Tamils in Malaysia had recently filed a petition with the country’s education ministry, conveying their opposition over the inclusion of a lesson about E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, (hailed as ‘Periyar’ by his followers) in the Tamil textbook of Year 6 (Class 6).
A lesson about leaders who had worked for the upliftment of the Tamil language had featured E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker and his works. This had sparked a lot of outrage among Malaysian Tamils as they claimed that he was someone who is known as a preacher of atheism and went on to accuse those on the education ministry of secretively trying to preach those ideals to kids from a very young age.
There was also opposition over the distribution of a booklet that tried to preach the views of DMK that Tamil new year is to be celebrated on the first day of the month of Thai and not on the first of the month of Chitthirai. They went on to question why the Malaysian education ministry was trying to poison the minds of children against the Hindu festival of Pongal by ‘rebranding it’ as Tamil New Year.
Worried parents had then gone ahead to complain about the same to the Hindu association in Malaysia, who had promptly wrote a letter to Deputy Minister of the Education Department, Dr. Mah Hang Soon regarding the same. Following this, the Education Ministry had invited them for a talk. Arun Dorasamy of the Agamam Ani Msia had said that after a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Education, the latter had assured that the section on ‘Periyar’ would be removed and instead have lessons of leaders who have worked for the betterment of Tamils in Malaysia.
He had also assured them that the circulation of the booklet about Pongal would also be stopped and firm action would be taken against those who had indulged in the same.
If one reads the speeches and editorials of Periyar in his mouthpieces Viduthalai and Kudiarasu, it would be evident as to what his views on Tamil and Tamilians were. In an editorial article of Viduthalai dated October 11, 1967, Periyar called Tamil as a “kaatumiraandi mozhi”, meaning barbarian language. He wanted Tamil to be discarded at home and advocated the use of English as the medium of communication. He went to the extent of saying that ‘Tamil is a language that is not even useful for begging’.
Silappadikaram, the great Tamil epic written by Ilango Adigal and belonging to the ancient Sangam literature, was called by Periyar as an Aryan propaganda tool.
Tamil Saivite literature like Tevaram, Tiruvasagam and Tirumandiram which are part of the Thirumurai, a collection of songs in praise of Hindu God Shiva was called as rubbish by Periyar.
While Thirukkural has been a revered work across the world, Periyar called it “feces placed in a golden plate”.
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