By documenting the details of 42 magazines run by Dalits, a new book, titled ‘Sooriyodhayam mudhal Udhayasooriyan varai - Dalit journals (1869 - 1943),’ has thrown light on the Dalit intellectual sphere, which thrived in the colonial period in Tamil Nadu, but has been largely ignored post-Independence.
The book, an extension of the doctoral research carried out by its author J. Balasubramaniam, an Assistant Professor with Department of Journalism and Science Communication in Madurai Kamaraj University, shows how the the Dalit intellectual tradition even acted in some aspects as a forerunner to the Dravidian politics, which gained traction in the State since early twentieth century.
“The existence of an intellectual tradition among Dalits had largely been denied with the dominance of the Congress-led nationalistic politics earlier and later, importantly, the Dravidian politics.
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They were instead predominantly seen as beneficiaries of these politics and denied agency of their own,” says Mr. Balasubramaniam. Though the names of only four or five Dalits-run magazines in the colonial period were heard in the academic circles, Mr. Balasubramaniam has managed to document details of 42 journals through primary and secondary sources.
Common themes
According to Mr. Balasubramaniam, the commonality among all these magazines was that almost all were against Swadeshi movement and caste, particularly Hinduism and Brahminism.
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For instance, the book elaborates on the campaign run by few Dalits-run magazines, importantly ‘Paraiyan’ run by Rettamalai Srinivasan, against the demand of Congress to conduct Indian Civil Services examination in India as well to increase the participation from Indians.