Nehru on EVR

STATES AND CENTRALLY ADMINISTERED AREAS
V. MADRAS

  1. To K. Kamaraj Nadar
    New Delhi
    November 5, 1957

My Dear Kamaraj.

I am much distressed by the anti-Brahmin campaign continuously carried on by E. Ramaswami Naicker.’ I wrote to you I think about this some time ago, and I was told that this matter was under consideration. I find that Ramaswami Naicker is going on saying the same thing again and calling upon people at the right time to start stabbing and killing. What he says can only be said by a criminal or a lunatic. I do not know him adequately to be able to decide what he is, but one thing is clear to me that this kind of thing has a very demoralizing effect on the country. All the anti-social and criminal elements imagine that they can act in this way also. I suggest, therefore, to you that there should be no delay in dealing with this matter. Let him be put in a lunatic asylum and his perverted mind treated there.

I do not understand anyone telling me that the law does not allow us to take action unless actual killing takes place. The law is often very foolish but it is not quite so foolish as to permit a campaign of incitement to murder

Yours sincerely, Jawaharlal Nehru

  1. JN Collection

  2. Chief Minister of Madras State.

  3. The Druvida Kazhagam, under Naicker’s leadership held a special convention Tanjavur on 3 November 1957 to consider ways and means of bringing about caste abolition. A resolution was passed giving 15 days’ sotice to the Government to delete the provisions in the Constitution of India dealing with religious freedom, failing which copies of the Constitution would be burnt, and portraits and statues of Mahatma Gandhi would be removed and broken. If it produced no results, the Dravida Kazhagam members would be asked to kill Brahmins and burn their residential localities. The Dravida Kazhagam argued that the Constitution provided for religious freedom and thereby gave protection to the caste system and particularly to Brahmins.

  4. For Nehru’s letter of 23 October 1957, see Selected Works (Second Series 3 .

  5. To K. Kamaraj Nadar
    New Delhi
    December 4, 1957

My dear Kamaraj.

I enclose a letter I have received, in original. I see that you are taking effective steps against this agitation. It is, as I have said, the most barbarous thing that I have come across in any civilized country.

I hope that the impression that the writer of the enclosed letter has will not be allowed to grow. I am looking forward to meeting you soon.

Yours sincerely
Jawaharlal Nehru

  1. IN Collection 2 A. Sreenivasan Legislative Council of Medras, had written to Nehru on 3 December about the speeches made by Naicker. Acknowledging his letter, Nehru wrote to Sreenivasan on 4 December, “I have seldom come across anything more primitive and barbarous in any country presuming to be civilized. I have no doubt that he and his group should be dealt with firmness.”
  2. To effectively deal with the threatened agitation by the Dravida Kazhagam, the Madras Legislative Assembly passed on 11 November the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Bill, 1957. The measure was meant to prevent certain offences against the National Flag, the Constitution of India , Punishments included imprisonment extending up to three years or fine or both
  3. Printed copies of the Tamil versies of the Indian Constitution were burnt 26 November in a number of places in Madras State. Several Davida Kazhagam members were arrested in Chennai, Tiruchirapalli, Tunjev and Madur. Naicker was arrested in Tiruchiralli on 25 November, released on 29 November, and sentenced to six months imprisonment on 14 December.