Erode
Venkatappa Ramasamy commonly known
as Periyar, also referred
to as Thanthai Periyar was
born in 17 September 1879 . He was
an Indian social activist and politician who started Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the
'Father of the Dravidian movement'. He did notable
work against gender and caste inequality
in Tamil Nadu.
Periyar stands for a
politics that foregrounded social equality, self-respect, and linguistic pride.
As a social reformer, he focused on social, cultural and gender inequalities.
He asked people to be more rational in their life choices. He argued that women
needs to be independent from men, not mere and insisted that they be allowed a
equal share in employment. He appealed to people to give up the caste suffix in
their names, and to not mention caste. He instituted inter-dining with food
cooked by Dalits in public conferences in the 1930s.
He also advocated liberation of
women from the superstitions that he
felt were the reasons of degenerating Dravidian community. The Dravidar
Kazhagam vehemently fought for the abolition of untouchability amongst
the Dalits. It also focused its attention on
the liberation
of women, women’s
education, willing marriage, widow marriage, orphanages and mercy homes
Periyar promoted what he called ‘Self Respect
Marriages’, which enabled couples from any religion to get married in a secular
manner .
Periyar also
repeatedly asserted the right of non-Brahmins to enter the sanctum sanctorum
of temples, arguing that stopping them
from doing so was to deny them status of human beings. In 1970 Tamil Nadu,
again became the first state in India to have a legislation to ensure people
from all castes could become temple priests if they wanted to.
The Hindu shastras and Manu Dharma were rejected by
Periyar as their intention was to make women and lower castes slaves of men and
Brahmins respectively . According to him, marriage as an institution insisted
on women’s slavery and the relationship between a husband and wife could be
paralleled with one of master and slave. He also pointed out that marriage
rituals and customs emphasised women’s subordination.
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