Aravindan Neelakandan (அரவிந்தன் நீலகண்டன்) is an Indian writer. Aravindan belongs to the post-socialist Indian thinkers of cultural evolutionism about Indian ethnogenesis. He is known for the book Breaking India, which he co-wrote with Rajiv Malhotra.
Aravindan Neelakandan was born on 16 June 1971 at Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, India into a family of academicians. His paternal grandfather was a scholar well-versed in the art of Varma kalai (வர்மக்கலை) of Siddha Marma science. His father, N. S. Pillai, is a Tamil scholar, retiring as a professor from Travancore Hindu College in Nagercoil. His mother is a retired professor of economics at the same institution and was a student leader associated with the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu.
Aravindan started his academic life as a student of agricultural studies and has a master’s degree in psychology from Madras University and in economics from Madurai Kamaraj University.
Aravindan began his public presence with his articles on science and Indology in the Tamil portal Thinnai.com. He was also a regular contributor of columns to UPI Asia. Apart from his published works, he continues to write columns also in Tamil portals Dinamani Junction, Solvanam, Tamil Paper and Thinnai. His works also appears in the Tamil website Tamil Hindu in which he is an editor. He is also a contributing author for journals and magazines like Swarajya and at sutrajournal.com
Neelakandan serves as a mentor to the Srishti Madurai which involves academicians and Independent scholars from universities around the world. Neelakandan has organised the launch of Gopi Shankar Madurai’s Maraikappata Pakkangal (“Hidden Pages”), the first book concerning gender variance in Tamil.