From: mvishnu@bcr3.uwaterloo.ca (Meenan Vishnu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Kuram Narayana on Periyar
Date: 14 Dec 92 15:38:22 GMT
Organization: University of Waterloo

In article <kat.724288073@reg> kat@doe.carleton.ca (Kathiravan Krishnamurthi) writes:
>In <1992Dec13.213148.22568@wuecl.wustl.edu> sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian) writes:
>>>In article <Bz5I1n.5uE@cs.psu.edu> narayana@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Kuram T Narayan
>>>a) writes:
>>>>Actually there is a parallel to this! We have one dravidian racist known as
>>>>EVR and his followers who went and broke the idols in temples. But they
>>>>were doing it to show their hatred for Brahmins. Was this idol breaking
>>>
>>>     Why are you (Aryan racist !) lying.  Do you have one example for this.  It
>>>is true Periyar fought the Hindu and Brahmin fundamementalism with tooth and 
>>>nail.  He ridiculed Hinduism and Brahminism.  He and his followers  took
>>> Vinayaka's statue (procured by themselves, not stolen from any temple) in a 
>>>procession by beating with chappels etc.  It is true he hurt the ordinary Hindu
>>>sentiments too by doing that.  But he never broke any idols in any temples.  
>>>You Aryan racist, Hindu fanatic, is not happy to see that there is no major
>>>religious violence in Tamil Nadu where Periyar tried to kill the fundamentalism
>>>to death. I can understand your anger.
>>>
>>>
>>>S. Sankarapandi
>
>>Periyar might have destroyed hindu fundamentalism, but he did
>>hurt sentiments of hindu people and preached hatred against
>>brahmins (irrespective of whether they were moderates or fundamentalists),
>>just because they were of Aryan origin. 
>>      That does make periyar a racist and I do not see anything wrong
>>with KT's statement except that he could have probably included
>>some justifications to his statements. It is really sad that there 
>>are people supporting racists.
>
>>-Krishna.
>>Opinions are mine.
>
>     The aryan racist of the net for whom everything springs from
>aryavartha and who spends a lot of bandwidth in his racist claims.
>Do not dream of spreading your supremacy-hatred venom all over.
>
>Kathiravan.
>


I think the middle class Tamils, who are fed with Bramin-controlled media
output has a very wrong impression of Periyar and his ideology.

Most middle class people take religion and politics only superficially.
Most of them do not have the urge to enquire about spirituality nor
of issues regarding national concerns.    

However, Periyar was different.  He took sanyasa (renunciation) and
went to Benares with two Bramins.  There he had a chance to look at
Hinduism and Brahminsm closely (from inside).

He finally came to the conclusion that the Braminsim, which concerns 
itself with blind mechanical rituals is no way out for India.
(Infact it may very well be said that Braminsm and its fatalistic
outlook brought India to its knees).  

He decided that the only way out was to develop reasoning ability 
to the masses.  The masses should rather than blaming every events
to an external agent (God, Time, Fate etc) should see the cause
and effect relationship between their action and results.

Periyar's message was simple and effective: use reasoning to solve 
our problems.  He had a very high regards for Buddha and 
Thirukkural and emphasized personal ethics. 

But the Bramin media very venomously portrays him as an unprincipled
athiest who delights himself in idol-breaking.  One should consider the
situation that was present in India at that time and how his message
appealed to an otherwise pious people (TN has the largest density of Temples
in India (may be in the world ?) ).


One should read unbiased writtings on Periyar before writting
"I heard" stories on him.  I believe, TN is very much indebted
to him for the light of rationalism that he lit and which even today 
so effectively prevented bloodbath that the rest of India is 
undergoing.

regards,

Meenan Vishnu