Sunday 29th March 2026: Dravidian Politics and Secular Ethos in India

Vignesh Rajahmani & Karthick Ram Manoharan   This talk examines how the Dravidian movement reshaped the meaning and practice of secular politics in India. From Periyar’s rationalist, anti-caste critique of religion and Brahminism, to the Dravidian Progressive Federation’s translation of social reform into an electorally durable project. The speakers will examine how secularism can operate as a mass political ethos rooted in social justice, dignity, and democratic mobilisation. This public conversation brings together Vignesh Rajahmani, the author of  The Dravidian Pathway and a contributor to the Cambridge Companion to Periyar, and Karthick Ram Manoharan, the co- editor of The Cambridge Companion to Periyar and the author of Periyar : A Study in Political Atheism.  They will explore how the Dravidian movement reshaped the meaning and practice of secular politics in India, based on Periyar’s rationalist, anti-caste critique of religion and Brahminism, to the DMK’s translation of social reform, into an electorally durable project. The speakers will examine how secularism can operate as a mass political ethos rooted in social justice, dignity, and democratic mobilisation. Karthick Ram Manoharan is Smuts Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is currently working on the Indian Emergency. All welcome - admission free. Tea & biscuits. Donations welcome - £5 suggested to cover  costs.   Image by Gemini AI