Rationalism, self-respect, women's right and eradication of caste were his life-time propaganda, UNESCO accoladed him as "the prophet of the new age, the Socrates of South East Asia, father of social reform movement and arch enemy of ignorance, superstitions, meaningless customs and base manners'. E.V. Ramasamy alias Thanthai Periyar undoubtedly deserves all these titles and honours. He earnestly dedicated his life-time teaching and preaching humans to live with self-respect and rationalism.
Today marks the 138th birthday of the great scholar, Thanthai Periyar. His ardent followers termed as 'Periyarist' have been globally celebrating his birthday with pride and thanking him for making them live a rational life. The celebrations started very early in the city at the 'Periyar Padipagam'. City Mayor P. Rajkumar was the guest of honour for the event and Dr. Thamrai Selvan was the guest speaker for the event. K. Ramakrishnan, Secretary, TPDK and all senior office bearers of TPDK were present during the celebrations. A massive blood donation camp to commemorate his birthday was flagged off at the event. This year marks the 25th year of blood donation camp organised by TPDK.
