Social ReformBritish Crown rule
Iyothee Thass founds the Dravida Mahajana Sabha
· Ooty
Iyothee Thass founded the Dravida Mahajana Sabha and urged Dalits to record themselves in the census as casteless Dravidians rather than Hindus.
Iyothee Thass, a Siddha physician and Tamil scholar, established the Dravida Mahajana Sabha in 1891 and organised its first conference at Ooty. During the 1891 census he urged members of the depressed castes to register themselves as 'casteless Dravidians' instead of Hindus. He argued that the Paraiyars were originally Buddhists who had been dispossessed. His use of the Dravidian identity anticipated themes taken up later by the Dravidian movement.
