Madras High Court dismisses plea to remove inscriptions on Periyar statues

Source: thehindu.com

The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking the removal of all inscriptions below statues of Periyar across the State.

The petitioner, Dr. M. Deivanayagam, sought a direction from the High Court to the Chief Secretary to remove the inscription — “There is no God, no God, God doesn’t exist, one who created God is a fool, one who has propagated God is a scoundrel and one who prays to God are barbarians” (translated from Tamil by the petitioner), claiming that these were inscribed by the Dravidar Kazhagam after Periyar’s demise.

The petitioner submitted that Periyar had not advocated atheism and had always advocated self respect.

He contended that during his lifetime, Periyar had never uttered these words, inscribed below the statues, and it was the Dravidar Kazhagam, led by its president K. Veeramani, that had inscribed these lines. A division bench of Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad said it was of the view that it was an undisputed fact that Periyar, in all his speeches and publications, from 1928, had declared that “there is no God, God doesn’t exist, one who has created God is a fool”.

“The propogation of the philosophy of self respect, social reform, ending caste system, equal rights and Periyar’s vision to establish a society of brotherhood can be deciphered, and according to him, the belief in God was the sole reason for the inequalities in society. Speeches and expression, extracted supra, from 1928, makes it clear without an iota of hesitation that it was Periyar’s philosophy and ideology that became a self respect movement and later on, a party,” the bench said.

The bench held that the contention of the petitioner that everything was done by the Dravidar Kazhagam, only after the demise of Periyar, was contrary to facts and could not be accepted. “Periyar believed in what he said and there is nothing wrong in having his views inscribed in the statues,” the court said, pointing out that he was very much alive when his statue was unveiled.

“Whenever Periyar’s name is used, in general, people recognise him as a non-believer of God and as one who fought for social justice and self respect. These are facts generally accepted by the people,” the bench said.

The court, while dismissing the petition, held that the Dravidar Kazhagam had every right under the Constitution of India to fight for social justice, in eradicating inequality, right for upliftment of women and the downtrodden people, express views on religion and the existence of God and work towards eradicating inequality.