Periyar, Women and an Ethic of Citizenship

Given the near-visionary resonance of Periyar's life work, it becomes somewhat difficult to separate his political and social legacy. But though his vision has been politicised, made to bear witness to a non-brahmin and, in some instances, a Tamil will to power, it, yet, resists a complete coaptation into politics. It intimates to the interlocutor of today an abiding ethic which is not at all explicable in terms of quotidian politics. It is this ethic which is the subject of this paper and an attempt is made to explore it for the lessons it may hold out for contemporary feminist debate and practice.