Coimbatore : Dr. Aruna Rajagopal allas Dr. Aruna Arasuko of Tamil Nadu received the Ramsasthrulu Monagala Award for best research in agriculture for the year 1991. This award (gold medal) was presented at the annual celebrations of Madras Agricultural Students Union here.
Aruna, a noted Dalit scholar, is heading the Water Technology Centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here as its Director since Oct. 1990. Graduated in 1962, he took his M.Sc. (Ag) in 1971 and completed his doctoral programme in 1979. His specialisation is irrigation management.
He has published five books and many research articles. His area of study is ‘Identity Crisis of Dravidlans of India’. He has brought out the identity and glorious past of Dalits/BCs and other minorities of India. He is currently working on the topic ‘Buddha to Pandian’.
He has proved that Dalits of India were either Buddhists or Jains and also the blood relations of BCs/Muslims and Christians.
He visited US, Japan, Phillipines, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lanka. He will be going to Bulgaria shortly on a cultural exchange programme. He has translated the works of V.T. Rajshekar’s Apartheid in India into Tamil. He is also translating articles appearing in Dalit Voice. He is the first Dalit Professor at the University level in TN (1981). He attributes the motivation of Dravidian movement (DK, DMK), educational facilities of Chritians, and brotherhood of Islam for his achievements and disproved the Aryan/ Brahmin “merit” theory .
