IN 1957, a special-forces inspector in Tiruchirappalli filed a case against EV Ramasamy—the founder of the Dravidar Kazhagam, popularly known as Periyar—under Section 117 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 117 forbids the abetment of an offence by ten people or more, and is punishable with three years of imprisonment. Periyar, 78 years old at the time, was charged for allegedly urging people to kill Brahmins and set fire to their houses, and for burning sections of the Indian Constitution at a public demonstration. A sessions judge sentenced him to six months in prison.
In the three speeches submitted to the trial court for review, all of them given in the first three weeks of October that year, although Periyar did not urge anyone to kill Brahmins or burn their houses, he announced his intention to burn the Constitution in public and explained clearly his reason for wanting to do so. He even listed the exact parts he wanted to burn: Article 13, Section 2; Article 25, Section 1; Article 29, Sections 1 and 2; and Article 368. They are, he said, a mess of contradictions: the article that states all citizens may freely practise and propagate religion is at odds, he said, with the laws that protect minorities or grant them entry into all institutions maintained by the government and the right to preserve their distinct culture and language.
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