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Thinkers and political figures

Photograph of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy with a white beard and dark glasses.

Portrait: Photograph, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy

Country
India
Era
1879–1973
Tradition
Dravidian self-respect, rationalism

Founder of the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu, who attacked caste, Brahminical religion and the imposition of Hindi with an atheism more thoroughgoing than any other major Indian political figure.

01

Documented positions

Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.

  • Attacked the caste system at its religious root, rejecting Hindu scripture as its justification
  • Promoted self-respect marriages conducted without priests, later given legal recognition in Tamil Nadu
  • Campaigned against the imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking states
  • Argued for reservations in education and employment for non-Brahmin communities
  • Advocated women’s right to divorce, contraception and property, and opposed child marriage
  • Professed atheism openly and campaigned against idol worship and religious ritual
  • Left the Congress over what he saw as Brahmin dominance within it
02

Where it sits on each dimension

Personal liberty

60

Evidence: Documented

Tradition and change

96

Evidence: Well documented

Nation and the world

40

Evidence: Documented

Religion and the state

1

Evidence: Well documented

Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Wealth and inequality, The state in the economy, Power and its limits, Environment and growth, Crime and punishment

Sources

  • E. V. Ramasamy, Collected Works of Periyar E.V.R. · 1981
  • M. S. S. Pandian, Brahmin and Non-Brahmin: Genealogies of the Tamil Political Present · Permanent Black · 2007

Last verified: