“The Revolutionary Sayings of Periyar"   Decide for Yourselves Decide for yourselves as to what you should think of those who say there is God, that, He is a the Preserver of Justice on that, He is the Protector of All, even after seeing that the practice of Untouchability in the form of man being banned from human sight and contac, from walking into the streets, from entering the temples and drawing water from a tank, is rampant in the land and yet that land is spared from being razed by an earthquake, burnt by the fiery lava of a volcano, engulfed in a deluge from the ocean, submerged in the chasm of the earth, or fragmented by thunder-storm. Rationalism Man is considered superior to other beings in this world, because he has limitless capacity for knowledge, People in other lands have advanced greatly, utilizing this knowledge. But our countrymen owing to lack of use of this knowledge, are abjectly deteriorating. Stating that ours is a land of enlightenment, we build tanks and temples; in other lands, men fly in space and amaze the whole world. Self Respect We are fit to think of ‘Self-Respect’ only when the notion of superior and inferior caste is banished from our land. The aim of genuine Self-respect movement is to change whatever appears to be adverse to man’s feelings of self-respect. Man must remove by himself his feelings of inferiority, the feeling that he is lesser born than other beings, and attain self confidence and self-respect. Social reform To discard what is unwanted, and to retain what is needed, is what reform means. Social reform cannot stand apart from politics, nor can politics stand apart from social reform. Every political activity is only for social good. Constitutional law and defence are made only for society and in accordance with social good. The present social set-up should be destroyed as its very base, and a new social order, free from caste and class, should be created. Whomsoever I love and hate, my principle is the same. That is, the educated, the rich and the administrators should not suck the blood of the poor. The proper task of social reform is to remove poverty from society and to ensure that people do not sell their conscience to make a living. Science Look at the enormous change in our life today. We struck flints to make a fire, but now, the pressing of a button makes a thousand electric lights burn. Our people understanding, despite so much change in life, remains just as it was a thousand years ago!. Education Only education, self-respect and rational qualities will uplift the down-trodden. It is dangerous for people to support scriptural pundits as using burning stick to scratch an itching scalp; they have no alternative means of livelihood; and therefore we should be ever watchful in out contact with these pundits. Students should not waste their Scholl life, as it is very, very precious. Their mind should not be distracted by any event out side. The Tirukural People praise the tirukural but in practice they cheris the Gita which is directly opposed to it ! Those who study the kural deeply will certainly attain a consciousness of self-respect. Knowledge of politics and knowledge of economics are all embedded in it. It is better to read ten kurals for knowledge, than a hundred songs of Kamba Ramayana or two hundred songs of Periyarpurana, or Kanda Purana. Womens Rights Man treats woman as his own property and not as being capable of feelings, like himself. The way man treats women is much worse than the way landlords treat servants and the high-caste treat the low-caste. These treat them so demeaningly only in situations mutually affecting them; but men treat cruelly and as slaves, from their birth till death. Women in India experience much worse suffering, humiliation and slavery in all spheres than even the untouchables. To give man freedom of sexual selection, and to permit him to take as many wives as he like, gives rise to promiscuity. Politics Members of the Assembly should consider the Government as a structure for social good, and as a true spokesman and representative of the people, and not as a means for power, or occupying positions of honor.