For Periyar’s anniversary, now celebrated as Social Justice Day in Tamil Nadu, I have compiled an academic (all in English) reading list on Periyar. The list will be updated as and when I come across more relevant material.
Aloysius, G. 2016. Periyar on Category-wise Rights. New Delhi: Critical Quest.
Aloysius, G. 2019. Periyar and Modernity. New Delhi: Critical Quest.
Anandhi, S. 1991. “Women’s Question in the Dravidian Movement c. 1925-1948.” Social Scientist, Vol. 19, No. 5/6: 24-41.
Anandhi, S., Karthick Ram Manoharan, M. Vijayabaskar, A. Kalaiyarasan. (Eds) 2020. Rethinking Social Justice. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan.
Barnett, Marguerite Ross. 1976. The Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bate, Bernard. 2009. Tamil Oratory and the Dravidian Aesthetic. New York: Columbia University Press.
Baxter, Matthew H. 2019. “Two Concepts of Conversion at Meenakshipuram: Seeing through Ambedkar’s Buddhism and Being Seen in EVR’s Islam.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Vol. 39, No. 2: 264-281.
Chatterjee, Debi. 2022. “Periyar E.V. Ramasamy.” In Revisiting Modern Indian Thought: Themes and Perspectives. Edited by Suratha Kumar Malik and Ankit Tomar. Oxon and New York: Routledge. 96-109.
Diehl, Anita. 1978. Periyar E.V. Ramaswami: A Study of the Influence of a Personality in Contemporary South India. New Delhi: B.I. Publications.
Eswaran, Swarnavel. 2017. “Periyar as a Biopic: Star Persona, Historical Events, and Politics.” Biography, Volume 40, Number 1: 93-115.
Ganeshwar. 2022. “Periyar’s Spatial Thought: Region as Non-Brahmin Discursive Space.” CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, 3(1), 89-106. In special issue on Freedom from Caste: Anti-caste Thought, Politics and Culture. Eds. Meena Dhanda and Karthick Ram Manoharan. https://doi.org/10.26812/caste.v3i1.358
Geetha, V. and S.V. Rajadurai. 2008. Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar. Second Edition. Kolkata: Samya.
Geetha, V. 1998. “Periyar, Women and an Ethic of Citizenship.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 17: WS9-WS15.
Hardgrave, Robert L. 1965. “The DMK and the Politics of Tamil Nationalism.” Pacific Affairs, Vol. 37, No. 4: 396-411.
Hardgrave, Robert L. 2022. The Dravidian Movement. Oxon and New York: Routledge. (First published in 1965 by Bombay Popular Prakashan)
Hodges, Sarah. 2005. “Revolutionary family life and the Self Respect movement in Tamil south India, 1926–49.” Contributions to Indian Sociology. 39: 251-277.
Kalaiyarasan, A. and M. Vijayabaskar. 2021. The Dravidian Model: Interpreting the Political Economy of Tamil Nadu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Karthik, KR Vignesh, and Vishal Vasanthakumar. 2022. “Caste, then Class: Redistribution and Representation in the Dravidian Model.” CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, 3(1), 107-122. In special issue on Freedom from Caste: Anti-caste Thought, Politics and Culture. Eds. Meena Dhanda and Karthick Ram Manoharan. https://doi.org/10.26812/caste.v3i1.348
Krishnan, Rajan Kurai and Ravindran Sriramachandran. 2018. (Eds) Seminar. 708: Special Issue on Dravidianism. https://www.india-seminar.com/2018/708.htm
Krishnan, Rajan Kurai, Ravindran Sriramachandran, and VMS Subagunarajan. 2022. Rule of the Commoner: DMK and Formations of the Political in Tamil Nadu, 1949–1967. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. 2022. “Sudras and the Nation: Periyarist Explorations.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 57, Issue No 44-45. https://www.epw.in/engage/article/sudras-and-nation-periyarist-explorations
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. 2022. Periyar: A Study in Political Atheism. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. 2021. “Radical freedom: Periyar and Women.” Open Research Europe, 1:6. https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13131.1
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. 2020. “In the Path of Ambedkar: Periyar and the Dalit Question.” South Asian History and Culture, 11:2. 136-149.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. 2020. “Freedom from God: Periyar and Religion.” Religions, 11(1): 10. In special issue on Dalits and Religion: Ambiguity, Tension, Diversity and Vitality. Eds. Cosimo Zene and Meena Dhanda. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11010010
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. 2020. “An Ethic beyond Anti-Colonialism: A Periyarist Engagement with Fanonism.” In Rethinking Social Justice. Eds. S. Anandhi et al. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan. 159-178.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. 2016. “‘Anti-Casteist Casteism?’ A Fanonist Critique of Ramasamy’s Discourse on Caste.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. 19 (1): 73-90.
Pandian, M. S. S. 1993. “‘Denationalising’ the Past: ‘Nation’ in E V Ramasamy’s Political Discourse.” Economic and Political Weekly, 28, no. 42: 2282–2287.
Pandian, M.S.S. 2007. Brahmin and Non-Brahmin: Genealogies of the Tamil Political Present. Ranikhet: Permanent Black.
Pandian, M.S.S. 2009. “Nation Impossible.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 44, No. 10: 65-69.
Ram, Mohan. 1974. “Ramaswami Naicker and the Dravidian Movement.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 9, No. 6/8: 217+219+221-224.
Richman, Paula. 1995. “Epic and State: Contesting Interpretations of the Ramayana.” Public Culture 7: 631–54.
Richman, Paula. 1991. “E. V. Ramasami’s Reading of the Ramayana.” In Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Edited by Paula Richman. Berkeley and LA: University of California Press. 175-195.
Stroud, Scott R. 2023. “Revealing the Complexities of Periyar.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol lViii no 29: 38-40.
Valan, Antony Arul. 2022. “Pariyerum Perumal and a Periyarite Note on Political Engagement.” CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, 3(1), 171-188. In special issue on Freedom from Caste: Anti-caste Thought, Politics and Culture. Eds. Meena Dhanda and Karthick Ram Manoharan. https://doi.org/10.26812/caste.v3i1.355
Venkatachalapathy, A.R. 2017. “From Erode to Volga: Periyar EVR’s Soviet and European Tour, 1932.” In India and the World in the First Half of the Twentieth Century. Edited by Madhavan K. Palat. London and New York: Routledge. 102-133.
Venkatachalapathy, A. R. 2020. “Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. 28 February. https://oxfordre.com/asianhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-340
Venkatachalapathy, A. R. 2021. “Against the Hustings: Periyar, Elections, and Democracy.” In Crisis of Liberal Deliberation: Facets of Indian Democracy. Edited by Manas Ray. Delhi: Primus Books. 64-79.
Visswanathan, E. Sa. 1983. The Political Career of E.V. Ramasamy Naicker: A Study in the Politics of Tamil Nadu, 1920-1949. Madras: Ravi & Vasanth.
The Periyar Project 