PERIYAR
- MODERN HISTORY
News:
Leaders pay tribute to
Periyar, MGR
What's
in the news?
●
Leaders across political parties paid
tributes to ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramasamy and AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran on the
occasion of their death anniversaries.
Key
takeaways:
●
Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy was born in 1879
in Erode, then a part of the Coimbatore district of the Madras Presidency.
●
He later came to be called “Periyar”,
which in Tamil means ‘respected one’ or
‘elder’. He was also popularly referred to as Thanthai Periyar.
●
He was a respected Indian social activist
and politician who started the Self-Respect
Movement and the political party Dravidar
Kazhagam. He is also known as the ‘Father
of Modern Tamilnadu’.
●
His works against the Brahmanical dominance, oppression of women in Tamil Nadu,
caste prevalence is exemplary.
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Periyar promoted the principles of rationalism, self-respect, women’s rights
and eradication of caste.
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He opposed the exploitation and
marginalisation of the people of South India and the imposition of what he
considered Indo-Aryan India.
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In the year 1919, E.V. Ramasamy joined the Indian National Congress (INC) but
resigned in 1925 when he started feeling that only the interests of the few
elite sections of society were being catered to by the party.
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In 1924, Periyar participated in a
non-violent satyagraha in Vaikom in
Kerala.
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In 1924, he started a weekly Tamil
magazine 'Kudiarasu'. In 1933, the
British government banned the magazine, later published under the name of 'Puratchi'.
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He also issued journals such as Paguth tharivu (Rationalism) (1934) and
Viduthalai (Liberation) (1935).
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In 1925, After resigning from Congress he
started the self respect movement.
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From 1929 to 1932, he travelled to British
Malaya, Europe and Russia which had a great influence on him.
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In 1939,
E.V. Ramasamy became the head of the
Justice Party, changing its name to Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944.
●
The party later split with one group led
by C. N. Annadurai formed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in 1949.
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He advocated for a separate, independent “Land of Dravidians” - Dravida Nadu
while continuing the Self-Respect Movement.