This incident speaks in volume how narrow the minds of certain "Upper Caste" communities in Kerala still are,even after having vibrant progressive movements,100% literacy and relations with different cultures and people for 1-2 millenneum.
Sri Ravi comes from Ezhava community which is a progressive,modern and secularHindu community who have been kept as 'Avarna' and untouchables by the manipulative moves of a minority who came from the North(around Vindhya,I guess) and took over the societal control of Kerala in the 6th or 7th century.Nairs,who belong to the Shudra layer in Chaturvaryam and Ezhavas(avarnas) have no difference as far as physical features ,ancestry etc are concerned,even though Nairs became the pets of the Brahmins and Kshatrias for reasons like sambhandam(an arrangement in which Brahmins and Kshatrias could enter into conjugal rights with Nair women;though the offsprings remained untouchables to the Upper caste father),martial expertise etc.If you compare the living conditions of any other Sudra in India and the Nair Sudra from Kerala,you will see the difference.
Sri Vayalar Ravi,Ezhavas should not feel they are untouchables etc no more,They decided not to join the Caste system of the Brahminical order,but progressed very well as modern outlook and practising secularism with professions like Toddy making,Ayurveda,Sankrit teachers having littile kudipallikoodam(little schools)etc etc and their enterprising nature have made them come to the forefront now.
