PERIYAR AND ANTI HINDI AGITATIONS.

 

Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy Naicker (later Periyar) was born at Erode in 1879 in a Kannada Balija merchant family. He had one elder brother and 2 sisters. He spoke Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. Ramasamy attended school only for 5 years and then joined his father’s trade at the age of 12. He used to listen to Tamil Vaishnavaite Gurus who gave discourses at his house and who enjoyed his father’s hospitality. At the age of 12 itself, he started questioning the contradictions in the Hindu mythological stories. As he grew up he came to the conclusion that religion is used to fool innocent people and took it on himself to warn people against superstitions and priests.

In 1904 he visited Kashi. There he saw the begging that takes place in the temple as well as floating bodies. At choultries when he was hungry, he was refused meals and only Brahmins were being fed. Then he disguised himself as a Brahmin wearing the sacred thread, but he was caught before he could have any food. Ultimately he had to satisfy his hunger with the leftovers on the street. This discriminatory attitude based on caste deeply troubled Ramasamy. The incidents that happened to him at Kashi made him turn into an atheist. He entered Kashi as a half-believer and left it as a non-believer.  

Ramasamy joined the Congress in 1919. Later he held the Chairmanship of Erode Municipality and furthered the Congress programs there. In 1922 he was elected President of the Madras Presidency Congress Committee at Tirupur where he strongly advocated for reservation in Government jobs and education. His attempts were however, defeated by the Congress party and he left the party in 1925. In 1929 Ramasamy announced the deletion of his caste name Naicker from his name.

The Vaikom temple in the Kingdom of Travancore had strict laws of untouchability against which Ramasamy led an agitation. Not only were Dalit’s not allowed into this temple, they also could not walk in any of the adjoining by lanes that led to the temple. Gandhi finally reached an agreement with the Regent of Travancore after which they were allowed in all the by lanes except on the East side, finally only in 1936 all were allowed into the roads as well as into the temple.

Ramasamy founded the “Self Respect Movement” for equality and against blind customs, ceremonies and superstitious beliefs, full rights to women inter caste and inter-religious marriages, widow re marriages and so on. A Tamil weekly “Kudi Arasu” and an English journal “Revolt” were started to espouse the cause. The movement received the sympathy of the Justice Party.

To found the right ideological and administrative moorings for the Movement and studying social and political movements, Ramasamy visited Malaya, Singapore and then many countries of Europe including England, France, Spain, Germany and also Russia. He stayed in Russia for 3 months. This tour shaped the political ideology of his movement. On socio economic issues Ramasamy was a Marxist but he did not advocate abolition of private ownership.

In 1937 C Rajagopalachari became the CM of Madras Presidency and introduced Hindi as a compulsory language at schools. This led to a series of anti-Hindi agitations. The Justice Party and Ramasamy organised anti Hindi protests which ended after numerous arrests by the Rajaji Government. The agitation simmered for 3 years. 2 people were killed and 1198 jailed in the agitation which included women and children. The Government resigned in 1939 and the Governor Lord Erskine withdrew the mandatory Hindi education in 1940.

The Justice Party was formed in 1916 to oppose the economic and political power of the Brahmin groups. Their goal was to render Justice to the non-Brahmin groups. Brahmanical priesthood, and Sanskrit social class-value hierarchy were blamed for the inequalities among the non-Brahmin caste groups. Ramasamy became the President of the Justice Party in 1939 and stayed so till 1944. 

When he was the President of the Justice Party in 1944, Ramasamy declared in a rally that from then onwards the party would be known as the Dravidar Khazagam. Hindi and ceremonies that had become associated with Brahmanical priesthood were identified by them as alien culture and came under verbal attack.

In 1949, Ramasamy’s chief lieutenant Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai established the Dravida Munnetra Khazagam due to differences between the two. Annadurai compromised with the Government at Delhi but advocated increased state independence. Later some people from the Dravidar Khazagam joined the DMK. Both the parties have carried out their Dravidian agenda.

In 1956 despite warnings Ramasamy organised a procession to Marina beach and burnt the pictures of Lord Rama. For this he was arrested and sent to prison. In 1958 he went to Bangalore for the All India Official language Conference where he advocated English to be the sole official language. Finally Ramasamy died in 1973 aged 94. 

It was Periyar who was an ideologue for the anti-Hindi agitation and it proceeded in later times in the following manner.

The largest anti Hindi agitation occurred from 1948 to 1950. After Independence, the central Government instructed all the states to make Hindi compulsory in schools. The Congress Government of Madras under Ramasamy Reddiar made Hindi compulsory in schools in 1948. Periyar again launched another agitation. Finally, there was a settlement between the Government and the agitators and the agitation was withdrawn. In 1950 Hindi is made an optional subject in schools by the Government.

There was a huge debate in the constituent assembly and pro Hindi and anti-Hindi factions debated fiercely with each other. Ultimately after 3 years of debate a compromise was arrived at by the constituent assembly in 1949 and it was called the Munshi-Ayyangar formula ( After KM Munshi and Gopalaswamy Ayyangar). Part XVII of the Indian constitution was drafted as per the compromise. It did not mention any national language; instead, it defined only the official languages of the Union. Hindi would be the official language of the Union and for 15 years English would be used for all official purposes.  After 5 years a language commission is to be appointed to recommend how to promote Hindi and phase out English.

By 1955, the Government started using Hindi along with English for all specific purposes of the Union. In the same year Nehru appointed the Official Language Commission which in 1956 recommended replacing English by Hindi. But the opposition to Hindi grew stronger and Rajaji who himself once made Hindi compulsory when he was CM opposed it now. Rajaji declared that Hindi is as foreign to non-Hindi speakers as English is to the Hindi speakers. DMK went as far as secession if Hindi is imposed. Finally, in 1959 Nehru gave an assurance to non-Hindi speakers that they can have English as an alternate official language as long as they wanted.   

When Shastri became the PM in 1964 there were fears because Shastri, and his senior cabinet colleagues Moraraji Desai and Gulzarilal Nanda were strong Hindi protagonists.

In 1965 there was a massive anti-Hindi agitation in Tamilnadu and paramilitary had to be called in and 70 people died (unofficial reports put the death toll at 500) and there was huge rioting in the state and mobs killed 2 policemen. Violence gradually increased and even the students lost control of the agitation. Then 2 central ministers C. Subramaniyam and Alagesan resigned in protest against the centre's language policy. President S. Radhakrishnan refused to accept the resignations despite Shastri’s recommendation to do so. Shastri then backed down and made a broadcast on the Radio that he was shocked by the agitation and promised to honour Nehru’s assurances on English.