Who is Periyar?
Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (E.V. Ramasamy), commonly known as Periyar (பெரியார்), also referred to as Thanthai Periyar was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. Periyar spent over fifty years giving speeches, propagating the realization that everyone is an equal citizen and that the differences on the basis of caste and creed were man-made to keep the innocent and ignorant as underdogs in society. Although Periyar's speeches were targeted toward the illiterate and more mundane masses, scores of educated people were also swayed. Periyar viewed reasoning as a special tool. According to him, all were blessed with this tool, but very few used it. Thus Periyar used reasoning with respect to subjects of social interest in his presentations to his audiences. Communal differences in Tamil society were considered by many to be deep-rooted features until Periyar came to the scene. The bedrock of E.V. Ramasamy’s principles and the...