On 11th of November, 1957 EVR wrote disparagingly about Dr Ambedkar, claiming that Brahmins had fixed a price for Ambedkar in form of reservations and that Ambedkar did not bother about the problems of others.
“Ambedkar had some feeling similar to us. He asked me, ‘What can I do for your people?’ I gave him a lot of data. He started talking for us. At once Brahmins fixed a price for him. He asked 10 percentage reservation for his people in education and government jobs. They said ‘we will make it 15’. The Brahmins knew that even if 25 percentage was given even three or four persons of SC community would not come. And Ambedkar simply signed in that law. He did not bother about the problem of others.”
Viduthalai (11 November 1957)
Earlier too on 8th of July 1947, he had criticized Dr Ambedkar in his magazine ‘Viduthalai’, saying ‘Ambedkar might oppose creation of Dravida Nadu as he is controlled by Hindu establishment-Congress.’
“Today Dr Ambedkar had started taking the sterile stand of the North Indians that this nation should not be partitioned. I am afraid that in coming days he would also oppose the Dravidstan demand.”
Periyar’s open Admiration for Jinnah and his Violent Methods – On 17th of October, 1957 ‘Periyar’ wrote that if people following him behaved as obediently as the followers of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, they could win independence. He also wrote that Jinnah won independence by taking up the sword and unleashing rivers of blood, and that they must do the same.
His hate against Scheduled Caste – He openly despised SC’s, in fact he said he works only for non-Brahmins and Non-SC’s.
Today in the society there are three major divisions: Brahmins, Shudras and Panchamas. In this, the Brahmins because they are upper castes, are getting the concessions they need. The Panchamas because they are low castes are getting the concessions they need. It is the Shudras who are in the middle, who are suffering from lack of concessions.
Viduthalai (16 April 1950).
He justified the massacre of landless SC labourers by non-Brahmin land owners.
The workers should be taught to live with what they receive as wages. Instead of teaching them that the Communists are trying to instigate the workers into riots and rebellions. Because of that 42 persons have lost their lives. Both the left and the right Communists as well as the ultra-Communists are trying to somehow topple this government. … Agriculturists of Eastern Thanjavur should not allow the evil force of Communists to spread in their area. Our people should support and strengthen our government instead of weakening it.
Periyar supported perpetrators of kilvenmani massacre of dalits as they belonged to his naidu community.
He insulted Tamil culture and Language – Surprised? At this point, people will think Periyar is mentally ill, but let me explain :
EVR called Silappadikaram a “Aryan propaganda”
Can a true Dravidian or a true Tamizh conduct a conference on Silappadikaram? I can only say that those who conduct a conference on this work are simply those who want to be certified as ‘good boys’ by the Brahmins. What is there in Silappadikaram, except the fact that it is a propaganda text of the Aryans? From the commencement to the end it is filled to the brim with Aryan concepts and nothing else.
Periyar even called Tamil a barbarian’s language.
He was an open misogynist – Surprised? You would be.
In DK’s newspapers, he makes extremely misogynistic assertation:
“Had the British continued for another ten years, more than half of the Brahmin women would have been ours and Tamils would have been their husbands and the dominating caste would have been destroyed [by] more than half. Only after Brahmin women had started chasing our boys did the Brahmin men become very angry with the British.”
He even insulted his own wife –
When the first wife of EVR Nagammai wanted to go to temple, EVR could not win over her by his arguments. So he secretly went to some of his ‘minor’ friends and showed them his first wife and told them that she was a new Dasi in the town asking them to make her consent to their desires. Consequently they started teasing and stalking her from the temple. Traumatised by this his wife stopped attending the temple. Later she came to know that this was a trick played by her rationalist husband.
Tamizhar Thalaivar.
Even though Periyar called out Hijab as ‘visual prison in the name of religion’, but after getting backlash from the Islamic community he changed his statement and said “If, to shun the religion that imposes untouchability on them, Ambedkar and his followers turn to Islam for succor rather than to atheism, we would not have any objections to it.”
Periyar did not fight against “Caste inequality”, he openly called for the genocide of Brahmins –
To destroy caste discrimination burn the pictures of Nehru and Gandhi and also the Constitution of India. If all these methods fail to give us results, then we should start beating and killing the Brahmins; we should start burning their houses.”
~ Periyar
One can never call a person who openly asks for the genocide of another community an “Anti-caste activist.”
Periyar’s Support for Anti-Semitism at Height of Nazi Rule – On 20th of March, 1938, ‘Periyar’ compared Brahmins of India with Jews in a Nazi-like fashion, saying both conspire to torture and suck the lives out of other citizens while living in comfort themselves. Quoting his exact words in the magazine ‘Viduthalai’ –
“The Jews are only interested in themselves, and nobody else. They somehow contrive to have the rulers in their pocket, participate in governance and conspire to torture and suck the lives out of other citizens in order that they live (in comfort).” Are they not comparable to the Brahmins who too have no responsibility but have the rulers in their pocket, have entered the ruling dispensation and been lording over (all of us)?”
One has to keep in mind that this statement was made at the time when Hitler’s holocaust of Jews was in full swing, and anti-semitic tropes were the hallmark of Nazis.
Periyar’s Violent Contempt for Gandhi and Indian Constitution – ‘Periyar’ had nothing but contempt for Mahatma Gandhi and Indian Constitution, and this is a well documented part of history. For instance, in 1957 he wrote in his magazine that the Indian constitution will be burned as the first step. If the government still doesn’t budge to his demands, then he will burn Gandhi’s photo and then he will burn the then PM Nehru’s effigy.
In response, the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru called ‘Periyar’ as an ‘old and senile man who deserved a place in lunatic asylum rather than in public life’
Periyar’s Dream of Southern Partition – ‘Periyar’ was one of the most vocal proponents of a separate ‘Dravida Nadu’, by which he wanted a second partition to happen in south India, and declaring the current state of Tamil Nadu as an independent nation. He had also openly supported the creation of Pakistan and declared that ‘Dravidians’ were not Indians.
In 1939, ‘Periyar’ organised the ‘Dravida Nadu Conference’ and advocated a separate and independent ‘Dravida Nadu’. There was practically no support for him from either within Tamil Nadu or from the other states of south India. However, that did not deter him from repeating the demand the following year when Muslim League came out with the Lahore resolution demanding the establishment of Pakistan.
‘Periyar’ was also a vocal supporter of British Raj, hoping that they might eventually accept his demand for ‘Dravida Nadu’. In a magazine called ‘Kudi Arasu’, on 28th of July 1940, he wrote that once the Second World War was over they must press for partition of India and create ‘Dravidar Nadu for Dravidians’.
In July of 1947, as the rest of India was getting ready for independence, ‘Periyar’ was busy advocating the 2nd partition of India into ‘Dravida Nadu’.
Decades of concerted efforts by a certain section of people had white-washed the very problematic views of ‘Periyar’, and had somehow managed to portray him as some sort of a ‘Tamil Ambedkar’. Historical evidence however shows that nothing could be farther from the truth. This would be a good time to analyze the entirety of Periyar’s view, and what the tallest leaders of his time had said about ‘Periyar’. These are just some of the outrageous anti-India, Anti-Semitic, Anti-Gandhi, Anti-Hindu and pro-violence views of ‘Periyar’.
If we look at the background of Periyar, it remains no secret that why he wrote a book of his sexual fetishes known as ‘Sachhi Ramayana’. In order to take revenge of what allegedly happened in his childhood, he needed an eruption vent. His writings were more like a medium where he could errupt his frustration out of his mind in written form, he found his respite in abusing the reverred Hindu deities, Ram, Sita and Laxman respectively. He left no stone unturned defame them. Periyar wanted to destroy the very foundation of sanatana dharma, so he wrote this kind of misleading book in abusive language. The language he used can not be of any elite writer or thinker. Kind of words he used for Mother Sita or even a woman can not stand right for any women. That shows only the mental bankruptcy of Periyar. He and his followers didn’t get the fact that religion is matter of faith not test.
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