Malayapuram Singaravelu Chettiar - Chettiar and The Self-respect Movement

Chettiar and The Self-respect Movement

Chettiar felt that E.V. Ramasami Naicker's self-respect movement (that advocated for upliftment of low castes and opposing upper castes) and the communist movement should work together to save the Tamil labour forces from the clutches of both religious and economic exploiters. This appealed to Naicker and he published Chettiar's contributions in his magazine,Kudiyarasu. In 1931, Naicker undertook a journey to Soviet Russia and other European countries. On his return, he invited Chettiar to Erode for discussions. Naicker convened a meeting of the movement at his residence on 28–29 December 1932, and drew out what was called the Erode Plan. Naicker had taken a decision to support pro-British Justice Party and to oppose the Indian National Congress in the elections that followed. Unlike Congress, the Justice Party had agreed to implement a policy of appointments to government jobs in proportion to caste ratios, as demanded by the leaders of the self-respect movement.

Significance of Chettiar's association with the self-respect movement is brought out by Karthigesu Sivathamby, a prominent Tamil scholar from Sri Lanka who has closely studied the social movements in Madras province,

By this time the rationalist movement, through its association with the world socialist movement, was becoming more scientific. It was not merely rationalism in the Ingersolian sense. It was becoming more and more scientific... promotion of socialism, and so on. And this is seen in the immediate tie-up of M. Singaravelu Chettiar and Periyar .