Forging the Nation Sahodaran Ayyappan

Extracts from “Sahodaran Ayyappan”

“Ayyappan’s primary and major commitment to internal transformation of society so as to develop a unified national political community by doing away with its hierarchical fragmantation brought him into conflict with the anti-colonial leaders lke Gandhi. But nationlism never meant to Ayyappan a mere movement for transfer of power from the British to the minority of caste-Hindus…..To speak for nationalism without social change resulting in the removal of social discrimination was mere lip service to that cause. In his firm grasp of the internal dynamics of political nationalism, both in theory and practice, as opposed to what has come to be known as cultural nationalism Sahodaran Ayyappan stands shoulder to shoulder with the great luminaries of modern India, Jotiba Phule, Ramasamy Periyar and Baba Saheb Ambedkar.”