Tamil Nadu, the land of Cholas, of Kamban, of Thiruvalluvar, and of the great Adi Shankaracharya, has given India some of its brightest jewels. This soil has preserved Sanatan values for thousands of years. Yet today, when Chief Minister M.K. Stalin stands at Oxford University to present Tamil Nadu’s face to the world, who does he choose? Not Thiruvalluvar. Not Adi Shankara. Not Subramania Bharati. But Periyar an anti-Hindu agitator, a man who burned pictures of Shri Rama, desecrated Ganesha idols, and even sought a separate Dravidanadu with Jinnah. Friends, it’s time to expose the Periyar myth and reclaim Tamil Nadu’s true legacy.
Tamil Nadu’s True Civilizational Icons
Tamil Nadu has a glorious and unbroken civilizational history. From the majestic Chola dynasty that spread Sanatan Dharma across Southeast Asia, to saint-poets like Kamban who retold the Ramayana in Tamil, to Thiruvalluvar whose Thirukkural remains a moral compass, Tamil Nadu has always stood as a proud torchbearer of Hindu civilization. Above all, Adi Shankaracharya, born in nearby Kerala, revived Sanatan Dharma across Bharat, establishing Advaita Vedanta and uniting the nation with four mathas. This is the spiritual lineage of the South. This is the cultural heritage of Tamil Nadu. And yet, Stalin’s DMK ignores these shining icons and instead glorifies Periyar a man who stood against Hindu Dharma.
Periyar – The Idol Breaker, Not Reformer
Who was Periyar? Let us strip away the propaganda. Born E.V. Ramasamy, he styled himself as a rationalist, but his rationalism was selective it targeted only Hindu Dharma, never Islam, never Christianity. He called for the breaking of Ganesha idols, claiming that Hindu gods were shackles on the Tamil people. He burned pictures of Bhagwan Ram, branding the Ramayana as a war between Aryans and Dravidians. He celebrated August 15, 1947, as a day of mourning, because he wanted a separate Dravidanadu with support from Jinnah’s Muslim League. Friends, when India was celebrating independence, Periyar was mourning it. And this is the man DMK calls the father of modern Tamil Nadu?
The Dravidian Lies on Caste, Education & Reservation
The irony runs deeper. Today’s Dravidianists scream about caste oppression, claiming that Periyar liberated Tamil Nadu from caste. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Tamil Nadu already had reformers like Vaidyanatha Iyer and leaders like Muthuramalinga Thevar who fought for Dalits’ entry into temples. It was C. Rajagopalachari’s government that passed the Temple Entry Authorization Act in 1939. On July 8 of that year, Dalits entered the Madurai Meenakshi temple under Iyer, supported by Thevar. And what did Periyar do? He condemned it.
Similarly, Dravidian leaders claim credit for education. In reality, Kamarajar’s mid-day meals pulled children into schools, later expanded by MGR. Literacy was already high before DMK came to power. Even reservations predated DMK, with Shahu Maharaj’s policies in 1902 and national reforms in 1951. DMK only expanded quotas and then pretended history began in 1967.
Periyar, DMK & Congress – A Legacy of Betrayal
Even Nehru, no friend of Hindu revivalism, called Periyar a lunatic. In a 1957 letter to Kamaraj, Nehru said his hate-filled anti-Brahmin rants were fit only for a criminal or a lunatic. Yet Stalin glorifies him at Oxford, and Congress bows before DMK today. This hypocrisy exposes how Dravidian politics thrives on division and betrayal. The Aryan vs Dravidian narrative itself was a colonial conspiracy, spread by missionaries like Caldwell and Pope. Tamil Nadu was never separate from Bharat’s civilizational unity. It was always a shining jewel of Sanatan Dharma.
Reclaiming Tamil Nadu’s Legacy
So let us be clear. Periyar is not the father of modern Tamil Nadu. He is the father of hate politics in Tamil Nadu. He did not liberate society he fractured it. He did not uplift Dalits he mocked them. He did not bring progress he poisoned minds. Tamil Nadu’s real glory comes from its saints, poets, kings, and acharyas—not from a man who spat venom against Hindu gods and sought to break India.
It is time to stop glorifying Periyar and the Dravidian ecosystem. Tamil Nadu’s identity is not Periyar it is Adi Shankaracharya, it is Thiruvalluvar, it is Kamban, it is Subramania Bharati, it is the great Cholas who spread Dharma across oceans. Periyar represents only hatred, but Sanatan icons represent eternal truth. As dharmic nationalists, it is our duty to reclaim Tamil Nadu’s true legacy from the lies of DMK and the Dravidian lobby. Let us celebrate the heroes who built our civilization, not those who tried to burn it down.