From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Adiyar on Periyar
Date: 16 Dec 1992 15:06:49 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

  [ A  recent discussion in the net about  `Brahmin controlled
    media' reminded me of an  article  by  a journalist Adiyar
    on Periyar in the Ananda Vikatan magazine. This essay came
    on the Vikatan issue `12.7.92.' I have given some excerpts
    from it after translation. Your comments are welcome. SP ]

                         Periyar
                        ----------
     
      I saw Periyar in my college days. When I went to Trichi 
 to spend my vacation, there was a meeting at Thennur palace.
 Periyar delivered a speech  explaining  his decision to burn
 the national flag. Then he went to his room. When I saw thru
 the window, I noticed  that  Periyar was burying his face on
 the pillows. It did not occur to me why he did that.

      He made a statement in the dailies in the next day that
 he  wept after making  his announcement to burn the national 
 flag.

       ....................................

      A similar incident in Madras also.  Rajaji was an arch-
 enemy of  Periyar in  their  principles.  Both  travelled in 
 different planes. Each used to enjoy  other's  failures. But
 when  Rajaji passed away... Periyar wept. What kind of a cry
 was that? If a peppermint was suddenly picked from a kid,the
 kid would cry for long with pauses.. Such was Periyar's cry!
 Those who had never cried till then also started crying..

     .......................................
    
    One day when I was talking with Periyar, the commissioner
 of Police, Shenoy came. Periyar stood up slowly and  greeted
 him. With shyness, another person entered the room.

      `Who is he?' asked Periyar.

      `My car driver. He has come with a wish to 
       meet you in person' replied Shenoy.

    Periyar  stood up again slowly and greeted the car driver 
 also. Others in the room were filled with surprise.

    Saying `Sir! You are a great man! Why  should  you  stand 
 up?', the driver was about to prostrate before Periyar.

   Periyar was stunned and stopped the driver from prostrating.
 He said, `I stood up with trouble only to stop you from doing
 this.. Why do you persist to prostrate still? '  The  leaders
 who were in the room kept looking at the floor then..

    I  used  to  ponder, `How  come such a faultless, humanist 
 Periyar  became  an  atheist?' He himself told me once openly
 on that question.

    `My fellow people  were  without  steadfastness,  courage,
 and education. Why is it so? Especially why are they deprived
 of education? When  I asked this question, I got replies that
 the Shastras in Vedas say  that such people were not eligible
 for  education. I opposed  the Sastras which denied my people
 from receiving education. Some people asked me, `How  can you
 oppose the Shastras in the Vedas  as  they are God's Words? '
 Then I decided to oppose - renounce God Himself.'

    So  Periyar's atheism is not a blind denial of God. It was
 an  expression  of  an angry reaction with a true fondness on 
 the working class people.

          ..........................................
     
   Also,  `self-respect' marriage was a new marriage conceived
 by Periyar himself. Its intention is not only to abolish the
 superstitious rituals present in the Hindu marriages, but to
 save the expenses in the marriages also. However, some `self-
 respect' marriages digressed from Periyar's intentions. Dowry,
 expenditure in lakhs also featured in  some   `self-respect' 
 marriages. 

   One  marriage  incident!  One  Tamil  Nadu board president,
 thinking of delivering a revolutionary speech in the presence
 of Periyar, spoke :

    ` All marraiges, other than `self-respect' marriages, should
 be banned in our country.'

   Periyar, who came to speak after him, mentioned in his speech,
  
   ` What about the `self-respect' marriages themselves? Venkaayam!
 (Tamil: onion) Marriage itself is a barbarous act! '

   All audience raised their eyebrows in surprise. I, who was then
 taking notes, also put my pen down in surprise.

   Periyar fought for Tamil language also. But when all the Tamil
 pundits  heaped praises on Tamil like `Tamil language was born
 even before the stone age', Periyar countered them with a question,
 `Isn't it clear then that Tamil is a barbarous language ?'

   When Adithanar ( editor of `Daily Thanthi' - SP ) conducted a
 Silappathikaaram ( One of the five great epics in Tamil - SP )
 convention in Apastri Palace, Periyar raised some questions on
 Silappathikaaram itself.

   `Things like a woman qustioned King's judgement in court are all
 O.K. But, what about the end ?  Who will believe things like she
 tore  off  and  threw  one of her  breasts,  and  Madurai burned 
 afterwards? All Tamil epics are not scholarly ones! We should burn 
 all of them. '

   All Tamil scholars were shocked at Periyar's outburst.

     .......................................

  In his last days, Periyar talked openly on his life.

  ` I don't have any deep fondness for language or caste or country.
 My only ambition and aim is that mankind should get steadfastness,
 courage and education. '

  - Excerpts from an essay by Adiyar on Periyar 
     [ Ananda Vikatan, 12.7.92. ]

  - Translated from Tamil by Sundara Pandian

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