E.V.

RAMASWAMI NAICKER, PERIYAR

E.V. Ramaswami Naicker was a prominent social reformer of India in the twentieth century.
He was born of Balijsa Naidu parents on 28 September, 1879 at Erode in Coimbatore District
in Tamil Nadu, the Madras Presidency. He belonged to the Naicker caste, a backward caste
but his family was a prosperous business family in that district.He did not have any formal
education as he studied till 4th class. His childhood days showed rebellious character which
continued with his social and political activities. He defied all caste rules and regulations in
his childhood and for that he was often taken to task by his parents.
Periyar initially listened to religious scholars at home but soon became an active participant,
questioning Hindu beliefs. At the age of twenty-five in 1904, Periyar traveled to Benares
(Varanasi), expecting it to be a holy city. However, he was disillusioned to find that the city
was no different from others, with Brahmins engaging in practices such as meat-eating,
alcohol consumption, and immoral activities. Disgusted by what he witnessed, he returned to
Erode to join his father's business, marking a significant turning point in his life. He joined
Congress but soon detached from it by claiming a brahmins party and thereafter, he
associated himself with the Justice Party which he headed in 1938. Six years later, he
converted it into the non-political social outfit Dravidar Kazhagam. The original formation
has now been sidelined and its offshoots—the DMK, AIADMK, and MDMK—dominate the
politics of Tamil Nadu today.
In the Annals of the presidency of Madras the period between 1927 and 1934 was important
because of the series of social reform movements which emerged and affected the social and
political life of the people. The reform movements were not confined to Madras bus extended
across the Bharat, communists were tried to bring socialism, the RSS started to emerge under
Hedgwar which tried to consolidate Hindus and in Tamil Nadu, periyar started his Self-
Respect Movement. Periyar's movement aimed to instill pride in non-Brahmins based on their
Dravidian heritage and aggressively pursued social equality. The remarkable social progress
in Tamil Nadu today is largely attributed to the tireless propaganda conducted by Periyar over
the years. A. Ramaswamy Mudaliar, in his tribute to Periyar, said, "At the beginning of the
19th century, the French thinker Rousseau kindled the reasoning power of his country men
and prepared them for the French Revolution. I should say that because Periyar has taught
our people to employ their reasoning faculty and because he has kindled their sense of self-
respect, he should be called the Rousseau of Tamil Nadu." That was the greatness of E. V.
Ramasami Naicker which made him a Periyar "a great man," a Tantai "father" and a
Thalaivar "leader."
GENESIS OF THE SELF RESPECT MOVEMENT
It seems doubtful whether Periyar deliberately shifted his attention from "reform" to social
reform" on the ground that the latter should precede the former. Periyar was actively and
deeply involved in national politics in 1925, when he left the Indian National Congress to
organize the Self-Respect Movement. At that time, Periyar seemed to have felt that he had not
been able to reform the nation through political work and realized that the reason for this was
the obstruction posed by religious beliefs and that his service was essential for removing
them. Periyar felt that intense work was required first for the removal of the miseries caused
in the name of religion and suffering of the people living a life without self-respect and only
then the attainment of true freedom would be possible.
The immediate provocation for Periyar to quit the Congress was said to be the discriminatory
treatment given to students on caste basis at the Gurukulam (a resident school) conducted at
Cheran Mahadevi (Tirunelveli District) with Congress funds. Periyar objected to the
provision of separate dining and living arrangements provided for Brahmin and non-Brahmin
students at the hostel. Another thing was that Periyar as an active member of the Congress
and a responsible office bearer but he also realized that all his efforts in the .Congress were
being made use of by the Brahmins in the Congress party. Therefore, he left the congress in
1925. Periyar bitterly remarked, "The Congress can not do any good to non-Brahmins. Here
after, my chief duty will be to destroy the Congress thus kill the Congress and kill the
Brahmins”. Periyar declared that the objectives of the Self-Respect movement were "the
establishment of a casteless and classless society with equal rights, free from superstitious
beliefs and the eradication of all social evils." Its aim was also to give complete equality, to
women with men including property rights, to promote women education and widow
remarriage.
THE DRAVIDIAN MOVEMENT AND THE ARYAN INVASION THEORY
The term "self-respect" corresponds to the Tamilized form of the Sanskrit word
suyamariyathai. It is a combination of the words suya which means ""self" and mariyathai
which means "respect." The motive behind the inauguration of the movement was to instill
the feeling of Self-Respect among the people and to eradicate all kinds of birth-based
inequalities and discriminations. It was influenced by the Dravidian movment that dedicated
to the ideal of giving the Tamils "a sense of pride" based on their glorious past, the Dravidian
past which was distorted by the foreigner Aryans. This theory proposed in the 19th century by
European scholars such as Max Müller and Muir, postulated that the Aryan Invasion Theory
(AIT) that claimed Aryan tribes-a light-skinned, from Central Asia invaded India in around
1500 BCE, destroyed the existing Harappan culture, moved eastward to create the Ganga-
Yamuna doab culture, imposed their language and caste-based system on the original
inhabitants, while quickly writing the Vedas over few centuries (Klostermaier, 2007). They
brought with them their language, culture, and religion. This theory is based on the
interpretation of certain Vedic texts, which are the oldest Hindu scriptures, as well as on the
presence of Dravidian languages in South India, which are thought to be the remnants of the
original inhabitants of India. They associate the decline of the Harappan civilization with
Aryan invasion as such they should feel proud on their civilization which was one of the
finest.
Danino and Nahar challenge this theory in their book “The Invasion That Never Was” on a
number of grounds. First, they argue that the Vedic texts do not provide any clear evidence of
an invasion. The word "arya", which is often translated as "Aryan", is simply a Sanskrit word
that means "noble" or "cultured". There is no evidence that the Aryas were a distinct racial
group, or that they came to India from anywhere else.
Second, Danino and Nahar argue that the Dravidian languages are not necessarily the
remnants of a pre-Aryan population. They point out that there are many Dravidian loanwords
in Sanskrit, which suggests that the Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages were in contact with
each other long before the supposed Aryan invasion.
Third, Danino and Nahar argue that the archaeological evidence does not support the Aryan
invasion theory. They point out that there is no evidence of any widespread destruction or
disruption in India around the time of the supposed invasion.
Klostermaier establishes “The AIT (Aryan Invasion Theory) is based purely on linguistic
conjectures which are unsubstantiated”.
Even Ambedkar denied the Aryan invasion theory, his findings show that Aryans and Shudras
co-existed and there were constant struggle between them for ages, where finally Shudras
were subjugated by Brahmins under the four fold Varna System.
The roots of the Aryan problem can be traced back to the 16th century when European
travelers, such as Philippo Sessetti, noted linguistic similarities between Sanskrit and
European languages like Latin and Greek. Building upon these linguistic connections,
European scholars formulated the AIT, which served various ideological and political
agendas. For colonial powers like the British, the theory justified their rule by portraying
them as civilizers of the supposedly primitive Indian society. It also made it easy for the
British rulers to show themselves as another Aryan group gifting true civilisation to India and
civilising the uncouth masses. It also perpetuated divisions among Indian communities,
particularly between high-caste Aryans and lower-caste Dravidians, thereby facilitating the
British policy of divide and rule. While later Max Mueller himself in a speech to the
Strasburg University (1872) had accepted that the Aryan Invasion theory was not correct and
Aryans were not a race.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SELF-RESPECT MOVEMENT
No account of the freedom movement in Tamil Nadu can be complete without an account of
the Self-Respect Movement. The philosophy of self-respect, which underlines Periyar's image
of an ideal world, was said to be an universally accepted one, a philosophy that preaches that
human actions should be based on rational thinking; conclusions drawn from reason should
be respected under any circumstances. Periyar declared that the Self-Respect Movement
alone could be a genuine freedom movement and political freedom would not be fruitful
without individual self-respect. To Periyar, self-respect was as valuable as life itself. To a
human being it is the protection of his Suyamariyadai (self-respect) which is his birthright
and not swaraj (political freedom), unlike Tilak. He described the movement as Arivu
Vidutalai lyakkam, that is, a movement to liberate the intellect." Human equality with stress
on economic and social equality formed the central theme of the Self-Respect philosophy.
Propagation of the philosophy of self-respect became the full time activity of Periyar since
1925. Oral and written media were used mostly in Tamil. A Tamil weekly Kudi Arasu started
in 1925, became the principal organ of the movement.
THE AIM OF THE SELF-RESPECT MOVEMENT
The aims of the Self-Respect movement have been outlined and stated in two pamphlets
Namathu Kurikkol and Tiravitakkalaka Lateiyam"
a) This movement aims to do away with such social structure of the society where one class
of people claim to be superior to others and some men claim to be of higher birth than others.
b) It aims to work for getting equal opportunities for all people, irrespective of their
communities it will strive to secure equal status for women along with men in life and
according to law.
c) All people should be given equal opportunities for growth and development. Friendship
and fellow feeling should be natural among all the people.
d) lt aims to completely eradicate untouchability and to establish a united society based on
brotherhood and sisterhood.
e)To establish and maintain homes for orphans and widows and to run educative institutions.
f) To discourage people from building new temples, mutts, chlorites or Vedic Schools. People
should drop the caste titles in their names. Common funds should be utilized for educational
purpose and for creating employment opportunities for the unemployed.
The aims and resolutions were recommended for the careful scrutiny and guidance of all the
people in Tamil Nadu, after the first Self-Respect Conference which was held at Chegalpattu
on 17 and 18 February 1929. More than six thousand people attended this great conference.
The next Self-Respect Conference was held at Erode on 10 May 1930, under the
chairmanship of the Guest National leader M. R. Jayakar that discouraged idol worship in
strong terms. At the Self-Respect Conference held at Virudhunagar in August 1931 under the
presidentship of Sri Kanchi K. Shanmugam, all the progressive ideas were emphasized, in
addition to these, strongly worded resolutions against untouchability and for the
encouragement of inter-caste marriages were passed.
After this conference, the Self-Respect Movement gained momentum and the people in the
villages realized that their children should have the benefit of education. People in general
were coming to realize that caste distinctions should never be encouraged. The practice of
having separate dining places for certain sections of society. Was abolished. Self-respecters
were the inaugurators of the temple-entry movement in Tamil Nadu.
THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE SELF-RESPECT MOVEMENT
The Self-Respect Movement was popular in its appeal. Though it began as a social reform
movement, its effects were ultimately profoundly political. In the words of Irschick, "it was
dedicated to the goal of giving non-Brahmins a sense of pride based on their Dravidian past,
which also meant a denial of the superiority of the Brahmins and of the Brahmin's implicit
faith in the system. One of the important achievements of the movement is the ushering in of
self-respect marriages, in which there will be no priest and the marriage alliance had to be
entered into by the free will of the couple after declaring that they have agreed to be life
partners by the exchange of garlands and without religious rituals in a simple function to
avoid all wasteful expenses. Right to divorce was included in this marriage.
His movement indeed led to the end of Brahmin hegemony in Tamil politics and social life.
His mission helped in spreading the message of egalitarianism and scientific temper.
Elimination of caste-based social segregation and discriminations, improvement in the
condition of women, right of temple entry and management to non-Brahmins, prevention of
supremacy of Hindi over Tamil and obtaining Tamil as official language thereby enhancing
its status and contributing to its growth, reservations for backward castes in government jobs,
which entailed the first amendment in the Indian Constitution, and the emergence of a new
leadership in Tamil Nadu from backward castes are solid instances of his revolutionary
legacy which are too visible to be ignored.
PERIYAR’S THEORIZATION
Periyar was a rationalist with all his being and objectivity was his avowed means of analysis.
Though his tools were scientific and universalistic, his concerns related to his milieu. He was
deeply anguished by an imposed and historically institutionalised order of Brahminic
hegemony in the name of religion, caste and spirituality which dehumanised the
overwhelming majority of Dravidian peoples in the South. This temperament led to the
philosophy of Self-Respect movement.
Abolition of Caste and Fraud of Religion
The fundamental problem confronting Periyar was thus the denial of basic dignity to the large
majority of humanity around him. . He theorised that the main reason behind social malaises
was casteism, which was imposed on the people of the South by the Aryans for their own
benefit. The system was sanctified by the basic Aryan scriptures—the Vedas. The principle
was the Varnashrama Dharma. According to this the society was divided into four Varnas, viz.
Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra and were assigned specific social functions.
Brahmins, the offspring of the Aryans, became the self appointed legislators of Indian society.
They wrote the Vedas, in fact, for their own benefit and declared them to be the words of
God. As such they assigned themselves at superior position in this hierarichial order in terms
of superiority and inferiority that led to divided society. The root of this division was
Brahmin supremacy and Periyar decided to eliminate this supremacy.
Periyar made it sufficiently clear that he was against Brahminism and not the Brahmins. To
him, Brahminism was the basis of the caste system which justified social inequality,
untouchability and many other problems. His prime goal was the elimination of the caste
system which he found against the principles of human civilization and self respect. He also
attacked the caste distinctions among non-Brahmins using only logic to prove his point.
He stated, “They lead the cow; take dung and the urine of cows to sanctify the temple. But if
a man enters the same temple, they consider the temple to have been defiled and arrange for
sanctification. Are they reasonable men?” Untouchabilty, he found, was based on religion
and religion found its base in scriptures which again claimed to be the words of God.
Attacking the very root of human degradation, he rejected the trio of God, scriptures and
religion in totality.
Women’s Liberation
Caste was not his sole concern. Among the many issues he touched upon, gender was a major
one. For the subjugation of women, he said, they themselves were responsible as they did not
feel that they deserved total freedom. He stated, “The way man treats women is much worse
than the way landlords treat servants and the high-caste treat the low-caste … Women in
India experience worse suffering, humiliation and slavery in all spheres than even the
Untouchables”.
Women were denied education so that they did not have the ability and intelligence to
question their slavery. However, the most important factor for women’s subjugation, Periyar
held, was that they lacked the right to property. In fact men treated women as their property.
It was for this purpose that they devised the principle of chastity exclusively for women.
Ramaswami was an early and consistent advocate of widow- marriage. He argued ” Even a
very old man who is already satiated with worldly pleasures tries to marry again, as soon as
his wife is dead. He also selects a very beautiful and graceful maid to be his bride. But, if a
girl loses her husband, even before knowing anything of worldly pleasures, she is compelled
to close her eyes to everything in the world and die broken- hearted. What a great injustice!”
Reriyar supported contraception as a means of enhancing the rights and freedoms of women.
He stated “Conception is the root cause of women becoming sickly, developing signs of old
age too soon and meeting with death early. Further, it is this conception that stands in the way
of women becoming ascetics, religious leaders and heads of religious institutions and mutts,
while men are free to become any of these. That is why we advocate contraception”
He sought rigorous education in rational thinking for women, changes in the custom of
marriage, giving right to divorce and birth control for the sake of women’s liberation. He
considered the terms, ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ inappropriate and called them companions and
partners. He also rejected the words, ‘wedding’ or ‘marriage’ and termed it as a ‘contract for
companionship in life.
Rural–Urban Divide
Periyar’s propagation of social justice touched another inequity plaguing India—the urban-
rural divide, or what is often today referred to as the divide between India and Bharat. The
fact is that economic relations between town and country dwellers are based on unequal
exchanges and while villagers do back-breaking labour and survive on the bare minimum, the
city dwellers exploit their produce. Periyar equated the status of villagers to that of the
Panchamas (untouchables) in the Varnasharama (caste) system, wherein the high castes
flourished by exploiting the toiling low caste people. The notion that shudras (backward
Dravidians) and the Panchamas were created to serve the high caste Brahmins was applicable
to villagers too as it was believed that villages existed to serve towns. He in fact advocated
that villages should be eliminated and even the word ‘village’ deleted from dictionaries.
Rationalism
The root cause of this human bondage and suffering, he found, was the lack of a rational
outlook among the people. Periyar asked people not to accept anything without ratiocination.
One should not accept anything only because it is old, customary, habitual, generally
accepted, based on hearsay, appeared mysterious, magical or divine, spoken by some saint, or
claimed to be said by God.The distinctive aspect of a human being was reason and s/he must
apply his/her this faculty in order to lead a life which could be called proper. In this process,
he made rejection of God the fundamental application of rationalism.
Revolution and Communism
His visit to the Soviet Union in 1931 reinforced his belief in materialism, revolution and
socialism. Periyar said that revolutionary changes in the affairs of men had been a
continuous process since time immemorial. He merged the Self-Respect Movement with
Communism and founded the Self Respect Communist Party. The action plan of the Party
included the nationalization of all industries, railway, banks, waterways, all agricultural lands,
forests, botanical wealth, community farming, writing off all debts of peasants, limiting the
working hours to eight hours, enhancing the wages and improving working conditions, and
providing amenities like access to libraries.38 He later disbanded the party in favour of the
Self-Respect Movement but his ideas remained influenced by Communism.
PERIYAR’S POLITICAL LIFE – DRAVIDA KAZHAGAM
When Periyar was young. there were two political parties other than the Congress-the Justice
Party and the Swarajya Party. The Swarajya Party, like the Congress was dominated by
Brahmins. The call for the promotion of the interests of 'Dravidians' was given first by the
Thenindeya Nala Urumai Sangam (South Indian Welfare Society or Party) which was
founded in 1916. The move for establishing such a society was initiated by Sir P
Thyagarayar. At the time of its establishment the Society consisted of such eminent non-
Brahman leaders as Dr T M Nair, Dr C Natesa Mudaliar, Raja of Panagal and Sir A
Ramasami Mudaliar. The Society started running three daily newspapers, one in English
called Justice, another in Tamil called Dravidan and the third one in Telegu called Andera
Prakashani. This Society was later on popularly called the 'Justice Party' after the title of its
English newspaper. The Justice Party contested the 'election' in 1920 and formed the first-
ever Indian 'cabinet' in Madras in 1921.
Initially, Periyar was the eminent member of the Congress Party but in 1925 he left Congress
by claiming it as a brahmin party. the only party which was dealing with the dravidan interest
was the Justice Party, as such Periyar was inclined with Justice Party.
Under the Congress ministry of C. Rajagopalachari in 1937, Hindi was introduced to the
South as a compulsory subject in schools. Taking it as an affront to Tamil culture, Periyar
waved black flags of rebellion in his first anti-Hindi campaign. The agitation against the
imposition of Hindi brought Periyar to the forefront of attention. The following year 1938,
while in jail, Periyar was elected President of the Justice Party. Periyar saw the imposition of
Hindi as a subjugation of Tamil peoples, which could only be avoided through the creation of
a Dravidian state. In 1939, he organized the "Dravida Nadu Conference" for the advocacy of
a separate and independent Dravidasthan."
In line with the Justice Party was losing its presence in election as such In 1944 Ramaswami
formed his own party, the Dravida Kazhagam, which asked for the establishment of a
separate, sovereign, nation- state in south India to be called Dravida Nadu. When India
became in de pendent on 15 August 1947, and when it enacted a democratic constitution and
celebrated its first Republic Day on 26 January 1950, Ramaswami observed both events as
days of mourning. In his view, they merely formalised the rule of the northern Aryans over
the southern Dravidians. Periyar, advocated that the non-Brahmans, i e, persons other than the
Brahmans, in Tamilnad should oppose anybody calling them non-Brahmans but should
consider themselves as belonging to the 'Dravidian race'. Periyar also propagated the positive
identity of non-Brahmans as members of a 'Dravidian nation' entitled to sovereign
independence from the Indian union.
Periyar's popularity suffered a disastrous blow in 1949, when at the age of 72; he married a
28-year-old girl who had been an active member of the party by arguing he had full trust on
her and who would lead the party after his death. On the pretext that the marriage was
contrary to the avowed social objectives of the Kazhagam, which included the elimination of
the practice of unequal marriages., C. N. Annadurai seceded from the party to form the
"Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. This marked the birth of the DMK. In 1967 the DMK
became the first professedly regional party to come to power in a major provincial election in
India. After some years. when Karunanidhi was the leader of the party. M. G.
Ramachandran seceded from the party to form "Anaithu Indiya Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam" (AIADMK). So likewise many Dravidian movements took birth. All of them
appeared as manifestations of the Dravidian movement at large. Like the Dravida Kazhagam,
other Dravidian parties emphasized the great role of the Tamils and their cultural heritage.
The Congress, once dominant in Tamil Nadu, has never since regained power in that state.
Without the ideological and organisational groundwork laid down by Ramaswami, it is hard
to see how this could have happened. To be sure, he may have himself seen this as somewhat
less than ideal— for he wanted a separate country for the Tamils, not merely greater
autonomy within the existing nation- state of India. Ramaswami’s message is nicely captured
in a statue of his in Tiruchirapalli which carries this inscription: ‘God does not exist at all. Th
e inventor of God is a fool. Th e propagator of God is a scoundrel. Th e worshipper of God is
a barbarian’. E. V. Ramaswami died in December 1973.
CONCLUSION
EVR Naicker represented the new emerging forces in Tamil Society. He was a stout follower
of Gandhian methods of struggle against the colonial power. But on the question of
communal representation and varanashrama dharma, he differed from the Congress and
Gandhiji and even left the Congress. The Self-Respect Movement was a new development
and was a revolt against the artificial division of society into varnas. The movement attracted
the masses who were hitherto untouched and claimed to fight against social evils like
untouchabiliiy. The more enduring aspect of the movement was the elevation of Tamil and
Tamil culture. Some of the caste rigidities were removed and representation of non-Brahmin
communities for which EVR fought consistently in liberal services was secured. But it had
also negative features. It uncritically assimilated the racial theories propounded by foreign
scholars. It saw inequality in society in terms of Brahmin contrivance and dominance. This
communal outlook led him to call the Congress and the national movement as Brahmin
dominated. He even went to the extreme extent of siding with the Muslim League and raising
the demand for Dravidianad. But he maintained throughout that he was not against Brahmins
but was against Varnashrama dharma, and Brahmins' claim to superiority.
Nonetheless, Periyar raised issues which are equally relevant today. The problem of dignity is
one such vital issue. His great contribution lies in fighting against oppression and for the
sovereignty of individual human beings. He attacked the metaphysics of oppression with
aplomb but he left his job half-done. He failed to provide a credible philosophy of freedom—
a philosophy ensuring and sustaining freedom(M.P. Singh and Himanshu Roy).