Periyar Memorial

Navasudeen 24 months ago

I went on last visit Chennai , great place to remember thanthai periyar and near by Periyar padipagam is there

Periyar E.V.Ramasamy (aka. Periyar, EVK, Thanthai Periyar) was a businessman, politician, freedom fighter, social activist and the convener of Dravida Kazhagam party in Tamil Nadu. He was the founder of the self-respect movement in Tamil Nadu. He spread the ideals of rationalism, self-respect and women’s rights. He opposed the caste system, religious rituals and exploitation of lower-castes. He opposed the imposition/compulsory learning of Hindi in South India.

Basically, he was a reformer. He decided not to join in vote-bank politics, but both the mainstream parties in TN (DMK and the AIADMK) were a spin-off from his party. You can guess how influential this person should have been, during his days. Ref: Wikipedia page on Periyar.

I went to the Periyar memorial (Behind Thina Thanthi office in Ponamallee High Road, Chennai) recently. I saw a Periyar Library and Periyar Museum also, in the premises. Since Periyar Museum was under renovation, I was not able to visit it on that day. I would like to share some pictures and a video taken at the Periyar Memorial. Before that, I would like to present some quotes engraved in stones inside the memorial.

Chandraprakash G (சந்திரப்பிரகாஷ்) 60 months ago

This information in board is wrong and need to be removed.

Self respect wedding is done here only between Hindus and not between different religions which is a complete disappointment.

Special marriage act exists and it's legal, but only reason why they doesn't conduct here is due to political and religious reason.

To be precise they are afraid they will lose support with Christians and Muslims, if they in include their religion in self respect weddings, disgusting without backbone indeed.

Here people call themselves periyarist and speaks proud about caste and are inclined to conversion to Hinduism for weddings.

Most of these people are not self turned atheists but just relatives of famous periyarists, who just came for job here calling themselves periyarist.

Really felt dissappointed by what this institution is reduced to.

I don't want to call myself periyarist anymore, but only an atheist.

Saravana kumar P 24 months ago

Temple of Social Justice.. The hardwork done by Periyar for decades to bring equality in Society is incomparable. Let's Take forward his thoughts.