From Periyar’s radical Self-Respect Movement to the rise of Dravidian power, this is the story of how a century-old revolt against caste and religion reshaped Tamil Nadu’s politics — and why its fight remains unfinished. Watch the full video to know more.
00:00What if I told you that one of India's strongest political fortresses was built by a hundred-year-old revolt against caste and religion itself?
00:09This is the story of the Dravidian movement, a movement that still shapes every facet of Tamil Nadu politics.
00:17Long before independence, the tensions of North versus South, Aryan versus Dravidian, Hindi versus Tamil were already simmering.
00:25But it was E.V. Ramasamy Periyar who turned these into political challenge through the self-respect movement.
00:33Periyar's argument was stark.
00:35Caste survives because religion justifies it.
00:39So, unhighlighting caste meant dismantling the authority of religion.
00:44His tools were radical for the 1920s.
00:47Atheism, rationalism, inter-caste marriage, women's emancipation and a rejection of Sanskritic hierarchy.
00:56He was instrumental in constructing a Dravidian identity based on equality, self-respect and Tamil cultural pride.
01:04This changed Tamil Nadu permanently.
01:07Through the Justice Party and later the DMK, reservations expanded, access to education widened, and Brahmin dominance in state institutions collapsed.
01:19The political space was recast around non-Brahmin representation.
01:24Defending Brahmin privilege became impossible.
01:28But here's the contradiction.
01:30Caste didn't disappear.
01:31However, it reorganized.
01:33Intermediate castes like Venya's Gunders and Thewars, newly empowered by Dravidian politics, often turned against Dalits.
01:42Violent flashpoints like Kilvan Mani, Kodiyan Kulam and Mila Wallavu showed the limits of social justice at the ground level.
01:52With time, Periyar's revolutionary atheism slowly softened into electoral symbolism.
01:58Tamil pride, welfare schemes, and cultural gestures.
02:03The deep-rooted structural issues of land, labor, and caste hierarchy remained intact.
02:10And framing oppression as Aryan versus Dravidian often hid the many inequalities present within Dravidian society.
02:19A century later, the Dravidian movement remains both a success and an unfinished project.
02:25It broke Brahmin hegemony, created one of India's strongest reservation systems, and built a political culture that has remained resistant to majoritarian nationalism.
02:37But caste still adapts, and Dalits remain vulnerable.
02:41So, the question today is, with the Tamil Nadu elections ahead, will Periyar's self-respect movement be able to counter the forces of Hindutva?
02:52Read more in Outlook's December 11 issue, Dravidar.
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