The Tamil Nadu Challenge: The Self-Respect Movement and Periyar E.V. Ramasami

The Tamil Nadu Challenge: The Self-Respect Movement and Periyar E.V. Ramasami

This year 2025 is witnessing the centenary of the Self Respect Movement of Periyar E.V.Ramasami. The term ‘self-respect’ encapsulates the key ideals of the movement, namely the abolition of the distinctions between Paraya (Other/Outsider) and Brahmin, the rich and poor and man and woman, the distinctions undergirded by the hierarchical caste order with Brahminism as its ideological prop. Though the movement was centred on Tamil speaking areas of…