A Short Review of Periyar

• The man who imparted the importance of Self Respect to the people who were slaved for centuries
• Vaikom hero
• The man who challenged the Brahmanical hegemony
• The man whom Brahmins fear
• The man whom RAMA fears the most
• The man who opposed Gandhi tooth and nail
• The man who declared that having Gandhi statue is a national shame
• The man who publicly burnt the photo of Gandhi during a massive historical protest
• The man who openly declared that Gandhi is a casteist, who made caste permanent in the country by enacting a black mail fasting drama.
• The man who supported Dr. Ambedkar for his demand for separate electorate for the untouchables
• The man who was ready to let Gandhi die instead of compromising the separate electorate won for the untouchables.
• The man for whom the first amendment in the constitution of India was enacted
• The man for whom special law was enacted by the government to punish him
• The man who donated his money for the establishment of many medical hospitals, educational institutions etc.
• The man who made education possible for the lower castes.
• The man who was behind the idea of self respect marriages.
• The man who showed that education is not important to serve the society
• The man who showed that education is not necessary to run magazines.
• The man who led a simple life even though he was the millionaire.
• The man who is most hated by the casteists
• The man whose ideas were modern and ahead of time
• The man who gave away all the government jobs held by him, the man who did not accept the chief minister position offered to him and spent his entire life for the upliftment of the lower castes
• The man who made the women of the Brahmin house hold led a dignified life
• The man who was responsible for the removal of Brahmin name boards on the hotels
• The man who was behind the popularization of the word Vanakkam
• The man who was responsible for the withdrawal of ancestor system of education and Hindi imposition
• The man who was responsible for opening the 3000 schools closed by the congress.
• The man who was responsible for most of the development of Tamil Nadu
• The man who accepted Dr. Ambedkar as his ONLY leader
• The man who held a massive historical protest demanding the government to include an article in the Constitution to abolish the caste system

This man is PERIYAR

Who was

• An Anti caste crusader
• An Iconoclast
• The champion of women’s rights
• Rationalist

AND

Finally the man whom Dr. Ambedkar had described as follows

“My ideology has been preached by Periyar too. There is no difference.”-Dr. Ambedkar

Author: Syra