|
One Hundred Tamils
of the 20th Century
Periyar E.V.Ramaswamy -
பெரியார்
1879 - 1973
[see also
 Caste & the Tamil
Nation - Dalits, Brahmins & Non Brahmins and
E. V. Ramaswami Naicker-Periyar : a study of the influence of a
personality in contemporary South India
Anita Diehel]
"Men
should not touch each other, see each other; and cannot
enter temples, fetch water from the village pond: in a land
where such inhuman practices are ripe, it is a wonder that
the earthquakes have not destroyed us, volcanoes not burnt
us; it is a wonder that the earth has not split at its heart
and plunge this land into an abyss, that a typhoon has not
shattered us. I leave it to you to decide if you still like
to trust to a divinity that has not punished us thus; if you
still consider that God a just God, a Merciful Being. How
long do you desire a vast section of the oppressed, the
depressed classes to remain patient, peaceful and quiet?
Would you consider it wrong if these oppressed were to
choose death rather than lead such a life as they do now? "
Periyar E. V. Ramasami
"நான் மனிதனே!
நான் சாதாரணமானவன், என் மனத்தில் பட்டதை
எடுத்துச் சொல்லி யிருக்கிறேன். இதுதான் உறுதி. இதை நீங்கள்
நம்பித்தான் ஆகவேண்டும் என்று சொல்லவில்லை. ஏற்கக்கூடிய
கருத்துக்களை உங்கள் அறிவைக் கொண்டு நன்கு ஆய்ந்து
ஏற்றுக்கொள்ளுங்கள், மற்றதைத் தள்ளிவிடுங்கள்.
எந்தக் காரணத்தைக் கொண்டும் மனிதத் தன்மைக்கு மீறிய எந்தக்
குணத்தையும் என்மீது சுமத்தி விடாதீர்கள். நான் தெய்வத்தன்மை
பொருந்தியவனாகக் கருதப்பட்டுவிட்டால் மக்கள் என் வார்த்தைகளை
ஆராய்ந்து பார்க்கமாட்டார்கள். "நான் சொல்லுவதை நீங்கள்
நம்புங்கள், நான் சொல்லுவது வேதவாக்கு, நம்பாவிட்டால் நரகம் வரும்
நாத்திகர்கள் ஆகிவிடுவீர்கள்" என்று வேதம், சாத்திரம், புராணம்
கூறுவதுபோலக் கூறி, நான் உங்களை அடக்குமுறைக்கு ஆளாக்கவில்லை, நான்
சொல்லுவது உங்களுடைய அறிவு, ஆராய்ச்சி, உத்தி அனுபவம் இவைகளுக்கு
ஒத்துவராவிட்டால் தள்ளிவிடுங்கள். ஒருவனுடைய எந்த கருத்தையும்
மறுப்பதற்கு யாருக்கும் உரிமை உண்டு. ஆனால், அதனை வெளியிடக்கூடாது
என்பதற்கு எவருக்கும் உரிமை கிடையாது."
Counter
Current Org on Periyar's Movement, 28 June 2003:
"The philosophy of Periyar E.V.Ramasamy ( 17.9.1879 - 24.12.1973) was all men
and women should live with dignity and have equal opportunities to develop
their physical, mental and moral faculties.. To achieve this, he wanted to
put an end to all kinds of unjust discriminations and to promote Social
Justice and rational outlook.
To put his principle into practice, Periyar associated himself with the
Madras Presidency Association (MPA) in 1917. He was one of its
vice-presidents. The Association advocated communal representation and
demanded reservation for the Non-Brahmins and minority communities, as a
'sine qua non' of removing the injustices.
When Mahatma Gandhi (M.K.Gandhi : 1869-1948) took the lead in the Indian
National Congress, Periyar joined the organisation in 1919. He resigned 29
public posts he held at that time, including the municipal chairmanship of
Erode town. He gave up his very lucrative wholesale dealership in grocery
and agricultural products, and closed his newly begun spinning mill. Periyar
wholeheartedly undertook the constructive programme - spreading the use of
Khadi, picketing toddy shops, boycotting the shops selling foreign cloth and
eradication of untouchability. He courted imprisonment for picketing toddy
shops in Erode in 1921. When his wife as well as his sister joined the
agitation, it gained momentum, and the administration was forced to come to
a compromise.
In 1922, Periyar moved a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee
when it met at Tiruppur. The resolution required people of all castes to be
allowed to enter and worship in all the temples, as a measure to end
birth-based discrimination. Citing the authority of Vedas and other Hindu
scriptures, the Brahmin members of the Committee opposed the resolution and
stalled its passage. This reactionary stand of the members of upper Varna
provoked Periyar to declare that he would burn Manu dharma Sastra, Ramayana
etc. to show his disapproval to accept such scriptures to govern the social,
religious and cultural aspects of the people.
Periyar's determination to bring about socio-cultural revolution impelled
him to support even his opponents when they implemented his progressive
scheme. Though a Congress leader, he supported in 1923, the Justice Party's
measure to form Hindu Religious Endowment Board with a view to put an end to
the age-old monopoly and exploitation of the upper castes in the managements
of Hindu temples and religious endowments.
Periyar's vigorous and spirited role in the Vaikom Satyagraha (1924-25)
contributed in no mean measure for the triumph of that first historic social
struggle in the history of modern India. This paved the way for the
"untouchables" to use public roads without any inhibition and for other
prospective egalitarian social measures.
At Cheranmaadhevi near Tirunelveli in Southern Tamil Nadu, they started a
National training school as an alternative to those run under the control of
the British Government. That school, known as Gurukulam, was funded by the
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and by other non-Brahmin philanthropists. It
was managed by V.V.S.Iyer, a Brahmin. Under his management, they showed
discrimination between the Brahmin and Non-Brahmin students. Brahmin boys
were treated in a better way than the others with regard to food, shelter
and the cirriculum. Along with his companions Periyar stoutly opposed the
discreminatory practice and put an end to it.
It was Periyar's firm conviction that universal enjoyment of human rights
will become a reality only when the Varna-Jaathi (caste) system was
eradicated. Until the social reconstruction took place, he wanted communal
representation as ameasure of affirmative action to uphold social justice.
So he tried, every year from 1919, to make the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee
to accept the policy of reservation to different social groups and
communities. But his efforts bore no fruit in this regard. Finally he left
Congress in November, 1925 at the Kancheepuram Conference. He had to part
company with Mahatma Gandhil because the later was not prepared to put an
end to the Brahmin domination and to fight against caste system.
Self - respect Movement : 1925- 39: Periyar's philosophy is that different
sections of a society should have equal rights to enjoy the fruits of the
resources and the development of the country; they should all be
represented, in proportion to their numerical strength, in the governance
and the administration of the state. This principle had been enunicated
earlier by those who stood for social justice, particularly by the South
Indian Liberal Federation, popularly known as Justice Party. Periyar's
unique contribution was his insistence on rational outlook to bring about
intellectual emancipation and a healthy world-view. He also stressed the
need to abolish the hierarchal, graded, birth-based caste structure as a
prelude to build a new egalitarian social order. In other words, he wanted
to lay a sound socio-cultural base, before raising a strong structure of
free polity and prosperous economy.
It was in this context, the Self-Respect Movement, founded in 1925, carried
on a vigorous and ceaseless propaganda against ridiculous and harmful
superstitions, traditions, customs and habits. He wanted to dispel the
ignorance of the people and make them enlightened. He exhorted them to take
steps to change the institutions and values that led to meaningless
divisions and unjust discrimination. He advised them to change according to
the requirements of the changing times and keep pace with the modern
conditions.
Self-respecters performed marriages without Brahmin priests (prohits) and
without religious rites. They insisted on equality between men and women in
all walks of life. They encouraged inter-caste and widow marriages. Periyar
propagated the need for birth-control even from late 1920s. He gathered
support for lawful abolition of Devadasi (temple prostitute) system and the
practice of child marriage. It was mainly due to his consistent and
energetic propaganda, the policy of reservations in job opportunities in
government administration was put into practice in the then Madras Province
(which included Tamilnadu) in 1928.
Since the British rulers in India had no vested interest in perpetuating the
inequitable Varna-Jaathi social structure based on Vedic Sanathana Dharma,
Periyar and his followers found that they could influence or pressurise the
alien government to take measures to remove social inequality. So they
adopted a moderate policy in the struggle for political independence.
From the beginning of 1930s, Periyar added the programme of fighting for
economic equality to his original programme of working for social equality
and cultural revolution. Along with the veteran communist leader Com.
M.Singaravel, he organised industrial and agricultural labourers to stand
against the exploitation of big capitalists and landlords. In mid -1930s,
the central and provincial governments took steps to ban the Communist Party
and the organisations purported to have similar programmes. They started to
stop the activities of the Self-Respect Movement. Periyar had to take a
crucial decision. He had known by experience that there were supporters for
the work to carry on the freedom struggle and to organise the labourers. But
only a few came forth to expose the religion-based traditional evils, and
struggle against the exploitation of the powerful Brahminical upper castes.
Under these circumstance, he toned down his socialist activities in order to
be free to carry on the task of the socio-cultural emancipation of the
disadvantaged and the downtrodden sections.
In 1934, there was an unsuccessful move through C.Rajagopalachari, known as
Rajaji, to bring Periyar back into the fold of the Congress Party. Periyar
prepared a programme of action consisting of measures to promote Social
Justice through reservations, to implement socialisation of vital and
large-scale commercial and industrial activities, and to remove the
hardships of the debt-ridden peasants. He sent the programme to the ruling
Justisce Party and the Congress Party that was growing popular. The Congress
Party did not accept it, as the policy of reservation was not agreeable to
it. As Justice Party agreed to most of the measures including communal
representation to uphold Social Justice, Periyar continued to support it.
In 1937, Justice Party that was in power in the then Madras Province from
1921, except for a brief period, lost the elections to the Congress Party.
The Congress Government was headed by Rajagopalachari who introduced
compulsory study of Hindi language in the high schools. Those who opposed
this effort to make non-Hindi speaking people second class citizens
organised a vigorous agitation under the dynamic leadership of Periyar. More
than 1200 persons including women with children were imprisoned in 1938, of
which two, Thalamuthu and Natarasan, lost their lives due to the rigours in
prison. When the agitation gained momentum Periyar was sentenced to undergo
rigorous imprisonment for two years, though released in six months (Periyar
was in gaol five times in 1920s and four times in 1930s).
When he was in prison, a women's conference in Madras (now Chennai) passed a
resolution to refer to E.V.Ramasamy always as Periyaar ( the great man.).
While undergoing imprisonment, the Justice Party elected him as its
President on 29th December, 1938.
Periyar who opposed compulsory study of Hindi in the then Madras Province
was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years. But he was
released after about six months of confinement from 26th November, 1938 to
22nd May 1939. After his release, he announced that he would continue his
agitation against the imposition of Hindi.
As the leader of Justice Party: 1939-1944.
We have seen that Periyar was elected while he was in prison, as the leader
of the South Indian Liberal Federation, popularly known as Justice Party, in
its Provincial Conference held in Madras (Chennai) on 29, 30 December, 1938.
He was basically a fighter for human rights for all from the beginning to
the end of his public life. Now he added a new dimension to his movement,
viz., demand for an independent Dravida Naadu. He was driven to make this
demand in 1938-39, because he found the Brahminical upper castes whom he
opposed for their social oppression, were in league with the North Indian
Bania community (comprador capitalists) in imposing Hindi and in exploiting
economically the people of South India.
Periyar's concept of Dravidians was not based on the purity of blood related
to a race, but on values and ways of life. The Brahminical upper castes who
followed the discriminatory socio-cultural principles, practices and
traditions of Varna-Jaathi (caste system) originally enunicated in the
Sanskrit scriptures like Vedas, Ithihaasas, Puraanas, Dharma Sastras etc.
are Aryans. Those who subscribe to the egalitarian Tamil tradition and
values of humanism are Dravidians. It may be recalled here that while
addressing the conference of Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes in
Kanpoor in Uttar Pradesh in December 1944, he appealed to the Non-Brahmins
of North- India to give up the religious appellation of Hindu and call
themselves as Dravidians.
The Second World War broke out in September 1939. As a
protest against the British rulers involving India in the war without
consulting the High Command of their party, the Congress ministries in
Madras and seven other Provinces resigned on 29th October of the same year.
As Periyar was the leader of the opposition Justice Party, he was asked by
the Governor and Governor General twice in 1940 and 1942 to form the
ministry. Though a Congress leader, his friend C.Rajagopalachari personally
requested Periyar to accept the offer, assuring his outside support to the
Justice Party ministry. He explained that he wanted to put an end to the
rule of the Governor and his advisers.
But Periyar refused to head the Provincial Government on both
the occasions. His refusal was on two grounds: First, he felt it improper to
form the ministry without a popular mandate. Secondly, he firmly believed
that his main task of annihilating caste system and spreading rational
humanist principles would receive a set back, if he assumed power. Periyar
left for Mumbai (Bombay) on 5th January 1940. Dr. B.R.Ambedkar gave dinner-
parties twice in his honour. They met the Muslim League leader M.A.Jinnah at
his residence in Mumbai on 8th January 1940. Periyar explained then his
decision to work for an independent State known as Dravida Naadu. On 21st
January 1940, the Madras provincial Government ruled by the Governor and his
advisers abolished the compulsory study of Hindi in schools. M.A.Jinnah sent
a telegram to Periyar congratulating him on the success of his endeavour to
ward off the imposition of Hindi. When the Justice Party was defeated in the
1937 general elections after being in power for a very long spell from 1921,
most of its leaders were disheartened and became inactive.
It was at this moment of crisis, Periyar accepted the
leadership of the party because he always felt the need for the existence of
a vigorous political party essentially oriented to work for the upliftment
of the socially deprived sections of the people. At this critical movement,
two of the old guards staunchly stood by him. They were Sir R.K.Shanmugam
and Sir A.T. Panneerselvam. At the time, the former was the Dewan of the
Princely State of Kochi (now a part of Kerala) and then became Independent
India's first finance minister in 1947. The latter was a member of the
Governor's council and then a minister in Madras province in 1930s. On 1st
March 1940, he lost his life in a plane crash while flying over Oman sea on
his way to London where he was to assume office as an adviser to the
Secretary of State for India in the British Government. Periyar lamented
that the sudden and tragic demise of Panneerselvam was an irreparable loss
to the people of Tamil Nadu. The 15th State Conference of the Justice Party
was held in Tiruvarur in August 1940.
It was on this occasion, Chinnakancheepuram Natarajan
Annadurai (C.N.A.) respectfully mentioned later as Arignar Anna, became the
Joint Secretary of the Party. He fascinated the youth by his unique style of
writing and oratory. He played a great role in popularising the principles,
policies and programmes of Periyar through his essays, short stories, novels
and plays. In February 1941, the founder-leader of Radical Democratic Party,
M.N.Roy, came to Chennai and stayed as Periyar's guest. He sought Periyar's
cooperation to form a grand All India alliance against the Congress Party.
Both of them supported the war efforts of Great Britain as they considered
British Imperialism a lesser evil than the Fascism of Mussolini, Nazism of
Hitler and the Militarism of Tojo.
As a result of Periyar's persistant demand, the degrading
practice of serving separately the Brahmins and the 'others' in the
restaurants in railway stations was abolished in March, 1941. The
conservative section in the Justice Party disliked Periyar's radical social
reform programme, his critical view of religious literature and the
propagation of rationalist ideas. Unmindful of their opposition, he
continued his onward march and gathered around him the youth and the common
people. It was during this period in 1942-43 that Maniammai joined the
movement and came to attend to the personal needs of Periyar. She was
devoted to the leader and served him sincerely. They married later in 1949.
The Justice Party's provincial conferenfce held in Salem on 27th August 1944
marked a turning point in Periyar's movement. The name of the Party was
changed as Dravidar Kazhagam. The members were asked to give up the posts,
positions and titles conferred by the British rulers. They were also
required to drop the caste suffix of their names. It was also decided that
the members of the movement should not contest the elections.
In other words, the Justice Party which was political was
transformed into Dravidar Kazhagam and became a non-political socio-cultural
movement. It remains so even today. It was in the historic Salem conference,
Periyar allowed Mr. K.Veeramani, the present General Secretary of Dravidar
Kazhagam, who had not yet completed 11 years then, to stand on the table and
address the gathering. Arignar Anna introduced him to the audience as the
Thiru Gnanasambandar of the Self-respect movement. (Gnanasambandar was a
precocious devotee and composer of hymns in the Saivite lore). In the last
week of December 1944 and in the first week of January, 1945, Periyar
undertook a tour of North India. On 27th December 1944, he spoke in a
conference of the Radical Democratic Party in Calcutta (Kolkotta). M.N.Roy
introduced him to those assembled as his atheist preceptor. In 1945, a
volunteer corps of black shirts was organised.
The Dravidar Kazhagam flag, in the ratio of 3 : 2, a red circle in the
middle in the black background, was adopted in 1946. The black represented
the deprivations and the indignities to which the Dravidians are subjected
to under the Hindu religious milieu. The red stands for the determined
efforts to dispel the ignorance and blind faith among the people and to
liberate them materially and mentally from all kinds of exploitation,
particularly those of social and cultural. A two-day conference of
black-shirt volunteer corps was organised in Madurai in May, 1946.
On the second day the pandal was burnt down at the
instigation of Brahminical Hindu Sanathanis. In the same year on 9th
December, Periyar raised his sure voice against the manner in which the
Constituent Assembly was constituted. Periyar declared that 15 August 1947,
when India became politically free, was a day of mourning because the event
marked, in his opinion, only a transfer of power to the Brahmin - Bania
Combine, whose socio-cultural domination, in addition to economic
exploitation, would be worse than the British rule.
The adoption of the Republican Constitution of India in 1950 was also viewed
by him in a similar vein. Though he had basic differences with Mahatma
Gandhi, Periyar was terribly grieved when he fell a victim to the bullets of
a religious fundamentalist of the Hindutva variety on 30th January 1948. He
even suggested on the occasion that India should be renamed as Gnadhi Naadu.
The Congress government of Madras Province banned the black-shirt volunteer
corps in March 1948. But that only made Dravidar Kazhagam more popular.
As a result more than a lakh of people, most of them in
black shirts, assembled in the D.K.Conference held on 8,9 May 1948. Periyar
revived the agitation against Hindi when it was again introduced in the
schools in June 1948. Though the authorities were stubborn in the initial
stages and took stern steps against the agitations, they had to yield in
course of time to the popular will, and withdrew the scheme of compulsory
study of Hindi. The firmly entrenched and deeply rooted social evils in
India centre around the existence and perpetuation of the caste system known
as Varna-Jaathi which forms a basic and inseparable part of the theory and
practice of Hindu religion that sanctifies the stratified heirarchy or
graded inequality. The beneficiaries of this social structure are the
Brahminical upper caste people who have enormous material resources and
mental capabilities obtained through unjust privileges and exclusive
traditional advantages. Those who work for the complete transformation of
the social order have to wage an unequal war.
By his experience and serious thought, Periyar was convinced
that the individuals and movements that undertake the task of eradicating
the social evils in India have to pursue the goal with devotion and
dedication without deviating from the path and with uncompromising zeal. If
they contest elections aiming to assume political power, they would lose
vigour and sens of purpose. But many among his followers had a different
view. They wanted to enter into politics and have a share in running the
government. They were looking for an opportunity to part with Periyar. When
he married Maniammai on 9th July 1948, they quit Dravidar Kazhagam stating
that Periyar had set a bad example by marrying a young woman in his old age
- he was 70 and she 30. Those who parted company with Periyar formed Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam - DMK, under the leadership of C.N.Annadurai (Arignar
Anna).
Least perturbed by sentimental and motivated protests,
Periyar marched on with redoubled vigour to found an enlightened egalitarian
society. After the adoption of the Republican Constitution on 26th January
1950, Brahmins went to the Madras High Court and then to the Supreme Court
in the same year asking for the discontinuance of the provision of
reservation in educational institutions to the historically disadvantaged
communities, on the plea that the provision violated the fundamental right
to non-discrimination.
The courts upheld the plea and declared reservations meant
to promote Social Justice unconstitutional. Periyar organised meetings and
conferences against the judgement, and also initiated agitations that gained
momentum as days passed by. As a result, the Constitution {First Amendment
Act} was passed in 1951 adding the Clause 4 to the Article 15: "Nothing in
this article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from
making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and
educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and
the Scheduled Tribes." The Periyar Self-respect Propaganda Institution was
registered on 23rd September, 1952.
In 1953, as instructed by Periyar, the Buddha's Day was celebrated through
out the state urging the need to follow a rationalist way of life, and the
idols of the elephant god Vinayaga (Ganesha) were broken to demonstrate
symbolically the inefficacy of the innumerable deities worshipped by the
educated and uneducated people. In the meanwhile C.Rajagopalachari who had
become the Chief Minister of Madras State for the second time between 1952
and 1954, had introduced the scheme of conducting classes in the schools in
the forenoon and asking the students to learn the traditional jobs of their
parents in the afaternoon. At the first stage it was implemented in the
rural areas of the state.
The Dravidian leaders rightly assessed that the scheme was a
clever device to keep the Shudra and Panchama castes as illiterates or
semi-literates. Their children had just begun to attend school after
centuries of denial of educational opportunities. They dubbed C.
Rajagoplalachari's scheme as Castiest Education Plan (Kula Kalvi Thittam)
and began to agitate under Periyar's leadership demanding its withdrawal. As
a consequence, the Chief Minister had to resign in March 1954, and Kamaraj
assumed office on 14th April. Kamaraj abolished the half-day-teaching
scheme, and assured Periyar that his Government would extent educationasl
facilities to people in every nook and corner of the state. He also asured
that he would sincerely implement the policy of communal representation
opening up opportunities to the under-privileged in education and
administration.
As Kamaraj adhered truly to his assurances, Periyar gave him
his unstinted backing. Though Periyar supported Congress nealy 30 years
after he quit the same in 1925, his support was more to the person than to
the party. In Novembr and December, 1954 and in the the first week of
January 1955, Periyar and his wife Maniammai went on a propaganda tour to
Burma and Malaysia. In Burma (now Myanmar), he attended the Buddhist
Conference, and had a discussion with Dr. B.R.Ambedkar. Perhaps this was the
last meeting between the two great men, before the latter passed away on 6th
December, 1956.
They had similar views on almost all the points related to
socio-religious issues in India. Periyar went to the burial ground in
Thanjavur on 28 March 1955 to pay homage to Pattukkottai Azhagirisamy (Azhagiri,
the dare-devil), an ardent follower of Dravidar Kazhagam principles and a
fiery speaker, who passed away on the same day in 1949. He found a board
indicating a separate place for burial for Shudras! Periyar wrote a letter
to the district collector expressing his objection to the display of the
board and to the practice of following "Varna dharma" even while burrying or
cremating. As a consequence, the board was removed and the practice
discontinued. On 1st August 1956, the Dravidar Kazhagam undertook an
agitation of burning the portrait of Lord Rama as he symbolised the
preservation of Varna dharma. Periyar was placed under preventive arrest on
this occasion. The States in India were reorganised on linguistsice basis on
1st November 1956, and Periyar welcomed this measure.
In those days, the board "Brahmins Hotel" was displayed, following the lead
given by the Brahmins, to indicate that only vegetarian food was served
there. Dravidar Kazhagam objected to the Varna dharma connotation and
started an agitation symbolically in front of a hotel in Madras (Chennai) on
5th Mary 1957. Batches of volunteers agitated daily and 1010 of them courted
arrest till 22nd March 1958 when it culminated in success. The provisions of
the Constitution that helped to safeguard Varna-Jaathi (Caste system) was
burnt by about 10,000 volunteers of Dravidar Kazhagam on 26th November 1957.
In this historic agitation, about 3000 of them were sentenced to undergo
various terms of rigorous imprisonment, from two months to three years.
On Decermber 14, 1957, Periyar was sentenced to undergo six
months imprisonment in a case based on fabricated police diaries where in he
was accused of asking his followers to use force against Brahmins, an
accusation which Periyar naturally denied. Two of the volunteers, Ramasamy
and Vellaichamy, imprisoned for burning the provisions of the Constitution
supporting casteism, died in jail. Their bodies were obtained with great
effort by Maniammai from the unwilling and obstructing prison authorities
and burried with due honours, after being taken in an emotionally charged
procession through the main streets of Tiruchirappalli.
Due to the rigours they underwent in prison, about 15 people
died soon after they were released. In January 1959, Periyar went to
Bangalore to participate in the All India Official Language Conference.
Along with General Kariappa and Medappa, he stressed the need to retain
English as the Union Official Language. In February he undertook a tour of
North India and propagated his principles of rationalism, social justice and
self-respect way of life. In June 1960, Periyar asked people to burn the map
of India as a protest against the Central Government using the Union of
India for upholding and safeguarding caste system. About 4000 people were
arrested for taking part in this agitation.
In 1962, Periyar wrote a special article in the Tamil Rationalist dai ly, "Viduthalai",
welcoming the present General Secretary of Dravidar Kazhagam, Thiru
K.Veeramani who had offered to become a full time volunteer of the movement
giving up his lucrative profession of a lawyer. The Congress leader
K.Kamaraj expressed his wish to resign Chief Ministership and work wholetime
to strengthen the Party. Periyar sent a telegram to Kamaraj stating that it
would be suicidal to the people of Tamil Nadu and to him, if he quit the
office as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. But Kamaraj did not change his
decision, and consequently M.Baktavatsalam became the Chief Minister on 3rd
October, 1963.
As recommended by the National Integration Commission under
the Chairmanship of Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, the Parliament enacted a law in
1963, prohibiting the propa gation of ideas demanding separation from the
Indian Union. Periyar vehemently opposed the law. In April 1964, Dravidar
Kazhagam conducted meetings throughout the State, condemning the Supreme
Court's verdict against the State's Act fixing a ceiling to land-holding.
The spontaneous and fierce agitation that raged through out Tamil Nadu
between January 25 and February 15, 1965 against the imposition of Hindi
resulting in several deaths, was criticised by Periyar because it was
rudderless and unorganised. In the name of protecting cows, an unruly mob,
motivated by the Hindutva ideology attempted to burn the Delhi residence of
K.Kamaraj and kill him on 7th November 1966. He escaped by sheer chance.
Periyar strongly condemned this barbaric attack and called upon people to be
vigilant to protect Kamaraj by all means.
Dravidar Kazhagam supported congress party in 1957, 1962 and 1967 general
elections, and opposed DMK which formed the government in the State in 1967.
Soon after, Arignar Anna (C.N.Annadurai) went to Tiruchirappalli along with
all his ministers and paid his homage to his mentor. Periyar was happy when
the DMK regime renamed Madras State as Tamil Nadud and made Self-fespect
marriages legal. It was a non-religious mode of performing marriages
introduced by Periyar in late 1920s.
Though such marriages were not recognised by law till 1967,
thousands of them were conducted due to the influence of the principles of
Self-respect. In October 1967, Periyar undertook a North Indian tour and
asked people to work for the eradication of caste system. On 12th and 13th
of October, he addressed a Conference of BCs, SCs, STs and minorities in
Lucknow. Periyar was deeply saddened when Arignar Anna, one of his chief
disciples and an unquestioned leader of millions of Tamil Youth, passed away
in his 60th year on 3rd February 1969. Dravidar Kazhagam decided in its
Central Committee meeting in November to undertake an agitation demanding to
put an end to the practice of appointing only Brahmins as Archakas in Agamic
temples, as a way of removing one of the root causes of Varna-Jaathi. An
Award was given to Periyar by the United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and it was presented to him by the Union
Education Minister, Triguna Sen in Madras (Chennai) on 27th June 1970. The
citation hailed Periyar as "the Prophet of the New Age, the Socrates of
South East Asia, Father of Social Reform Movement, and Arch enemy of
ignorance, superstitions, meaningless customs and base manners." "Unmai", a
Tamil monthly (now a fortnightly) and Modern Rationalist, an English
monthly, were started by Periyar in 1970 and 1971 respectively to propagate
the ideals of rational humanism more extensively.
Proscription of the Hindi version of Periyar's book on
Ramayana was lifted by the Allahabad High Court in 1971. In the same year
the proscription of "Ravana Kavyam" proscribed by the Congress Government of
the Madras State was removed. On 12th January 1971, the DMK Government
enacted a law giving equal opportunities to qualified persons irrespective
of their birth in any Varna or Jaathi. On 23rd January a huge "procession of
the eradication of superstitions" took place in Salem. The processionists
carried large pictures and portraits truly depicting the events and gods
described in epics and puranas. When a few intolerant orthodox onlookers
threw footwears at the procession, the marchers used the same materials to
beat the portrait of Rama beheading the Shudra Sambuka in deep meditation.
This action of the Periyarists was blown out of proportion by the media
through out India. They also published the pictures of gods and goddesses
carried by the marchers.
This event was used against DMK-Congress alliance in the
general elections held in March 1973. But both the parties secured massive
majority - the DMK in Tamil Nadu Assembly and the Congress in the Lokh Sabha.
On March 14, 1972 the Supreme Court gave a seemingly ambiguous judgement in
the case against the Tamil Nadu Government's 1971 enactment that threw the
job of Archakas open to all the qualified persons irrespective of their
caste. As this judgement was interpreted by the bureaucracy in favour of the
conservatives who defended the status quo, Periyar announced an agitation,
exhorting people to work for equal human rights in all spheres including
social, religious and cultural. This agitation had become necessary to
remove the indignity to the people belonging to the Dravidian race because
they were dubbed as Shudras and Panchamas according to Vedic and Brahminical
Sanathana Dharma known as Hindu religion. Periyar organised a conference in
Chennai on 8th and 9th December 1973. It was known as "Eradication of the
social indignity of the Tamils Conference".
The conference decided to fight for equal rights and
opportunities for persons of all castes to enter into Garba Graha (Sanctum
Sanctorum) known as "Karuvarai Nuzhaivu Porattam" in Tamil. He undertook
extensive tours to explain the need to bring to an end the Brahmin
domination or privileges in priesthood and in other religious rites and
ceremonies as an essential measure to reorganise the social order on the
basis of equality. In the meanwhile the court set aside on October 11, a
case against carieing on the pedestal of Periyar's statues, his famous
pronouncements (made in 1967) denying god, and denouncing the worship and
propagation of the same. In his last meeting at Thiagaraya Nagar, Chennai on
19th December 1973, Periyar gave an inspiring clarion call for action to
gain social equality and dignified way of life. He fell ill on the next day
and breathed his last on 24th December 1973. Periyar's life marked a turning
in history and the beginning of a new era..."
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