Visswanathan, Ellappa Sadayappa
Description
As E.V. Ramasami Naicker's movement grew out of opposition to the
Brahman ritual superiority and their political dominance in society, this
study starts with an analysis of how, over the centuries, the Brahmans
combined ritual authority and land-ownership with political leadership
and gained pre-eminence in the country, and how this was challenged in
the last quarter of the nineteenth century first by the non-Brahman
intellectuals and later by the political leaders. The first...[Show more] organized
effort to challenge the Brahman political leadership came about when the
non-Brahman leaders banded themselves into a political party and participated
in the legislatures established in the Presidency of Madras under the
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919. However, the first attempt to arouse
the non-Brahman masses and to create in them a sense of pride in their
cultural and historical traditions and an awareness of their rightful place
in society was made by Naicker, a staunch nationalist, who in early 1926
launched the Self-Respect movement in the Tamil districts of the presidency.
This thesis seeks to examine how Naicker rose in the party hierarchy of the
Madras Provincial Congress and what groups gave him support. Further it
examines the causes that led Naicker to leave the Tamilnad Congress and
organize a radical movement in the Tamil country. In doing so it also
examines the radicalism of Naicker, the objectives of the movement he
fathered, the means he adopted to disseminate the new cultural and political
values in the community and the castes and communities to whom he appealed.
Naicker's probings in order to align himself with non-Brahman political
parties, his attitude to the Congress and its policies as well as his pro-
British and pro-bureaucratic stance are analyzed. As he was concerned with
the ultimate results of the constitutional processes and not with its
details, this thesis touches only on the broad aspects of these changes in so far as they held the attention of Naicker.
The radical Self-Respect movement was further radicalized under
the influence of Soviet style communism in the 1930’s. This study,
besides delineating this new phase of the movement, seeks to examine the
reasons that motivated Naicker on the one hand and the Justice leaders on
the other to come to a political understanding in 1934. It also proposes
to show how this informal alliance between Naicker and the Justicites failed
to improve the Justice Party’s prospects either in the 1934 or in the 1937
elections, and how it enabled Naicker to become the leader of the party in
1938.
After a landslide victory over the Justice Party in the 1937
elections for the provincial legislative assembly, the Congress headed by
C. Rajagopalachariar formed the ministry in Madras later that year. Within
a year of coming to power the Congress ministry introduced Hindi as a
compulsory subject of study in some of the lower secondary schools in the
presidency. What this language policy meant to the Tamil academics and the
non-Brahman politicians opposed to the Congress, and how the fears of the
educated non-Brahmans concerning imposition of Hindi was exploited by
Naicker to awaken Dravidian nationalism among the masses are investigated
in this study.
The effects of the 1937 electoral defeat on the Justice Party on
the one hand, and on Naicker on the other, will be assessed. It is evident
that "the defeat was a crushing blow to the Justicites and that it provoked
considerable searching of heart among them. The tangible effect of all
this was an invitation to Naicker to assume the leadership of the
organization. This study seeks to examine what Naicker did to the party
organization on taking over the leadership; why it declined, and what
considerations weighed with Naicker’s principal followers like Annadurai,to rechristen the Justice Party as the Dravida Kazhagam in 1944. In doing
so, the study focuses attention on the emergence of the Annadurai-Naicker
alliance in politics and the impact it had on the Justice organization in
the 1940’s.
On the adoption of Annadurai's resolution at the Salem conference
in 1944» the old-guard of the Justice Party decided to break away from the
then transformed organization to form a splinter group of their own, whioh
facilitated the emergence of Naicker and Annadurai as the only two important
leaders in the D.K. This thesis briefly examines the progress of the D.K.,
the hopes it raised among its followers and the set-back it received in 1949*
It also shows how Annadurai was able to build up an independent following
both in the party and in the Tamil districts and with what techniques he
became a leader of importance in the 1940's.
As this study is approached from the broad biographical context of
Naicker, only the relevant factual details concerning the Tamilnad Congress,
the Justice Party and the Ministerial Party are brought into focus.
In this thesis no single system of spelling Indian words has been
adopted. In the case of proper names the old usage is adhered to as far
as possible. All words written in Tamil irrespective of their origins,
and titles of Tamil books, are transliterated according to the scheme
followed in the Tamil Lexicon. Diacritical marks are used for the Tamil
books included in the bibliography. In conformity to Tamil tradition,
the caste name *Chetti* is appended with honorific suffix 'ar' to read
'Chettiar' when followed by first names. The 'Raraasami' is spelt in
different ways, such as Ramaswami, Ramaswamy and Ramasamy; the spelling
used in this thesis is Naicker's own usage. Although Ramasami Naicker
dropped his caste title 'Naicker' after the first Self-Respect Conference
held in 1929, the title is retained in this study, as he has been known to the outside world rather as Naicker and, of late, as Tantai Periyar
or 'Venerable father' than as Ramasami.
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