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EVR’s views about Congress and Mahatma Gandhi: Some history lessons for the Congress

September 17, 2020
The Commune

The Congress party on Thursday (September 17) heaped praises on E.V. Ramasamy Naicker (known as Periyar by his followers) on the occasion of his birthday calling him a ‘beacon of rationalism and self-respect’.

Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram too tweeted a picture of E.V. Ramasamy that said ‘Celebrate the beard that stood for social justice’ with the hashtag #PeriyarForever, in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Modi’s beard.

This is not the first time that the Congress has expressed its new found love for E.V. Ramasamy. Earlier in July 2020, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while expressing his displeasure over the defacement of E.V.Ramasamy statue in Coimbatore, wrote that “no amount of hate can ever deface a giant.”

The Congress party in its attempt to placate the DMK and other opposition parties now finds itself adoring the very same man who opposed Congress and Mahatma Gandhi tooth and nail.

 

But unlike Congress, E.V. Ramasamy was not so sweet to them.

There has not been a single leader who has criticized Gandhi as rabidly and unjustly as EVR did. He had even called for the ‘annihilation of Gandhi’ and ‘annihilation of Congress’ along with the ‘annihilation of Brahmins’.

EVR in 1927 had said “My friend Rama­nathan and I told the Mahatma (when we met him) that three tasks had to be completed for India attaining ­independence and self-respect. The first would be the destruction of the Congress party, the second the destruction of Hindu religion and the third the destruction of the domination of Brahmins. The third would automatically happen when the first two tasks were completed. Gandhi’s response was not to our satisfaction.”

EVR was someone who opposed the very idea of India and was dead against Mahatma Gandhi. He had called for a Dravidistan along the lines of Pakistan and also tried to collude with Muhammad Ali Jinnah for the same. However, Jinnah saw him as a threat to his own plans and showed EVR the finger.

In 1957, he had called for the burning of pictures of Mahatma Gandhi. He said

We were cheated by Gandhi. Our land (the Tamil land) has been ­enslaved to the Northerners and Brahmins by Gandhi. It is because of Gandhi that people lost all great qualities they had…(and) it is now impossible to live without being ­immoral, dishonest, deceitful and traitorous

This is what he had to say about Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. In a speech made in December 1973, he said

These are our five principles—annihilation of God, annihilation of religion, annihilation of Gandhi, annihilation of Congress and annihilation of Brahmins…Before we could annihilate Gandhi, the Brahmins did the task for us”

Though he expressed his condolences when Mahatma Gandhi died, he resorted to calling Gandhi names again.

In a rally held on 4-11-1973, Periyar said

Watch out for the people who are saying ‘Jai congress’&’Jai Gandhi’ they are implicitly accepting they are bastard sons of paarpans (brahmins). They are accepting that they are lowborn.

Today, the Congress and its leaders find themselves in a position praising the same man who had been unkind to them, just to cater to the sentiments of their alliance partners.