From: sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu (M. Sundaramoorthy)
Subject: Periyar's movement (was Re: Kuram Narayana on Periyar)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:40:42 GMT

	The following article of mine appeared in India-D discussion group
	about 1-1/2 years ago, when a similar discussion came up. I find
	it relevent to post in SCTamil now and my opinions haven't changed
	since. 

	
       PERIYAR'S CONTRIBUTION TO COMMUNAL HARMONY IN TAMIL NADU
       --------------------------------------------------------

First of all one should admit that Periyar's movement was an athiest and 
social movement. So one can not expect such a movement keep out of criticism 
of religion. He criticised other religions too, not only Hinduism. One can
see graffitis criticising all the religions in Madras and other cities 
in TN.  Hinduism, though religion of the majority in Tamil Nadu, represented
only the interests of upper caste Brahmins. People of all caste groups may
have faith in Hinduism (which is not well defined), but the control of power
on religious institutions was with the Brahmins. This gave them upper hand 
in society and politics, though they were a very small fraction of the society.
(Still, Kanchi Sankaracharya can influence more on politics than Melmaruvathur 
Bangaru Adigal who has more public following). 

Periyar, who wanted to break their dominance, realised that the religion 
was the one through which they could dominate and hence his target was the 
religion. Hindu Gods are symbols of this dominance of upper caste people 
which were broken as a sign protest against them. His movement protested
by breaking the idols, snatching the holy threads, calling to denounce 
the rituals etc., whichever he thought was a symbol of Brahmin domination.
There was no need to do this for the religions because their followers 
were a minority like brahmins, but not powerful and the majority were not 
fooled and dominated by them. This doesn't mean that he intended to hurt 
only Hindus' sentiments. 

It is absolutely ridiculous to say that Periyar's movement broke the idols
for political benefits. Periyar till his last breath in his ninties, did not
long for any political power. He held political power as the chairman of Erode 
Municipal Corporation last as a congress person long before independece. 
After he started his Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) movement he never went after 
politcal power. His movement was purely social one, not at all political. 
On the contrary, the DMK which split from Periyar's DK did not go for 
breaking idols because they wanted political power and in fact many temples 
were renovated after DMK came to power which even the previous congress 
regims did not do.

Though Periyar's movement broke the idols in the streets like the political
parties burn effigis, they never broke the ones installed in a temple. They
attacked the concept of temples, but never attacked a temple or any 
other religious institution. They attacked the religous leaders in their 
speeches and writings , but did not attack any mutt. They did not call people 
of one religion to attack the other or one caste people to attack the other. 
Unlike the VHP, who ask the muslims to "go to Pakistan or graveyard' though 
they are also Indians, DK did not ask the Brahmins to get out of Tamil Nadu 
or die. As an athiest Periyar was secular in his own way by criticising all 
the religions. 

Periyar does deserve thanks for communal harmnony in TN for his methods 
of opposing Bramhmins. He opposed only their dominance and awakend the 
oppressed to demand social justice. But he never resorted to violent methods 
nor his organisation.  There is no instance of any physical attack on
Brahmins and I have never heard any brahmin was killed by his followers. His 
methods were always non-violent through speeches, demonstrations, writings 
etc. A social change could come without violence only through Periyar. 
In the modern history of India no other movement could achieve its goal,
starting from Gandhi's 'Non-violent independence movement' to the latest 
'Ramjanmabhoomi' movement, without having killed one or more people. The 
congress party which claims to follow "Ahimsa" resorts to more violence than 
DK which didn't preach non-violence, but followed. The believers of religion 
indulge in more violence and show intolerence towards other religions than 
the non-believers. 

This could keep the people of TN restraining from violent methods in any 
protest till recently. The current political changes which are far from 
Periyar's ideology can change the whole thing upside down very soon. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The D.K. I mention in this article refers to the one that was headed
by EVR, not the present one headed by the power broker K.Veeramani, who
would compromise his 'ideology' with anyone in power.

The cries that EVR encouraged violence aganist Brahmins by his statement:
"If you see a Brahmin and a snake, beat Brahmin first", are purely due to
misinterpretation. I wonder anyone ever saw a Brahmin and a snake 
together to do so, including himself. A few Brahmin leaders, like Rajaji and 
CPM veteran late P.Ramamurthy were friendly to him and I don't know whether
they were worried that EVR would kill them if they were seen with a snake.

Though, I don't agree with his 'ideology' 100% I do find his methods better
than many other power mongering leaders of this century.

I also admire him for his courage to rebel against the exisiting social
system with institutionalised caste structure, which noone else dared to do 
in his period. Fighting the upper caste elite so openly does need lots of
courage and determination, when the social system, political atmosphere,
media etc were not in his favour.

I wish he distanced himself from the erstwhile Justice Party, dominated by
the non-Brahmin upper caste power mongers and the 'Thanith Thamizh' zealots 
as he himself did not display any love for power and the so called Thanith 
Thamizh.

M. Sundaramoorthy
sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian