Students taken out for ‘Samathuva Nadai' in Madurai
MADURAI As part of the 'Samathuvom Kanbom,' event organised by Centre for Social Justice and Equity, along with Madras School of Social Work, students of various colleges in the district were taken out for a 'Samathuva Nadai' (equality walk) to some important locations in the city on Tuesday.
The rally was inaugurated by Madurai Superintendent of Police B.K. Arvind from Gandhi Memorial Museum.
To give the participants a glimpse of the anti-caste movements and notable progressive events that have tad place in the district, the students were taken out to Sevalayam Ashram at Shenoy Nagar, George Joseph statue at Yanaikkal, the place where Mahatma Gandhi renounced western attire, point where the Meenakshi Amman Temple entry movement started among other locations.
Writer and journalist Kavin Malar, one of the organisers, said that the motive of the walk was to educate students on the unequal treatment by various sections of people in our society and the sufferings.
'Through this, the students can learn how to treat humans with love and dignity,' she added.
When visiting some of the places, the younger generation would learn of caste and how caste-related violence had created a society, she said.
'Many of the privileged section of the people should learn that not all people got everything they wanted and wished. The denial of access to certain things to a certain section of people was the history that should be learned and rectified,' she noted.
Writer A. Muthukrishnan, while addressing the students, said that Madurai has a 3,000-year-long history.
'Only by knowing the history of a city or a State can we get connected to its people. Though we travel to many places in a day, we would not recognise any place's importance unless we know about its history,' he added.
Madurai where Mahatma Gandhi visited about five times from 1919 to 1945 holds memory of some of the significant events in his life, he noted.
Only after witnessing the struggles faced by poor people en route Madurai, he decided to renounce his western attire and started wearing khadi clothes and he undertook this change in Madurai, he recalled.
Another significant event of Mahatma which was recalled often was his refusal to enter the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple after hearing that Scheduled Castes people were denied entry into the temple, he elaborated.
'Sevalayam Ashram in Madurai, which was started by Mahatma Gandhi in 1938 for the education and residence of students from underprivileged background, also stands tall in the memory of the leader's fight against the caste discrimination,' said writer and professor Stalin Rajangam.
The institution, which was part of his Harijan Seva Sangh Organisation, is one of the 17 existing institutions in the State, he added.
Not just the buildings and memorials, streets in the name of leaders like Kakkan, Vaidyanatha Iyer, Jagjivan Ram, Kumara Samy Raja, Sivashanmugam Pillai, remind people of the long history of anti-caste movements and leaders who fought for caste eradication and creation of an equal and just society, he said.
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