Revolt - a Radical Weekly in Colonial Madras
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Revolt - A Radical Weekly in Colonial Madras Edited by V. Geetha and S. V. Rajadurai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam Revolt - A Radical Weekly in Colonial Madras All Articles Selected and Edited by V. Geetha and S. V. Rajadurai Design: C. Arumugam Cover: Avinash Veeraraghavan Production: C. Arumugam and V. Geetha Printed and bound by Ind-com Press, Chennai, India Published by: Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, 29, Journalists’ Colony, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600041 Contents Preface ...................................................................................................... 5 Freethought, Atheism and Social Radicalism in Colonial Madras .................. 7 PART I NATIONALISM AND ANTI-CASTE RADICALISM ...... 15 1 THE PERILS OF NATIONALISM 1.1 The Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress ....................... 19 1.2 Congressmen in Madras .................................................................... 29 1.3 Congress Conservatism ...................................................................... 47 1.4 Nationalism: Principles and Practice................................................... 60 1.5 The Political Economy of Khadi ....................................................... 67 1.6 Opposing Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya ......................................... 80 2 ANTI-CASTE RADICALISM 2.1 Self-respecters and their Movement .................................................. 101 2.2 Organising for Self-respect ............................................................... 115 2.3 Self-respect and Socialism................................................................. 147 3 POLITICAL NON-BRAHMINISM AND THE JUSTICE PARTY 3.1 The Non-brahmin as Citizen ........................................................... 157 3.2 Some Non Brahmin Leaders ............................................................ 176 3.3 Impasses in Political Non-brahminism: .............................................. 181 4 REVOLT AND THE MAKING OF ANTI-CASTE RADICALISM ........................................................ 201 PART II OPPOSING VARNADHARMA ................................. 219 1 ‘UNTOUCHABLES’ AND CASTE HINDUS...................................... 222 1.1 The Crime of Untouchability .......................................................... 222 1.2 The Perils of Reform....................................................................... 229 1.3 Castes and Conferences ................................................................... 238 2 REPORTING ON ANTI-CASTE RADICALISM IN KERALA, ........ MAHARASHTRA AND NORTH INDIA 2.1 The SNDP Yogam and the Self-Respecters ..................................... 247 2.2 Self-Respect in Maharashtra ............................................................. 259 2.3 Fighting Caste in North India .......................................................... 272 3 AGAINST FAITH AND CASTE ......................................................... 3.1 The Idea of Karma .......................................................................... 281 3.2 Priests and Parasites .......................................................................... 284 3.3 Questioning Custom and Practice .................................................... 288 3.4 Hinduism? ....................................................................................... 292 3.5 The Follies of Faith and Belief ......................................................... 302 4 BRAHMINISM 4.1 Caste Privilege ................................................................................. 309 4.2 Brahmana Rule? ............................................................................... 312 4.3 Fighting Brahminical Privilege .......................................................... 321 5 TAMIL SAIVISM AND SELF-RESPECT ........................................ 353 6 VARNADHARMA 6.1 Understanding Varna and Caste ........................................................ 391 6.2 Opposing Varna................................................................................ 396 PART 3 THE WOMEN’S QUESTION...................................... 406 1 ARGUING FOR EQUALITY ........................................................ 411 2 ON MARRIAGE AND CHILD-BEARING 2.1 The Marriage Question ................................................................... 422 2.2 Birth-Control ................................................................................... 459 3 DEBATING RIGHTS: LAW AND THE WOMEN’S QUESTION 3.1 The Case for Hindu Law Reform .................................................... 466 3.2 Debates on the Age of Consent and Child Marriage Restraint Bills .. 471 3.3 The Devadasi Abolition Bill ............................................................. 500 4 EDUCATING AND ORGANISING WOMEN ............................. 504 5 COUNTERING CRITICS ............................................................. 516 PART 4 SELF-RESPECT AND ATHEISM ............................... 525 1 THE ARGUMENT FOR ATHEISM 1.1 Debating Atheism and Nationalism ................................................... 527 1.2 Religion and Education ................................................................... 546 1.3 The Atheistic Writings of S. Guruswami ........................................... 553 1.4 Atheist Miscellany ............................................................................ 572 2 RELIGION, POLITICS AND THE STATE 2.1 Amanullah’s Afghanistan ................................................................... 582 2.2 Modern Turkey................................................................................ 592 2.3 Soviet Experiments in Atheism ......................................................... 599 3 RATIONALISM AND SCIENCE: DEBATING EUGENICS ......... 603 4 FREETHOUGHT FROM ELSEWHERE ...................................... 607 INDEX ............................................................................... 622 Preface Revolt was the Self-respect Movement’s first English weekly. In 1925 only 7% of the population in Tamil Nadu was literate. Yet, Periyar dared to start the Tamil weekly Kudi Arasu that year. In 1928, the year that saw Revolt being published, very few Tamilians knew to read or write English. It is surely a historical feat that Revolt continued to be published until 1930. Periyar’s deep and abiding interest and commitment to destroying caste, women’s rights, his opposition to obscurantist faith and belief, to Brahmins, and his endorsement of proportional representation led him to risk such ventures such as these. Outlining the reasons for starting an English weekly, Periyar noted that he desired the ideals of the Self-respect movement to be known to people outside Tamil Nadu; he also wanted an English forum to counter the views expressed by Brahmins and the politically selfish class against the Self- respect movement, which found an easy berth in existing English publications. During the short period of its existence Revolt responded to national and international issues and concerns: the religious reforms undertaken by Amir Amanullah of Afghanistan; the Congress’ problematic stance on untouchability; that party’s double facedness in its dealings with the British (invoking in this context, Hegel’s dialectic!); the controversy created by the publication of Katherine Mayo’s Mother India; the temple entry struggles organized by the Self-respecters; Dr Muthulakshmi’s devadasi abolition bill, the Child Marriage Restraint Bill, and especially the orthodox Hindus’ opposition to both… In each of these instances Revolt argued its case intelligently sharply, and its editor Kuthoosi Guruswami’s wit and satire rattled many an orthodox person’s composure. Guruswami’ critical essays on the Ramayana were in fact sent to Gandhi and he was forced to distinguish ‘his Rama’ from the Rama that Guruswami’s essays revealed. Revolt and its editors were in touch with international rationalist and atheistic groups and published several essays on science, atheism. and so on. The weekly carried news of anti-caste groups elsewhere in India as well. Revolt holds a veritable mirror to the times, and allows us to see the Self-respect movement in its context, and appreciate its – and Periyar’s – perspective on various matters. Yet these views and ideas, especially Periyar’s principled opinions on a range of subjects are as valid for our times as they were for his – and so, to make available these ideas to today’s young people in India and elsewhere, Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam decided to extract important and seminal articles from Revolt and publish them in a single volume. Of the 55 published issues of Revolt, a few were entirely unreadable. We then requested V. Geetha and S. V. Rajadurai, whose contribution to Periyar Studies is well known, to sift through all the readable issues and make a selection for the proposed volume. They agreed to this, and have completed this task, for which we are truly grateful to them. This volume is part of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam’s larger efforts to anthologise Periyar’s speeches and writings, as they appear in Kudiarasu and we are indeed proud to be bringing out this English volume. In solidarity Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam Freethought, Atheism and Social Radicalism in Colonial Madras V. Geetha and S. V. Rajadurai A secular, freethinkers’ union was active in Madras in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It affiliated itself with and was perhaps known to Freethought circles in England. The union called itself ‘the Chennai Suyaakina Sangam’, calling attention to its will