"Periyar Movement: Selfrespect Movement in India" At the Inauguration of the Periyar Centre, New DelhiLevi Fragell, 1 October 2000My first visit to Chennai, then called Madras, happened exactly ten years ago. I had heard about a humanist organisation called the Periyar movement, or the Selfrespect-movement, and as one of the leaders of the International Humanist and Ethical Union I had a responsibility to contact likeminded groups around the world and get them to join our union.

And let me tell you that I am proud of the outcome of my efforts in Chennai. The Selfrespecters became members of the international humanist family. They are by far the largest rationalist organisation in our world union, and I am glad to convey greetings to this assembly from more than 100 sister-organisations on all the continents of the globe and from our secretary general in London, Babu Gogineni, who is an Indian himself.

Many of these 100 organisations are rather small and modest. You may think that humanist groups in the West are big and play important roles in public life. You may have read books by Bertrand Russell and Carl Sagan and think that humanism and rationalism in the West are the leading and most highly praised ideas in modern and developed societies.On the contrary, the Roman and Ortodox catholic churches have taken over for Socialism and Communism in the former East Block, and in the United States the presidents go regularly to prayer meetings and make sure that the TV cameras focus on the bibles they carry in their hands on their way to church on the Sunday mornings.

The fact is that a Rationalist, a Secularist or an outspoken Humanist will have severe problems to reach a leading  political position in most of the Western countries.

My visit to Chennai 10 years ago was therefore one of the most stunning surprises of my life. On my way from the airport in a taxi I suddenly realised that we were driving in a street called Periyar High Road, but  I thought ... it cannot be – it is of course impossible that this high road has any thing to do with the local humanists!

But suddenly we passed a statue, where I could read the name Periyar, and a few minutes thereafter I had to ask myself if I had reached the paradise of rationalism, if it really could be possible that the selfrespect-movement of Tamil Nadu could run more than 40 institutions for education, health and rationalist culture – including a daily rationalist newspaper, absolutely unheard of any other place in the world. And even if I am the international president for organised humanists, one thing is for sure: my picture will never be printed on a postage stamp, like the one of the great Periyar.

During my stay back in 1990 I visited the leader, Mr. Veeramani, in his residence. On the coffee table lay the international bestseller by V.S. Naipaul, called India – a million mutinies now. With the best reason Mr. Veeramani was eager to show me that 70 pages in the book were about Periyar and the Selfrespect movement. Generously Mr. Veeramani presented me this book, his own copy – with a dedication, and with his own underlinings all through. During these 10 years I have taken good care of the book, and I have proudly shown it to my friends – pointing at Mr. Veeramani`s underlinings and said: See what the humanist movement has obtained in India!

Today – when I so many times have turned the pages in this book, I want to give it back to Mr. Veeramani, to keep it in the library of this new centre. Not because I doubt that you can buy a brand new copy in a Delhi bookstore, but because it contains Mr. Veeramani`s personal and thoughtful underlinings, and because it symbolises the first meeting between the Self-respect movement in India and the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

When the Selfrespect Movement in India now extends its field of operation from Chennai to Delhi, it  means that the struggle for selfrespect – for liberation of the suppressed masses – is not a a particular South Indian cause, but a responsibility for humanists in all corners of the country. At the same time it strengthens the international impact of the movement, coming closer to important political arenas, diplomatic delegations, media networks etc. New bridges will be built to groups in many countries, as well as to the headquarters of the International Humanist and Ethical Union in London, where we like you are fighting for social  justice on all continents.

In India this means that we extend our solidarity to the Dalits and other so called backward castes who are victims of Hindu society. In fact working with other groups and using its NGO Consultative Status at the UN, our London office lobbied  with the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson, to include the question of Dalits at the forth-coming World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. I am pleased to inform you that Mary Robinson agreed to include this in the agenda of the World Conference: in South Africa the humanists will organise a parallel NGO Seminar on Dalits and related issues. I hope you will be there.

I realise that the Selfrespect movement is active in many sectors of cultural and social life, and one may ask what it is that makes this organisation also a humanist movement.

There are three overlapping grounds between the Selfrespect movement and international Humanism. The first common ground is Rationalism, which in practise means to reject superstition and supernaturalism as well as promoting  reason, education and science. In the West as well and in the East it seems to be an eternal  necessity for humanists to stand up against the dark forces of irrationalism, lately exemplified by the socalled New Age movement.

Second: we struggle in the same fight for equality. Equality between sexes, races, cultures, individuals and emotional preferences. What the Periyar movement has meant in this struggle in large parts of India stands out in historic uniqeness. Internationally humanists are on the same barricades, and I am sorry to say that the adversary through centuries often has been the religious leadership.

The third overlapping point is the common belief in Man – the Human individual – so eloquently phrased by Periyar in the expression Selfrespect. This is the core of Humanism, the idea that you and I have the privilege to respect ourselves, not to accept that any authority – neither a god nor a ruler – has the right to attach less value to one individual than to another.

One of Periyar's sayings goes like this: ”Man must remove by himself his feeling of inferiority, the feeling that he is lesser born than other beeings, and attain selfconfidence and selfrespect.”

I agree fully with Periyar, and I cannot think of any other attitude that is more important as a starting point for  humanism than selfrespect. We could twist another saying a little, and say that respect for human beings begins at home. Begins with myself.

These three principles also unite all the other Indian organisations which belong to the world union of humanists – and I am glad that some of the leaders of these groups also are present here today.

I want to conclude my speech by reading a paragraph from Naipaul`s famous book on India, page 237, and I want to make his words mine:

”Until this trip to Madras (Naipaul writes) Periyar had been barely a name to me, and I had never heard of Mr. Veeramani. But for 40 years Mr. Veeramani had been at the centre of an immense local revolution, which, with all the economic and intellectual growth that had come to independent India, had taken on the characteristics of a little war; and so far Mr. Veeramani had been on the winning side.”

And let me add on my own behalf: The war for social justice is not over, the war for the dignity of man, for liberty, equality and brotherhood  must still be fought every day by every humanist – in every corner of the world. The Periyar centre in Delhi is a new stronghold in the international war against degradation, suppression and exploitation of fellow human beings, and Mr. Veeramani and all selfrespecters of India are still on the winning side.

I hereby have the immense pleasure and honour to declare this fortresss for humanism for opened.