Paper short abstract:

My paper builds on the Dravidian feminist scholarship on gender and Self-Respect movement. I propose to provide a new comparative framework to understand the radicalism of the movement politics of marriage, masculinity, modern conjugality and self-respect.

Paper long abstract:

The Self Respect movement, later subsumed into what is now known as the Dravidian movement, emerged in South India during the early 20th century. It was simultaneously a response to British colonial oppression and a reaction to the caste system and brahmanical patriarchy. The movement aimed to promote the self-respect and dignity of the lower-caste Dravidian people and dismantle brahminical hegemony that had dominated the region for centuries. Much work has been done on the role of the Self-Respect movement in political spheres, but not much attention has been paid to how it challenged prevailing notions of masculinity and femininity, and almost by force, dragged Tamil society into the modern age. Periyar rightly saw caste being founded upon, and propagated around female sexuality. In his view, and in the view of the self-respect movement followers, the way to destroy caste was to destroy traditional gender roles and norms that reinforced male dominance and female subordination.

Women, in Periyar’s eyes, had to take greater control over themselves, over their bodies, and their sexualities, and thus question existing brahmin notions of masculinity. In essence this is a movement towards modernity, towards a more open, sexually liberated society where gender differences can begin to break down.

In this paper, I present Periyar’s writings on gender, his call to women of the Self-Respect movement to liberate themselves and thus destroy masculinity. Periyar asks women to free themselves from notions of chastity and purity, seek contraception and birth control measures, and in his words, “Let masculinity die.”

I also argue in this paper that some of the diverse factions operating within the Self-Respect movement had vested interests including cultural and ethnic nationalism and parochialism, which co opted patriarchy. In heeding Periyar’s call thus, the women of the Self-Respect movement emphasised the importance of non-violence and peaceful resistance, rejecting the masculine notion that aggression and physical strength were the only means of achieving political and social change. Thus foreshadowing, perhaps predicting later political struggles including the Indian Independence movement, and the Anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s and 70s.