It was the issue of representation for non-Brahmins in public employment and legislative bodies which eventually forced EVR to consider leaving the organisation.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

It is generally believed and recorded by several scholars that one of the prominent non-Brahmin leaders, E.V. Ramasamy (EVR), known as Periyar among his admirers and followers, left the Congress in November 1925 at the famous Kancheepuram conference. [In those days, his surname – Naicker – was mentioned in every news item that The Hindu carried about him]. But, contrary to this popular version, EVR did not leave the Congress at least for the next six or seven months, according to a perusal of news items published by this newspaper in the 1920s. The Hindu too had reported EVR’s protest at the meet, an incident of which had been captured even in the shoulder – “MR. E.V. RAMASWAMI NAICKER WALKS OUT” – of the news item, titled “THE TAMIL NADU CONFERENCE,” published on November 23, 1925.

Even Eugene F. Irschick, a historian from the U.S., who specialised in the origins and the early phase of the non-Brahmin or Dravidian movement, in his 1969 work – Politics and Social Conflict in South India – stated (pages 272-273) that Periyar had left the Congress “by the end of 1925.” However, 17 years later, when his another work – Tamil Revivalism in the 1930s – was published, the veteran historian changed the year of Periyar’s exit to 1927 (page 90).

Published – November 11, 2026 07:04 am IST