Remembering Periyar: The Greatest Humanist

Event : Remembering Periyar: The Greatest Humanist

Article: Business Line

Article Date : 24 December 2021

Article Link :  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/to-periyars-ideas-tamil-nadu-owes-its-growth/articleshow/88461996.cms

To Periyar’s ideas, Tamil Nadu owes its growth

 

Chennai: Revolutionary, reformer and champion of social equality-

EV Ramasamy periyar's ideologies remain the foundation of Tamil Nadu's 

social, cultural, political and economic growth even today,48 years after his death.

 

His fight to end caste discrimination and for women

empowerment made Tamil Nadu's growth model unique in

the country. While states such as Kerala and Himachal

Pradesh have done well in socio-economic development,

others like Maharashtra and Gujarat have done exceptionally

in terms of economic growth. Tamil Nadu, however, has been

able to achieve success in both socio-economic development and 

industrial growth, with much lower index than that of Gujarat and

Maharashtra.

 

though states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have had caste mobilisations,

they could not obtain the results of horizontal mobilisation of the entire gamut of

oppressed castes. It is because of the inability to aggregate the subaltern groups to 

arrive at common consensus and fight for common cause.

 

Renowned philosopher ernesto laclau says the most difficult challenge of any

movement, across the world, is to unite the left-behind collective identities to aggregate

themselves into one popular entity and represent their collective consciousness.

 

One of the biggest achievements of the Periyar and Dravidian movement was to unite all 

those left behind horizontally under the common theme of dignity and provide them with

the aspiration to achieve more. If periyar was a movement, then what the successive Dravidian

governments did was to implement laws and policies to realise the broader vision of 

periyar and the dravidar kazhagam. When Tamil Nadu, under M Karunanidhi in 1989,

passed the Hindu succession (Tamil Nadu Amendment)Act, 1989, giving women equal 

access to property as that of her male siblings, it bestowed her with dignity and put her on

an equal footing with her male counterparts. Such

interventions played a major role in women empowerment TN has one of the highest participations

of women in the labour force at 30% in comparison to the Indian average of 19%

Another achievement was the ability to bring about a paradigm shift in societal thought — a deviation from one

that accepted irrational existing social norms to one that questioned societal irrationality. This is significant because

mere passing of legislation does not bring about intended results.

A legislation is effective only when there is a broader consensus

within society for it. That is the reason why the Congress government

that was in power in Tamil Nadu until 1967 implemented policies

in a limited sense, in conformity to the Dravidian ethos- such as

extending the mid-day meal scheme introduced by the Justice Party 

and founding of state-level PSUs. Such policies were not pursued by the

Congress government in other states.

 

Increased aspiration led to education for people belonging

to different social strata(TN has a gross enrolment ratio of 51%, while the pan-India average is 29%).

 

Democratisation of bureaucracy along with demand for services from people, was one 

of the reasons that helped in alignment of bureaucracy with the interest of the public.

This is one of the important differentiating factors that could explain the success of

the mid-day meal scheme or 'Amma' kitchens in Tamil Nadu and failure of such similar

schemes in some poorer states. Though the scourge of caste still

exists, the state has made significant progress. And in this season

of political polarisation and hate, Periyar's legacy brings hope-if all

countrymen could unite under the theme of dignity and social justice.

 

(The writer is the executive coordinator of the Dravidian Professionals Forum)