Author
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
1 book · 1 session
Erode Venkata Ramasamy (1879–1973), known as Periyar, founded the Self-Respect Movement in the Tamil country in 1925 and later the Dravidar Kazhagam. He campaigned against caste, against the priesthood and the scriptures that sanctified it, and for the rights of women and of the non-Brahmin castes.
His case was that the subjection of women and the subjection of the lower castes are held in place by the same religion and the same institutions, and can therefore be dismantled together.
On the reading list
What the circle has read of theirs
- 01
Why Were Women Enslaved?
Periyar's case, first made in Tamil in 1942, that the subjection of women is built and held in place — by chastity, by marriage, by the denial of property and birth control, and by the religion that sanctifies all three — and can therefore be dismantled. Meena Kandasamy's English translation.
1 sessionUpcoming