Periyar

Also called: E.V. Ramasamy, E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker · Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"

Meaning

Periyar (E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, 1879–1973) was a Tamil social reformer from Madras. He used print, mainly his Tamil weekly Kudi Arasu (1925), to attack the caste system, religious orthodoxy and patriarchy, and to spread the ideas of the Self-Respect Movement [4].

He matters because he shows how print turned a regional protest into an all-India argument. NCERT names him, together with B.R. Ambedkar, as one of the two twentieth-century writers against caste whose work was read all over India.

Explanation

Background: why print mattered for caste protest

• Cheap print reached poor people first.
• In nineteenth-century Madras towns, very cheap small books were sold at crossroads.

• So people with little money and little schooling could own printed matter.

• There was already an earlier example of caste protest in print.

• Jyotiba Phule wrote Gulamgiri (1871) in Maharashtra against the injustices of caste.

• Periyar continued this tradition in the twentieth century, in the Tamil region.

• Big newspapers ignored low-caste concerns. Reformers had to start their own papers if they wanted to be heard.

Periyar's use of print: sequence of events

• 2 May 1925: Periyar started the Tamil weekly Kudi Arasu ("Republic") [4].
• December 1925: He launched the Self-Respect Movement (a campaign to help people, especially lower castes, live with dignity without Brahmanical control) and used the weekly to spread its ideas [4].
• In the same year he left the Indian National Congress. Textbook accounts say he felt the Congress was not doing enough against caste.
• Through Kudi Arasu he wrote on [4]:
• property inheritance (who gets family property, including women's share)
• child marriage
• widow remarriage

• women in politics

• He also attacked caste, Brahmanical dominance and religious orthodoxy (strict, blind following of religious rules) [4].

Main ideas in his writing

• Against caste. No person is high or low by birth.
• Against religious orthodoxy. He criticised the scriptures and customs used to justify caste.
• Against patriarchy. Patriarchy is a system where men control women and family decisions. Periyar wrote for women's rights in marriage, property and politics [4].
• For a just future. Like other protest journals, his writing did two things:
• It criticised the ancient scriptures used to defend caste.
• It pictured a society without birth-based rank.

Results

• His ideas spread far beyond one region. Printed words travelled and lasted, so his arguments were read across India.
• He gave excluded people their own platform. Kudi Arasu did for Tamil readers what Ambedkar's papers did in Maharashtra.
• Caste reform and women's reform became one fight. He linked caste reform with women's rights.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Twentieth century, mainly from 1925 onwards. He lived from 1879 to 1973.
• Region: Madras (the Tamil-speaking south). NCERT pairs him with B.R. Ambedkar, who worked in Maharashtra.
• Key people:
• Periyar (E.V. Ramasamy / E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker). "Periyar" means "the great one" in Tamil.
• B.R. Ambedkar, who used print in the same way in Maharashtra.

• Jyotiba Phule, the earlier Maratha pioneer of 'low caste' protest.

• Evidence:

• The weekly Kudi Arasu (from 2 May 1925) [4].
• NCERT Class 10, Ch 5, which names him as a writer read all over India.

Don't confuse with

• B.R. Ambedkar: He worked in Maharashtra and wrote in Marathi. His papers were Mooknayak (1920) and Bahishkrit Bharat (3 April 1927) [2][3]. Periyar worked in Madras and wrote in Tamil (Kudi Arasu, 1925) [4].
• Jyotiba Phule: He was a nineteenth-century Maratha reformer who wrote Gulamgiri (1871). Periyar belongs to the twentieth century, and his key print work is a weekly newspaper, not a book.
• Kudi Arasu vs Mooknayak: Kudi Arasu ("Republic") is Periyar's Tamil weekly (1925) [4]. Mooknayak ("Leader of the Voiceless") is Ambedkar's Marathi paper (1920) [2][3].
• Kashibaba: He was a Kanpur millworker who wrote Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938), which linked caste exploitation with class exploitation. Periyar was a reform leader, not a worker-writer.

Prelims Hooks

• Periyar = E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, a reformer from Madras. NCERT pairs him with Ambedkar (Maharashtra).
• Kudi Arasu ("Republic"): Periyar's Tamil weekly, started 2 May 1925 [4].
• Self-Respect Movement: launched by Periyar in December 1925 [4].
• Order of the papers: Mooknayak (1920) → Kudi Arasu (1925) → Bahishkrit Bharat (1927) [3][4].
• Order of the writers: Phule's Gulamgiri (1871) → Periyar's Kudi Arasu (1925) → Kashibaba's Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938).
• Trap: Kudi Arasu was in Tamil, not Marathi, and it was Periyar's paper, not Ambedkar's.

Mains Points

• Print turned regional protest into a national debate.
• Periyar's writing from Madras was read all over India.
• A spoken protest stays in one place. A printed one travels and lasts.

• This shows that owning a press decided whose voice was heard, not only being able to read.

• Periyar linked caste reform with women's rights.

• Kudi Arasu covered property inheritance, child marriage, widow remarriage and women in politics, together with caste [4].

• So the fight against birth-based rank also became a fight against male control.

• Continuity in anti-caste print.

• Phule's Gulamgiri (1871) came first.
• Then came Ambedkar's and Periyar's journals (1920s).
• Then came Kashibaba's caste-and-class critique (1938).
• Together they show how print gave lower castes and workers a voice of their own. This is useful for GS-I answers on social reform movements.

Related concepts

• Gulamgiri
• Mooknayak

Read more

• Print, the poor and caste-class critique