I just received a brief review of an interesting book. I think all of us should read it at the present juncture. Iyoddhi Doss to Periyar is a remarkable period and history. What Dalits, Bahujans whatever you call are struggling for would find the roots and principles in the period mentioned combined with Babasaheb crusade. Particularly for Budhists, Iyoddhi Doss and colleagues became Budhist and started South Indian Budhist Society in 1900. Periyar’s Self Respect Movement, as he said, is based on Budha’s teachings.
TOWARDS A NON-BRAHMIN MILLENNIUM: FROM IYOTHEE THASS TO PERIYAR
by V. Geetha and S. V. Rajadurai, Rs 400. This critical, erudite and path-breaking study of the Non-Brahmin movement recaptures the momentous times when the world of the Tamils was stood on its head and the age-hold Brahmin hegemony was dealt a deathblow. The movement produced a rupture in Tamil society and facilitated the emergence of non-brahminism as ideology, practice and as an anticipation of a caste-free utopia. The book analyses the movement from its beginning at the end of the 19th century to Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Naicker’s Self-Respect movement of the late twenties and thirties. It lets the non-Brahmin and the Adi-Dravida the authors’ preferred term for the Dalit-speak, recording their testimonies from 1890-1937, translated for the first time into English.
