Marking the culmination of the centenary celebrations of the famed Vaikom satyagraha, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the renovated memorial of Dravidian icon and rationalist social reformer ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy on Thursday (Dec 12) at Voikom in Kottayam district.

Stalin, who has already arrived in Kochi and received a warm reception at the airport, will inaugurate the renovated Periyar memorial, while Vijayan will preside over the event. It is an ideological calling for the DMK president since the Vaikom satyagraha, spearheaded by Periyar, resulted in the opening of the streets around the Sree Mahadeva temple for the Dalits and other untouchable communities in November 1925.

Before leaving for Kerala, he took to his ‘X’ handle and posted a video recalling the historic struggle led by Periyar, who was in the Congress then, in the Travancore state. “Think about how our society was centuries ago and where we have come now. It was the Vaikom struggle that sowed the seeds for these changes,” he wrote. Earlier last year, he participated in the commencement of the centenary celebration.

The Vaikom satyagraha was launched on March 30, 1924, to demand access to the streets around the temple since, as people had to take a long and circuitous route to reach either side of the temple. The protest started when a lawyer, Madhavan, was prevented from entering the area to reach the court, which was housed in the palace situated within the four streets.

Shortly, leaders of the agitation were imprisoned and wrote to the Congress Committee of Madras Presidency, headed by Periyar. He was imprisoned twice, the second time for four months. After the death of King Rama Varma, the queen held parleys with Gandhi and acceded to Periyar’s demands by throwing open the three streets to all communities on November 23, 1925. The fourth, eastern road, too became accessible after the 1936 Temple Entry Proclamation, which allowed the depressed classes to enter temples.

The renovated memorial houses a statue of Periyar in a sitting posture, a library, and an exhibition hall showcasing Periyar’s struggles for social justice. Another memorial for Periyar is being constructed by the Tamil Nadu Government at Arookuty near Alappuzha, where the Dravidian ideology was jailed during the Vaikom satyagraha.