The Statue of Thanthai Periyar was unveiled along with other revolutionists Buddha, Jothiba Phule, Savithribai Phule, Babasaheb Dr.B.R. Ambedkar and Baghat Singh at the Office of Manava Vikasa Vedika, Hyderabad – 14th December 2024.
Manava Vikasa Vedika (MVV) is a Humanist – Rationalists’ Forum functioning at Hyderabad in Telangana. They celebrated its completion of 20 years in existence on December 14th and 15th, 2024, jointly with such movements of Andhra Pradesh. Social welfare activists of Andhra Pradesh expressed solidarity by participating in the event held at Telangana. It was a two-day event of speeches by prominent members on various topics pertaining to humanism, rationalism, social justice, several social reformers of the past and especially the principles of Thanthai Periyar. A bust size statue of Periyar was donated by Thiru.V.Jayabalan, the organiser of the Rationalists’ Forum of Tenkasi district in South Tamil Nadu. The statue installed in the Hall of the Forum was unveiled during the celebration by Asiriyar Dr.K.Veeramani through on-line mode from Chennai, since he could not attend the event in person. Thanking the Forum for the honour, Asiriyar delivered a speech on-line for the audience at the venue in Hyderabad. The excerpts from his speech are as follows:-
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Asiriyar’s Speech
Dear friends and well-wishers, Vanakkam. I regret I could not attend the celebration in person as I am unwell. Though I am physically absent, I shall be mentally present there while I address you all by this on-line mode. My hearty congratulations to all the organisers, dignitaries, celebrities, cadres and all the guests, on the celebration of the 20th year of Manava Vikasa Vedika. I convey my hearty thanks for the bust size statue of Thanthai Periyar installed at your place. I wish the function a grand success.
We may be in different states but we are ideologically one single family. We are on the same wave-length of thoughts with the same principles. Like us, your Forum has also been swimming against the currents. I am at a loss of words to commend your achievements. My best wishes for much more name and fame for your noble Forum.
Long ago, about 200 years ago, Jothi Rao Phule started his rebellious movement in Maharashtra. Later, Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Thanthai Periyar emerged as great social reformers and spread widely their progressive ideals and principles. We have been marching following in their footprints. I am immensely delighted to find your Manava Vikasa Vedika serving society on a par with our Dravidar Kazhagam Movement in Tamil Nadu.
The Self-Respect Movement started by Thanthai Periyar in 1925 recently completed its centenary. He started it when the society was regressive to the core with caste system evils, communal fanaticism, religious extremism and outdated codes of conduct. Such atrocities could be found nowhere else in this world. During those painful decades, man was never evaluated by his merits, skills, capabilities and achievements. He was subject to birth based bias, belittled and discriminated. Thanthai Periyar pounced like a furious lion on the rotten society and fought for an egalitarian society of humanism, rationalism, equality, social justice and above all for universal brotherhood.
Caste system demolishes humanity. Periyar had been fighting to annihilate castes even before starting self-respect movement. He began his protest when he was with the Congress. After quitting it, his struggles became vigorous. For instance, the unforgettable Vaikom struggle. The downtrodden, depressed caste people were not allowed to walk freely on the streets in the vicinity of the Mahadeva Temple in Vaikom. During 1924, people in Kerala were not only untouchable but were also unseeable and unapproachable. Have you ever heard of this cruelty and dehumanisation in any part of this world? The scheduled caste people were being treated worse than animals. Infact, dogs and pigs moved freely on all the streets but human beings were prohibited. The upper caste fanatics believed that they would be polluted even if they accidentally happened to touch a scheduled caste man. They used to take a bath to purge and cleanse themselves. Our movement has been struggling to eradicate this caste system that dehumanises people. I am glad we have movements and forums like that of yours to strengthen our hands. I assure, we are also there at all times to strengthen your hands. Let us collectively strive to establish a new society and see that there is absolute equality everywhere. In our fight for a common cause let us be united.
We should not remain contented with installing statues of social revolutionaries and garlanding them. We have to make their thought reach people in every nook and corner of the country. To accomplish this task scientific temper is essential for all of us. A rationalist outlook is indispensable. Right from a Municipal Chairperson upto the President of the country, everyone should take an oath swearing on the Constitution that they would always adhere to the Constitution. Recently when the completion of the 75th year of our Constitution was celebrated, the preamble in it was read by many at several places. Should it be only a political ritual? There should be a resolve embedded in the recital of the preamble. The resolution must be to fight restlessly for equality, liberty, fraternity and social justice. The preamble of the Constitution should lead us to such an unflinching resolve.
Social justice, economic justice and political justice are three different vital sorts of justice. Let us not confuse ourselves by any misinterpretation. Article 51-A of our Constitution adumbrates that every citizen should nourish the spirit of enquiry, scientific temper, humanism and the quest for social transformation, but we are yet to achieve complete success in it. All the social evils must be eradicated by our collective efforts. The war for social justice should be waged in the minds of the people, not literally on a battle field. We must be indivisive, inspite of our different habitations, languages and culture. Our individual identity and culture need not be given up and yet we could all be one single entity by common principles, vision and mission. Unity is quite different from uniformity. Even if there is lack of uniformity, unity should prevail. This is my message at this juncture to every one of you. Let us fight collectively against anti-people rulers and establish true democracy. We must stay away from blind belief, superstitions, caste based discriminations and all sorts of fanaticism.
We must recall the sacrifice of stalwarts like Dabholkar and other martyrs. None of them were anti-social elements. They were never involved in sedition or betrayals.
They aimed at making us all think freely without any external force; but some toxic forces have prevented the free thought of our people. People are yet to acquire perfect awareness. We may have to pay heavy price for the ignorance of our people. We must make our people think freely and independently with a rationalist outlook in life. Only man has been bestowed by Nature with the power of reasoning. Hence, reasoning should be given top priority at all times in our life. It is our bounden duty to make all our people imbibe scientific temper. It is not for the development of science but for our own development. People should realise this truth.
We should not be contented with delivering public speeches on stages or conducting conferences on spacious grounds. Meeting people face to face and interacting with them is much more important. The youth of the new generation must be made use of. They are prepared to work hard for us. It is our duty to motivate them and join our mission because they are the pillars of our future world. They will come forward to share our tasks if we make them realise our noble objectives.
We live in an era of artificial intelligence. We face incredible technological advancement but superstitions reign supreme even today in print and electronic media. There are telecasts and publications revolving around vastu shastra, astrology, auspicious time, inauspicious time, horoscopes, gemology and a lot of rubbish related to mythologies. There is no scientific basis for any of these trash. We must strive to bring all these to an end. We should not confine ourselves to debates on political problems. There are many other problems besides politics. For instance, crimes against women. The graded inequality is the worst of all the social evils. Inequality may prevail in other world countries too but it is only in this country that we have graded inequality like the rungs of a ladder. We should annihilate this social injustice and establish a casteless society. Dr.Baba Saheb Ambedkar also used to repeatedly stress that the graded inequality is the root cause of all the evils in society.
We consider our Tamil Nadu as the land of Periyar and also as the land of social justice. We strive for social justice and the spread of humanism too. We have been publishing the world’s only rationalist Daily – ‘Viduthalai’ as our mouthpiece. Monthly and fortnightlies are also being published by us. These periodicals are tools of our ideology. It is not an enterprise. It is our mission. We continue drawing our people from the darkness of ignorance. Please carry on at your end with the same noble task. Ours is a people’s movement. I wish your Forum too continues to be one such people’s movement.
I extend my cordial invitation to your Manava Vikasa Vedika and all its members. Please pay a visit to Tamil Nadu; especially to our Periyar Thidal in Chennai and have a face to face interaction and a lively chat with us. Observe the way our movement functions and adopt all that you like about us. Let us flock together like birds of the same feather. We assure our patronage to you at all times. Thank you. Long live social justice! Long live equality, liberty and fraternity!
Compiled by
V. Kumaresan
