24-12-2022 | Sir Periyar Remembrance Day – Seaman Press Conference
On 24-12-2022, on the 49th anniversary of Mr. Periyar, a wreath-laying event was held on behalf of Naam Tamilar Party at the party head office under the leadership of Chief Coordinator Senthamizhan Seeman.
Speaking to the media at the end of the event, Seeman said, “It is our noble Lord Periyar who has removed the darkness of ignorance and shed light of knowledge on our people who were drowned in immorality, stuck in the caste-religious sewer, and unable to rise again. The bigotry of ‘feminism’ has been rampant in this land for ages and even today. Aya Periyar was a great thinker and fought for women’s rights. The revolutionary Annal Ambedkar gave it legal form and made it operational. Countless of our forefathers fought to create a balanced society where human birth did not discriminate between high and low. The revolutionary Sir Periyar played a leading role in that line. “If a man delights in putting his fellow man down, what can it be but a mental illness? If the people who consider themselves as high caste, similarly think that there is no such thing as low caste below them, then there will be no problem in this society,” preached Mr. Periyar.
When women are asked for equal rights, they say, “I am a denier of God, you are worshipers of God. Lord Shiva, whom you worship every day, gives half of his body to his wife and stands as ‘Arthanareeswarar’. I do not accept that religion and fight for equal rights for women. You who worship that god every day are against not giving fair share to women. If you put your wives in that place, it will seem against you. If you look at the mother who gave birth to you and your siblings, it does not seem to be against you,” said Mr. Periyar.
An economic genius named Malthus said, “Production and population do not progress in proportion, if the population only grows too much, the country will experience scarcity.” It was Sir Periyar who fought to think and implement that theory in this land even before Malthus. He came up with the idea of family planning. He was the one who planted the idea that two children are enough. If both the children are born as girls, if you want a male child, what should you do about it? When the question arose, “Would the corpse not be burned if the girl was robbed?” Sir Periyar is a man who thought about women’s rights. Thus we are very happy to praise Aya Periyar who is our guide among the countless ancestors who made this revolution for social change. To that great man, we Tamil children proudly and arrogantly pay our respects,” he said.
Later, in response to questions from reporters, Seeman said, “On that day, the Aryans distorted our history. They made our God willing. They made our Shiva as Rudra, Koravai as Parvati, Muruga as Subrahmanya, Mayon as Krishna, today they are trying to make our Valluvan an Arya by wrapping saffron. Similarly, those of Dravidian doctrine repeat falsehood and see it as truth. Is there any evidence that I have ever spoken disparagingly of Sir Periyar? But the Dravidians are trying to build an image that we are the Tamil Party and are against Mr. Periyar. I have preached Sir Periyar’s doctrines for 15 years on platforms. Not daring to face me directly, they cut and pasted the videos of Mr. Periyar that I had talked to that day with atheism and propagandized against me in their respective religious places of worship. This allegation that we are against Periyar is something like that.
Today I will clarify once again what I have said many times. We, wherever the human society is low, fallen and enslaved in the world, those who fought for the rights and liberation of that human society, those who sang songs, those who gave their lives, and those who made a revolution are our guides. Because we are also the people of an enslaved nation. We accept Mamedhai Marx as our master of knowledge and proud guide. But we will accept our grandfather Singaravelar, Jeevananda and Nallakannu as the leader in this land. Similarly, we accept the revolutionary Annal Ambedkar as our teacher of knowledge and as our guide. But we will accept as our leader our grandfather Dumvamalai Srinivasan and Ayodthidasa Pandita who fought in this land like him. In that order we accept Sir Periyar as our guide. But we will accept our brother Prabhakaran as our leader. It is because of our theory. That is, ‘Father can only be the one who got us, leader can only be our blood’, ‘He who does not understand my language cannot be our Lord, he who does not feel our pain cannot be our leader’. He who does not know our history cannot guide us. This is our position. Let him who accepts it travel with us, and let him who opposes stand opposite.
What did those who tried to frame us as anti-Periyar, take Periyar’s ideas to the people? Will those who talk about Periyar talk about what Periyar said? Will those who talk about social justice implement the principles of social justice of Sir Periyar? “If a person does not fight for his right according to the population of his class, he will be disgraced,” said Sir Periyar. Why are they reluctant to conduct a population census and give the real share as he said? They won’t do that. All these criticisms leveled at us are one such thing,” he said.
“We accept some of the principles of Sir Periyar. We differ in many areas. He says I will be a slave to one who is obsessed with Tamil in one place. In another place Tamil is called Sanyan and the language of barbarians. The Dravidians give a new explanation that it is the language spoken during the time when the barbarians lived. Then Sir Periyar himself might have said so. He once compares Thirukkural to feces and elsewhere boasts. So he has different views on Tamil. On those points we are at odds with Sir Periyar. We accept Sir Periyar’s principles of women liberation, abolition of untouchability, abolition of caste etc. We do not dispute and agree that Aya Periyar also fought against the evils in this society. But we do not accept the opinion of the Dravidians that only Periyar fought,” he explained.
“Sir Periyar, our grandfather Ayodthidasap Pandit has been his guide. He himself says that he learned communist thought from our grandfather Singharavelar. It cannot be denied that our Patnanars are his predecessors. But we are against the trend of completely erasing the identity of our Tamil forefathers and claiming only Periyar as a social reformer. There are innumerable movements to praise Sir Periyar. There are also many convenient parties. But we are not the ones to talk about the egos of our forefathers and celebrate their sacrifices. We, this generation of Tamil children, are doing that work,” he said.