At a press conference last week, when Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam working president M.K. Stalin was asked what he thought of the southern States combining to form “Dravida Nadu,” he replied, “If this happens, it is welcome and it will happen I believe.” Given the brouhaha around his remark, it deserves to be properly contextualised historically and in the backdrop of Tamil politics of recent years.
Historically, the Tamil demand for a separate State is not new. The idea of Dravida Nadu, named for the ethnicity of its original inhabitants, initially gathered momentum with the support of the Justice Party led by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy.
Spurred by events such as the introduction of Hindi in Tamil Nadu schools in 1937, during the early- to mid-20th century, the Tamil political leadership was gripped by fear that under the rule of the Congress Party, Brahminism as a socially dominant force, Hindi, as an official language, and north Indian cultural mores would be afforded hegemonic status, relegating Tamil ethnic sentiment to a secondary position. Consequently, from around 1938, Periyar gave voice to the demand for Dravida Nadu and it continued to find articulation in various forms via his successors at the head of the Dravidian movement, including DMK Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi.
This went on until October 1963, when the Government of India, helmed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, enacted the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, effectively outlawing what it considered to be secessionist slogans by those seeking to occupy public office.
Fast forward to the late 20th century, and the era of coalition governments saw regional parties come into their own, including Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu that at times grabbed hefty seat numbers in the Lok Sabha. The very need for a “Dravida Nadu” appeared to evaporate.
However, everything changed with the arrival of the BJP government in 2014, followed by the death of sitting Chief Minister Jayalalithaa of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in 2016, and the stepping back from active politics of the DMK supremo, Mr. Karunanidhi, owing to ill health. This leadership vacuum engendered the implosion of the AIADMK and the BJP appears to have sensed the blood in the water. Long denied an entry into State politics owing to the mobilisational force of the Dravidian movement, for the BJP is there now finally an opportunity to prise the Tamil polity apart just enough to sneak in through a captive alliance partner?
The BJP certainly seems to have drawn up clear battle lines. After its recent dramatic victory in Tripura, the toppling of the Lenin statue in Belonia was followed in quick succession by multiple incidents of vandalism against statues of Periyar across Tamil Nadu, as if to put Dravidianism itself on notice.
For the DMK and other Tamil parties it is perhaps the fear that the AIADMK could be propped up at least until the 2019 general election by an influential and deep-pocketed BJP that conjures up the spectre of north Indian dominance in Tamil Nadu, prompting the call for Dravida Nadu.
