Though Periyar is a well-known name among the Dalit Bahujan activists, it is a fact that most of the people in the north have little knowledge about the huge work that Periyar did and the power of his self-respect movement. There are two kinds of stories that are either glorified or vilified as far as Periyar is concern. One the Hindutva protagonists blame him as anti-Ram anti Hindi who broke the idols of the god. That is precisely the same reason that many of the Bahujan intellectuals glorify him without knowing much about his monumental work in raising the conscious level of Dravidian people and providing self-respect for all.
Periyar’s interaction in the north India with began with his visit to Kashi in 1904 where he suffered humiliation due to caste discrimination by the local priests. But as a political activist Periyar’s formal interaction started with his visit to Kanpur in 1944 5o participate in All India Backward Non-Brahmin Hindus conference from December 29 till December 31st, 1944. Periyar was well aware of things happening in the north particularly the movement being led by Baba Saheb Ambedkar. It is not known to many people that Periyar had translate Baba Saheb’s extraordinary work of Annihilation of Caste in Tamil. Mr S V Rajadurai in his wonderful conversation with me brought these amazing facts about Periyar’s north Indian relations in the recently published book ‘Periyar: Caste, Nation and Socialism’. Periyar was also the vice President of ‘Jat Pat Todal Mandal’ but refused to change his stand as what were the reasons of caste discrimination which he felt emanates from the Varna system. I had raised the issues of Periyar’s north Indian engagement with Mr Rajadurai and he really worked hard to bring these facts of life to all the people.
Periyar visited Kanpur on February 8th, 1959 on the invitation of Republican Party of India and some of his admirers like Chhedi Lal Saathi and others. Periyar addressed a huge gathering of RPI activists at Ganga Prasad Memorial Hall Lucknow where Dr Chhedi Lal Saathi translated his speech. Socialist leader Raj Narain too hosted a tea party his honour. Periyar continued to speak at different platforms in Lucknow, Kanpur, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Pune. He tried to strengthen Republican Party of India after the demise of Baba Saheb Ambedkar by addressing their different gatherings. Those who speak against Periyar should know this fact of his Periyar was highly influenced by Baba Saheb’s philosophy but he admired him and promoted his work after his demise.
It is not that Periyar spoke with the political gatherings. He also spoke at Lucknow University who were protesting against him in the beginning but later understood his stand on social justice, OBC and Dalit reservation and cheered for him. Dr K Veeramani translated his speech at the Lucknow University campus on February 11th, 1959. Periyar also addressed students at the Siddhartha College, established by Baba Saheb Ambedkar in Mumbai on February 25th, 1959. He visited Lucknow again in 1968.
One of the most outstanding admirers of Periyar and who promoted his work in the north India was Lalai Singh Yadav, a humanist rationalist and part of well-known social movement called ‘Arjak Sangha’. Arjak Sangh was promoting the enlightenment, rationalist thinking and warning the Bahujan communities against rituals and blind beliefs. For all such thoughtful people, Periyar along with Baba Saheb Ambedkar remained their heroes. Lalai Singh Yadav translated Periyar’s work on Ramayana under title ‘Sachchi Ramayana’ i.e., True Ramayana. The Uttar Pradesh government banned the book and confiscated its copies on December 9, 1969. Arjak Sangh and Lalai Singh Yadav condemned the incident and challenged the government order under the pretext of ‘law and order trouble due to hurt sentiments of the people’, at the Allahabad High Court which declared the ban on book as invalid. Uttar Pradesh government went in the Supreme Court against this order challenging the lifting of ban by the Allahabad High Court. On September 16th, 1976, Supreme Court delivered a historic verdict which upheld the high court order and dismissed government’s review petition. Justice Krishna Iyer, Justice P N Bhagwati and justice Syed Murtaza gave a verdict. Delivering the verdict Justice Iyer said, ‘A government can always learn from the criticism of its opponents than from the eulogy of its supporters. To stifle that criticism is, at least, ultimately, to prepare its own destruction.’
The verdict of the Supreme Court was the best tribute to the icon of reason and humanism, Periyar on the eve of his 97th birthday. This was the period RPI in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere was virtually moving towards political extinction and got divided into various fractions but Arjak Sangh was the only non-political movement for humanist values and social change. It carried the legacy of spreading Periyar’s work in common parlance in Uttar Pradesh. As Arjak Sangh was anti superstitious, Periyar’s rationalism and other such actions influenced them. The image creation of Periyar revolving around Arjak Sangha was mostly as an idol breaker. His issues of social justice, women’s liberation, self-respect marriages, proportional representation are frankly still not in wider circulations among political as well as cultural activists. Though Arjak Sangh was still working but its sharpness continued to decline after the demise of leaders like Ramswaroop Verma and Lalai Singh Yadav.
In 1990 when V P Singh was the prime minister and accepted implementation of 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the Central government job, a new movement was building up in north India. Ambedkar Phule Periyar became immensely popular with the Dalit Bahujan activists and intellectuals. Ambedkarites were writing about Periyar and his work. Parallel to them was the rise of Bahujan Samaj Party, which filled the vacuum created by the marginalisation of Republican Party of India. The ‘demise’ of RPI in Uttar Pradesh gave rise to the growth of BSP in the 1980s and in 1993 the party made a historical alliance with Samajwadi Party and came to power in Uttar Pradesh. Slogans like ‘Mile Mulayam Kanshiram: Hawa ho Gaye Jaishriram’ simply translate as when The Slogan Jaishriram would be worthless once Mulayam and Kanshiram join hand. BSP was that time aggressively speaking about Ambedkar and Periyar in north India. The alliance of SP-BSP collapsed due to contradictions and political ambitions of leaders. BSP formed government with the support of BJP in Uttar Pradesh. It was a big shock but people accepted it as long as they felt their ‘interests’ were not being compromised. The first thing BSP announced after assuming power was installing big iconic statutes of Dalit Bahujan Icons and celebration of ‘Periyar Mela’ in the heart of Lucknow city. The declaration of a Periyar Mela to be organised in Lucknow city angered the alliance partner BJP and they protested terming Periyar as anti-North and anti-Ram, they threatened to pull out of the government. Since then, BSP does not use Periyar’s photograph in its political work. In the initial phases, it was BSP workers who used to speak a lot of Periyar but afterwards slowly political realities of the state forced them to abandon Periyar completely. Now, BSP does not want to any way affiliate with the memory of Periyar. The crisis of the other parties in north India particularly Samajwadi Party, Janta Dal or RJD is much more serious as most of them can’t afford to lose their community votes they avoid Periyar. These parties actually were formed by those inspired by socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia and Jai Prakash Narain. Politically, it was just RPI or BSP which promoted Periyar in the north India. Socially, Arjak Sangh’ which was actually led by the leaders from backward communities but Periyar’s political message in the north India was carried out by RPI and BSP (in the beginning) and BAMSCEF and mostly all of them led by Ambedkarites. So, one thing is clear, Periyar in north India has not been read or promoted by the backward communities because of the abject failure and opportunism of the political parties claiming to represent the politics of ‘social justice’ particularly those intellectuals who used him just to make their juicy references on religion rather than looking his monumental work of Self Respect Movement that brought the backward communities and Dalits to the power structure in the Dravida land. Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar were revolutionary icons who challenged the Brahmanical hegemony which most of the political parties are not ready to challenge yet social movements, rationalist, humanist activists, Bahujan social cultural leaders continue to be inspired by Periyar and his monumental work to liberate Dravidian masses in Tamilnadu and empower them socially, culturally and politically.
The vast treasure of work brought out by Mr S. V. Rajadurai on Periyar is a must read for all. Now, the book titled ‘Periyar: Caste, Nation and Socialism: S V Rajadurai in Conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat’, published by People’s Literature Publication, Mumbai, is now available on Amazon and Flipkart. Those who are interested in Periyar’s north Indian engagement along as well as many other critical issues of Periyar’s understanding on Dalits, untouchability, Land questions as well as communism, would get extremely rare and important information about the same.
Periyar ignite the heart and minds of all the humanists. Let his spirit of enlightenment and rational humanist thought grow everywhere.
Related:
Periyar: Caste, Nation and Socialism
Why is Periyar not taught in Indian schools and colleges?
Opinion: Bahujans need to spread Phule and Periyar’s message in person, not just on social media