What is a Tamil Brahmin?
They look like this?
Or this?
Are the Tamil Brahmins also settlers like Bengali Brahmins, not native to the land?
It is highly dependent. Take my family on fathers side....his father (my grandpa) was quite fair, "typical" brahmin kind of looking....whereas on the mothers side....quite darker. This was true on her (my grandmom's side) too. Her father (my great grandfather) live till he was almost 100, a vedic expert/acharya (knew all of them literally back to front)....and was very fair skinned....but his wife was quite dark....still Brahmin of course.
There is much variance because inter-marriage has been going on at a fundamental level for a very long time....especially in Kerala (where my great-grandmom originated from).
Whats funny is that it was the reverse on my moms side....her mom was quite fair....her dad somewhat darker.
So I guess I'm somewhat in the middle (I think)....my dad is a bit darker than me...my mom is a bit fairer than me.
As for being "settlers"....it depends who you ask. Brahmins (Iyers, Iyengars are the two major "clans" in TN) will say they have been there a very long time (in both kerala and TN)....but we have kept some certain things that differentiate (language, customs, food etc) that often cause a large consternation from the other castes and communities...and they say because we use Sanskrit based vocabulary a lot etc.... that we are not really Tamils....but oppressors, settlers, north indian proxies....what have you....after all the caste system was dominant here too for a large part of history and used by the British and others to further divide and rule so to speak (which Brahmins often benefited from and raised no objection).
Of course I am exagerrating a lot....for the most part Tamils get along quite fine nowadays....we like to argue among ourselves a lot about this and that....hopefully with time the various tensions can become a thing of the past as well.
You are confusing cunning attitude with intelligence
There are many people outside India who are more intelligent than all Indians even though they are not brahmins and dont belong to Indian races. Give education, experience , equal opportunities and equal rights to all races and castes then you will get many intelligent people from these races/castes as well
He is not talking as though its an established fact....but as a perception.
This perception does exist (shamefully)...but it is starting to wear off with time.
