GENDER IN INDIAN HISTORY c.

1500-1950
WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN THE DRAVIDIAN
MOVEMENT
The Dravidian movement has its roots in the political activities that surrounded the
demand for increased non-Brahmin participation in the political realm in the early
20th century. The movement aimed to educate the lower classes in order to elevate
them. It sparked racial ardour among the Tamils and connected their identity with
non-Brahmins. The Justice Party was created as a result of the alienation of an
expanding group of wealthy businessmen and landowners. Among the well-known
party leaders were Sir P.T. Thiagaraya Chettiar, Sir P.T. Rajan, and V.V. Ramaswami
Nadar.
According to John Christopher Baker in The Politics of South India, most of those
era's businessmen were non-Brahmins. As Brahmins had better access to English
education, they were absorbed into government services and other fields such as
medicine, law, engineering etc.1In an effort to win over non-Brahmin voters, The
Justice Party promoted communal participation in government services in 1921. This
developed into a call for a distinct Dravida Nadu by the 1940s, and the party was
reorganised as the Dravida Kazhagam.
E.V. Ramaswami, well known by his stage name "Periyar," first appeared during this
time. He was strongly drawn to the Gandhian non-cooperation movement and threw
himself into the Congress's initiatives and the fight for Swaraj. He encouraged people
to stop being untouchable and promoted the usage of Khadi. He criticised the unfair
treatment of the Harijans, including cases in which they were forbidden from
accessing temples and from walking on the streets where Hindus of the upper caste
lived.
Periyar began to express his opinions on patriarchy, caste systems, and other
institutions of Tamil culture fairly vehemently after severing ties with Congress in
1924. This led him to start the Self-Respect Movement, which advocated for social
reforms such as widow remarriage, gender equality, ritual-free marriage, etc. The
self-Respect movement sought a caste-free society and total equality for all people.
Eliminating social ills and releasing society from the bonds of superstition and
unquestioning faith in God and religion were to be used to accomplish this. It
advocated for gender parity in work, education, and property rights.
In the context of the Self-Respect movement, Periyar was not content to focus on
traditional women's liberation issues like widow remarriage and women's education,
which, even if they were successful, did not challenge the patriarchal system that was
already in place. But he questioned the fundamental tenets of patriarchy, such as the
monogamous family and the expectations placed on and enforced upon women with
regard to virginity.
Periyar claimed that the goal of women's education should be to help them find jobs
so they may become economically independent. He defined marriage and family as
1
Ramamurti, P. The Freedom Struggle and The Dravidian Movement. Page 12.
the two main institutions supporting patriarchy, making this his most significant
notion. He claimed that marriage should be outlawed as a social institution because
it allowed males to subjugate women and turn them into their property. Periyar
supported a certain sort of union that defied the gender restrictions that were
traditionally and socially acceptable.
Periyar also criticised the idea that women should maintain their virginity in order to
support monogamous families. Women's individuality and capacity for free thought
have been eroded by the "imposition of pativratha" traits, which have also turned
them into the unthinking servants of males who are expected to exhibit excessive
confidence in virginity. Marriage and celibacy were two important patriarchal
institutions, but patriarchy in general, insisted Periyar, was pervasive, permeating
fields like language, literature, and gender-based socialisation. He felt that the
absence of "respectable words for women" in Tamil rendered the language
"barbaric."
Periyar’s views on women’s question found practical expression in the activities of
the Self-Respect Movement. Women played a significant role in the Dravidian
movement, both in terms of their participation in political activities and their
contributions to social reform. Women were successfully given the opportunity to
express themselves publicly thanks to the Dravidian movement Women's
organizations such as the Women's Indian Association and the All-India Women's
Conference were active in the movement, advocating for women's rights and social
equality. Women were just as effective as males in bringing about social
improvements, engaging in social work, and effectively arguing public problems.
Periyar deserves all the credit for making this transformation. Women were
permitted to organise their own conferences as autonomous organisations.
The conferences that the self-respect movement organised were one of its key
components. These conferences, which were sporadically held at the province and
district levels, were notable for their slogan-chanting processions, lengthy speeches
intended to spread the movement's philosophy, and adoption of resolutions dealing
with different political issues. Through these conferences, the movement addressed
issues affecting women and promoted their involvement in politics.
In 1929, the first Self-Respect convention took place at Chengleput, a town close to
Madras. It covered topics including caste persecution and the Simon Commission.
The conference dealt specially with ‘marriage and other rituals’ and demands like
men and women were to have equal access to property were made.
The second conference held at Virudunagar in 1931 promoted the idea that women
should not only be hired for occupations like teaching and medicine, but also for the
army and police. Additionally, they requested that local magistrates identify any
temples that supported the Devadasi system.
One may see that Periyar fervently felt that only women's efforts could achieve
women's liberation in the context of setting up separate women's conferences. The
self-respect movement's female activists had a dedicated forum to discuss women's
concerns at special women's conferences, but they also made significant
contributions to general conferences. It was the conference of the Progressive
Women’s Association held in Madras in 1938 that bestowed the honorific title
Periyar on E.V Ramasamy.
In addition to taking part in non-agitational movement activities like conferences,
the women members of the self-respect movement were also quite engaged in large-
scale agitations. The anti-Hindi agitation, which lasted for more than two years, from
late 1937 to early 1940, was the movement's most important public protest. The anti-
Hindi protests also attracted a significant amount of female involvement. The women
screamed anti-Hindi and pro-Tamil chants while wearing saris with the Tamil flag
emblazoned on them. As the protest gained momentum over time, groups of women
activists actively sought arrest.
Conducting self-respect marriages was another significant action of the Self-Respect
Movement, which opposed conventional Hindu marriages and brought dramatic
reforms to them. The main goal of these weddings was to liberate marriage from the
Hindu traditions that stressed monogamy and virginity for women and hence
supported patriarchy. During its three decades of politics, the organisation organised
many thousand such weddings in the Tamil communities. While some unions
considered the freedom of women as their goal, others opposed Brahmin dominance
by doing away with Brahmin priests and Sanskrit texts.
Only in contrast to other current movements, like the nationalist movement, can the
radical nature of the self-respect movement's approach to the women's question be
properly appreciated. In her article, Partha Chatterjee extensively discusses how the
nationalist movement reworked and reaffirmed the pre-existing patriarchal
framework to solve the women's issue. The self-identity of the national culture itself
would be threatened, in the view of nationalists, if it adopted features of Western
civilisation that were spiritual or anything other than the material domain.
Only within the patriarchal framework did the nationalist movement rally women in
the anti-colonial struggle, particularly from 1920 on. To increase women's
engagement beyond the home, traditional feminine roles like a doting mother,
obedient daughter, and chaste wife who would never disobey her husband were
expanded to the public sphere. Thus, the nationalists did not create a critique of the
patriarchal structure but instead praised it as a necessity.
It is abundantly clear that the self-respect movement's stance on women's issue
contrasted sharply with the nationalist movement’s. Family, marriage, and other
patriarchal structures were upheld by the nationalist movement but questioned by
Periyar and his supporters. In other words, the self-Respect movement mobilised
women to challenge patriarchy while nationalists perpetuated it by mobilising them
for politics.
Despite the challenges, women gradually began to escape the grip of slavery and
made progress towards empowerment. The Self-Respect Movement supported and
encouraged female political engagement. The profile of a remarkable woman who
started out as a devadasi but through the years changed to become a prominent
member of the Self-respect Movement. Ramamirthammal, a member of the isai
vellala caste and a member of the devadasi system, was born in 1882 to Krishnasamy
of Tiruvarur and Chinnammal of Muvalur.
Being a devadasi, she emerged as an irrepressible activist championing the cause of
women, devoting herself to the abolition of the Devadasi system. She brought many
Devadasis to Mayawaram in 1925, and conducted marriage for many of them. She
was proficient in both Tamil and Sanskrit. She translated Sanskrit slogans into Tamil
and consequently self-respect marriages gained momentum.
In response to E.V. Ramasamy's departure from the Indian National Congress, she
joined the Self-Respect Movement. She waged a tenacious battle against what she
saw as women's servitude, emphasising on how Brahmanical Hinduism and upper-
caste males were promoting sexual tyranny against women. The Chengalput Self-
Respect Conference featured her prominently. She was one of the distinguished
intellectuals Periyar chose to help him create his renowned action plan, also known
as Erottupathai (the Path of Erode). Ramamirtham performed several self-respecting
marriages without priests or Sanskrit mantras, alongside Periyar. She was proficient
in Sanskrit and could explain to others the meanings of the mantras, which were not
only meaningless but also degrading. She supported inter-caste unions and actively
assisted anyone who wanted to marry someone from a different caste.
Another notable woman who contributed to the Dravidian Movement was
Muthulakshmi Reddy, a physician, social reformer, and politician who worked
tirelessly for women's rights and social justice. She was a founder of the Women's
Indian Association and served as the president of the All-India Women's Conference.
Reddy was also a member of the Madras Legislative Council and played a key role in
the passage of legislation that improved the status of women in society.
In conclusion, women played a significant role in the Dravidian movement, both as
leaders and as activists, and their contributions helped to shape the social and
political landscape of southern India.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Anandhi S. “Women’s Question in the Dravidian Movement c. 1925-1948.”
Social Scientist 19, no. 5/6 (1991): 24–41. https://doi.org/10.2307/3517871.
2. Swari Seshadri. “WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN THE DRAVIDIAN
MOVEMENT, 1935-1945” , August 2008
3. Dr K. Suganya. “Contribution of Women Activists in the Self-Respect
Movement of Tamil Nadu” IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science
(IOSR-JHSS) Volume 23, Issue 8, Ver. 8 (August. 2018) PP 19-23