Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy Nagammai (1885 – 11 May 1933) was an Indian social activist and women's rights activist. She was known for her participation in the Temperance movement in India and the

Vaikom Satyagraha Vaikom Satyagraha, from 30 March 1924 to 23 November 1925, was a Nonviolence, nonviolent agitation for access to the prohibited public environs of the Vaikom Sree Mahadeva Temple, Vaikom Temple in the Travancore, Kingdom of Travancore. Kingdom o ...

. She was the first wife of

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973), revered as Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the 'Fa ...

who headed the Self-Respect Movement.

Early life

Nagammai was born in 1885 to Rangasamy and Ponnuthai in Thathampatti, Salem,

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

. She had no formal education. She was the cousin of Ramasamy and married him at the age of thirteen in 1898. The couple had a daughter who died when she was five months old.

Activities

In 1919, Ramasamy joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

. Nagammai actively supported his political career. When

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

called for the Temperance movement, she organised the women to picket the toddy shops in

Erode Erode () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Erode is the seventh largest urban agglomeration in the state, after Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tiruppur and Salem. It is also the administrative headquarters of the E ...

. As the movement turned violent in some parts of the country, the Congress leaders requested Gandhi to stop the agitations. Gandhi replied that the matter was "not in his hands, but in the hands of two women at Erode", referring to Nagammai and her sister in law, Kannamal. As

untouchability Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimin ...

prevailed in the

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...

region, low caste people were prohibited from entering the temple and the streets around it. Congress started the

, a protest to allow access for all to the prohibited places. Nagammai and Ramasamy joined the protest on 14 April 1924. She led the women during the protests and was arrested in May 1924. When Ramasamy started the Self-Respect Movement in 1925. Nagammai encouraged women to participate in the movement. She conducted several widow remarriages and Self-Respect marriages. She was the editor of ''

Kudi Arasu ''Kudi Arasu'' (also pronounced as ''Kudiyarasu''; English: Republic) was a Tamil weekly magazine published by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy in Madras Presidency (present-day Tamil Nadu) in India. History Periyar started ''Kudi Arasu'' on 2 May 1 ...

'' magazine when Ramasamy went on tour to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Legacy

Nagammai died on 11 May 1933 in Erode. There are several schools in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

named after her. The

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, lik ...

introduced Periyar EVR Nagammai Free Education scheme to fund free higher education for girls in the state.

References

{{authority control 1885 births 1933 deaths Indian women activists Indian women's rights activists Indian editors Indian women writers Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Activists in British India