{"id":65010,"date":"2026-01-23T17:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=65010"},"modified":"2026-01-23T17:26:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:56:48","slug":"periyar-anti-caste-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-01-2026\/periyar-anti-caste-movement","title":{"rendered":"Periyar\u2019s Contributions to the Anti-caste Struggle and Vaikom Satyagraha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/Modern History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Periyar and other reformist leaders<\/strong> like him played a<strong> pivotal role in the struggle against untouchability.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About Periyar E. V. Ramasamy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879\u20131973) <\/strong>was a social reformer, rationalist thinker, and political activist from <strong>Tamil Nadu,<\/strong> best known for leading the<strong> Self-Respect Movement<\/strong> and laying the ideological foundations of <strong>Dravidian politics.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He rebelled against <strong>Brahminical dominance and gender and caste inequality<\/strong> in Tamil Nadu.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>E.V. Ramasamy promoted the principles of <strong>rationalism, self-respect, women\u2019s rights and eradication of caste.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About Vaikom Satyagraha<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Cause:<\/strong> The movement was initiated against the <strong>practice of untouchability<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In Vaikom in the <strong>erstwhile Travancore princely State, <\/strong>members of the lower castes, particularly Dalits, were denied the right to walk on roads leading to the <strong>Vaikom Shiva Temple.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Leadership:<\/strong> It was led by <strong>T.K. Madhavan, K. Kelappan,<\/strong> and other prominent leaders.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Mahatma Gandhi<\/strong> also supported the cause, sending his advice, although he did not physically participate in the protests initially.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>E.V. Ramasamy Periyar <\/strong>also lent support to the movement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Protest:<\/strong> Participants in the Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) demanded the right of Dalits to use public roads and approach the temple like other castes.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They engaged in peaceful marches and acts of civil disobedience, despite facing violent opposition from upper-caste groups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Outcome:<\/strong> After over a year of protest and negotiations, the Government eventually allowed Dalits to use the public roads leading to the temple, marking a victory for social equality and the end of caste-based discrimination in the region.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Significance: <\/strong>The Vaikom Satyagraha played a vital role in the social reform movement in Kerala and was an important part of the broader struggle against untouchability and caste oppression in India.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It also marked the<strong> first major organized movement against untouchability <\/strong>in the Indian independence movement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background has-fixed-layout\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Post- Independence Abolition of Untouchability<\/strong><br><br>&#8211; <strong>Article 17 of the Constitution<\/strong> (enforced on 26 January 1950) legally abolished untouchability.<br>&#8211; To operationalise this constitutional guarantee, the <strong>Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955 was passed.<\/strong><br>&#8211; In 1976, the Act was comprehensively amended and renamed as the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act, to reflect its <strong>focus on the enforcement of civil rights.<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_international\/issues\/167397\/OPS\/G7VFFLHCF.1+GA4FFPAL5.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Periyar and other reformist leaders like him played a pivotal role in the struggle against untouchability.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> About Periyar E. V. Ramasamy <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879\u20131973) was a social reformer, rationalist thinker, and political activist from Tamil Nadu, best known for leading the Self-Respect Movement and laying the ideological foundations of Dravidian politics. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">He rebelled against Brahminical dominance and gender and caste inequality in Tamil Nadu. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">E.V. Ramasamy promoted the principles of rationalism, self-respect, women\u2019s rights and eradication of caste.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-01-2026\/periyar-anti-caste-movement\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65013,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65010\/revisions\/65013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}