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January 26 - February 27, 2021
The Self-Respect Movement was not a political but a social reform movement. Promoting rationalism (pagutharivu), and eradicating caste and superstition were its main goals.
The Justice Party desperately needed a mass campaigner like Periyar. But to their disappointment, he refused to endorse them openly. Instead, he announced that he would support qualified non-Brahmin candidates in the election. To counter Periyar’s charges of favouritism toward Brahmins in the Congress, the Swarajists were forced to field more non-Brahmin candidates than they had planned.
He placed three demands before Gandhi—the Congress, the Hindu religion and the domination of Brahmins had to be destroyed. Gandhi did not accept any of them. A frustrated Periyar renounced his earlier respect for Gandhi and started thinking of him as an ideological foe. It was at this point he stopped referring to Gandhi as ‘Mahatma’.
the communal representation legislation passed six years earlier in 1921. It did not go as far as Periyar had wished for,11 but it did reserve forty-four per cent of the seats for non-Brahmins in educational institutions and government
Speaking at the conference, Periyar announced the removal of the caste suffix ‘Naicker’ from his name as a symbol of renouncing caste. It was an extremely bold act during a time when almost everyone used a caste suffix; Periyar was putting his principles to practice.
Probably what started the initialisation and patronymisation of lastnames
They were conducted without any Brahmin priests or chanting of the ritual Sanskrit hymns. They were often deliberately conducted in times considered inauspicious (Rahu Kaalam). Some even took place at midnight. They did away with the thali-tying ceremony and instead had the couple taking oaths promising to treat each other equally and as friends.
But in the Self-Respect Movement, it was the women who did all the talking and they targeted wives instead of husbands.
When Satyamurti argued for keeping the tradition alive, Muthulakshmi created a sensation by asking him to send his daughter to be trained as a courtesan instead. However, the bill was defeated in the council due to lack of support.
He reasoned that Islam was the only religion that did not discriminate on the basis of birth and for an Adi-Dravida, conversion would offer a way to shed his shackles and live a dignified life.
The Congress’ obsession with Hindi had its roots in Gandhi’s belief that Hindi would be able to unite Indians linguistically against the colonial power.29 However, they did not take into account the fierce linguistic pride of the Tamils and the reaction this move would have on them.
Kudi Arasu carried cartoons titled ‘Acharyar Sagasam’ (The misadventures of the acharya) depicting Rajaji as a villain trying to stab Tamil Thai (mother Tamil) and even disrobing her.
Many in the Congress, like Satyamurti, were uneasy with the party itself using such a draconian law against civilians. He advised Rajaji to make Hindi an optional subject and thus deprive the agitators of a cause to create trouble. He was supported by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan35 and T.T. Krishnamachari.
On 21 February 1940, the governor made Hindi an optional subject in schools. Thus, the first language war ended with a victory for Periyar and the Self-Respect Movement.
In December 1937, when the opponents of Hindi first got together at a public anti-Hindi meeting in Velur, a resolution had been passed demanding a separate province for Tamil-speaking people.
The party designed a new Tamil flag featuring the emblems of the three ancient Tamil kingdoms38 and used it in its processions in the anti-Hindi agitation.
Periyar hoped that the idea of Dravida Nadu would engage the public’s imagination like Jinnah’s demand for a separate state for Muslims.
Periyar had earlier written an alternate version of the Ramayana,42 where he had offered a fresh new perspective on the story of Rama. Contrary to the usual practice, he had depicted Rama as a villain, while extolling the virtues of the Rakshasa king Ravana.
Periyar formed an ‘anti-Hindi Army’ and named Anna its ‘Dictator’. Viduthalai and Dravida Nadu started attacking the new policy. June and July went by in a whirl of protest marches, conferences and demonstrations. When Rajaji (by now the governor general of the Indian dominion)55 visited the state in August 1947, the Dravidar Kazhagam greeted him with black flags. Periyar and Anna were arrested under Section 75 of the IPC56 and thrown in jail. The protest continued without them and soon they were released.
In those days it was common to see exclusive ‘Brahmin coffee clubs’ and ‘Brahmin hotels’ in the state. They had a separate dining area for the Brahmins. Periyar announced a campaign against this practice and organized picketing of the establishments catering exclusively to Brahmins.79 Dravidar Kazhagam volunteers tarred the word ‘Brahmin’ in the name boards of those establishments.
Having failed in his attempt to ban Brahmin hotels, he ratcheted up his campaign a bit. He declared the tuft and the punool (sacred thread) worn by the Brahmins as a symbol of high caste oppression and announced his intention to cut them off.
The First step towards abolition of caste would be to give up marks that indicate one’s caste. The idea of superiority or inferiority by birth should be eliminated from the minds of the people.
Unfortunately for him, the Hindi fanatics in the central government did not heed Kamaraj’s warnings and were intent on making it the sole official language of the nation. When the violence subsided after Anna’s appeal to the students, Periyar believed it to be the proof of the DMK being behind the violence. The agitation ended as a victory for the DMK—the central government backtracked and assured Tamils that the status quo would be preserved; English would continue as an official language.
Tamil conference held at Chennai in 1968. DMK, which claimed to be a patron of the Tamil language, organized the conference at a huge cost and with great fanfare. Periyar felt such an extravaganza was unnecessary for the state: Why do we need a conference for Tamil? Why not a conference for onions? Our improvement and welfare has nothing to do with speaking in chaste Tamil. We should use a mixture of English and Tamil while speaking.
Periyar also did not like the flagship programme of DMK’s election manifesto—providing three measures of rice for one rupee.83 According to him, the scheme was economically unfeasible and he urged Anna to drop it as soon as possible.
In 1970, he launched an agitation demanding people of all castes should be allowed to become priests in Hindu temples. As such there was no law preventing anyone from becoming a priest; only the weight of tradition limited priesthood to Brahmins alone. Periyar’s logic was that since the tax money of non-Brahmins was being utilized to run temples, they should be allowed to become priests. As part of the agitation, he revived some aspects of his campaign against Brahmins. This time he did not call for outright social boycott of Brahmins, but initiated a limited anti-Brahmin propaganda campaign.
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But MGR did not listen to him—he started a new party called Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) to oppose the DMK. Periyar was angered by his actions. ‘It is Annadurai’s fault,’ he lamented. ‘MGR is not one of us and he doesn’t belong to our race. Why did Annadurai allow him to join the party? Maybe if he did not have tax problems, he would not have started a new party.’
He summed up the state of the Dravidian movement thus: When I started the Self-Respect Movement, we had five basic goals—to destroy God, Gandhi, Congress, Religion and Brahmins. Of these, Gandhi is dead; Congress too is gone. God’s condition is laughable. But when we pass laws to allow anyone to become priests, they [Brahmins] get it annulled. We should change this state of affairs.
