• ISBN13: 9789381345894
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: History
• Publisher: Bhatkal&Sen Pub
• Publisher Imprint: BhatkalSen
• Publication Date: December 10, 2023
• Pages: 572
• Original Price: INR 639.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: N/A

The revised edition with a new Afterword of the history of non-Brahmin assertion to Brahmin hegemony in the old Madras Presidency argues that this complex and layered past has to be critically re-claimed for our times. As an analytical study of the gestation of the movement, of its forebears like Iyothee Thass and his contemporaries, the book also provides an incisive discussion on the contributions of Periyar E. V. Ramasami, the path-breaking founder of the Self-Respect movement. The book offers a textured history of a crucial decade—the 1920s to the 1930s—which witnessed important attempts and achievements at building a historic bloc that knit together the interests of non-Brahmins and Dalits. It goes onto analyse the Justice Party, the first non-Brahmin political initiative in government, revealing its successes and significant limitations, and where the interests of the non-Brahmins and that of the Adi Dravidas diverged. The Self-Respect movement is discussed in detail, and translations from the writings of Periyar give readers in English a glimpse of his humour and scathing insights. The book demonstrates how the movement ‘conceptualized the relationship between caste, gender and sexuality’ and includes the wonderfully carnivalesque denunciations of caste, Brahmin priesthood and the nation by youthful Self Respecters