The Congress party and its leaders have co-opted E.V. Ramasamy Naicker (known as ‘Periyar’ by his followers) as one of their icons.
However, the Congress party and EVR shared a great deal of animosity during their times.
EVR had once said “The first would be the destruction of the Congress party, the second the destruction of Hindu religion and the third the destruction of the domination of Brahmins. The third would automatically happen when the first two tasks were completed. Gandhi’s response was not to our satisfaction.”
EVR had called for the ‘annihilation of Gandhi’ and ‘annihilation of Congress’ along with the ‘annihilation of Brahmins’. He even threatened to burn Mahatma Gandhi’s photos and raze down his statues.
Be that as it may.
In stark contrast to how the Congress of today is venerating this anti-Hindu bigot, the party under Nehru did not take EVR’s obscenities and absurdities lying down. In fact, Jawaharlal Nehru did not take kind to EVR’s eccentricity when he had given a clarion call for the genocide of Tamil Brahmins.
On 4 November 1957, a ‘caste eradication conference’ was organized in Thanjavur, days before EVR and his comrades burnt the Indian Constitution. Around 2 lakh ‘spears’ (that’s how the Dravidian Stockists identified themselves back then), had attended that meeting during which silver rupees were collected equivalent to EVR’s weight, just like how bundles of cash were collected in the name of ‘subscriptions’ by Dravida Kazhagam members by having their head K. Veeramani sit on one side of the weigh balance.
“Periyar did not get pacified upon seeing the silver coins. This is where he gave a new war cry like a roaring tiger.”, his biography notes.
EVR gave a genocidical call to kill 1000 Tamil Brahmins to ‘eradicate caste’.
He said “If to eradicate caste we need to burn the agraharams (Tamizh Brahmin house colonies) and murder atleast 1000 Tamizh Brahmins then we will do exactly that” declaring the date of genocide as 26th November 1957, the Constitution Day.
Reacting to this genocidical call, Nehru had written a letter to then Chief Minister of Madras K. Kamaraj saying that EVR’s call might lead to strong communal feeling which could even lead to murders. “I do hope that you will take adequate notice of this”, Nehru wrote in his letter to Kamaraj.
Anguished by the virulent vitriol spewed by EVR, Nehru shot off another letter to Kamaraj on 5 November 1957 in which he asked EVR to “be put in a lunatic asylum” and let his “perveted mind be treated there”.
Madras Legislative Councile Member A. Sreenivasan on 3 December 1957 had once again brought the attention of EVR’s genocide call to Nehru. Acknowledging his letter, he wrote back to him saying “I have seldom come across anything more primitive and barbarous in any country presuming to be civilized” adding that EVR and his group had to be dealt with an iron hand.
It was against this backdrop to deal with the menace of EVR that the Madras Legislative Assembly passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Bill, 1957 on 11 November 1957 which sought to prevent insults to national symbols like the Indian Flag, Constitution, etc.
Nehru once again wrote to Kamaraj on 4 December 1957, stating that EVR’s activities was the most barbarous thing that he had come across in a civilized country.
It is this EVR who loathed Congress and was equally loathed by Nehru that the Congress is idolizing today.
(The article was published on Thecommunemag.com on September 17, 2022 and has been reproduced here)
