Historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy’s book, Tamil Characters: Personalities, Politics and Culture , demonstrates that his sense of history emerged not while studying in JNU but from his acquaintance with Tamil scholars — the Dravidianist ‘Mugam’ Mamani and Tamil scholar/ poet M.L. Thangappa. The book, in three sections, ‘Political Personalities’, ‘Cultural and Literary Figures’ and ‘Cultural Questions’, seeks to create a dialogue between political and cultural history. Written as obituaries, reviews, prefaces to books and columns, this book makes the ‘characters’ dance on the stage of modern Tamil history.
Non-Brahmin movement
The century-old non-Brahmin movement in Tamil politics helps Venkatachalapathy or Chalapathy as he is known as show how Tamil political personalities differ from those in national politics. Since this history is tied to literary and film personalities, the style of Tamil Nadu politics offers a resistance to the discourse at the national level. Placing Periyar as a ‘prophet of the South’ whose vision enabled Dravidian parties to hold on to power for more than half a century, Chalapathy sees the emancipatory face of Tamil Nadu politics. Aptly, Chalapathy reads the political functioning of leaders like Annadurai, M. Karunanidhi, M.G.R. and Jayalalithaa within the framework of social justice.
Through his acquaintance with writers and archival sources on authors, the second section takes us into Tamil literary/ cultural history. If Subramania Bharati, Pudumaippithan, Jayakanthan and Sundara Ramaswamy seek to evolve a Tamil modernism, Asokamitran, Perumal Murugan and Cho. Dharman move towards a literary realism that foregrounds local culture. The classical Tamil scholar and poet Thangappa and the late 19th century Dalit intellectual Iyotheethos Pandithar offer a different route to Tamil modernism. If the former breaks the classical vs modern binary through his translation of Sangam poetry (challenging the earlier translations), the latter offers a Buddhist route to Tamil modernity.
The third section initiates the popular debate of Centre vs State, and national vs regional culture. Pointing at the history of Dalits being denied the right to worship, Chalapathy hints at the ‘paradoxical nature of Dravidian politics with regard to the Dalit question’.
While Dalit oppression is viewed sympathetically, Dalits’ questioning Dravidian politics is normally viewed with contempt. Chalapathy also falls into this trap. Saying “Periyar is often blamed for the delayed emergence of the Dalit movement in Tamil Nadu by some fringe Dalit intellectuals ,” he brushes aside the life-long efforts of Dalit intellectuals and activists who recovered Dalit history and challenged Dravidian politics. The only piece written on a woman is former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, making her an example for a misguided ruler.
Tamil Characters: Personalities, Politics, Culture ; A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Pan Macmillan India, ₹399.
