PERIYAR: THE PERSON AND THE MISSION
- D.D.Bandiste
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“To say that there is god you need not be wise. Even a fool could say that there is god. But to deny the existence of god one must be wise and intelligent”. (In there a god? P. 13). “Not only is god created by men but he is created by foolish men”. Such blunt and bold statements can come only from persons like E. V. Ramasamy Naicker called periyar (the Great) by millions of his followers.
Very often he is called Thanthai Periyar meaning Father the great. He has established the identity of the Dravidian people including the Adi-Dravids. According to him, Dravids, now living mostly in the Southern India, were the original inhabitants of this country and the Aryans came from the central Asia. They made the original inhabitants their subordinates.
They introduced the principles of Varna Dharma and Karma, i. e. rebirth in a particular caste according to one’s deeds in the previous birth. Aryans brought with them various superstitions and obnoxious things like belief in the super-natural type of god, soul, heaven and hell, religion with its queer rituals, worships, idolatry, devotion, sacrifice and many other superstitions; they also brought with them the Sanskrit language, the vicious air-tight hierarchical structure of society: the caste-system, fatalism, rebirth, Brahmin-superiority and what not. Periyar condemns all these things as outlandish, irrational and harmful.
All of these must be done away with. In the congregations inspired by Periyar, “no god, there is no god”, and “no religion, no religion” are some of the slogans prominently shouted. Periyar was of the opinion that god and religion are the two instruments in the hands of the Brahmins to suppress and exploit the general masses and keep them ignorant, poor, powerless and helpless. The priestly Brahmins lived a lavish, greedy, gluttonous and parasitical life at the expense of the teeming and toiling millions.
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The pre-condition of the masses living a life of self-respect (Periyar’s initial movement established in 1925 was in fact called: Self-respect Movement) is the complete extermination of god and religion. From this experience he came to realize that even Mahatma Gandhi and the then Indian National Congress were the custodians of god and religion. As a result, Periyar made it his mission, later on, to fight the Congress, Gandhi, their ideology and the domination of Hindi language.
Periyar E.V. Ramasamy was born at Erode, Tamil Nadu, in an intermediate caste family in 1879. His father owned a small business and lived comparatively well. Ramasamy did not evince interest in formal education. They stopped sending him to school when he was studying the fifth standard. He started assisting his father in running the family business quite early and was quite successful in this. He did not have to suffer the privations and insults that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had to suffer. Ramasamy’s family was quite well off; it also commanded a good status in the society. Ramasamy was co-opted on the governing bodies of quite a few public trusts some of them were even the religious trusts. So much so that in his 39th year he was commanding 30 posts in prestigious public bodies. He was married when he was of 19 years. The atmosphere in his (parents) house was orthodox and traditional. Naturally, Ramasamy was also a devout person in the early part of his life. At one time the devotion became so strong that he even left his family and became a sanyasi, and went to Kasi (Varanasi). But he was fed up with what he saw in the holy places and returned home. Thereafter, Ramasamy again started looking after the family-business and taking active interest in the social affairs.
The abject position of the low-caste masses (Sudras and Panchamas) and their social discrimination by the Brahmins were repelling to him. He decided to secure justice for them. Ramasamy joined the Indian National Congress in 1919 and rose to become the general secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Congress Party. As a zealous party worker, on the call of Gandhi, he burnt in public bonfire all the foreign goods he owned. He completely gave up his lucrative money lending business for which he was paying income tax. He even razed down the grove of 500 coconut trees when Gandhi asked people to picket the toddy shops. In response to Gandhi’s call to boycott the law courts he destroyed all the promissory notes worth Rs. 50,000/- held by the family. Periyar was always known as a conscientious worker. He was jailed quite a number of times before independence and unfortunately, even after it. As a sincere Congress worker he too started wearing hand-woven khadi clothes; he remained a teetotaler throughout his life.
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But he resigned from the Congress as a protest against the lukewarm attitude of the upper caste Congress office-bearers towards the reservation policy and removing the caste discrimination. Ramasamy found that the social discrimination against the down-trodden masses was carried on by the Brahmins in the name of god and religion. Therefore, in order to secure self-respect and justice for the down-trodden masses abolishing of god and religion was according to Ramasamy, very necessary. This now became the sole concern of Ramasamy. He started in 1925 a general movement to secure self-respect for the Dravid (including Adi-Dravid) people. The remaining fifty years of his life he mobilized the masses of Tamil Nadu towards this end. By his sacrifices and missionary activities, Ramasamy became Thanthai Periyar for the masses of Tamil Nadu (Thanthai = father; Periyar = a great or noble person).
In those days, i.e., in the early part of the 20th century, the caste distinctions and discrimination were obnoxiously stringent. So much so that the untouchables were not allowed to enter temples and at some places they were prohibited to move even on public roads near the temples. People at Vaikom (Kerala) launched in 1924 a satyagraha against such discriminatory practices. Ramasamy joined the struggle and was at the helm of it when it was successful. For a long time Ramasamy was called the hero of Vaikom. The saying that nothing succeeds like success was true even with the Vaikom struggle. The success of the struggle made Ramasamy very popular. Now his campaign to secure self-respect and justice for the Dravid people gathered huge momentum.
Academically speaking, Periyar was not a scholar. But with his keen intellect, and minute observation of the orthodoxy, he got enough material against the theists and the priests to turn the tables against them. Scholarship very often becomes a boring pedantry and obviously, this possibility did not simply arise with Periyar. On the other hand, he was extremely original and lucid. He spoke common man’s language. His wit, logic, commonsense-approach and acid sarcasm accompanied by the new vision and the mission he gave to the people promising them self-respect and justice, held his audience spell-bound for normally three hours at a stretch. Sometimes he even delivered two or three such speeches per day. Naturally he convinced the people easily. And this went on for nearly 50 years. He repeatedly traveled to every nook and corner of Tamil Nadu. That is how he became very very popular and quite successful in his campaign. He was loved, revered and even worshipped. Some more factors contributed to Periyar’s success.
He was absolutely selfless. He has no heirs. Very often people get unduly attached to their children and adopt corrupt practices. With Periyar, the case was just the opposite. Not only did he give up all his personal property to the public cause, he even did the same with the innumerable precious gifts and donations people continuously showered upon him. He had no personal life, no personal ambition. His mission was to secure a place of honour to the Dravid people. Numerous selfless workers thronged around him. To keep himself and his workers away from the lure and corruptions of wealth and power, it was resolved that he and the organization, Dravidar Kazhagam (established in 1944) would not enter politics. All this assured the people of his good intentions. People were mad after him. They were ready to sacrifice themselves for his cause which was, infact, their own upliftment.
He was completely empirical and scientific in his approach. Naturally, the on-going scientific researches were on his side. Any one could see that what Periyar said was true in every day life. People were not required to keep blind faith in what they were being told by him. What he said was verifiable by any one and was getting confirmed by science.
Moreover, along with the spread of intellectual enlightenment, he also launched concrete programmes for the good of the general masses: starting of educational institutions, hospitals, technological institutes, adoption of scientific outlook, rooting out the superstitions and queer customs, abolition of wasteful religious rituals, abolition of caste system, caste distinctions including peculiar caste-names and caste-marks, modernization of the life style, helping the deprived people in their dire needs, abolition of Brahmin monopoly not only in the public life but even in the prestigious, religious ceremonies and so on. Liberation from god and religion as guided by Periyar saved people from the huge and recurrent wastage of time, energy, wealth and other resources required for religious rituals and pilgrimages. In addition, the newly liberated people breathed fresh air full of liberty, equality, fraternity, social justice and self-respect. Confidence in god was replaced by self-confidence in man. He made people give up drinking, gambling and other vices. He advocated inter-marriages, among various castes and insisted upon the free consent of the prospective life-partners. He worked for abolishing child marriages, encouraged women’s education and widow-remarriages. Thus his campaigns yielded concrete results for anyone to see. Periyar was arrested a number of times; but each arrest, instead of weakening his campaigns only strengthened them. The over-all result was simply spectacular. Ever since the political power was seized by a party (DMK) meant to realize the dream of Periyar, there is no going back on any front.
And then one of the most important factors that made Periyar a huge success was the great following he got of self-less workers like Thiru K. Veeramani and also of dignitaries like Thiru C.N. Annadurai, Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi and Thiru M.G. Ramachandran. The whole atmosphere breathed Periyar’s teachings. Films, dramas, novels, poems, short stories, newspapers, periodicals and broadcasts reverberated his spirit. People adorned their houses with his photos, and had them in their badges; they named institutions and projects after him; even his statues were erected. He started journals: Viduthalai (Freedom), Kudiarasu (Republic), Pagutharivu (Rationalism) and Unmai (truth) which were very largely read. Periyar himself contributed numerous articles in his original, witty, sarcastic and lucid style that led to intellectual awakening.
Additionally, the people whom Periyar addressed and helped were not only the down-trodden masses but were also living in a compact geographical area. Organizing them was comparatively easy.
The halo around Periyar was brightened by his tours abroad. In the 1920s and the 30s of the 20th century, foreign travel was quite rare, risky and costly, and whoever went abroad was looked at with awe by the general populace. Of course, Periyar also reaped this advantage from his foreign tours. But additionally, Periyar’s tours abroad had a point of difference in that at that time, mostly, wealthy people went abroad at their own cost, while Periyar went abroad on foreign invitation and on public support. Anyway, his words acquired additional authenticity, halo and weight by his foreign tours: Malaysia and Ceylon in 1929, Turkey, its neighbouring countries, Greece, Egypt, England, Germany, France and Portugal and the USSR in 1931-32. His own atheist and modernist outlook got further strengthened by his foreign tours.
All in all Periyar occupies a unique place in the philosophical revolution and renaissance we find in the Tamil Nadu.
Yet one thing has got to be kept in mind. Although what Periyar said was addressed mainly to the Dravid people most of what he preached was in fact addressable to all the people. He himself said, “Let the public be aware that the efforts of ourselves and our Dravidian party are not meant for any individual but for the progress of the whole human society”. (In there a god? P. 70). He wanted socialism to be the goal because, “Socialism is beyond all religions, communities and countries. It wants every one in the world to have adequate food, good shelter and reasonable means of livelihood”. (Periyar: The Father of Tamil Race p.25). K. Veeramani also writes, “Periyar asserted that he held no attachment to any particular country, people or language and that all his activities were guided by his love of humanity and the need to serve it”. (Periyar and his Ideologies p. 12). This is why Periyar’s is a philosophy for all and is not a mere sectarian propaganda intended for securing temporary gains. His is a philosophy meant to secure social justice and self-respect for each and all.
But it would be wrong to think that Periyar’s path was smooth. On the contrary, it was full of thorns, pits and obstacles of various sorts. The whole tradition and establishment were against him. The elite (most of them being Brahmins) was against him; the elite had its tentacles spread in every sphere of life to harass the masses. Because of the traditionalism, the very poor, illiterate, superstitious and the fatalist masses for whose benefit he was working were not very often with him. Yet, he performed a Herculean task of awakening the sleeping masses of making them rational, humanist, socialist, literate and living a life of self-respect. For his dedication to social service, Periyar was felicitated by a number of agencies. To top it all the UNESCO honoured him on 27th June 1970 at Chennai (formerly Madras) describing him to be, “a prophet of new age. Socrates of the South-East Asia, father of a movement of social reform and the bitter enemy of ignorance, superstitions, meaningless customs and traditions”. (Periyar: The Father of Tamil Race).
Periyar was extremely busy in his missionary compaign right up to his death on 24th Dec. 1973. Periyar is no more but his philosophy and work are very much here, there and ready to spread everywhere.
Periyar exhorted people to be rational. He himself was a rationalist of a very high order. Rationalism was the bedrock of the movements he started. He was very sensitive to the miseries of the people. He could not tolerate the inhumanities inflicted by men upon other men. The inhumanities melted his heart. Yet instead of being too emotional he tackled the situation coolly and rationally. He pointed out that man possesses an infinite capacity of knowledge. It is this capacity that distinguishes man from the rest of the beings. He found that the people in many other countries have made tremendous progress because they adopted rational attitude while people in India are still guided by the religious attitude. Hence, we find that while India is still imprisoned in her fictitious past glory, the countries that adopted rational attitude have progressed in every sphere of life. One of the main reasons for the chaos and backwardness rampant in India is the hindrance the irrational people put in the path of rational people. Periyar deplored this state of affairs. The general masses are penny wise and pound foolish in their philosophy of life. While purchasing even small things they would examine them in every way possible but would uncritically and blindly accept the harmful way of life laid down by tradition and the priests. That is why, he advised people to continuously examine the solutions to the fundamental problems provided by others. He said, “Activities that are not consonant with rational understanding, intellectual enquiry and human needs, should not be carried on in the name of customs, traditions, god, religion, class, caste or in any other name”. (Periyar: The Father of Tamil Race p.61). “He who does not use his intelligence is only an animal”. (Ibid P. 62). “What man needs today is not money or shelter or transportation but the growth in intelligence”. (Ibid p. 63). He again said, “We should compete with each other more for acquiring knowledge than for earning money”. (Ditto).
Besides being a rationalist. Periyar was a socialist, an iconoclast, an atheist, a secularist, a humanist and a great reformist and revolutionary. It is but natural that he should fight against social inequalities, caste-system, illiteracy, slavery, exploitation, disease, social injustice, superstition, obscurantism, poverty and fatalism. And of course, for all this he has to eradicate god and religion because according to Periyar they are the two things that render people irrational. (Periyar on god and Man p. 5)
Let us study his views regarding these and other matters in a bit more detail. We should remember that since Periyar’s approach is rational, he is essentially empirical and mundane in his approach as well as objectives. Naturally he rejects all the supernatural type of entities like soul, god, angels, etc. In what follows we will note in some detail his invectives particularly against god and religion since they are the major manifestations of human irrationality. He attacked them also because he had to clear the ground for the creation of a rational society consisting of rational persons.
