Dr. K. Veeramani
Presidnet, Dravidar Kazhagm
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The Students Union of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai conducted “Periyar Memorial Lecture 2023” on 6th April 2023 via Zoom. The theme was ‘Self-Respect Movement and Social Revolution’.
Periyar Memorial lecture is organised annually by TISS to honour Periyar E.V.Ramasamy and to celebrate his ideals like social justice, anti-caste system, feminist thought and humanism. This year Asiriyar K.Veeramani was invited to deliver a special lecture on the topic ‘Self-Respect Movement and Social Revolution’. The excerpts from his speech are as follows:
Dear friends, I deem this a great opportunity to meet and exchange our ideas online, since I could not attend the event in person. I would like to share my views on ‘Self-Respect Movement and Social Revolution’. In fact, this social revolution started in Tamil Nadu nearly 100 years ago; in 1925 to be more specific, as Self-Respect Movement by the great revolutionary Thanthai Periyar.
Cast away by Caste System
During a public meeting Periyar asked the people who were attentively listening to him if they can find even in the best of all the dictionaries in the world, a better substitute for the words ‘self respect’. Periyar implied that the connotation of those words is very deep, voluminous and they give a new impetus to all of us who believe in the dictum of humanism. Humanism is in other words universal brotherhood and humanhood. But it has been eradicated and driven away by the caste system in our country. We can say that humanism has been cast away by the caste system.
This system got imported to our country thousands of years ago. It was not new to our society. The great Tamil sage Thiruvalluvar who composed ‘Thirukkural’ of 1,330 couplets of world wisdom says in couplet No. 972,
“piṟappokkum ellā vuyirkkum ciṟappu ovvā
ceytoḻil vētṟumaiyāṉ.”
Birth is alike for all beings, but their worth varies because of the difference in their professions.
Thiruvalluvar advises us not to discriminate fellow human beings since all are equal by birth and identified differently only by the standard of their labour and quality of their work. 2,500 years ago, Thiruvalluvar admitted, like Buddha, the principle of equality and advocated it emphatically.
The caste system was imported from the Vedic culture and Sanatan culture long ago. It is a matter of shame that today it is being exported to advanced nations. When our people seek employment there, the caste disparity becomes a big issue and causes fights. Like a disease which originates in a country and spreads to other countries, the entire humanity is being affected by the caste system. It is high time it is curbed in other countries.
The three baffling words
Periyar started the Self-Respect Movement in 1925 when the caste system had completely dehumanised people by unjust discriminations. It had not even sub-humanised people but had totally dehumanised them. The tillers of the soil grew food for our people. But their sons and daughters were denied equality, fraternity and the liberty to think and act.
Have you ever heard in any part of the world, words such as untouchable, unseeable and unapproachable? These words haunted our people in this country and are still haunting them in most parts of the country.
This country is known for numerous seers, sages, rishis, mahatmas and many other ‘mukt jeevans’. It is a matter of shame that all those have supported discrimination by birth. Birth is an accident. How can people be divided as upper caste and lower caste if the discrimination is based on their birth? Why should men be superior to women and women inferior to men? Periyar raised these questions. Why should women be slaves of men throughout their life?
Women – the unpaid labourers
Marriages became a convenient system to enslave women. Once a woman gets married, she has to work hard like a bull without any salary. As a child, women are to be under the control of their father; obeying their instructions. After marriage, they have to be slaves to husband. In the last stage, they have to be under the mercy of the sons. At no point of time in her life, a woman is eligible to enjoy freedom and liberty. All these were the codes of ‘Manu’. They were also the codes of all the rulers of the country. Periyar protested against enslavement of women and voiced for equal treatment on a par with men.
Things have not changed much even now. In Sabarimala, women are denied the right to worship, in-spite of the judgment of the Supreme Court. Is this social justice? When would such gender bias end? Similar atrocities made Periyar start the Self-Respect Movement. He condemned the deplorable and despicable caste system.
Denial of education rights
The concomitant evil was the graded inequality imposed by the Varnashrama Dharma. The fourth-grade people who put their labour at the helm of all affairs were always serving the upper caste. They were not allowed even to think of education. By protests if they learned on their own accord and acquired education, they were to be punished according to the cruel codes of Varnashrama Dharma. Babasaheb Ambedkar strongly condemned this atrocious code. Because of him and Periyar, today we are free at least from this particular evil code. Our enormous awareness has brought about a social revolution and today all the downtrodden people have an access to education.
Toxic forces are now using the outdated Sanatan Dharma as a weapon to annihilate the reforms we fought for all these years and achieved. Recently an eminent judge serving the Supreme Court rightly remarked – “The days of Dronacharya and Ekalavya are all over”. But I feel it is all only on papers; we still have to go a long way for absolute social justice.
“Read, Revise, Recall” are three great rubrics in the world of education, called ‘3 Rs’. When we are denied these ‘3 Rs’, we are denied education and then automatically we are deprived of knowledge and equal opportunities. This causes an imbalance in society.
Graded inequality
People were divided as ‘Sudras’ and ‘Panchamas’ and considered fit only to survive as coolies. This has caused indiscriminate unemployment. This social system conveniently arranged to the ascending hierarchies was aptly called by Ambedkar as “graded inequality”. Nowhere in the world, such an idiocy!
The rungs of the social ladder say that the Brahmins of the top most rung were born of Brahma’s face; the Kshatriyas from the shoulders; the Vysyas from the thighs and the Sudras from the feet. Who are then the Panchamas? They are graded as Avarnas and are out of the limit. Have we heard of this kind of a classification, degradation and discrimination in any other country? Equally horrible are untouchability, unseeability and unapproachability that have tormented our people for centuries.
Vaikom Satyagraha
Most of you must be aware of the Vaikom struggle which took place 100 years ago in Kerala. It was the first ‘Human Rights Satyagraha’. That agitation was not just for the right to enter Mahadeva temple in Vaikom; it was for the rights for all to walk freely on all the streets around the temple. Pigs, dogs and donkeys could walk on all the streets but our own brothers and sisters were prohibited from walking on the streets around the temple.
Non-verbal communication
People who belonged to the lowest rung of the graded inequality ladder were called ‘Pariahs’, ‘Ezhavas’ and by many other contemptible names. The worst atrocity was ‘unseeability’. Leave alone touching; it was believed that even if the low caste people were looked at, the upper castes were polluted. If they approached and came near upper caste people, they believed it caused pollution. Hence, “Unapproachability”. Pollution has a scientific explanation and rational meaning today. But these fanatics offered a very orthodox, unheard meaning for “Pollution”. They had no alternative term.
When the untouchable low caste people had to pass by upper caste people they had to scream and shriek loudly to caution the upper caste people –”Stay away. Avoid pollution. We have to pass by you”. On hearing this, the upper caste people used to avoid looking at them.
