Periyar at Oxford

When Periyar visited Singapore he was constantly followed by a woman along with her daughter. She wanted Periyar to bless her married daughter so she could have a child. To get her off his back, the great leader gave his blessing! This interesting snippet was shared by Darinee Alagirisamy, Senior lecturer, NUS during a two-day conference on Periyar at University of Oxford. 

The conference was organised by Prof Faisal Devji and Prof Jim Mallinson, which also saw Tamil Nadu chief minister M. K. Stalin give a special address. Stalin unveiled a portrait of Periyar which will be housed at the Asian Studies Centre, St Antony's College. In his speech he described Periyar as the "sun of rationalisation" and "champion of knowledge." "The unveiling of the portrait stands as a symbol that the flame of rationalism continues to spread across the world....To have Periyar's portrait unveiled here is a global honour."   

Scholars from around the world presented a rich variety of papers which looked at various aspects of the self-respect movement, Periyar and his legacy. The comparison with Ambedkar, WHAT IF he had aligned with the communists, Tamil Nadu as a counter to a strong Nehru-led centre, the culture of reading and visual medium, the memorialisation of Peiyar, and field work in Chennai, were just some of the topics which were touched upon.

Two books were launched by M K Stalin - Vignesh Rajahmani's The Dravidian Pathway and The Cambridge Companion to Periyar edited by A. R. Venkatachalapathy and Karthick Ram Manoharan. The conference ended on a keynote given by Arjun Appadurai.