People in Tamil Nadu are realising that they’ve been made pawns in Dravidian politics, which has cultivated ethnic separatism and divisive identity politics. The State is also desperate for a change from decades-old dynasty politics, says Kumar Chellappan

Human civilisation undergoes major shifts from time to time. Tamil Nadu is experiencing such a civilisational change, a change in the basic political landscape. Whether the change is taking the State to better days or worse is being discussed widely all over the country. We have seen civilisational changes leading to destruction as well as reconstruction of societies. Culture, lifestyle, geography, climate, and ecology all vanish at one phase only to reappear in another form. There were instances of empires and kingdoms disappearing without any trace. We have seen the Vedic-era River Saraswati — the banks of which saw a flourishing civilisation and which was said to be flowing through North India to discharge into the Arabian Sea — disappearing from the face of the earth only to be retraced and reinvented thousands of years later by modern-day scientists. The same is the case with River Saradha, the remnants of which have been detected in Odisha.

In Tamil Nadu, the present-day generation is witnessing the spectacle of a tectonic shift in the State’s political skyline. The Dravidian dream run is coming to an end even as the State is under the threat of a rapid regression. The stage for the de-Dravidianisation of Tamil Nadu began in December 2016 with the demise of Jayalalithaa, the then Chief Minister and AIADMK chief. Jayalalithaa, a spinster, passed away without nominating an heir and the result is there for all to see. The AIADMK disintegrated into three to four factions by 2017, the birth centenary year of MG Ramachandran, the founder of the party. There is no charismatic leader in the AIADMK and it was known that the party would soon weaken.

Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the long-serving chief of the DMK too left this world early August, causing jitters in the party. Karunanidhi, who was elected president of the party in 1969, had over the past 50 years converted the DMK into a family enterprise. Nobody other than his close family members could dream of getting any important position in the party or in the Government (whenever the DMK was ruling the State).

With his passing away, the General Council of the DMK, which had been jampacked with family loyalists, elected MK Stalin, his second son by his second wife, as the party president. MK Alagiri, his elder son, had made his displeasure known by openly revolting against Stalin and dragging the succession issue to the streets. The DMK Trust, which controls properties worth thousands of crores all over Tamil Nadu, too, has gone into the hands of Stalin and his family. The DMK has become the Congress of Tamil Nadu. With Alagiri, the former southern chieftain of the DMK declaring his battle royale against Stalin and his cronies, the Dravidian major too is in for a major crisis.

The Dravidian regime in Tamil Nadu began in 1967 as a consequence of the anti-Hindi agitation which rocked the State in the early 1960s. Political commentators and authors describe the anti-Hindi agitation as a manifestation of the anti-Hindu feelings, especially the anti-Brahmin feelings prevalent in the State. The word ‘Dravida’ itself is a misnomer and has been coined out of context by a section of politicians in Tamil Nadu to serve their vested interests. Scholars like Dr Subramanian Swamy say that the term ‘Dravida’ and ‘Aryan’ have been used to pollute Indian history to serve the causes of the British colonial masters.

“Dravida was first used by Adi Shankara in the famous debate he had with the Buddhist scholar, Mandana Misra. Adi Shankara was asked who he was and he said he was Dravida shishu or child. Dravida is a combination of ‘Thra’ and ‘Vidu’, which means ‘three’ and ‘coast’ respectively. This means that Dravida is the land of three coasts. ‘Aryan’ is not a word in Sanskrit. Aryaputhra or Aryaputhri were terms used to address men and women of learning and who possess good qualities,” says Dr Swamy.

The anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu went out of the Government’s control following the suicide by a person at Thiruchirappali Railway Station on January 25, 1965, according to N Kalyanasundaram, a chronicler of Tamil Nadu politics. “This man set himself ablaze following a quarrel with his wife. Anbil Dharmalingam, the DMK leader, portrayed it as a self-immolation against Hindi and it caught up with the people. Dharmalingam was later made a Minister by the DMK leadership for the service rendered by him,” said Kalyanasundaram, who was a witness to the suicide.        

The word ‘Dravidan’ has an inherent anti-India feeling in it. The average Tamilian, who grew up in an anti-Hindi and anti-Aryan surrounding, feels that he/she is not a part of mainland India. The Dravidian regime, which came to power for the first time in 1967 and is since ruling the State alternately by way of the two factions, has done a lot of damage to the national fabric. CN Annadurai, during his tenure as a member of the Rajya Sabha, is on record demanding the secession of Tamil Nadu from the Union of India and formation of a separate country by the name, Dravida Nadu. Though the DMK was forced to put the demand on the back burner following the 16th amendment of the Constitution, the clamour for Dravida Nadu is still strong in the DMK and some outfits with a Dravidian tag.

Stalin had suggested on March 17 at Erode that the Southern States should come together and demand the formation of Dravida Land. K Thirunavakkarassu, the DMK historian, said it was a possibility. “The DMK Constitution is clear on this. The party stands for the formation of Dravida Nadu,” he had said following the demand by Stalin.

Most Indians are not aware of the intensity of the anti-Hindi campaign by the Dravidian parties. Tamil Nadu is the only State in the country which does not have even a single Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, public schools  offering free education to rural poor in the country. While all districts in the country have such schools in most backward regions, Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian parties, the DMK and the AIADMK, have declared such institutions unwelcome in the State.

“The Navodaya Vidyalaya system is a unique experiment unparalleled in the annals of school education in the country and provides the best residential school system irrespective of a child’s economic condition. This was introduced as a part of a new education policy of the Rajiv Gandhi Government in 1985,” said YR Johnson, a former principal of Navodaya Vidyalaya, who resides in Kanyakumari. Johnson and his friends had approached the Madras High Court with a plea to direct the Tamil Nadu Government to take steps to launch Navodaya schools in the State. Though the Madras High Court ordered the opening of such schools by July 2017, the Dravidian Government got the order stayed by the apex court. “Such schools would lead to the imposition of Sanskrit and Hindi on Tamil students,” argued the State in the court.

Sreesailam Unnikrishnan, a Malayalam professor and a revered linguist, says that the Dravidian leaders’ passion for Tamil has crossed all limits of sensibility. “They are still led by the arguments put forward by Robert Caldwell, an evangelist, who proposed the theory that Tamil was a unique language and part of the Dravidian language. There is no scientific proof for this theory. All languages are equally unique. Nobody questions on what authority an evangelist spoke about  Tamil,” said Prof Unnikrishnan.

Interestingly, the children and grandchildren of all Tamil chauvinistic leaders study in high-end public schools where speaking Tamil is an offence punishable with hefty fines. Stalin’s daughter Chenthamarai owns Sunshine Public School in Chennai where speaking Tamil would land the students in trouble. “This is a part of an attempt to make Tamil Nadu a separate country within India. The Dravidian party leaders would claim that the State is a separate entity where there is no Hindi and Sanskrit. Tamil Nadu is the only State opposing NEET and does not allow Hindi or Sanskrit in schools,” said H Raja, National Secretary, the BJP.

The sense of alienation, which is discernible among the average Tamilian, is the balance sheet of the 50-year-long Dravidian rule. It is sad to see that the Congress, which had ruled the State till 1967, stands as a mute spectator to the Dravidian’s resistance to launch Navodaya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu, a dream project  of their leader, late Rajiv Gandhi. The industrialisation of Tamil Nadu had come to an end in 1967 with the change of Government at Fort Saint George in Chennai. The never-ending Cauvery River water sharing imbroglio, the demand for the retrieval of Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka, the campaign for the creation of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka are the major narratives in Tamil Nadu’s political discourse.

What did the DMK do for the State when it was wielding power at the Centre from 2004 to 2013? Karunanidhi’s grand nephew, Dayanidhi Maran, was made a Cabinet Minister with the portfolio of Information Technology  and Telecommunications, TR Baalu was made Minister for shipping and surface transport, two of the money-spinning Ministries. When fight erupted in the family over sharing of the booty, Dayanidhi was removed and replaced by A Raja, friend of Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter by his third wife, Rajathi.

The family’s fortunes saw a manifold jump during this period. Following the disclosures by The Pioneer about the 2G scam, Raja lost his ministership. Both he and Kanimozhi were arrested and sent to Tihar Jail. By that time, Karunanidhi had lost much of his bargaining power with the Congress. The DMK withdrew support to the UPA Government in 2013, citing the failure of the Manmohan Singh-led Government to save the Sri Lankan Tamils from ethnic pogrom by the Army of the island nation. The Sri Lankan civil war got over in 2009 itself, with the Army killing Prabhakaran and his associates. But Karunanidhi had to give a valid reason to justify his decision to withdraw support to the Congress Government. The real reason behind the DMK’s decision to walk out of the UPA Government was the failure of the Congress to save Kanimozhi from the ignominy of going to jail in the multi-crore 2G Spectrum scam, which is out of the public mind now.

The demise of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi within a span of two years has left a big void in Tamil Nadu politics. The strength of Dravidian parties, too, has eroded over the past two decades because of many reasons. Scientific breakthroughs in human genome sequencing and DNA studies have proved beyond doubt that there were no Aryans or Dravidians in the country. “The concept was brought in by the East India Company and the British rulers as part of their plan to turn North India against South India. There is no historical, archaeological, literary or scientific proof for the Arya-Dravidian divide,” said PG Haridas, professor of history, Mahatma Gandhi University. He pointed out that Breaking India, a comprehensive research work authored by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan, hit the last nail in the coffin of the Dravidian theory.

Nicholas Kazanas, the Greek Indologist, expressed his shock over the infatuation of the Dravida parties for Dravidian theory. “The whole world is saying that India is culturally, historically, and educationally ahead of others. But these politicians in Tamil Nadu are still hanging on to this outdated theory,” said Prof Kazanas, an authority on Vedas and Sanskrit.

What has happened with Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi leaving the centrestage is the sudden appearance of many fringe groups funded and sponsored by NGOs, the Church, and various Islamist organistions. “There is a rapid regression in Tamil Nadu. What we saw as the farmers’ protest in New Delhi staged by Ayyakannu Ponnusamy and his associates was the manifestation of these fringe elements. They offered the international media an opportunity to portray India in a poor light,” said an author who was forced to leave Chennai because of her open criticism of the Jallikattu agitation at Marina Beach in January 2017. No human rights organisation — of which there is no dearth in Chennai — came to her rescue when she was issued death threats by the fringe elements.

“If Tamil Nadu has to be saved from the grip of these anti-national elements, it will need a dose of nationalism. The BJP seems to be the only party capable of doing it,” said Dr Swamy. The Congress, which has been riding piggyback on either the AIADMK or DMK, is a pale shadow of what it was in the 1960s. The other day saw the TNCC headquarters becoming a battleground, as the factions owing allegiance to various leaders scuffled in the presence of the media. The DMK is in for major trouble as Alagiri hinted on September 5 that he will create problems for his younger brother Stalin, who has become the party president. If Stalin antagonises Alagiri, a specialist in winning elections, his dream of becoming the CM of Tamil Nadu would remain unfulfilled. The DMK has degenerated into a family enterprise and that is the root cause of its weakening.

Stalin is controlled by his wife Durga, son Dayanidhi, and son-in-law Sabareesan. Since Alagiri’s wife Kanthi belongs to the Scheduled Caste, other members of the Karunanidhi clan are yet to accept her as a member of the family and that is why Alagiri has been kept away from the party by Stalin, says Raveenthrhan Thuraiswamy, a close associate of the family and a political analyst in Chennai. The DMK is not free of caste politics, but it practices it secretly. It is through those who are close to the K-clan that information comes out through the iron curtains of Gopalapuram.

Though the AIADMK has become weak, it has not enthused leaders like EVKS Elangovan, former Union Minister and Congress leader. “Many fringe groups are showing keen interest in an alliance with the DMK. There are 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and it is going to be a tough job for Stalin to satisfy one and all,” said Elangovan, who prefers a front lead by the DMK — one that includes the Congress, the PMK (an outfit of the Vanniyar community), the Left, and Islamists. 

The splinter political outfits are causing concern to leaders of major political parties. Udhayakumar, the anti-nuclear power plant man; Seeman, who claims to be the spokesman of Sri Lankan Tamils and Eelam; Thirumurugan Gandhi, and a host of others who entered the political landscape after the death of Jayalalithaa are to be watched out for. They may not be commanding any major base in the State, but the damage they could cause is a worrisome factor.

The agitation against the hydrocarbon plants, the opposition against the Chennai-Salem Green Corridor, the resentment against the Indian Nutrino Observatory, and the opposition towards NEET and the Enayam high end port are proof that something is brewing in Tamil Nadu. If the national parties play their cards well, the State may see a tectonic shift from Dravidian politics that has degenerated Tamil Nadu. Though there are fringe parties like the DMDK (led by film actor Vijayakanth), MDMK (led by the volatile Vaiko), and PMK (led by S Ramadoss, whose only mission seems to be to make his son the CM of Tamil Nadu), they are all of nuisance value only.

Political commentator and thinker TM Menon, long-time resident of Tamil Nadu who watched the Dravidian politics for more than four decades, says that neither the DMK nor AIADMK are bothered about the welfare of the people or the progress of the State. “Their humongous mistakes are elevation of Tamil sub-nationality to the highest pedestal, cultivation of the ethnic separatism, and divisive identity politics, the scorning of Indian national pride, all of which eventually led to the decline of patriotism in Tamil Nadu’s public space. The Dravidian parties are too dangerous for our nationhood, democracy and a true federal system, and hence unacceptable,” said Menon. He is also of the view that the two superstars of Tamil filmdom, Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan, who have declared their political ambitions, are doomed to fail. “One cannot understand what Hassan says; nothing makes sense. Both actors are on the wrong side of 60 and do not have time to reach out to the Tamil people,” said Menon.

People in Tamil Nadu are slowly understanding the frauds being played on them by the DMK and AIADMK. They are becoming conscious of the fact that the DMK is a family-owned enterprise where only members with the DNA of Karunanidhi can aspire for important positions. The rest have to be content with the crumbs thrown at them by Stalin and family members.

There is a silver lining amidst all this chaos, though. More people in Tamil Nadu have started learning Hindi through the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS) in spite of State Government’s hatred of the national language. “Despite the fact that Hindi is not taught in Government schools in the State, 2017 saw 1.28 lakh students appearing for the basic examination held by the Sabha,” said S Jayaraj, secretary, DBHPS. There are nearly 11,000 Hindi pracharaks working in the State, he added.

Tamil Nadu is waiting for a leader who can connect with them and convince them that Tamils are equal to people in other States of the country. Air-conditioned caravans and chartered aircraft would not get you the loyalty and respect anymore. Take a cue from the style of late NT Rama Rao and late Rajasekhara Reddy of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Or observe the likes of Capt Amarinder Singh of Punjab or Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh or Sachin Pilot of Rajasthan. Tamil Nadu is waiting for a change from the filmi style family-oriented dynasty politics and mafia rule. Tamilians want to get out of the Dravida Nadu phobia; lead them.