The birthday of Thanthai Periyar, September 17, will have a special significance in Tamil Nadu’s political calendar from this year, with the DMK Government deciding to celebrate that day each year as ‘Social Justice Day’.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin announced the Government’s decision in the State Assembly on September 6, making a statement under Rule 110 of the Legislature that was also an intense and gripping tribute to Thanthai Periyar.

As the Chief Minister put forward thoughtful and cogent arguments to explain the rationale of the government’s decision, rarely has a commemorative speech in the House on the rationalist leader peaked a new high as this one did.

The ‘Father of the Dravidian Movement’, Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy, widely known as Thanthai Periyar (September 17, 1879 to December 24, 1973), rationalist leader and social reformer who started the ‘Self-Respect Movement’ and later the ‘Dravidar Kazhagam (DK)’, as successor to the ‘Justice Party’, and who dominated the state political scene for over seven decades, is even now revered as ‘Social Justice Icon’.

“This (DMK) government is an offering to Thanthai Periyar,” declared the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) founder-leader Perarignar Anna soon after DMK stormed into power in the State in 1967 for the first time, recalled M.K. Stalin in the Assembly, as he began a long and moving recapitulation on why we need to remember and celebrate Thanthai Periyar’s birthday every year (Sept. 17) as ‘Social Justice Day’.

What reinforced this context and imperative for us is the fact that the DMK has come back to power for the sixth time in May this year, Mr. Stalin pointed out. Thanthai Periyar’s task of social restructuring was huge and ambitious, but the man, who lived for 95 years, bore all the suffering with equanimity while ceaselessly toiling for the uplift of the downtrodden.

Quoting Thanthai Periyar’s words in Tamil, the Chief Minister said, “I have taken up the task to reform and uplift Dravidian society on par with other peoples of the world, to be well educated and live with dignity; whether I am qualified or not for it, I have taken this task upon myself as nobody else has come forward.” In his untiring travels to serve the people of this state and the country at large, his advancing age made him even uncomplainingly “carry a pot to collect his urine”.

Thanthai Periyar started the ‘Self-Respect Movement’ on the basis of his intuitive understanding that ‘Maanam (honour)’ and ‘Knowledge’ add beauty to Man, said Mr. Stalin. He extensively toured the state in pursuit of these ideals.

“Every agitation that Thanthai Periyar launched was unique, not cloneable. He wrote daringly what others hesitated to write. He spoke candidly what others would fear to utter,” said Mr. Stalin.

Completely identifying himself with the collective interests of the Tamils, Thanthai Periyar opposed anything that was anti-Tamil. “It will take ten days of this Assembly’s time if one were to speak about his walkathons, tours, the conferences he organized and the agitations he spearheaded,” reminded Mr. Stalin.

Equality of all men and gender parity were Thanthai Periyar’s basic twin principles; his two primary goals were to abolish the caste system and end the enslavement of women in a patriarchal social order. He questioned everything that impeded his social goals, posed reasoned, intelligent questions and stimulated others to think like him, the Chief Minister said.

Thanthai Periyar’s ‘Self-Respect’ thoughts sensitized Tamil society to think of “their SelfRespect’ as a collective, while his razor-sharp rationalistic approach imparted clarity to their thinking.

Symbolically, it was Thanthai Periyar’s ‘walking stick’ that opened the doors of ‘Social Justice’, which enabled people oppressed by the caste system to move upwards in the social ladder through ‘Education’ and ‘Employment’. The foundations that he laid for the principles of Social Justice to take roots, was not just for Tamil Nadu but for the entire country, said Mr. M.K. Stalin.

Thanthai Periyar went nowhere near the gates of Parliament, but his sustained social movement occasioned the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution. He had no desire to enter the Assembly, but this Legislature has enacted many Laws that encapsulated his progressive ideas. He had an extraordinary ability to get his ideas implemented through others, said Mr. M.K. Stalin.

Later Perarignar Anna, who shaped all of us, would say, “the best part of my life was the days I went around with Thanthai Periyar in my younger days”. Then, Muthamizh Arignar Kalaignar (former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi) would poetically pen, “An earthquake in Erode is breaking up the old world (social order) that used to be cheered and praised.”

“Arignar Anna and Kalaignar were students of the ‘Periyar Gurukulam’. It was that School that spawned the DMK, sowing the seeds of ‘revolutionary political ideas’ in Tamil Nadu. It is the same party that has been implementing those ideas. No other Reformist Movement in the world has such a legacy to its credit,” pointed out M.K. Stalin.

Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin was equally emphatic in his speech when he said in the House, “Reformists would have spoken and gone, but administrators would have no scent of it. It is only in Tamil Nadu that a ‘Reformist Movement’ evolved into a political party to translate the ideas of that ‘Movement’ into tangible action. They were also enacted as Laws to uplift a downtrodden society.”

The ‘Tamil Nadu of Today’ is a standing testimony to the socio-economic gains that emerged from Thanthai Periyar’s Movement, be it in terms of the oppressed people’s educational attainments, employment, occupation of administrative positions and Women’s empowerment. “The seeds of this development were sown by Thanthai Periyar, Perarignar Anna fertilized the land, while Kalaignar cultivated it. We now have a huge responsibility to protect and nurture this massive, full-grown tree,” said Mr. M.K. Stalin.

The ideals of Self-Respect, rationalism, egalitarianism, Social Justice and Ethnic Rights were the guiding principles enunciated by Thanthai Periyar. They provided the foundations for the development of Tamil Society over the last 100 years, reminded M.K. Stalin, adding, “they will also be our future On the 143rd birth anniversary of Thanthai Periyar, on Sept. 17, 2021, Chief Minister, M.K.Stalin after garlanding his statue, led the State government staff at the Secretariat to take the ‘Social Justice Day’ Pledge. path.”

To take forward this collage of deep feelings, thoughts and greater awareness, the Tamil Nadu Government has decided to celebrate September 17, Thanthai Periyar’s birthday every year, as ‘Social Justice Day’, announced M.K. Stalin to thumping of desks all-round in the Assembly.

“We will celebrate this day (Sept. 17) as a mark of our thanks-giving to Thanthai Periyar, give up caste differences, jettison untouchability, shake off all religious differences and treat women as equals,” the Chief Minister declared.

Extolling all the Tamil Nadu Government employees- from the top Secretariat level to the smallest field unit- to join this participative process, the Chief Minister said they would on that day (Sept. 17) take a pledge to uphold the values that Thanthai Periyar had lived and fought for.

Reading out the form of the pledge- in a verse-style that captures the range of humanitarian values and egalitarian vision that Thanthai Periyar had espoused-, which all State employees would strive to uphold in discharge of their duties, M.K. Stalin recalled his father and former Chief Minister Kalaignar M Karunanidhi’s words when the rationalist leader died. “Thanthai Periyar has completed his journey, we shall continue with it (the journey).” “We will move ahead, we will move ahead,” emphasized M.K. Stalin, to another round of thumping of desks in the House.

Significantly, the floor leaders of all political parties represented in the Assembly, including the AIADMK senior member and former Minister Mr. R. Vaithilingam, the BJP MLA elected from Tirunelveli, Mr. Nainar Nagendran, welcomed the DMK government’s momentous decision.

Outside the House, the DK President, K. Veeramani, hailed Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s historic decision to honour Thanthai Periyar’s memory in this fitting manner, and termed it as ‘Kaalathaal Nindru Pesum Kalvettu (A Stone Edict that will Speak for all Times). “Let us henceforth call Chief Minister M.K. Stalin as ‘Samuga Neethikaana Sarithara Nayagar (Historic Hero of Social Justice)’.