Thanthai Periyar: His Resolutions and Rights for the Emancipation of Women in Tamil Society

Abstract

Thanthai Periyar pushed for women's emancipation, expressing resolutions and rights for women and was regarded as both ahead of his time and controversial. From the outset of his public career, Thanthai Periyar prioritized women’s empowerment. With the exception of Tamilnadu, he was the only Indian reformer who, through his journals, challenged the conceptual basis of society's “enslavement of women” for the first time. He saw his diaries as effective vehicles for spreading his message to the Tamil community. From the beginning of his political career till his death at the age of seventy-four, his resolutions and rights were dedicated to the advancement of women. Women’s oppression has long been a chronic and deep–rooted ailment throughout the world, regardless of whether a country is classified as developed, developing, or undeveloped. In India, too, the situation of women has remained dissatisfactory. In India, many socio-religious reform movements arose in the early nineteenth century. There were campaigns for caste reform or abolition, equal rights for women, and a battle against social and legal disparities in the social domain. In this paper, an attempt is made to enlighten Thanthai Periyar’s resolutions and rights on women's emancipation struggled for the emancipation of women movements, widow remarriages, love marriages, self-respect marriages, education and employment, women rights, rights of women in house and society and property rights of women.

Keywords

• periyar
• self respect movement
• widow remarriage
• education
• property women rights
• tamil society