Earliest Attempt on Deconstruction of the Authority to Knowledge

Abstract

According to Chattampi Swamikal, a minority by monopolizing knowledge control economic resources and political power. To sustain this power, they used caste, religion and related strategies to deny knowledge and education. They misinterpreted religious texts to divide society, restrict the majority's access to knowledge, and prevent them from learning the language used of knowledge transmission. This exclusion kept the majority from gaining social status, economic resources, and political power. Swamikal fought against this monopoly of knowledge by intellectually challenging the distortions in scriptural texts and rejecting the rigid societal divisions based on birth. He opposed all norms that restricted access to knowledge and started a movement to make knowledge available in the common man’s language. This intellectual approach was not a form of modernism imposed by colonialism but an indigenous alternative modernism. It was a blend of modernism, righteousness, and Indian values which Chattampi Swamikal a century ago to fight against colonial domination and social injustices imposed by a powerful minority on the majority. Even in Western academic circles the concept of linking knowledge to power has become widely recognized only in the last two decades through movements like Open Access Initiatives (OAI), Open Science, and Open Knowledge, leading to changes in relevant national and international laws. The paper suggests that the author of the century-old book Vedadhikara Nirupanam, which advocated for Open Access to Knowledge, was remarkably ahead of his time, making his ideas highly relevant in today's society also.