who was the founder of self respect movement or non Brahman movement what were its measure argument
Dear Student,
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
178 As he believed the first alternative was impossible in his lifetime, he chose the second and founded a new organization.2 E.V.R. cut off from the Congress and gravitating towards the Justice, he was laying the foundation of a dynamic social movement that has come to be styled as the Self-Respect Movement. Self-Respect Movement was not a mere social reformist movement. It aimed at destroying the existing Hindu social order in its totality and creating a new, rational society without caste, religion and God. So it was considered a socially revolutionary movement which had been destroying and creating, i.e., creative destruction or creation through destruction.3Meaning of Self- RespectE.V.R had fully explained the meaning of Self-Respect and the reasons for its emergence. “The Self-Respect Movement was inaugurated not for talking ill of a particular community or sect, but to destroy the social evils as a whole”4 According to E.V.R even Brahma Samaj and Arya Samaj were established by the Brahmins only to safeguard their own self-respect. So the non-Brahmins, had a right to start counter associations to avoid those practices which were against their Self-Respect. Therefore he named his movement as “Self-Respect Movement”. It was later on interpreted that the Self-Respect Movement was started to lead the whole of humanity towards Self-Respect.
Regards