This is with reference to the debate that is going in DV on Tamil Nadu. (DV edit Oct.1 ’91: “Aryan fate will be decided on TamilSoil”.
The elitist elements among the Sudras (the non-Dwija or non-cross- threaded Hindus) of Tamil Nadu took to Periyarism for the sake of convenience. The TN Brahmins had been more arrogant than their counterparts in other parts of India. Periyarism offered them a platform to save themselves from humiliation. Periyar’s greatness was that he never cared for political power. He stood for certain ideas and for a mental revolution among the Shudras. It is his followers who have failed.
Brahmin-baiting: They had neither the mind nor the strategy to take Untouchables into their fold. While they were preoccupied with atheism and Brahmin-baiting, the Brahmins lured the Untouchables by supporting the Congress and Gandhi who were verbally opposed to untouchability and staged temple- entry stunts. It never occured to Periyarists that uniting all Shudras (Nadars, Mudaliars, Pillais, Naidus etc.) was more important than atheism. Some of them even had a vested interest in untouchability since it was the Untouchables who toiled in their lands as landless labourers. They believed in single- digit inequality while the Brahmins believed in double-digit inequality.
Muslims alienated: While Gandhi and the Congress brandished secularism and attracted Muslims, Periyarists not only never took Muslims into account but even alienated them because of their atheism. The simple truth that the best way to liquidate brahminism is to forge the unity of shudras, Muslims and Untouchables never dawned on them. Periyar questioned the existence of god in the context of perverse brahminical concepts of god. Periyar had endorsed the Islamic concept of God which ensured absolute spiritual and social equality of all humans.
The Periyarist arm-chair atheism and atheistic dialectics got diluted and turned less and less fascinating over the years. Their atheism was not action-oriented. They never made any temple a target for demolition in which case there would have been an electrifying effect on untouchables as all of whom had suffered humiliation in temples. They did not devise a counter-strategy to expose the temple-entry stunts of Brahmins and the Congress. They gave no programme for the Untouchables.
Periyar praise for Islam: When some persons wrote to Periyar questioning his speech at Trichy on March 18 1947, he wrote an article in the Tamil weekly, Kudi Arasu, wherein he advised (Salvation to Shudra Slavery- DSA 1986) BC/ ST/SCs to embrace Islam. Periyarists did not apply their mind to those refreshing ideas of Periyar. These so-called Periyarists maintained silence when “Hindu India was deeply disturbed” by a dozen Dalit families who embraced Islam at Meenakshipuram. The nazi agent, Subramanianswamy, rushed to Meenakshipuram but what did our Periyarists do?
They did nothing to spread the ideas of Periyar to other parts of India, though his views were valid to all BC/ST/SCs and to all non- Hindu people of India.
While documentaries have been made on each and every petty leader of Hindi states, and displayed on the TV by the govt. media, no documentary on Periyar, the tallest revolutionary of South India, is made and shown in the network programme.
If the Periyarists had done a good job, even the Central govt. would have honoured him in a fitting manner as it did in the case of Dr. Ambedkar. They have not taken to task the several CMs who rode to power on the waves of the popularity of Periyar’s ideas.
Periyar biography: Not even a good English biography of Periyar was published by the Periyarists. Periyar’s work has a message and a lesson for the whole country. Tamil Nadu has been free from Hindu-Muslim clashes. Why? In Tamil Nadu it is not the Muslims, but the Brahmins that form the worst attacked community. Hindu- Muslim clashes have been occurring mostly in areas where Brahmins and brahminism command respect. All those who are never tired of talking about the communal harmony should take note of this.
