Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is an Indian secular progressive political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu, where it is currently the ruling party, and the union territory of Puducherry, where it is currently the main opposition.
The DMK was founded on 17 September 1949 by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam, headed by Periyar. The DMK was headed by Annadurai as the general secretary from 1949 until his death on 4 February 1969. He also served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1967 to 1969. Under Annadurai, in 1967 the DMK became the first party other than the Indian National Congress to win state-level elections with a clear majority on its own in India. M. Karunanidhi followed Annadurai as the first president of the party from 1969 until his death on 7 August 2018. He also served as the chief minister for five non-consecutive terms, in two of which he was dismissed by the Union government. After Karunanidhi's death, his son and former deputy, M. K. Stalin, succeeded as the party president and as a chief minister of Tamil Nadu from May 2021.
The DMK became the fifth-largest party in the Lok Sabha after the 2024 Indian general election. It currently holds 126 seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, where the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance holds 159 out of 234 seats.
History
Origins and foundation
DMK traces its roots to the Justice Party founded by C. Natesa Mudaliar in 1916, in the presence of P. Theagaraya Chetty, P. T. Rajan, T. M. Nair, Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar and a few others in Victoria Public Hall Madras Presidency. The Justice Party, whose objectives included social equality and justice, came to power in the first general elections to the Madras Presidency in 1920. Communal division between Brahmins and non-Brahmins began in the presidency during the late-19th and early-20th century, mainly due to caste prejudices and disproportionate Brahminical representation in government jobs. The Justice Party's foundation marked the culmination of several efforts to establish an organization to represent the non-Brahmins in Madras and is seen as the start of the Dravidian movement. In 1935, Periyar, a popular reformist leader at that time, joined the Justice Party.In the 1937 elections, the Justice Party lost and the Indian National Congress under C. Rajagopalachari came to power in Madras Presidency. Rajaji's introduction of Hindi as a compulsory subject in schools led to the anti-Hindi agitations, led by Periyar and his associates.
In August 1944, Periyar created the 'Dravidar Kazhagam' movement out of the Justice Party and the Self-Respect Movement at the Salem Provincial Conference. The DK, conceived as a movement and not a political party, insisted on an independent nation for Dravidians called Dravida Nadu consisting of areas that were covered under the Madras Presidency.
Over the years, many disagreements arose between Periyar and his followers. In 1949, C. N. Annadurai and other members decided to take part in electoral politics and Periyar had strong objection on it. Annadurai and several of his followers decided to split from the DK movement and form the DMK.
The Dravidian philosophy played a key role in the DMK at the helm of administration. It was described it as the earliest subaltern movement in the history of the Indian subcontinent politics to have political representation from former lower castes. This led to greater political participation, which improved representation of the emergent strata, enriched civic life, and subsequently strengthened pluralist democracy in the region.
C. N. Annadurai era (1949–1969)
The DMK's initial participation in electoral politics, in the 1957 legislative assembly elections, was mixed. While it won 15 seats, many prominent leaders such as Annadurai and V. R. Nedunchezhiyan were defeated. It fared somewhat better in the 1962 elections, winning 50 seats and becoming the main opposition party.Anti-Hindi Imposition agitations
The DMK inherited the anti-Hindi imposition policies of its parent organization, DK. Founder C.N. Annadurai had earlier participated in the anti-Hindi imposition agitations during 1938–40 and throughout the 1940s.In July 1953, the DMK launched an agitation against the Union government's proposed name-change of Kallakudi to Dalmiapuram. They claimed that the town's proposed new name, proposed to be named after Ramkrishna Dalmia, symbolized the exploitation of South India by the North. On 15 July, M. Karunanidhi and other DMK members removed the Hindi name from Dalmiapuram railway station's name board and protested on the tracks. In the altercation with the police that followed the protests, two DMK members lost their lives, and several others, including Karunanidhi and Kannadasan, were arrested.
The DMK continued its anti-Hindi Imposition policies throughout the 1950s, along with the secessionist demand for Dravida Nadu, which initially adopted a more radical stance than the Dravida Kazhagam. On 28 January 1956, Annadurai, along with Periyar and Rajaji, signed a resolution passed by the Academy of Tamil Culture endorsing the continuation of English as the official language. On 21 September 1957, the DMK convened an anti-Hindi conference to protest against the imposition of Hindi. It observed 13 October 1957 as "anti-Hindi day".
On 31 July 1960, another open-air anti-Hindi conference was held in Kodambakkam, Madras. In November 1963, DMK dropped its secessionist demand in the wake of the Sino-Indian War and the passage of the anti-secessionist 16th Amendment to the Indian Constitution. The anti-Hindi stance remained and hardened with the passage of Official Languages Act of 1963. The DMK's view on Hindi's eligibility for official language status were reflected in Annadurai's response to the "numerical superiority of Hindi" argument: "If we had to accept the principle of numerical superiority while selecting our national bird, the choice would have fallen not on the peacock but on the common crow."
Formation of state government
In the 1967 assembly election, DMK came to power in the Madras State, 18 years after its formation and 10 years after it had first entered electoral politics. This began the Dravidian era in the Madras province, which later became Tamil Nadu. In 1967, the Congress lost nine states to opposition parties, but it was only in Madras that a single non-Congress Party won a majority. The electoral victory of 1967 is also reputed to be an electoral fusion among the non-Congress parties to avoid a split in the opposition votes. Rajagopalachari, a former senior leader of the Congress Party, had by then left the Congress and launched the right-wing Swatantra Party. He played a vital role in bringing about the electoral fusion amongst the opposition parties to align against the Congress. Following the DMK's victory in the 1967 election, Annadurai formed a cabinet that was the youngest in India at the time.Other achievements
were legalized in India during Annadurai's tenure. Such marriages did not involve priests presiding over the ceremonies, and thus a Brahmin was not needed to carry out the wedding. Self-respect marriages were a brainchild of Periyar, who regarded the then conventional marriages as mere financial arrangements which led to great debt through dowry in many cases. Self-respect marriages, according to him, encouraged inter-caste marriages and caused arranged marriages to be replaced by love marriages.Annadurai's party was among the first in India to include a promise of subsidized rice in its election manifesto. He promised one rupee a measure of rice, which he initially implemented once in government, but had to withdraw later. Subsidizing rice costs are still used as an election promise in Tamil Nadu.
It was Annadurai's government that renamed Madras State to Tamil Nadu, its present-day name. The name change itself was first presented in the Rajya Sabha by Bhupesh Gupta, a communist MP from West Bengal, but was then defeated. With Annadurai as chief minister, the state assembly succeeded in passing the bill renaming the state.
Annadurai's government introduced a two-language policy, favoring Tamil and English over Hindi, which marked a significant shift from the previously proposed three language formula. The three-language formula, which was implemented in the neighboring states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, mandated students to study three languages: the regional language, English, and Hindi.
M. Karunanidhi era (1969–2018)
In 1969, after Annadurai's death, M. Karunanidhi was elected as his successor, defeating rival candidate V. R. Nedunchezhiyan. Karunanidhi headed the DMK until his own death in 2018. He was also appointed as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu on 10 February 1969, sworn in by then Governor Sardar Ujjal Singh.In the 1970s, M. G. Ramachandran, a popular actor and the party treasurer, had a political feud with the party president Karunanidhi. In 1972, M.G.R. called for a boycott of the party's General Council. The crisis led to a call for a corruption probe by M.G.R. leading to his suspension from the General Council by the high-power committee of DMK. M.G.R. left the DMK and created a new political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
In 1976, during the emergency period, prime minister Indira Gandhi dismissed the Karunanidhi government, fifty days before his tenure ended, citing failure to maintain law and order, implement emergency measures, uphold national discipline, and promote economic development. The Sarkaria commission later investigated the DMK government for alleged irregularities in awarding tenders related to the Veeranam drainage project. However, no corruption charges were formally proven against Karunanidhi in the court.
The interim report of the Jain Commission, which oversaw the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, indicted Karunanidhi for abetting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The interim report recommended that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the DMK party be held responsible for abetting Rajiv Gandhi's murderers. The final report contained no such allegations.