Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar

Recapturing the momentous decades when the age old Brahmin hegemony suffered irreparable damage, the authors present a critical analysis of the Non-Brahmin movement from its gestation at the end of the nineteenth century to E V Ramaswamy Periyar's Self-Respect Movement of the late 1920s and 1930s. The authors present forgotten texts and voices: Dalit-Buddhist scholars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the observations of women participants who debated on a range of issues; denunciations of caste, Brahmin priesthood and the nation by youthful Non-Brahmins. It privileges the dalit contribution to the movement and ends with the anti-Hindi agitation that inaugurated a new era in Tamil politics.