Representing the Caste-oppressed: Exploring Rettaimalai Srinivasan’s Anti-caste Endeavours in the Tamil Public Space

Abstract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century colonial India, at a time when the high caste nationalists created a political imagery of Indians, as equals striving for a free India, there arose an anti-caste narrative that brought forth experiences of caste discrimination, throwing light on an Indian socio-polity that was unequal for the caste-oppressed. One such important voice, that emerged despite the marginalising conditions of those times, was that of the lesser-known, yet a powerful one—Rettaimalai Srinivasan (1860–1945) from the colonial Madras province (present Tamil Nadu). His autobiography Jeeviya Charittira Surukkam is a seminal work in describing his role as a political leader and civil rights legislator in representing the demands of the caste- oppressed. By viewing the untouchability/caste question from the political perspective, Srinivasan used the platform of political representation to debate on and frame legislations affecting civil liberties for the caste-oppressed, therein envisioning a Tamil public space that was free of oppressive caste practices. The efforts of Rettaimalai Srinivasan bear testimony to the power of education, law and political representation in bringing forth anti-caste articulations into the public arena, pointing to a scenario where the caste-oppressed leaders were makers of their own history and of how their assertions were crucial in equalising the Tamil public space. In representing the cause of the caste-oppressed, Srinivasan draws attention to their non-caste/casteless culture history and politicises it to demand a humane society for the caste-oppressed. This article is thus an attempt to survey the anti-caste endeavours of Rettaimalai Srinivasan in the colonial Tamil region.