Ten Things About Periyar Dravidian Parties Don’t Want You To Know

E V Ramasamy (1879-1973), popularly known as EVR, is hailed as ‘Periyar’ by his followers. He was a demagogue who used the social evils which were then prevalent, or perceived, as a capital for his propaganda. He was neither a rationalist nor a humanist. He was anti-Hindu and pro-British. By equating him to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, many are doing a great disservice to the memory of Ambedkar, who was a great nation builder and a patriot.

Here are 10 facts which every Indian should know about EVR.

Many EVR apologists today indulge in the propaganda that EVR never advocated racial hatred against Brahmins. However, EVR was explicit in his agenda. The magazine he edited, published articles praising the ascendancy of Adolf Hitler and warned Brahmins in Tamil Nadu that they should learn from the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany and opt for course correction. Even after the fall of the Nazi regime, the approach of EVR, particularly when he addressed his cadre, was the same.

“Parpanan (a traditional honorific Tamizh term for twice-born, changed into a derogatory term by Dravidianists) should be driven away from this land,” EVR wrote on 29 January 1954. He further said, “However much a rationalist or atheist, if a person is a Brahmin he should not be allowed in our organizations” (20 October 1967).

3. EVR was virulently anti-Scheduled Communities (SC).

This hatred for the SC community often made him say things that would make any ordinary person cringe.

This hatred for the SCs ultimately, and naturally, started flowing towards Ambedkar, whose stand on India’s national unity further infuriated him.

With time, EVR’s hatred for Ambedkar increased. In his address on the occasion of Pongal in 1968, which was later published in his organisation’s official magazine, EVR accused Ambedkar of accepting “bribe from Brahmins in the form of reservation for his people (SC)” and saying the Constitution was made by the Brahmins.

In a speech made on 30 March 1951, EVR called Silappadikaram, the great Tamil epic written by llango Adigal, as “nothing but a propaganda tool of Aryans”. Condemning Tamil scholars who were conducting a seminar on the epic, he said:

6. EVR had a love-hate relationship with Thirukkural and likened it to excreta.

7. EVR “the economist” said prices of clothes had increased because SC women had started wearing jackets.

SC leaders in Tamil Nadu have for long accused EVR of saying, contemptuously, in a meeting that the cloth prices had gone up because the ‘Pariah’ caste women started wearing jackets. In 1963, many Ambedkarite magazines in Tamil Nadu had reported this speech. Anbu Ponnoviam, a venerated historian who had meticulously documented the lives of SC leaders and spiritual personalities, had written that as a keen observer of EVR from 1939, he was one of those who were shocked when he heard EVR offering Pariah women wearing jackets and Pariah men becoming literate as reasons for the rise in cloth prices and unemployment (Nasthikam, 2 March 1963).

A Chennai-based magazine, Ambedkar, in its 1963 November-December issue, pointed out that despite SC leaders strongly condemning EVR’s statement. The proof for the statement came from Dravidianists themselves when the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) magazine Murasoli published a cartoon highlighting the anti-SC mindset of EVR.

8. EVR sought the help of the British and Jinnah for his Dravidstan. But both treated him as a useful idiot.

9. Kamarajar, the tallest nationalist non-Brahmin leader from Tamil Nadu, never accepted the racist and anti-Hindu views of EVR.

EVR apologists again indulge in propaganda and many have come to even believe that Kamarajar had respect for EVR and his worldview. In reality, Kamarajar consistently opposed EVR’s worldview. When EVR and his cohorts opposed the conference on Silappadikaram, Kamarajar, who attended and supported the conference, criticised the stand of EVR and his Dravidian movement.

10. EVR could never bring himself to condemn the massacre of landless SC labourers by non-Brahmin land owners in Keezhvenmani, Tamil Nadu.