The directness and coarseness with which the late rationalist leader, social reformer and Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) founder Thanthai Periyar had attacked Brahmin hegemony in Education and Government Services under the British rule, is by far the most stinging aspect of his multifaceted social reform agenda in erstwhile Madras Presidency, now Tamil Nadu. It became the basis of a critique that later evovled into the 'Dravidian Model of Social Justice', accommodating a broad spectrum of social classes including the upper caste Non-Brahmins, OBCs and the Minorities. But none at least in Tamil Nadu, expected a seminar on 'Periyar and Islam', organised at the Tirunelveli-based Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (MSU), to raise a storm to the point of having to be cut short by at least half-an-hour, after the 'Hindu Munnani (HM)', a right-wing Sangh Parivar outfit's bid to disrupt the meeting was foiled. The Sanskritized 'Sanatanists' dislike for Periyar, appears to have come a full circle now. No longer erecting a statue for the athiest Periyar is an issue in the State. But instead, ironically, Periyar's sympathetic approach to Islam, as an egalitarian move-away from a caste-ridden, oppressive Hindu society and seeking to make common cause with the Muslim League in pressing for DK's Dravida Nadu demand in the late 1930 and 1940's- is being questioned. The seminar scheduled on October 27, was under the auspices of the 'Centre For Study of Social Exclusion And Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP)', of MSU, as part of a series of seminars on Periyar's thoughts and contributions to social change since the 1920s'. The CSSEIP, established in 2008 is fully funded by the UGC and is a unique research facility at MSU, says its Director, Dr. S. Samuel Asir Raj. He is also a Professor at MSU's Sociology Department. On coming to know about the seminar, for which the guest speaker was Mr. Riaz Ahamed, Associate Editor of the Tamil Journal, 'Puthiya Vidiyal', from invitations sent to the media earlier, the HM took to a brazen anti-MSU campaign on social media platforms like FB. The HM posed on its FB page, whether MSU was a University, a training centre for ISIS, or an office of the Dravidar Kazhagam. They also lashed out at Dr. Samuel Raj. The HM state secretary, K. Kutralanathan, in media interactions, objected to...