E V Ramaswamy, known as Periyar, is Tamil Nadu’s famous social reformer. His father was a rich businessman in Erode, Tamil Nadu.  He grew up in a pious  Vaishnavite family, listening to Hindu scriptures from his childhood. At the young age of 25, he went on a pilgrimage to Kasi to visit the temple of Lord Kasi Viswanath.

Religious Experiences

In Kasi, he saw holy men mislead innocent people. He was insulted and thrown out of a eating place that allowed only Brahmins, though it was built by a lower caste person. Widely prevalent superstitions scared people and exploited them.

Questioning Religion

This led him to question the truth behind religions and castes. They were created by men and had no scientific basis. Scriptures pushed down lower castes and restricted women.

Rational Thinking

Analytical thinking proves that everyone are equal by birth. As years passed, his ideology revolved around the fact that religion and castes are imaginary and false. Rational thinking and Scientific facts are the ultimate truth.

He travelled across Tamil Nadu, spreading the message of Rational Thinking – Man should question everything rationally, before believing it.

Periyar’s Teachings

Analysis and Rational thinking formed the basis for Periyar’s strong views on:

1. Social Equality : He believed that Social Equality is the mark of a civilized society. He advocated equal rights for all castes and religions.
2. Women’s Rights : He strongly advocated women to stand up for their rights, become educated and financially independent.
3. Self Respect : He preached men not to give up their self respect. Do not accept anything that takes away your self respect in the name of religion or God was his message.
4. Scientific Thinking : He was in favour of constant change and evolution. He brought about changes to Tamil letters to make Tamil accommodate sounds from other languages. He encouraged people to learn English as it would help them understand the outside world and be on par with it. He questioned Tamil Literature, setting aside many as discriminatory and inhuman. He praised Thirukural as an exemplary social guide due to its generic and secular tone.

Self Respect Movement

During early phases of his life as a businessman, he held respected positions in the society as leader of various associations and organisations. He joined the Congress Party, but had to resign after a few decades due to caste based discrimination in its views. He then joined the Justice Party.

Later, he created the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) as a social reform movement. DK spread the ideals of Rational Thinking and Self Respect for all. This movement was also called the Self Respect Movement. He was the leader of this movement till his death.

He strongly opposed efforts to make Dravidar Kazhagam a political party. He believed that entering politics would compromise on his ideals. Later, when C.N.Annadurai broke away from DK to form a political party (DMK), many political enthusiasts left Periyar to join Anna.

Achievements

Periyar spear headed movements and protests against these practises:

1. Caste based surnames ~ Following Periyar’s example, till today people in Tamil Nadu do not add caste names as last names or sur names. Father’s name or Husband’s name is used as sur name.
2. Devadasi system ~ The ancient practise of devadasi (women restricted to living in temples for up keeping dance, music and other traditional art forms, but often exploited in many ways). Periyar led protests against devadasi system and encouraged marriage of women born in devadasi families to permanently end this system.
3. Entry Ban ~ Periyar urged people of all lower castes to use Public roads, enter banned areas and temple. The system of allowing only higher caste brahmins to enter temples and brahmin residential colonies was questioned and removed by Periyar. He participated in these protests outside Tamil Nadu too. Vaikom Satyagraha in Kerala is one such example of Periyar’s achievements.
4. Caste Based Occupations ~ Periyar urged children of all lower castes to undergo formal school education. He strongly opposed Congress leader Rajaji’s move to teach children caste based occupation.
5. Caste based housing ~ Periyar urged people to give up living in colonies based on castes. He urged people of all castes to live next to each other and share with each other.
6. Caste based Marriages ~ Periyar strongly encouraged inter caste marriages as the permanent cure to remove caste system from this society. He formulated the concept of Self Respect marriages, without religious ceremonies.
7. Education for Women ~ Periyar travelled far and wide preaching mothers to educate their daughters. He said educating girls is the best way for parents and girl children to lead a safe and happy life. He created a University for Girls encouraging them to study higher. He advised women to adopt formal western wear if it made them feel safe and comfortable at workplace.
8. Untouchability ~ Periyar protested against untouchability all through his life. He declared untouchability as inhuman. He declared that all men are born equal and deserve self respect.
9. Hereditary rights for women ~ Periyar advocated equal hereditary rights for men and women. He urged women’s share of ancestral wealth and assets.
10. Advocation of Reservation ~ Periyar advocated reservation for lower castes in education and jobs. He argued that generations of discrimiation and denial make the lower castes unfit for competition with higher educated castes. To ensure equal playing ground, he advocated reservation for lower castes and women.
11. Superstitious Beliefs ~ Periyar questioned superstitious beliefs in religions. He urged people to question everything before following. He praised scientific achievements of men in understanding the solar system and ridiculed religious beliefs that made up stories around the planets.
12. Existence of God ~ Periyar questioned the existence of God. He believed religion was man’s imagination, created by a caste that proclaimed itself higher than other castes. He encouraged people to stop believing in God or religions. Alternatively, he wanted people to develop rational thinking and scientific temper.

 

Periyar in Today’s world

Major political parties in Tamil Nadu, except for the two national parties (Congress and BJP) have branched out of Periyar’s Dravidar Kazhagam. Public and Politicians  in Tamil Nadu are flexible in many aspects of Periyar’s later ideas like Atheism and Abolishment of caste. But they strongly follow his basic ideology of self respect, social equality and women’s rights.

Tamil Nadu is one of India’s leading states in implementation of social welfare schemes. These schemes were continued by many leaders, starting from the late Chief Minister, C.N.Annadurai.

Tamil Nadu’s chief ministers – C.N.Annadurai, M.G.Ramachandran, J.Jayalalitha and M.Karunanidhi were all staunch believers in Periyar’s ideology. Their social welfare schemes were born out of Periyar’s teachings. Many more schemes are yet to come in future, as Periyar’s dream of social equality was very modern.  Today’s society has a long way to go before reaching his dream.

Periyar is widely believed to be the father of modern Tamil Nadu. His speeches were in common man’s words, without flowery and fiery words. He began his speeches asking people to question his words before believing him. 

Long live the spirit of Rational Thinking and Self Respect.

 

 

 

Image Sources: Periyar.org, TheHindu.com