The Icon and the Iconoclast: When Gandhi met Periyar

By Hameed Ashraf | NT

In the year 1927, Periyar Ramaswamy, by this time an icon  of the Dravidian movement in  Tamil Nadu, and a close friend,  S. Ramanathan, came to Bangalore, where they met Mahatma Gandhi. The two men  couldn’t have been more different: One was the embodiment  of saintly piety and the other,  a rebel who felt outright animosity towards religion, embarked on a conversation. It  was a difficult rendezvous,  with Periyar making no pains  to hide his irritation as he  criticised Hinduism, even calling it “an illusion created by  the Brahmins. Gandhi’s defense of Hinduism only served  to anger him more. The conversation was published later  that year in Kudi Arasu, a Tamil weekly published by Periyar. A well-known Atheist, to  Periyar, religion meant a rigid  doctrine, a set of rules that  could not be modified by its followers. Gandhi’s Hinduism  lacked that rigidity also, he  argued that it is this feature  which sets it apart - it is open  to modification. It was on this  point that they found something in common, although it  was an agreement that remained on thin ice.

November 16 will mark the  release of a short film, ‘The  Icon and the Iconoclast’, directed by Vilasini Ramani.  The film is a recap of the 1927  dialogue, and, she says, a  means of “letting the world  know about Periyar’s ideology.” Her interest in Periyar  Ramaswamy began seven  years ago, when she first began reading about him. “As a  leader there is no doubt that  Periyar had a great deal of respect for Gandhi. However, his  formula during those days was  simple - listen to what Gandhi  said and take a diametrically  opposite stand. Periyar was  among those who welcomed  the Simon Commission, opposed the Salt Satyagraha and  joined the Justice party to  stand against Gandhi.”

Periyar’s relationship with  Gandhi was a barbed one - as  Ramani points out, on the one  hand, he was well aware of the  Mahatma’s status as a leader  and the immense love he inspired in the people. Periyar’s  brand of leadership, on the  other hand, was marked by angry outbursts, as well as acts of  rebellion that included smashing Ganesha idols, proclaiming  his dislike of religion, God,  caste, Brahmins and even the  very idea of India.

“We call Periyar the Iconoclast because of his rational  thinking, which, he claimed,  was a product of his own  mind. He maintained a catalogue of disagreements with  Gandhi and even said Independence Day was a day of  mourning,” Ramani remarks.  Periyar smashed idols and  burnt pictures of Rama. A selfproclaimed atheist, he said,  “There is no God at all and he  who created God is a fool.” On  the other hand, there was Gandhi, the icon, says Ramani.  “Against his sage-like pronouncements, Periyar was  branded as immoral.” He responded drily to this, saying,  “Morality cannot be one-way  traffic.”