REVOLT AND THE MAKING OF ANTI-CASTE RADICALISM

What does the “Revolt” Revolt Against? (By Pothi)

 

1. The Revolt revolts against the tyranny of authority in all the spheres of life.

 

2. It revolts against scriptural suppression of Reason and sacredotal exploitation of ignorance.

 

3. It revolts against the baseless assertion of superiority by birth or sex, by caste, creed or colour.

 

4. It revolts against the inferiority complex of the Non-Brahmin as much against the assumption of superiority of the Brahmin.

 

5. It revolts against the bended knee and the upraised hand.

 

6. It revolts against Imperialism, earthly as well as heavenly, human as well as divine, British as well as Brahmin’s.

 

7. It revolts against both, Heaven and Hell, both God and Satan.

 

8. It revolts against the supercession of Man by God as well as by Machine.

 

9. It revolts against the exaltation of the duty to God above that to man.

 

10. It revolts against miracle mongering and Mantra-muttering.

 

11. It revolts against the doctrine of fatalism and the faith in praise and prayer.

 

12. It revolts against economic slavery and enthronement of Mammon.

 

13. It revolts against poor physique and worship of physical Force.

 

14. It revolts against the toleration of man’s unchastity and intoleration of woman’s.

 

15. It revolts against early marriage, enforced widowhood and seclusion    of woman behind the purdha.

 

16. It revolts against the worship of images and performance of ceremonial.

 

17. It revolts against the conception of divine creation and vicarious salvation.

 

18. It revolts against the hypocrisy of present-day religion and the immorality of conventional ethics.

 

19. It revolts against political corruption as well as against social injustice.

 

20. It revolts against the opposition of orthodoxy to the progress of man.

Revolt, 13 February 1929

Lesson from Bengal

It is not every day that the cause of social progress and reform scores triumph. The temptation is naturally great for the progressive-minded to crow over a victory when it is achieved. Especially is this the case in India, where of all countries, the dogs (sic) of orthodoxy have uninterruptedly enjoyed for centuries past the supreme self-satisfaction of having been able successfully to frighten the intelligentsia and the masses alike off the path of reform and reconstruction of society. “All that is and has been is to the good; there can possibly be no change or readjustment that could be thought of or suggested in connection with a state of affairs, social and religious, which has had the sanction of Manu and the backing of the Acharyas”. This has been the view of the orthodox element and it has to be confessed that till recently not many people had thought it worthwhile to contest its validity or expose its reactionary character.

Thanks, however to the new spirit of the times – a spirit that is as assertive of an awakened consciousness as it is impatient of the pretended sanctities of the teachings and preachings of a past that is dead – neither the classes nor the masses are in a mood any longer to put up with conditions and circumstances that are a perpetual affront to their sense of self-respect. A new understanding of the values of life, a genuine feeling of resentment against those who would have the accident of birth accepted as the one and only criterion of personal worth, a sincere recognition of the fact that much of what passes for religion and piety is nothing short of gross and grotesque superstition foisted and feeding upon the ignorance and credulity of the unsophisticated – these are the outstanding features of the awakened popular mind of the present day.

Naturally there is an atmosphere of revolt all round – a revolt which has as many targets as there are evils and drawbacks to be rid of. It is this revolt that we saw manifesting itself in an impressive fashion at Vykom a few years ago when the oppressed and the depressed of Travancore took up a resolute stand and fought a battle royal for securing the right of entry into a temple road that had unjustly been closed against them (E. V. Ramasami Periyar and his wife Nagamma played an important role in this struggle – editors).

It is the same revolt that is responsible for the huge clamour at the present day on the part of the so-called depressed communities for the right of worship in public temples in the same manner as those supposedly superior to them in the social scale are in unrestricted enjoyment of. To men of vision and commonsense it ought to be as clear as anything could be that “fights” of this kind are bound to increase in our midst as days go by. And not only that, they are bound to be crowned with success as well.

In the first place, it is preposterous to contend that, if temples are of any use at all, they are so only to a section of the Hindus and not to the whole community; secondly it is absolutely futile to set up the hue and cry that inequalities and iniquities should be permitted unquestioned sway in an era when the whole of the enlightened world is ringing with the cry of Liberty and Equality.

It may be that for some time more the priests and purohits would be able to make use of rulers and princes – as in the State of Travancore – to pull their chestnuts out of the fire, but the wretched tragedy cannot last long; the curtain will have to be rung down, and we are sure that the very audience who now so frantically applaud the actors will themselves be forced by sheer pressure of circumstances to abate their unholy glee and plead for the closing of the disgusting show. In other words, just as at Vykom, the forces of reaction will everywhere have to give way to the compelling impulses of a society bent on progress and on the annihilation of all that makes for its decay and disintegration.

The lesson is brought home to us anew by the recent occurrences at the Kapilamuni Kali temple in Bengal. Though the obscurantists there, had the secret support of the powers that be, they could not for all their efforts resist the tide of reform. They had eventually to surrender to the righteous cause of those intrepid souls who fought for the opening of the temple to all classes of the people, high and low, exalted and depressed. We confess, however, that we are not enamoured of the moral that orthodoxy would have the country draw from incidents of the type that occurred in Bengal. In fact, it is dangerous to instill the idea that reform could be brought about only by the exhibition of force majeure.

How we wish that, instead of provoking satyagrahas and passive resistance campaigns, the people in charge of all the Hindu Temples all over the country would gracefully realize betimes the imperative need for allowing access to them to all classes and communities in the land. They will do well to remember the words of the poet “Freedom’s battle once begun, though battled oft, is always won”; and so let them hasten to do the right thing by the country.

But it is their look out, and for our part we are not much concerned with what they do, for we are convinced that, whether they will or not the stage is long past when they could have things all their own way. The people who secured the triumph in the temple entry fight in Bengal, belong to a generation that knows not Manu or Sankaracharya; and to them belongs the India of tomorrow. And that is sufficient for one and all of us to keep our faith alive and undimmed in the future of our society and our country.

Revolt, 21 July 1929

A Religious Rally

‘The King’s Rally’ a Catholic monthly journal published from Trichinopoly devotes the editorial columns of its October issue to the launching of an attack upon The Revolt specifically and upon the Self-respect and the Nationalist movements generally. The feelings of our pious contemporary are ruffled at the thought of the young Catholics whom The Revolt may lead away from the ‘true fold’ and it has girded up its loins to wage a crusade against the Self-respect movement.

This worthy Catholic has a sneaking admiration for us for he says: “Nevertheless the Self-respect movement is not without attractiveness.

Its leaders are undoubtedly earnest; they are deeply impressed with the flaws, failings and injustices of a social system which in spite of its hoary age does not fit with modern needs, clashes with modern ideas and is in perpetual conflict with the spread of education”. It says further on “when the Revolt pleads that in India the cult of Varnashrama has been preached as a religion we have no quarrel with him”. In other words our contemporary would not object to but would encourage a campaign of rationalism against the Hindu religion. But what it cannot tolerate is the prospect of the advent of reason within the fold of Catholicism.

It is characteristic of the advocates of all religions that they support rationalism and free thought so long as the latter attack any other religion except their own. Recent events in South India since the advent of the Self-respect movement bear ample testimony to our statement. Our first shafts were aimed not against Hinduism generally but against that aspect of Hinduism which passes under the name of Vaishnavism. The Saivites, the natural and age long antagonists of the Vaishnavites sided with us and lent support to our arguments. When, however we turned the search light of reason towards the dogmas held sacred by the Saivites, up rose the pundits of Saivism and every Siddhanta Sabha shrieked at us. The Mussulmans gloated over our victory over Hindu orthodoxy but when we directed our attack against the mad Mulla, a holy war was declared to exterminate the Kaffirs. Had we contented ourselves with fighting the Protestants, we could have counted on the supports of the forces under the King’s Rally. But since we dared to question the ‘true truth’ embodied in the ‘Unique Religion’ we should meekly submit to the fusillade of the militant ‘Rally’. In the heat of the fight our contemporary forgets old animosities and calls on the other religions for support. The Catholic would shield Hinduism in the hope that the compliment would be returned when the necessity arises. And what is remarkable in a pious Christian, the King’s Rally attempts a defense of the caste system.

The argument in the following words of the ‘Rally’ would do credit to the most hardened Sastra: “whatever be the deficiencies of the caste system, it is a social system and one which has endured for centuries at that. A social system gradually builds up the mutual relations of the members composing it, and trains every one of them to exist as parts of an organism. From these mutual relations of the members the society derives its unity, its stability, its strength …. The strength and stability of a social organism lies primarily in the safeguard of the principle of authority within it. No well ordered society is possible where authority is tampered with and it follows from this that where reform is required it is to be effected by those who are in authority, not by those who are under it”.

This is the stock argument for the perpetuation of every tyranny that ever existed in the face of the earth. Every iniquity perpetrated upon a people works its way into the ‘social system’ and creates ‘mutual relations’ between the members. And these ‘mutual relations’ give ‘authority’ to some of the members to exercise their sway over others. The iniquity cannot be removed unless the ‘principle of authority’ which embodies it in society, is ‘tampered with’. The most reactionary advocate of the caste system never put his case higher than what our contemporary argues for. The Catholic reasoning leads to the conclusion that no reform of the caste ought to be attempted which is not ‘effected by those in authority’ viz the priests and the Brahmins. The oppressed communities, therefore and the young ‘who are under’ authority, go to the wall. This is indeed reactionarism with a vengeance. We do not think Catholic Christianity is guilty of such outrageous advocacy as the ‘Rally’ adopts. We are conscious of the beneficent influence that the Catholic missionary has exercised over South Indian life especially in the Colleges and Schools where he has educated our young and in the cherries where he has succoured our depressed. The success of the Catholic missionary is measured not by the number of converts he has brought in to his particular dogma but by the courage which the young men educated by him have shown in breaking away from the evil practices strongly entrenched behind the stone walls of tradition and by the ability which the depressed classes have exhibited to revolt against those placed in authority over them.

Had the Catholic started his work in India with the policy advocated by the ‘Rally’ he should not have built a single College or a single Industrial School. Why then is the Catholic who has helped to break Hindu tradition and Hindu authority now so repentant and so anxious to actively render support to Hinduism? Because in the Self-respect League and in the movement of Rationalism, the Catholic scents a common enemy whose deadly attacks are directed not against this or that Non-Catholic religion but against all religions including the ‘Unique Religion’ of Catholicism. The Catholic who while among religionists, has scrambled for recognition of his own superiority over all the others, has, when faced by the rationalist, but a helping hand to his erstwhile opponents. A religious rally is sounded to defend the citadel of religious dogmas against the onrush of the rationalist attack. How, when left to themselves, the religionists scramble for supremacy is well illustrated in the columns of even that very issue of the ‘King’s Rally’ which is devoted to attack us.

In the course of an article on ‘Science and Miracles’ says our contemporary: “The early history (of the Christian church) did not agree at all with that of the man made religions such as Mohammedanism, Buddhism or Confucianism. Mohammedanism was propagated lately by the sword wielded for it; but Christianity, in spite of the sword wielded against it”. Rationalism might not have accomplished much but there is no doubt whatever that it has united the warring religions whether man made or God made, whether propagated by the Sword or inspite of the Sword and has forced them all to enter the same camp and fight under a common banner. ‘Religion in danger’ is a war cry that unites age long animosities. Our Catholic contemporary naively remarks “social reformers cannot inculcate too strongly the fundamental sense of religion which recognizes and proclaims the existence of a personal God entitled to our obedience”. Hence pagan superstition is to be preferred to rationalist skepticism. That is the herd instinct of the religionist.

We have recently had a manifestation of this religionist instinct in the opposition organized against Mr. Sarda’s Bill to prevent child marriage. If every man hated another, the Hindu pandit hated the Mussalman Mulla. But Mr. Sarda’s bill offended against both the religions and excited the dormant herd instinct in both with the result that we are now witnesses to an open fraternization between the Mulla and Pandit. Our contemporary of Trichinopoly is just now blinded by the rousing of a similar instinct. We expect that in its sober moments the worthy Christian will recant and withdraw the support he has given to the caste system and other evils of Hinduism by his specious reasoning.

Revolt, 20 October 1929

Revolt and Progress (By Srimati G.Sumati Bai, B.A., L.T.)

Revolt leads to Progress and revolution heads reformation. Renaissance and reformation but follow in the wake of revolution, the sign of awakened life. To this history bears ample testimony. The revolt of the Plebeians in ancient Rome led to the representative rule of the Consulate there. The French revolution scattered abroad the seeds of democracy laying thus the axe at the very root of autocratic tyranny. The revolt of the American Colonies ended in the establishment of a Free United States. The progressive changes today in China, Russia and several other countries are again the fruits of revolt. Every great soul, besides whom the world reveres today and whose stamp in life even time cannot efface, had been a rebel in his times. Christ was one, Muhammad was another. The former for his revolt was nailed to the cross and the latter was stoned to flee for his life but their torch of light is still burning with standing the storm of centuries.

Here in India as far back as two thousand years, he whom we call ‘The Enlightened’ today was a rebel of his day. His Buddhism was primarily a campaign of revolt against priest-craft, caste, tyranny and mass ignorance. His creed of Ahimsa and Nirvana was a reformation that was a reaction against the religio-social evils of his times. The birth of the Sikh religion in the 15^th century was again a rebellion led by Baba Nanak against “the priesthood and caste exclusiveness of Hinduism.” In all fields – be it religion, philosophy, art or science – Rebels have been the pioneers of all Progress. The progress of science itself today is pre-eminently a revolt against ignorance, blind-beliefs and superstitions. To cite the opinion of Prof. Radhakrishnan, “changes in the moral codes are generally brought about by a few individuals who throw aside their prejudices and get at the reality which is much bigger and finer than our conventions make us believe. Every moral reformer is an immoral force in the eyes of the conservative who prefers the comfortable cloth of conventional morality to the “alarming activity of reflective intelligence… All progress is due to the rebels”.

The seething spirit or revolt in our country today is a healthy sign of the inner soul of India being stirred to virile thought and action. In the name of religion the nation has long been supine. It has for ages now but trodden the beaten track, never swerving a bit to strike out a new avenue of quicker evolution. Self-complacence in the name of religion and morality has blocked its way to progress. The woeful result has been that the nation has lost the capacity to adjust itself to changing times and environments. It has lagged behind the other nations which call it “backward”. It has gradually succumbed to sloth and slumber forgetting its great heritage the thinking world waits to receive through its new life. India has for ages supinely suffered many a tyranny, plague and pestilence and called it the “Hand of Fate”. Religion has dubbed some of her children as ‘untouchables’ and society has thought it its dharma to tyrannise them as worse than animals. Women are ‘predestined unfortunates’ and should only be treated as chattels and domestic servants. The priests are the chosen of God and they shall grow fat at the expense of the masses! About 92% of the nation is illiterate and that is Divine Will. The nation ranks high among others for its heavy morality, extreme poverty and ignorance and that is preordained too! None of these shall be either questioned or resisted! It is adharmic to rebel against what fate has decreed! Into such morbid beliefs the people have been hypnotized by a priest-ridden and hyper-conventional society. The apt remedy for this is Revolt.

It is now fortunate that the seeds of revolt have sprouted here and there in our country. Creeds and conventions are now on the anvil of Reason. The passing of The Child Marriage Restraint Act for instance marks an epoch in this direction. It means the triumph of common-sense over blind-faith. It means the denial of final authority to the Srutis and Smritis and Shariyat and what not of the distant past ages and their subordination to the thought of man and the urge of contemporary life. It means science recovering its legitimate throne usurped by superstition and its selfish votaries. It means the unfurlment the banner of convictions on the ruins of time worn conventions. The sign of the times promises fair to establish once again the Kingdom of Reason guided by human experience. The pseudo-moral and pseudo-religious injunctions will not now take long to retire into the snug oblivion of ancient Olla-Podrida (a Spanish stew made of vegetables and meat, whose name has become synonymous with something that is hotchpotch and hopelessly mixed – editors) and let man and woman be free to build for themselves on the basis of clear thought and synthetic experience.

Revolt,3 November 1929

The “Revolt” at its Work (By Mr. S. S. Bharathi)

The Editor asked me to contribute an article to the special number of the “Revolt”; and I do it with pleasure and with pride as well. I deem it a real privilege to be given to contribute one’s humble mite, however small it be, to a movement, whose ideal is national uplift and whose plan of work is centred in selfless social service; The Revolt raised its standard but a year ago; yet its strides have been so rapid and its campaign so successful that it has already struck a genuine terror in the hearts of all the diehard social obscurantists, and has roused their wonted reactionarism in its actively virulent and full measure. “Religion in danger” is now the wild war cry widely shouted by the fanatic mullas and panicky pandits alike in the land. The very heat and energy of the sallies of these apostolic repositories of hierarchic superstition affords in a way the measure to appraise the worth and value of the work done by the Revolt and its little protestant army in this land of lotus eaters.

I am not unaware of the wounds caused to some of our brethren in the ruthless campaign of the Revolt; but I know they are merely superficial scratches, or at worst only skin deep wounds, as compared with the deeper and graver cuts and stabs dealt freely and often fatally by the loyal knight-templars in their holy fights against their lay-fellows for their only fault of being endowed with less faith and less favoured with occultic faculties. The right of Reason is for its very existence always provoked and often inevitably entailed on it by the rigid reactionary forces of custom, convention and superstition; and its duration is strictly limited to the necessities of self-defense, while its intensity is even less than commensurate with the cruelty of the hostile attacks on it. Again Reason will only fight with harmless bludgeons of logic and arguments; it has no armouries of magazines or factories to indent on for machine guns, bombshells, and poison-gases so readily available to and so lavishly used by the knightly good templers of the ordained faiths and hoary creeds. The injuries inflicted by the soldiers of Reason are bound at worst to be slight, and they always heal up quickly whereas the wounds caused by the captains of creeds are often deep, and most mortally poisoned, Faith is proudly offensive, while Reason is, ever on the defensive. Faith is proud of its boundless resources, and so always seeks to strike down all these recalcitrants, while Reason by its very nature must ever strive to conciliate and win over. Custom and creeds have their usurped thrones to preserve at any cost, while Reason has nothing to conceal; and being conscious of its birthright it has no motives of strife and so extends its realm by suasion.

Reason’s right to light and guide mankind is so self-evident and indisputable that all creeds and faiths virtually concede it to more or less extent; and what is more significant, they even vie with one another in paying indirect homage to Reason by trying to bolster up and embellish their tottering edifices with the concrete bricks, unbreakable tiles and cementing plaster of Reason, whether of genuine brand or of counterfeit label. They are constrained not only to borrow the designs, but also to indent largely on the materials of Reason to build and repair their strongholds and citadels just to keep out the very Reason whose alliance they freely seek in their internecine and fratricidal warfare between themselves. Reason thus is indispensable for the very existence as well as for the extension of their mischievous empire. Reason on the other hand is self-centred and self-reliant. Faiths dish up and flavour their savoury pickles to tickle the diseased palate of their dyspeptic votaries. Reason’s dieting is plain, wholesome and nutritious. Faith zealously guards against every approach of Reason. For, it naturally fears the advent of this legitimate owner to its realm, lest it should naturally come into its own and thereby end ever after the empire of the usurpers. Any of the least sign of loyalty to Reason is therefore shouted down as heresy, and every adherent of Reason is branded as a traitor to Religion by the mercenary votaries of the later. I say ‘mercenary’ advisedly; for genuine voluntary allies have no partisan axe to grind and so would not hastily take to abuse any in the rival camp. It is only the mercenaries that stand to lose by the adverse fortunes of the Empires and Tyrannies of faiths; and naturally they will be more zealous than even their principals to defend and preserve what really is their own interest whenever there is any risk of its extinction by the exposure of the usurpations and establishment of the rights of the real owner. In their selfish and therefore all the more acute anxiety, these votaries are not over-scrupulous in the weapons they chose to attack the adherents of Reason with, and they resort to all and sundry means with a view at least to discredit the rivals for the time being, though they could not defeat them totally or for all times.

Any weapon is good enough for the soldiers of Religion to beat the dogs of Reason with. Logic denies them countenance; and arguments betray and fail them. To yield without a blow is not to be expected from any vested interests. To meet the disciplined phalanx of reason in the fair field is not profitable, and they know Reason is always a clean fighter. They therefore enter into solemn compact not to give battle in the open, but to keep to their trenches and send out poison gases, and to ambush and skirmish with the unwary stragglers from Reason’s camp. Abuse, however vulgar, is yet a handy dart to throw at these dogs, as their loyalty to Reason deserves no better treatment. Reason’s adherents are also freely abused with impunity, as they may not choose to retort with abuse in return. Although abuse is a game two can play at, soldiers of Reason would not stoop to because of their reasoned and conscious righteousness of their cause, and also because of their training to rely on the unfailing smithy of Reason ever ready to forge the cleanest arguments, not only to parry, but also to vanquish all and every attack of unreason and sham. Champions of Reason must thus be ever prepared to face and bear up the vilest of slanders without flinch and with patient forbearance, and to bear them down only with their irresistible arguments.

The Revolt by raising the standard of Reason has incurred, nay invited the rank displeasure of the votaries of all creeds; and it has no right to feel aggrieved at the onslaught of abuse and vilification lavished on its head. It has stood its ground manfully so far, and it deserves congratulations and the sympathy of all right minded people, religious and secular alike. The Revolt has had a good fight all rounds and it has bravely won its spurs in the very first year of its campaign. It is really no small achievement for the Revolt. Of course it has had some ugly tussles and unedifying tilts here and there, now and again. Such things are only inherent in and incidental to a guerilla-war, which it is constrained to wage with the entrenched legions of faiths and creeds, of the crusted customs and vested interests, now all in league to scare away this valiant and venturesome votary of Reason from this realm of hallowed custom and hollow creeds. There is also this thing to be said for the Revolt in this connection. It has bravely undertaken the Herculean task of clearing the Augean stables in our land, ever renowned as the abode not of God only, but of the 33 crores of godlings and their ungodly revels. It has unfurled its flag of reform to renovate the dying if not dead society in Tamilaham. It is neither easy nor always agreeable task to do so.

The Revolt found at the very first stage the need for carrying out thorough weeding operation, if the field were to be prepared to receive the seeds of Reason. Removing the festering from the soil is often a very disagreeable work. A weeder cannot consistently with his errand show much sympathy or tenderness to the weeds. If out of any sickly sentiments he were over-sympathetic to the weeds, then he would be really cruel to the crops; for, the rank weeds would choke up and kill off the sprouting plants. He needs must be cruel to the weeds, if he would be kindly to the crops. His duty thus hardens him against the weeds, against which he cannot spare his hoe. The Revolt in hoeing the old rank weeds in the land has struck against and severed the roots of the unwanted weeds. It cannot but be ruthless in its cleaning operation. This preliminary work must be irksome to the weeder, and cruel to the weeds. The hoe naturally breaks the clods of earth that cover up the roots of weeds; and to this extent the operation may seem to hurt the goodly earth. But the real result, the calculated sequel is to rid the earth of the unwanted weeds, to open its veins and tissues to eradicate their roots, and to soften the soil for the reception and nursing up of the seedlings and the goodly crops.

The Revolt in this work must inevitably have struck against the crusted minds, but only to rid them of the morbid old unreasoning habits and hardened views, and to enable them better to receive the seedlings or Reason. Even the scoffers would come to bless the Revolt, when in due course they realize the healthy and wholesome results, of the installation of Reason and the rout of over-crusted creeds. The very earth which resisted the hoe of the weeder, would thereafter smile sweetly with fragrant flowers and yield a goodly crop in gratitude to the hoer for his pains. The Revolt need not therefore despair of sympathy and encouragement even at the hands of our orthodox brethren in Tamilaham. Let it forge ahead in its single minded pursuit of lofty ideal to dethrone superstition and to install Reason in power in Tamilaham. Time is bound to come, nay the dawn is already breafling (sic) out in the eastern horizon for the Revolt and its collaborators and coadjutors, who would all receive ere long their due recognition and meed of honour. On behalf of all the lovers of truth, and as a Tamilian, I wish the Revolt goodspeed, and sing Pallandu and Hallelujas with all my heart. I am sure all stout hearted Tamils would cry amen to this wish.

Revolt, 17 November 1929

Ourselves

Not out of any journalistic tradition or egoistic practice do we write on ‘Ourselves’, on this day of the dawn of the second year for the Revolt. Our intention is to attempt a sort of self-introspection which is possible only in calm moments of one’s life, which occurs but very rare in an era like this when human energies are spent in the attempts to conquer space and time. We said ‘calm’ not without purpose. We are indeed sailing in a calm atmosphere, having spent ourselves in a year of terrific storm coupled with surging billows. But whoever knows our ‘calm’ is not one before storm?

It was on the 7^th day November 1928 that memorable day in the history of the nations, the day of the anniversary of the immortal Revolution in Russia, the day which is looked upon as the violent explosion of human liberty, the day which is memorialised by millions in Russia for the mighty mixing up of monarchs and the masses – it was on that day that the revolt saw the light of day at Erode. Even as we pointed out at the outset, we ‘unfurled the flag of revolt to destroy tyrannies and to befriend men and women’. Our aim, as we declared, was to put before our people, and humanity in general, how ‘social injustice is at the root of our economic bondage and political subjugation’. Our work in this direction, has therefore been, merely educative. But we have been, not once or twice, branded as ‘destructive’. “True education” as a writer once remarked, “is more destructive in character, than constructive”. For, mankind has to unlearn many things at its various stages of life. The Self-respect movement of which the Revolt claims to be a loud-speaking organ, has taught in a period of half a dozen summers, what mankind should unlearn before storing up new stock. In ‘ringing out the old, and ringing in the new’ ideas, the Revolt has carried its banner amongst many odds.

Our country is so saturated with time honored customs and institutions, not to speak of their protagonists and upholders that the difficulties on the way of a work like ours, can be more imagined, than described. In proclaiming the aims of the Self-respect movements to places where we could not be heard through our Tamil journal, ‘Kudi Arasu’ which in spite of its largest and really enviable circulation throughout the Tamil-knowing places in and outside India, is not able to command a sufficiently wide hearing, we have carried our mission successfully through Revolt. The limitations to our task are too well-known to our readers to need any enumeration here. In the first place, ours has come to be, by the natural course of circumstances, perhaps the first journal in India to wed itself to a deliberate advocacy of rationalism. Though the Revolt was chiefly intended for the task of social reconstruction on a basis of equality and justice, we have come to the painful but inevitable conclusion that the task of thoroughly revolutionizing an age-long system in a country of antiquated culture and habits, cannot be done effectively without taking a rationalistic view of life.

This is no smooth sailing in our country. At the first stage of the Revolt, we brought down upon ourselves the fury of the Brahmins, the monopolists of the country, who hated us for our disagreeable task of exposing them to the masses. Then came the saivites, who though a microscopic community in India, are not a wit worse than the Brahmins in the cruel suppression of the thousand communities below them. Their wrath has almost reached a stage, when it can be safely said, they have exhausted themselves completely. The third stage of Revolt, which was not long after its birth, was reached when the Muslims and Christians, hurled their attacks upon us for our anti-religious policy. The final stage has been reached even many months back when the protectors of God took cudgels against us for our repudiation of the necessity for a god. This shall give a fairly good idea of the route which our ship has taken. In fair weather and foul, we have steered ourselves with the help or our readers, who have ever since been a dutiful and helpful crew. Storms assailed us at times and waves threatened us by turn. Knowing as we do, the initial difficulties on our way, thanks to our learned contributors who have done a voluntary service to humanity, we feel stronger and stronger in the advocacy of a bold view of rationalism, and have never felt the mood of depression or discouragement.

On the other hand, it may be said to the credit of the progressive section of humanity, world currents are taking us farther and farther in our works so as to enable us to have a quick and an easy sail. Apart from the speedy progress outside India made by Russia and Turkey, which in its turn has startled up from their slumber many thinking men and women in other countries also, in our own country, events, like the courageous attacks on Mullaism by the Muslims of Bengal, the dramatic casting (sic) of the Purdah by the Nambudri ladies of Malabar; the surging waves of the depressed communities attempting to roll heavily into the temples and other public places in order to secure equal rights, and last but not least the Acts that have been passed in the sphere of social reform, and the Bills that are yet on the anvil of legislature – these and innumerable events of a like nature have emboldened us to lift up our banner of Revolt higher and higher and march with the army of Freethinkers and Truthseekers in our onward march. Again we repeat our watchword, ‘we will not compromise; we will be heard’.

Revolt, 17 November 1929

The Movement as I see It By K. C. Raman, B.A. (Hons) (1)

I am informed that “the Revolt”, the effective mouth-piece of the Self-respect Movement, would be shortly completing the first year of its life, and I am asked to contribute an article for its annual issue. There can be no better way of complying with this request than to attempt an appreciative criticism of what the journal has already achieved and what it has to do hereafter. It is needless to say that the promoters of the organ, and of the movement which is behind it, deserve the hearty congratulations of every lover of humanity. Theirs is a mission which aims at nothing short of liberation of mankind from the pitiable state of ignorance into which it has fallen. To purge humanity of its worn-out traditions and to maintain the dignity and equality of man by pushing forward such a movement, are as commendable as they are difficult. The desirability of bestowing choice encomiums on the happy few who have wedded themselves to such a talk, will be quite obvious to all who are rightly informed as to the best methods of social reform, and the manifold difficulties they have to face, are bound to manifest themselves however sincere and humanitarian their motives may be – in the form of oppositions from all the interested parties. Hence it is that “the Revolt” has given so much room for exultation and unrest in different quarters.

The founder of the Self-respect Movement is not without great forerunners in the history of human race. It has been the common experience of all the saviours of the masses that the benevolent intentions and the sympathetic designs of theirs have been tentatively thwarted at the very outset. As in the past, in the present also, when such a master unfurls the banner of revolt, the broad human sympathy and the clearly perceivable sincerity underlying his destructive criticism of destructive social tendencies, do not always stand him in good stead. Still, all these humanitarians, backed up by the moral strength of their sincere endeavours, are bound to triumph in the long run in their praiseworthy mission of succouring humanity in its onwards march.

For the earliest and perhaps the best example of such, it is enough for us to peep into the early history of our own country. Which religious philosophers and sane critic has failed to appreciate and refused to commend the self-respect ideals preached by Lord Buddha? If any Indian who takes pride in being born in the same soil as the Sakyamuni, questions the healthy nature of Mr. E. V. Ramasami’s propaganda, is he not either a hypocrite or an inconsistent human being? Enough has been said by religious enthusiasts in praise of Buddha and more than enough about the salient features of his mission. But the masses in India have not fared any the better for all that they are still whirling in a whirlpool, a whirlpool full of endless confusions and innumerable gods. To avoid such a chaotic state of affairs, Lord Buddha’s advice was simple and direct – to understand correctly the dignity and responsibility of man and to give up theological speculations. This valuable advice has been discarded as a thing of naught and hence our present woe.

It has been said, and rightly too, that Buddha was in advance of the times. The then state of civilization with no secular education and public consciousness was partly responsible for the failure of Buddhism in India. This, however, is not so lamentable a fact as the destructive work of Hindu priests who spared no pains in putting the chaotic religion of old on its former pedestal. The Indian people have not ever after this mesmeric influence of Hinduism, woke up from their age-long slumber. To enter into a crusade against all established religions which stunt the growth of man is a task worthy of a great hero and we are fortunate to have an able master for this in the person of Mr. E. V. Ramasami.

To shoulder such a heavy responsibility means to fight against caste and priest. It is a notorious fact that caste system which has set man against man and paralysed the natural impulses of millions, is a peculiar institution found only in India. It is now more than evident to all thinkers that the salvation of Mother India lies in the removal of this inhuman institution, root and branch, from our social organism, and that the arguments in favour of preserving it intact only reveal the anxiety of the guardians of the heavenly gate, who owe their superiority to it. Mass education and foreign influences would go a long way in facilitating a reformation with beneficent and far-reaching results, provided educative propaganda on vigorous lines such as chalked out by “the Revolt” during the past one year is continued for a few decades. It is highly gratifying to note that the talented editor of the journal has not spared any topic or any person, whenever these demanded his criticism. His fearless courage, robust optimism, immense working capacity and remarkable originality are full of promises. May he live long to see his mission fulfilled – to do for the Indian masses what Abraham Lincoln did for the American Negroes and what Tolstoy did for the Russian peasants!

Revolt, 17 November 1929

Notes

K.C. Raman was a leading member of SNDP Yogam and Sahodara Sangam, an anti-caste organization founded by K. Ayyappan of Kerala.