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Today in this article, we will see some of the Best Periyar Quotes, but before that, we will see a quick peek at Periyar’s life and what works he did for society.
Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, was a famous Indian social activist who started many movements like the self-respect movement, Dravidar Kazhagam, etc. He also protested and fought against the Brahmanical dominance and gender inequality in Tamil Nadu.
Periyar joined Indian National Congress but resigned after a few years because he felt that INC supported the Brahmins. He also participated in the Satyagraha in Vaikom, Travancore. From 1929 to 1932, Periyar visited British Malaya, Europe, and the Soviet Union. This tour influenced him a lot and played a significant role in his life.
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Periyar fought for the rights of non-brahmins, women’s rights, social equality, and more such things. He was one of the well-known social activists in India.
Today we will see some of the Best Quotes.
Best Periyar Quotes
- “I am one who has been ostracized by politics and religion. I have suffered pain and privation, sacrificed my self-esteem, and rejected a place in the ministry.” ― Periyar
- “You cannot expect any rational thought from a religious man. He is like a rocking log in the water.” ― Periyar
- “Foreigners are sending messages to the planets. We are sending rice and cereals to our dead forefathers through the Brahmins. Is it a wise deed?” ― Periyar
- “Any opposition not based on rationalism or science or experience will take one day or other to reveal the fraud, selfishness, lies, and conspiracies.” ― Periyar
- “By helping the poor, we must be able to remove their poverty. But extending help to one here and one there in providing food will not remove poverty.” ― Periyar
- “Everyone has the right to refuse any opinion. But no one has the right to prevent its expression.” ― Periyar
- “Till the end of my life, I shall never canvas for a vote. I shall not even expect a word of praise from any quarter.” ― Periyar
- “I devote myself to service only for the reason that our people should gain knowledge and live on a par with the people of the world.” ― Periyar
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Periyar Quotes in English
- “A male has the right to wander about as he pleases. He has the right to marry any number of girls. This practice has led to prostitution.” ― Periyar
- “Village reform is not merely cleaning the roads, constructing schools, and worshiping monasteries. It is not a mere celebration of festivals.” ― Periyar
- “Money lending is a horrible profession. If we are to call it otherwise, it is lawful plundering.” ― Periyar
- “As long as we give room for domination and the dominators, there will be worries and worried people. Poverty and pestilence will live eternally in the country.” ― Periyar
- “The number of those who do selfless public service and those who serve without expecting any return should increase. Their sterling qualities should show the way to the people at large. Their life would be a model to show how a man should conduct himself in public life.” ― Periyar
- “I am a plain person. I have merely spoken out my mind. I do not say you should believe what I have said because it alone is certain. Accept such ideas as can be accepted, with the help of your reason, after a sound inquiry. Reject the rest.” ― Periyar
- “In other lands, knowledge alone is respected and trusted and held as the basis of everything, but in this country, men believe only in rituals and ceremonies, in God, in religion, and such other rubbish.” ― Periyar
- “Our thoughts of the literary renaissance should always center themselves on the removal of superstition, meanness, indignity, and ignorance.” ― Periyar
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Periyar Quotes About God
- “It is absurd to quote religion or God or religious doctrines to render the people as the lowest castes.” ― Periyar
- “There is no god; there is no god, and there is no god at all. He who invented God is a fool. He who propagates God is a scoundrel. He who worships God is a barbarian.” ― Periyar
- “I want to say a word to the Brahmins, “In the name of God, religion, sastras, you have duped us. We were the ruling people. Stop this life of cheating us from this year. Give room for rationalism and humanism.” ― Periyar
- “I want the Brahmins to realize that the Dravidian people today very much hate those who cunningly cheated them with absurdities. They are now aware of the particular community making a living by spreading foolishness. People have begun to hate God, religion, caste, mythologies (puranas) and so on.” ― Periyar
- “In the Kural, there is a chapter on the invocation to God. But there is no place in it for the principle of idol worship.” ― Periyar
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Inspirational Periyar Quotes in English
- “I have no (political) heirs. My principles and ideas are my heirs. My principles and ideas are my heirs. Heirs should evolve on their own.” ― Periyar
- “Wisdom lies in thinking. The spearhead of thinking is rationalism.” ― Periyar
- “Those who still believe the Brahmins should take a serious note of the changing times and start leading an awakened life.” ― Periyar
- “Politics does not concern itself with who should rule us. It is about what kind of rule people should have.” ― Periyar
- “Religious devotion is for the individual. Character is for everyone. There is no loss if there is no devotion. Everything is lost if there is no character.” ― Periyar
- “Even if I were to live in a place where I would have to experience much worse sufferings than those of hellish life, I would consider it a pleasanter life than this mean, caste-ridden existence if only I were respected as a man there.” ― Periyar
- “To discard what is unwanted, and to retain what is needed, is what reform means.” ― Periyar
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Periyar Quotes About Love
- “Marriages should culminate on account of the wishes of the couple. It is their knitting of the hearts that should lead to marriages.” ― Periyar
- “Whomsoever I love and hate, my principle is the same. That is, the educated, the rich, and the administrators should not suck the blood of the poor.” ― Periyar
Confidence Periyar Quotes
- “There is no use of simply acquiring titles or amassing wealth if one has no self-respect and scientific knowledge.” ― Periyar
- “Wisdom lies in thinking. The spearhead of thinking is rationalism.” ― Periyar
- “Only education, self-respect, and rational qualities will uplift the down-trodden.” ― Periyar
- “I am one who lives just to see that the whole world is suffused with atheistic rationality.” ― Periyar
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Periyar Feminism Quotes
- “Man treats woman as his own property and not as being capable of feelings, like himself. The way a man treats women is much worse than the way landlords treat servants, and the high-caste treat the low-caste. These treat them so demeaningly only in situations mutually affecting them, but men treat them cruelly and as slaves, from their birth till death.” ― Periyar
- “A male has the right to wander about as he pleases. He has the right to marry any number of girls. This practice has led to prostitution.” ― Periyar
- “Because our ladies mostly attend Kalatshepams (Religious discourses), they have fallen prey to the superstitions, blind beliefs, and immorality of the false and fictitious propaganda of the Brahmins.” ― Periyar
