The Tamil Nadu govt’s decision to use the Tamil letter ‘roo’ instead of ‘`’ as the rupee symbol has not only sparked controversy within the state and at the Centre, but it has also thrust E V R Periyar back into the spotlight. Following Stalin’s March 13 announcement, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, addressing Parliament, accused the DMK of hypocrisy for venerating Periyar “who called the Tamil language barbaric,” while DMK leaders, including MP Kanimozhi, fought back with an explanation of the context behind the social reformer’s remark.
It has become a pattern for anti-Periyar groups to selectively highlight Periyar’s criticism whenever debates on issues such as the three-language policy crop up. While it is true that Periyar made such a statement, the context and reasoning behind it are often overlooked or misunderstood. Periyar believed that if a language “wields god-like status,” it means it “needs reform.” Though Periyar criticised Tamil, he continued to write and converse in it and even worked to improve it. Citing Tamil’s insufficiencies, Periyar advocated the adoption of English while admitting he was not a scholar in either language. He also proposed several reforms to the Tamil script and vocabulary, implementing them in ‘Kudi Arasu,’ the magazine he founded in May 1925.
Tamil scholars initially derided his attempts, but over time, mainstream Tamil media adopted his reforms. Media scholar Robin Jeffrey said in 1997 that successful newspapers in Tamil Nadu from the 1940s emerged from different strata of society, adopting new styles and techniques to draw in readers. One of the styles non-brahmin periodicals adopted was doing away with Sanskritised Tamil conversations. The anti-brahmin movement of the 1920s encouraged people from non-brahmin communities to launch publications, which shook up the vernacular journalism scene dominated by brahmins. Among the earliest of the non-brahminical magazines was ‘Kudi Arasu,’ which published articles on a range of topics, including atheism. Despite its impact, the magazine met with a premature end in 1949.
However, Periyar’s articles in the magazine were later compiled into books, many of which became bestsellers. “At the time, Tamil periodicals had Sanskritised names such as ‘Desopakari,’ ‘Desabhimani,’ ‘Jananukulan,’ ‘Sudesabhimani,’ and ‘Swadesamithran,’ as they were run by brahmins. It was in this context that Periyar launched ‘Kudi Arasu’ (Tamil for ‘Republic’), a magazine that truly represented Tamils,” says K Ravi Bharathi, orator and member of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, a social movement and splinter group of Periyar’s Dravidar Kazhagam. “When ‘Kudi Arasu’ was launched, ‘Swadesamithran,’ the first Tamil daily, lost 2,000 readers to it.”
‘Kudi Arasu’ was published as a weekly from 1925 to 1949, with a two-year hiatus between 1933 and 1935 due to British censorship. Though there were magazines before it that touched upon progressive ideas, ‘Kudi Arasu’ is considered the pioneering magazine of the Dravidian movement, as it was the first to popularise the concept of social justice. Periyar began talking about Tamil alphabet reforms in 1934. After ‘Kudi Arasu’ was suspended in 1933, he founded ‘Pagutharivu,’ the magazine where he introduced suggestions for Tamil script reforms. When ‘Kudi Arasu’ was revived in 1935, Periyar implemented these changes, beginning with the issue dated January 13.
Periyar focused on the shapes of graphemes (the smallest meaningful unit in a writing system), which made Tamil script easier to write, type, and print, says S V Shanmugam, professor at the Centre of Advanced Study in Linguistics, Annamalai University, in his book ‘Aspects of Language Development in Tamil.’ “Though the reform is oriented towards mechanical efficiency, it also increases pedagogical efficiency.”
In 1936, Periyar spoke about these reforms at Kumbakonam Govt College and Chennai’s Pachaiyappa’s College, in his lectures ‘Language’ and ‘Letter.’ Periyar said the Tamil vowels ‘Ai’ and ‘Au’ ought to be removed since they were used as diphthongs (a single-syllable sound formed by combining two vowel sounds). The Tamil script has 247 letters, of which he felt 38 were redundant. “We can talk, write, and read any word without these 38 letters. And it would not change the pronunciation or meaning,” said Periyar. Instead, he introduced 13 restructured Tamil letters in ‘Kudi Arasu.’ In 1978, Periyar’s birth centenary, the Tamil Nadu govt issued an order stating that his set of 13 letters would be officially adopted. The change was immediately implemented in the Tamil daily ‘Dinamani.’
“In March 1995, the state govt allowed changes in the Tamil typewriter keyboard,” writes V C Kulandaiswamy, former vice-chancellor, Anna University, in his book ‘Tamil Ezhuthu Seeramaipu.’ “Back then, the symbols for addition, multiplication, division, equal to, semicolon, and colon were not found in the Tamil typewriter, because of space constraints. With Periyar’s changes, these symbols were added, and the changes implemented in 1997.”
Though the administration and public slowly accepted the changes, academicians were reluctant, worrying that the elimination of letters such as ‘ai’ and ‘au’ would make it difficult for future generations to read ancient Tamil texts. As a result, these letters are still taught in schools. “Periyar’s suggestions will make it easier to teach children the language,” says teacher Tamil Aasaan. “There is more in the language that can be reformed. I say this as a teacher and lifelong student of Tamil,” says Aasaan, who prefixed Tamil to his name because of his passion for the language.
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