Periyar and Islam

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy was an atheist. He was a not a believer of any particular religion or any religious texts. He believed that bane of Tamils is Brahmins, Muslims and Christians consider themselves to Tamilans. He, in his book - "Vedangalin Vandavalangal", had separate chapters where he criticized Holy Quran and Bible. During the early days of self respect movement of Tamil Nadu when Periyar was vociferous that Hindu religion, Manudharma and the Indian National Congress should be destroyed, he was inclined to play a political game by expressing an opinion that Islam alone was the religion that carried political weight and those depressed in the Hindu order could consider conversion to Islam.

In order to get rid of or eradicate the perils of "shudrahood" the threat of conversion was slowly exercised. The Dravidian Movement repeatedly complained about the imposition of Aryan religion on Dravidians. He commented that unless a person becomes either the Panchama, i.e., Adi Dravida or Muslims, they will not get respect, justice and progress. He also clarified that the idea was not entirely to place the Dravidian people under the authority of leader of Muslim religion living abroad but to practice the tenets of equality, righteous conduct and mutual respect. He also laid special emphasis that he was not an advocate of Islam but was only trying to find a remedy to the sufferings under Aryan, brahminical system and to find a rightful place for Dravidians in the independent country

This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to content@indianetzone.com