India.”This finding has answered questions relating to the start of agricultural activity in Tamil Nadu, he...

Angry mobs in Sri Lanka have burned down several homes belonging to the ruling Rajapaksas and MP's, following clashes with government supporters. The violence capped a day of unrest that saw PM Mahinda Rajapaksa quit amid mass protests at his government's handling of the economic crisis. But it failed to assuage demonstrators, who attempted to storm his official residence while he was holed up inside. Five people have died and more than 190 have been injured since Monday. An island-wide curfew has been extended to Wednesday morning as authorities seek to quell the violence. Many are still calling for President...

Vice President Kamala Harris made history once again by becoming the first woman and Asian American to gain presidential power after President Joe Biden underwent a routine colonoscopy on Friday morning, according to the White House. Transfer of power: Harris, the first Black and South Asian vice president of the United States, became the commander in chief for nearly an hour and a half. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement that Harris took on presidential duties in her West Wing office while Biden, 78, went under anesthesia for the procedure around 9 a.m. local time at...

French actress Brigitte Bardot was fined to the tune of €20,000 — approximately $23,100 — for calling native Indian Ocean islanders “savages.” In 2019, Bardot, who is known for her acting in French projects, wrote a letter referring to the Reunionese — who inhabit the island La Reunion — as “natives who still have savage genes” in response to how they treat animals. According to the Telegraph, she specifically spoke about the Hindu Tamil population, criticizing them for “sacrificing goats” and using the “cannibalism of past centuries.”

The attacker, a known supporter of Islamic State, was shot dead by police. He has now been identified as Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, a 32-year-old Tamil, who arrived in New Zealand in 2011 and sought refugee status. Ardern, who described the stabbings as a "terrorist attack", said...legislation is expected to make it easier to convict someone for planning a terror attack. Samsudeen, whose identity was suppressed by court order until now due to his refugee status, arrived in New Zealand on a student visa in 2011. A surveillance team and a specialist tactics group had followed Samsudeen from his home...

Kamala blooms Editorial The Pioneer Thursday, August 13, 2020 [Image] Kamala Harris is the third woman to stand for Vice-President of the US. Can she do better than the earlier two? Kamala Harris' selection as the running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is a momentous one. She is just the third woman to stand for Vice-President of the United States after Geraldine Ferrero in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008 but the first woman of colour to do so. This, four years after Donald Trump unexpectedly defeated Hillary Clinton, the first female US presidential candidate for the White...

Forecasting Tsunami Threats Through Layers of Sand and Time Map Of The Bay Of Bengal The catastrophic Indian Ocean event in December 2004 that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries – including 15,000 in India – was hardly a one freak occurrence. It could happen again. Newswise — Azhii peralai: from the deep … large waves. This is the expression for ‘tsunami’ in Tamil, the oldest language in southern India. For an ancient dialect to have its own phrase for destructive waves triggered by earthquakes, the people of Tamil Nadu likely experienced tsunamis periodically through the centuries, says Halifax...

During the third millennium BCE, the Indus Civilisation flourished in what is now northwest India and Pakistan. Between 2200-1900 BCE the culture was characterised by long-distance exchange networks, carefully planned urban settlements such as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro that had sophisticated sanitation facilities, standardised weights and measures, and a sphere of influence that extended over a million square kilometres of territory. The culture was seemingly at its height when the end came (collapse attributed to climatic change) but recent research published in both the open access journal PLoS ONE and an earlier 2012 article in the International Journal of Palaeopathology...

Of lasting genes and lost cities of Tamil Nadu Papri Sri Raman (Indo-Asian News Service)Chennai, January 5 India's East Coast, especially along Tamil Nadu, is increasingly drawing the attention of archaeologists and anthropologists from across the world for its evolutionary and historical secrets.The focus has sharpened after genetic scientist Spencer Wells found strains of genes in some communities of Tamil Nadu that were present in the early man of Africa.In the "Journey of Man" aired by the National Geographic channel, Wells says the first wave of migration of early man from Africa took place 60,000 years ago along the continent's...

One way to understand the implications of the archaeological discoveries at Pattanam is to delve into the amazing wealth of data from the excavations at the lost Ptolemic-Roman port city of Berenike, on Egypt's Red Sea coast. During the Ptolemic-Roman period (third century B.C. to sixth century A.D), Berenike served as a key transit port between ancient Egypt and Rome on one side and the Red Sea-Indian Ocean regions, including South Arabia, East Africa, India and Sri Lanka, on the other. This ancient port city was well-connected by roads from the Nile that passed through the Eastern Desert of Egypt...

Police in front of a Muslim-owned clothing store's warehouse in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after it was attacked by a mob. An angry mob of hundreds of people, led by Buddhist monks, attacked a warehouse belonging to a Muslim-owned clothing chain in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Thursday. This comes as Buddhist hardliners ramp up their campaigns against Muslims’ lifestyles. The scene was eerily reminiscent of attacks on Muslim-owned stores throughout the past week in Burma. One video shows a monk throwing a rock at a security camera in front of the warehouse, as policemen look on and the mob erupts...

The United States has apologised for controversial remarks made by a US diplomat who spoke of "dark and dirty" Indians, calling the comments "inappropriate". US Vice-Consul Maureen Chao told Indian students on Friday that her "skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians" after a long train journey, according to Indian media -- referring to people from the southern state of Tamil Nadu. During her speech in the Tamil Nadu capital, Chennai, Chao was quoted as saying: "I was on a 24-hour train trip from Delhi to (the eastern Indian state of) Orissa. "But, after 72 hours,

People in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north casted an overwhelming majority of their votes to the candidates of the major Tamil party at the local government elections held on Saturday, the Colombo Page reported on Sunday. Despite the massive campaign launched by the ruling party United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the Northern districts where elections were held for the first time after 29 years, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), formerly controlled by the Tamil Tiger rebels, won 18 out of 26 councils. An estimated 60 percent of the 2.5 million eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots throughout the...

Remember when the 60s were fun? Father Jegath Gaspar Raj SJ has had a lot of interesting connections, playing an intermediary in the peace talks between Tamil Tigers and the government of Tamil Nadu, running businesses and then becoming implicated in running the 2G Spectrum Scam. Now he's worshipping Shiva to promote his musical endeavor and get himself and the local Archdiocese out of a financial jam. Some people seem to think that the Jesuits in India are pretty good. We're inclined to think they might be even worse than the ones in the West. Has anyone warned Father that...

Great news for health care! The Victoria General Hospital is reopening a whole ward that had been shut down. They’re even contemplating dusting off an extra emergency department. No more waiting lists in that B.C. city! Just joking. The VGH is indeed doing all of that, but it’s not for mere Canadians. It’s for a ship of 490 Tamils from Sri Lanka who decided they’d like to move to Canada, but don’t want to bother asking us first, or waiting in line like everyone else. Reports from the ship say there was an outbreak of tuberculosis. It’s a safe bet...

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canadian authorities unloaded a cramped cargo ship on Friday of nearly 500 Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka whose arrival has sparked a national debate over the country's immigration and refugee laws. The sun was just rising on Pacific Coast when MV Sun Sea sailed under escort into a Canadian Navy base near Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, and docked next to a makeshift camp set up to process the men, women and children on board. Officials said the ship was in good condition, but they would not describe the accommodations of the estimated 490 people...

VANCOUVER — A suspected Tamil migrant boat now believed to hold as many as 500 refugees has entered Canada's 200-mile exclusive economic zone and is heading for the B.C. coast. "We expect it will land either late (Thursday) evening or early Friday morning," a senior federal official said Wednesday of the Thai-flagged ship, the MV Sun Sea. While Canadian Navy and Coast Guard authorities would neither confirm nor deny the whereabouts of the vessel Wednesday, US Coast Guard Commander Mark McCadden said that the 188-ft cargo ship had been spotted approximately 300 miles off the coast of British Columbia early...

In pictures: Pilgrimage unites Sri Lankans The church sits on a site where there has been a shrine to the Virgin Mary for hundreds of years. Catholics, both Tamil and Sinhalese, and members of other faiths revere it.

... Mr. Rajapaksa, elected in 2005, finally put an end to the "peace process" with Prabhakaran and focused on winning the military fight. In 2007, with the help of a Tiger splinter group, the government subdued the Eastern Province; the first elections were held there last year. The fighting then moved to the North. It has not been cheap or easy. Military spending in the 2009 budget is $1.7 billion, 5% of GDP and 20% of the government's budget. ...