Towards a non-brahmin millennium : from Iyothee Thass to Periyar

The revised edition of the history of non brahmin assertion to brahmin hegemony in the old Madras Presidency argues that this complex and layered past has to be critically re-claimed for our times. An analytical study of the gestation of the movement, of its forebears like Iyothee Thass and his contemporaries, the book also provides an incisive discussion on the contributions of Periyar E. V. Ramasami, the path-breaking founder of the Self-Respect movement. The book offers a textured history of a crucial decade, the 1920s to the 1930s, which witnessed important attempts and achievements at building a historic bloc that knit together the interests of non-brahmins and dalits. It does this by letting the non-brahmin and the adi dravida, the authors' preferred term for the dalit, speak, recording their testimonies from 1890 to 1939. Presenting forgotten texts and voices, especially of the early, pioneering adi dravida-Buddhist scholars, it goes on to analyse the Justice Party, the first non-brahmin political initiative in government, revealing its successes and significant limitations, and provides a perceptive discussion on where the interests of the non-brahmins and that of the adi dravidas diverged.

The Self-Respect movement is discussed in detail, and the book chronicles evidence of twelve years of defiance and principled anger. Translations from the writings of Periyar give readers in English a glimpse of his humour, seathing insights and near-prophetic rage against caste and religious oppressions.