Periyar

Mr.E.V.Ramasamis comment on Tamil as a "language of barbarians" haunted him later in life. He was a strong proponent of embracing English as the global language and dropping Tamil from academics. To this day, his followers choose to ignore discussions on this topic.

He declared Indian independence as a day of slavery and declared it as a day of mourning. He fought for the separation of Tamil areas of India and Sri Lanka and for the human rights of the oppressed Tamil diaspora. He backed colonial rule and attempted to forge an alliance with both Ambedkar and Jinnah.

Early in his political life, Mr.E.V.Ramasami had derided Tirukkural and an anachronism and a tool for Aryan aggrandisement. At a later point, he embraced it as the true guide and insisted it was a common guide for all religions. When prominent Muslims spoke out and commented that a man-made work, Tirukkural can never equal God-given verses (Quran), Mr.E.V.Ramasami and his rationalist thought observed silence.

Mr.E.V.Ramasami created an anti-Brahmin movement in India. Tamil Brahmins (Iyers and Iyengars) were frequently held responsible by followers of Mr.E.V.Ramasami for direct or indirect oppression of lower-caste people on the canard of "Brahmin oppression" and resulted in innumerable hate attacks on Brahmins and which among other reasons started a wave of forced mass-migration of the Brahmin population. Mr.E.V.Ramasami is alleged to have called for "Brahmin killings and burning down Brahmin homes. Later, in regards to a DK member's attempt to assassinate Rajagopalachari, he "expressed his abhorrence of violence as a means of settling political differences. The canard of "Brahmin oppression" rationalized conspiracy theories and pointed to Brahmins as enemies against whom the radical movements pitted themselves. The legacy of the anti-Brahmanism of the self-respect movement was taken over by the later Dravidian parties. Growing anti-Brahmanism in Chennai provided a rationale for polarization of the lower castes in the DMK movement. Eventually, the virulent anti-Brahmanism subsided somewhat with the replacement of the DMK party by the AIADMK.

Mr.E.V.Ramasamis followers have broken temple icons, cut sacred threads and tufts from Brahmin priests, and have often portrayed Brahmins in the most derogatory manner in their meetings and magazines

Gandhi did not like his views as he wanted to bring in reforms gradually and spoke of inclusion, not exclusion and hate; Mr.E.V.Ramasami bolted away from the freedom movement.