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Annadurai and Periyar |
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periyar with Rajagopalachari |
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Sayings
About Myself
I express, plainly and openly, thoughts which occur to me, and which strike me as right. This may embarrass a few; to some this may be distasteful; and a few others may even be irritated; however, all that I utter are proven truths and not lies. Not that all the people of the world should act according to my wish, but that come what may, surely in politics and in public life, human justice alone not justice as prescribed by any epoch or religion. Should be imposed; such is my desire.
As far as I am concerned, I was never a partyman. I have always been a man of principles.
Till the end of my life, I shall never canvas for a vote. I shall not even expect a word of praise from any quarter.
I am under no necessity to permanetly support anyone for gaining selfish ends. I see no wrong at all in supporting that person who does good to us, Who strives for the removal of our social degradiation even if he is a foreigner.
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Decide for Yourselves
Decide for yourselves as to what you should thing of those who say there is God, that He is a the Preserver of Justice an that He is the Protector of All, even after seeing that the practice of Untouchablity in the form of man being banned from human sight and Contac, from walking into the streets, from entering the temples and drawing water from a tank, is rampant in the land and yet that land is spared from being razed by an earthquake, burnt by the fiery lava of a volcano, engulfed in a deluge from the ocean, submerged in the chasm of the earth, or fragmented by thunder-storm.
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Women’s Rights
Man treats woman as his own property and not as being capable of feelings, like himself. The way man treats women is much worse than the way landlords treat servants and the high-caste treat the low-caste. These treat them so demeaning only in situations mutually affecting them; but men treat cruelly and as slaves, from their birth till death.
Women in India experience much worse suffering, humiliation and slavery in all spheres than even the untouchables.
To give man freedom of sexual selection, and to permit him to take as many wives as he like, gives rise to promiscuity.
If the man has the right to claim a woman, then a woman also should have right to claim a man. If conditions are imposed for the worship of man by woman, let there be conditions imposed for the worship of woman by man.
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Periyar and his wife Maniammai |
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Social Reform
To discard what is unwanted, and to retain what is needed, is what reform means.
Social reform cannot stand apart from politics, nor can politics stand apart from social reform. Politics exists only for human society. Every political activity is only for social good. Constitutional law and defense are made only for society and in accordance with social good.
Tentative and superficial changes here and there, in the same name of social reform, will not bear fruit. The present social set-up should be destroyed as its very base, and a new social order, free from caste and class, should be created.
Whomsoever I love and hate, my principle is the same. That is, the educated, the rich and the administrators should not suck the blood of the poor.
The proper task of social reform is to remove poverty from society and to ensure that people do not sell their conscience to make a living.
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| Socialism & Communism
What should be done, If everyone is to have enough food?
If none consumes more than what is needed, then, there will be enough food for all
Though my aim is to demand economic equality, I believe that coveting other people’s properties is an act that is worse than economic inequality. Therefore, It is the Government that should divide equitably by Law.
A single person should not have a vast-accumulated position of land. A time will come when land will be distributed equally to all. If we cannot bring about the time soon we should remain as path-finders in this.
Capitalism should be destroyed at the root, if the cares and worries of the workers are to be put an end to.
The aim of offering succour to poor is only to help to eradicator poverty from society, and not to create sluggards, by the offer of alms to one here, and another there.
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