Dravidian parties
Dravidian parties include an array of regional political parties in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, which trace their origins and ideologies either directly or indirectly to the Justice Party and the Dravidian movement of C. Natesanar and Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. The Dravidian movement was based on the linguistic divide in India, where most of the Northern Indian, Eastern Indian and Western Indian languages are classified as Indo-Aryan, whereas the South Indian languages are classified as Dravidian. Dravidian politics has developed by associating itself to the Dravidian community. The original goal of Dravidian politics was to achieve social equality, but it later championed the cause of ending the domination of North India over the politics and economy of the South Indian province known as Madras Presidency.
Most Dravidian parties are offshoots of Dravidar Kazhagam. There are also a few other parties in Tamil Nadu that did not arise from DK directly. Nevertheless, both the former and the latter are considered as Dravidian parties because of the similarities of their ideals and goals. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its political rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have been the major players among the Dravidian parties since the mid-1960s. Since the 1967 legislative assembly elections, only the DMK and the AIADMK have formed governments in Tamil Nadu. These two parties are political rivals. Barring political alliances with the DMK or AIADMK, since the 1990s no other political party has won more than a few seats in the Indian parliament or state legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu. Since 1996, members of the DMK and AIADMK have held portfolios in the cabinet of the central Indian government. Another Dravidian party is Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Political media is pervasive in Dravidian politics, with five of the seven chief ministers from these parties being directly involved in Tamil cinema, either as script writers or actors. Recently television channels owned by these parties have been used for political propaganda purposes.
Rise of Dravidian politics
Background
Most of the population of India are classified as Aryans and Dravidians. Based on language families, most northern Indian languages are classified as Aryan, whereas most southern Indian languages are Dravidian languages. One of the first European scholars to expound the concept of "Aryans" as a race was German philologist and Orientalist Max Müller, who claimed that a group of people called Aryans had invaded the Indian subcontinent B.C. Sanskrit, a classical language of the Aryan group, was considered to be a sacred language, whereas in the Madras Presidency of British India, it was a commonly held opinion in that the Dravidian tongues were inferior. The linguistic divide was even more pronounced given the political dominance of Brahmins in South India.The Brahmins, who occupied the highest strata in the society, accounted for 3% of the population in Madras Presidency, but held 60 to 79% of the positions in major government departments in the early 20th century. It was observed by some non-Brahmin leaders from the south that Brahmins were Aryans, and hence non-natives, who had taken positions in the government that should rightfully be filled by people indigenous to the area.
The antipathy towards Sanskrit compounded with the animosity against the hegemony of Brahmins paved the way for the rise of Dravidian politics in Madras Presidency.
Early Dravidian politics
An early pioneer in Dravidian politics was Iyothee Thass in the late 19th century. His efforts brought together the non-Brahmin caste Dravidians with the establishment of the Dravida Mahajana Sabha organisation in 1891. A major leap in Dravidian politics was the formation of the Madras United League by non-Brahmin intellectuals, who considered the dominance of Brahmins in civil administration a threat to the non-Brahmin majority.The League was initially started as a workgroup that helped non-Brahmin students in Madras with accommodation by Dr C. Natesan. It later grew into a political party under the efforts of leaders like C Natesa Mudaliar, Sir Pitti Theagaroya Chetty and Dr. T. M. Nair. The party was named South Indian Liberal Federation – popularly known as the Justice party.
Justice Party era
A limited form of self governance was introduced in British India after World War I. While the Justice Party saw this as an opportunity to displace Brahmin dominance, the British colonial government considered it favourable, since the Indian National Congress, which spearheaded the Indian independence movement was dominated by Brahmins. The Justice party emerged as a winner in the 1920 general elections and brought about the reforms it had campaigned for, including establishing communal reservation through affirmative action for the first time in the country, and brought temples under state control. Soon after their electoral success the animosity between Tamil and non-Tamil members deepened, thus weakening the party. Nevertheless, the Justice Party electorally dominated the presidency for 17 years until it was defeated by the Indian National Congress party in 1937. Although out of power, the Justice Party was involved in demonstrations across the Province against the introduction of Hindi as a compulsory subject of study in schools by a Congress-led government, which led to the detainment of scores of Tamil scholars, academics and Justice Party leaders. This and other struggles for social justice helped create the social base of what emerged as the Dravidian Movement.Dravidar Kazhagam
The next few years saw a decline in the Justice Party's popularity. In 1938, the by then badly weakened party sought the leadership of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, a leader of the Dravidian Movement, who became its president. In 1944, Periyar changed the name of the party to Dravidar Kazhagam. This move was opposed by some members of the Party who continued contesting elections as the Justice Party under the leadership of P. T. Rajan until 1957. Periyar as the president of Dravidiar Kazhagam considered that contesting in elections would lead to compromises in principles and withdrew Dravida Kazhagam from parliamentary politics.Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Birth of DMK
In 1947, when India attained independence, Periyar called for members of the Dravidar Kazhagam to boycott the celebrations. According to him, the Indian National Congress was dominated by Brahmins. He predicted that an independent India would bring South Indians, especially Tamils, under the dominance of Brahmins and North Indians. In other words, according to Periyar, independence would lead to the replacement of British dominance with Brahmin and North Indian dominance. He felt an independent nation called Dravida Nadu for the South Indians would be the best solution. Periyar declared 15 August 1947, the day of Indian independence, as a day of mourning. This move was opposed by other leaders within the party, including C. N. Annadurai. Annadurai viewed independence as an achievement for all of India rather than solely of the North.On 9 July 1948 Periyar married woman 40 years his junior, leading to a split in the party.
The leaders of the splitting faction eventually formed a new party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or DMK, in 1949.
Independent Dravida Nadu
Although initially both DK and DMK sought an independent Dravida Nadu, DK later moved on to work on bringing social changes whereas DMK leaders such as C. N. Annadurai and E. V. K. Sampath endeavoured to achieve their goals through parliamentary election processes.Sampath, who had earlier forfeited his seniority with Periyar's party to join DMK, saw the call for an independent Dravida Nadu was turning out to be an unrealistic goal.
Sampath expressed concerns over using film stars to increase the popularity of the party. His views led him to cross swords with the major leaders of the party and eventually caused the first split in DMK. Sampath left DMK to begin his own party called the Tamil National Party.
Although leaders like Annadurai were firm in their separatist stance, the reorganisation of states in India on a linguistic basis removed Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam speaking regions from Madras Presidency, leaving behind a predominantly Tamil Madras State. Giving in to political realities, Annadurai and his DMK changed their call for an independent Dravida Nadu for Dravidians to an independent Tamil Nadu for Tamils. Annadurai saw that remaining in union with India meant accepting linguistic domination and economic backwardness. However, the Sino-Indian war brought about changes in the Indian constitution. The Sixteenth Amendment banned any party with sectarian principles from contesting elections. Consequently, DMK preferred to keep the issue of Dravida Nadu on the backburner.
From then on DMK's main focus targeted the dominance of North Indians in the Union Government of India.
DMK government
After dropping the demand for an independent Dravida Nadu, DMK changed its focus to the problems arising out of the disparity between North and South India. The DMK considered that the south was neglected by delays in sanctioning development projects and allotment of funds. Thus the Congress-led Central government became its major target for calls for reform. Immediately after Indian independence the Congress Party was popular throughout India and thus formed the government in many states including Madras Presidency. Even so, the Congress Party failed to obtain an absolute majority in the presidency in the state's first election. By the 1960s the popularity of the Congress party was in a steady decline.DMK leaders also perceived that the attempts to declare Hindi as the sole national language of India was an attempt impose an Aryan language unwilling people in the South. According to the terms of the Indian constitution dated 26 January 1965, English as an official language of India would come to an end and Hindi would become the sole official language. However, the Madras Anti-Hindi agitation in 1965 compelled the Central Government in India change its language policy, allowing English to continue as an official language.
Although DMK was not directly involved in the violence that marred the agitation, the protest itself catapulted DMK to political power in the State in the 1967 legislative elections. Annadurai became the first non-Congress Chief Minister of the post-1950 Madras state as a result.
The electoral victory in 1967 led to 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.