Iyothee Thass and his emancipatory vision to create a casteless society

A renowned practitioner of Siddha medicine, he was also a thinker of great originality, writer, activist and polyglot; He had sensed the importance of the Census process early and demanded that the British register the depressed classes as ‘Poorva Tamizhar’

The unveiling of Pandit C. Iyothee Thass’s statue earlier this month in Chennai by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin provided an opportunity for the wider public to know about this anti-caste leader,

His distinctive vision for dismantling caste remained relegated to the margins until his writings were rediscovered and popularised in the 1990s. Thass (1845-1914) was a multifaceted personality. A renowned practitioner of Siddha medicine, he was a thinker of great originality, writer, activist and a polyglot, well-versed in English, Pali, and Sanskrit besides Tamil. Through extensive and hermeneutic reading of religious and literary texts, – which were being rediscovered and published around that period – along with a keen observation of cultural practices, he articulated an alternative history.

According to him, it was the defeat of Buddhism in India by the connivance of Brahminical forces that led to the ascriptive caste system and degradation of status of certain communities, particularly the Tamil-speaking Paraiyar community, who he said were the ‘Poorva Tamizhar (original Tamils)’ and casteless Buddhists in the ancient period.

While Thass made significant contributions, both at the intellectual and political sphere, through his activism and writings, his interventions on how Census should classify Dalits is worth recollecting now, especially against the backdrop of the recent discussions around caste-based Census.

With the benefit of hindsight, historians in the later years have explained the role of the decennial Census commenced by the British in 1872 in influencing how caste played out in Indian politics in the later years. Thass seemed to have sensed the importance of caste-based enumeration in the Census back then.

Writer and historian Stalin Rajangam, who has written three books on Thass, said the anti-caste leader was not just aware of the importance of Census, but was cognisant of the churning happening in that period with many caste groups using different platforms to establish their places in the power centres. A key platform was the then emergent print technology, which was used by certain communities to place themselves above others in the caste hierarchy by rewriting history, he said.

Myths about Tiruvalluvar

For instance, in their 1993 essay Dalits and Non-Brahmin Consciousness in Colonial Tamil Nadu, V. Geetha and S.V. Rajadurai, who subsequently published the book Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium - from Iyothee Thass to Periyar, point out how Thass cited several sources to argue myths about Tiruvalluvar being born to a Brahmin father were created or his birth was linked to puranas because of “interpolation by partisan Brahmin and caste Hindu scholars” in the 19th century. He said earlier texts did not have any such references.

One of his earliest interventions seemed to be the demand to the British during the 1881 Census, through the ‘Dravida Mahajana Sangam’ he had founded that year, to henceforth refer to the ‘Depressed Classes,’ particularly the Paraiyar community, as ‘Poorva Tamizhar’. According to Mr. Rajangam, while Thass mentions this demand in his later writings, there are no records to assess the importance given by the British to this demand.

In 1898, he formally embraced Buddhism and later formed the South India Sakya Buddhist Society. It was during the 1911 Census that he made strong interventions, as part of the Society, to demand the British not to treat Buddhists as Hindus. He insisted that Census officials should not ask for the castes of those who identify as Buddhists and just record them as ‘Indian Buddhists’. Mr. Rajangam, who has written an essay on this, says the Tamilan magazine that was run by Thass, which enjoyed wide readership in that period, continuously carried announcements in 1910-1911, asking Buddhists to say that they were casteless even if officials persistently asked what their caste was before embracing Buddhism. Activities of the Society find a mention even in the 1911 Census Report of the British. It said: “One of the most significant of recent religious developments is the formation of the South India Sakya Buddhist Society with the object of converting the people to Buddhism....The lofty principles and beautifully simple life enunciated by the founder of the religion seem to appeal with peculiar force to the Tamil-speaking artisans and the middle-classes in the localities mentioned above. In fact it is learnt that but for the unavoidable absence of the Buddhist priests…many more persons would have received the ‘Tri Saranam’ (three refuges) and the ‘Pancha Sila’ (five precepts) which ceremonial is necessary for admission into the fold of the Buddhist Church...”

G. Aloysius, who played an instrumental role in getting the writings of Thass published in the late 1990s,, in his book Religion as emancipatory identity - A Buddhist Movement among the Tamils under Colonialism, points out that for Thass, a Buddhist identity was not different from a Tamil identity. “The Buddha was not a ‘north Indian’ and therefore not an Aryan ‘god’; but he was very much a Dravidian/Tamil Indian and the author of the Tamil script...; and the Buddhists were the protectors and promoters of Tamil literature and other arts such as music, painting and architecture,” according to Thass, Mr. Aloysius says in his book.

He further says: “...The genuine way of being a Tamil is to be a Buddhist, that is, casteless, in every sense of the term.”

Contrary to the current tendencies to gather under the banner of castes to fight for a group’s rights or power, Mr. Rajangam says the uniqueness of Thass’s emancipatory vision provided the cultural and philosophical identity that is not exclusive, but open for others who want to embrace the option of being casteless.