Review of Caste and the Crisis of Dignity, edited by V.M.S. Subagunarajan

The book, Caste and the Crisis of Dignity: Periyar E.V. Ramasamy Speaks At Caste Association Meetings and Caste Abolition Conferences, is a vital compilation and translation of Periyar’s speeches and editorials on the crucial caste question and the attendant crisis of dignity in our society.

While B.R. Ambedkar’s idea of graded inequality has reached a larger public, the sharp observations of Periyar about the means to annihilate caste stayed within the region largely because they were in Tamil.

‘Dynamic transformation’

Periyar’s views paved the way for the dynamic transformation of Tamil Nadu starting from securing women’s voting rights to fair representation in both education and employment. The significant aspect of this anthology is V.M.S. Subagunarajan’s long introduction (about 68 pages), which annotates and contextualises the texts, giving us an idea of how dynamically Periyar shifted gears after every low-intensity victory to keep the focus on an egalitarian society. He was aware of the Indian social reality that for every seemingly step forward, there would be a couple of steps back. His acute understanding — that entrenched interest groups will devise and design structures in such way that vertical hierarchy always prevails over the most legitimate idea of a horizontal power structure — convinced him that this intransigence needed creative interventions.

Annihilation of caste

One of the questions hurled at Periyar and the social historians of Tamil Nadu is: if Periyar wanted annihilation of caste, why did he attend caste conferences and address them? The answer lies in the first three chapters of this book: (I) Caste conferences; (II) What is a caste party? (III) Annihilating caste in caste associations. A powerful technique adopted by Periyar in addressing the vexatious question of caste hierarchies at caste conferences was his statement, ‘nobody above and nobody below’. Every caste organisation loved his pronouncement when he said that there is ‘none above you’. But the moment Periyar started talking about ‘nobody below’, there were murmurs, dissatisfaction, and even resentment. Periyar used this deep-seated and embedded streak in castes across the entire spectrum to open up space for dialogue and to, a large extent, bring in the ideas of social justice and equality as an everyday talking point.

The fact that there is an entire oeuvre of writings by Periyar on caste organisations gives us an idea of his approach to caste. This book documents Periyar’s speeches at more than 30 caste organisation conferences. It also records a similar number of his speeches at caste abolition conferences. Periyar did not take an ostrich-like position on caste issues. He did not, for a moment, feel that not refusing to acknowledge caste will make it go away, or that the humiliation it heaps on people will somehow magically vanish. He firmly believed that if caste has to be abolished, one has to take the battle to its den, the caste organisations, for a head-on confrontation.

Subagunarajan’s assertion that Periyar was not interested in being remembered but in being understood is validated by this book. It documents some of Periyar’s tricky, often contested, and even contradictory positions. The meticulousness of this book provides the context to understand Periyar more fully.

Caste and the Crisis of Dignity: Periyar E.V. Ramasamy Speaks At Caste Association Meetings and Caste Abolition Conferences

Edited by V.M.S. Subagunarajan

Speaking Tiger Books

₹599

The writer is director-general of Chennai Institute of Journalism.