- Lived:
- 17 September 1879, Erode (Madras Presidency) → all of Tamil-speaking south India; died 24 December 1973, Vellore, at 94
- Field:
- social reform and rationalism — founder of the Self-Respect Movement and the Dravidar Kazhagam, patriarch of Dravidian politics
- The Big Idea:
- Dignity comes before God. If religion, scripture, custom or language ranks one human being born above another, then religion, scripture, custom and language must give way — and he spent fifty years making them give way in Tamil Nadu.
- In their words:
- “There is no god” — the opening of the credo now cast in metal on his statues
- If you remember one thing:
- A rich man’s son walked out of the freedom movement because children were fed in separate rows, declared war on caste, priesthood, God and Hindi all at once, refused power all his life — and still rewired an entire state so thoroughly that every government it has elected since 1967 claims descent from him.