Why Periyar is still an influencer in the political landscape of Tamil Nadu

Erode Venkata Ramasamy Periyar was born in 1879 in what was then called the Madras Presidency to a Kannada businessman and later joined his father's business. He joined the Congress party in 1919 but left it after he found it to be dominated by Brahmins. Much later, he started his own Dravidar Kazhagam party, which is considered the inspiration of all political parties launched later on the plank of Tamil pride.

Periyar's thought, philosophy and action revolved around his opposition to Brahminism. He said Brahmins had dominated all other castes through their religious principles and practices. He propounded rationalism and criticised the Hindu religion as superstitious.

In pic: Periyar with wife Maniyammai

He started the self-respect movement aimed at removing social injustice and inequality. He enforced marriages to be performed without priests and religious rites. He also propagated need for birth control and rallied for support to abolish Devadasi system, child marriage.

In pic: Periyar with Jinnah and Ambedkar

However, he believed in the ideas of Tamil saint Thiruvalluvar and hence held faith in the idea of a single, formless God. He found conversion to Islam and Christianity as a way for the lower castes to escape Brahmin oppression as he thought both these religions created better societies than Hinduism. Periyar was also against Mahatma Gandhi because he saw Gandhi not totally rejecting Brahminical ideas and practices.

In pic: C N Annadurai who was the first CM of Tamil Nadu with E V Ramasami.

Periyar came to be known widely as a leader of the lower castes after he led a movement in 1924 that demanded entry of Dalits in temples in Kerala. He is known the most for his Self-respect Movement that aimed at generating pride in lower castes. His campaign against imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu is the origin of all anti-Hindi movements later in south India. He found Hindi a tool of Brahminical domination of Tamils.

His most controversial movement was protests against Hindu idols. The movement involved breaking or burning of idols of Hindu gods or garlanding them with shoes.

In pic: Dr.Ambedkar with Periyar

Even though many Dalits find Periyar to be a representative of non-Brahmin upper castes, he has been a big anti-caste icon in India. More than that, his importance is due to his centrality to the Tamil pride movement. Today, no political party can hope to succeed in Tamil Nadu politics if it does not swear by Periyar. Even the BJP, which can hope to achieve little in Tamil Nadu politics on its own, cannot afford to be seen opposing Periyar.