Rationalists: Noam Chomsky, Rene Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Baruch Spinoza, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, Nicolas Malebranche

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 66. Chapters: Noam Chomsky, Rene Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Baruch Spinoza, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, Nicolas Malebranche, Philosophy of Spinoza, John Toland, Younus Shaikh, Joseph McCabe, Felix Adler, Kathleen Nott, Abraham Kovoor, Al-Ma arri, Paul Street, Balthasar Bekker, Prabir Ghosh, Sanal Edamaruku, Keith Porteous Wood, List of names in A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists, Barbara Smoker, Joseph Edamaruku, Peter Collett, Narendra Dabholkar. Excerpt: Erode Venkata Ramasamy (Tamil: ) (17 September 1879 - 24 December 1973), affectionately called by his followers as Periyar (Tamil: ), Thanthai Periyar or E. V. R., was a businessman, politician, Indian independence and social activist, who started the Self-Respect Movement or the Dravidian Movement and proposed the creation of an independent state called Dravidasthan comprising South India. He is also the founder of the socio-cultural organisation, Dravidar Kazhagam. Periyar was born in Erode, Madras Presidency to a wealthy family of Kannada speaking Balijas. At a young age, he witnessed numerous incidents of racial, caste and gender discrimination. Periyar married when he was 19, and had a daughter who lived for only 5 months. His first wife, Nagammai, died in 1933. Periyar married for a second time in July 1948. His second wife, Maniammai, continued Periyar's social work after his death in 1973, but still his thoughts and ideas were being spread by Dravidar Kazhagam. Periyar joined the Indian National Congress in 1919, but resigned in 1925 when he felt that the party was only serving the interests of the Brahmins. In 1924, Periyar led a non-violent agitation (satyagraha) in Vaikom, Kerala. From 1929 to 1932 toured Malaysia, Europe, and Russia, which had an influence on him. In 1939, Periyar became the head of the Justice Party, and in 1944, he changed its name to...