Tamil Nadu politics has always been interesting to entire India. There was always lot of drama in Tamil politics and common man of Tamil Nadu always surpassed the analysts and psephologists . With Rajnikanth announcing his political entry, Tamil politics expecting to turn more dramatic and more spicy.
To understand what is going on in Tamil politics currently, a bit of knowledge on past politics of Tamil Nadu would be helpful. We can understand entire Tamil politics by understanding a few Tamil politicians
- EV Ramaswamy Naicker, called Periyar (meaning great sage)
- Annadurai, called Anna ( (meaning “Elder brother”)
- Kamaraj Nadar (King maker in India politics)
- Karunanidhi
- Jayalalitha
EV Ramaswamy Naicker and JUSTICE party: There was a retired IAS officer Gnana Rajasekara, who made (directed) a film with title “Periyar” based on life of Ramaswamy Naicker. For preview show of this movie, many Tamil politicians attended. Also among the attendees was Mega star Chiranjeevi. Somebody noted, at that time, that Ramaswamy Naicker belongs to “Balija Naidu” caste (closer to Kapu caste in AP). However, Ramaswamy Naicker was strongly ant-Brahmin and led “self-respect movement” and “justice party” that fought caste prejudices in British India. During those days, Congress party was filled with mostly Brahmins and other upper castes. So most of the political parties that fought caste prejudices were pro-British. Ramaswamy Naicker’s justice party and political parties found by BR Ambedkar are no exception for this. During those days, Tamil Nadu (Madras state) congress was in the hands of C. Rajagopalachary (Brahmin). Justice party was the main political alternative to the nationalist Indian National Congress in Madras state before independence and in fact it was more powerful than Congress until 1937.
EV Ramaswamy Naicker and Dravida Kazhagam (DK) party: After 1937 INC (Indian National Congress) party became very powerful and “Justice party” lost ground mainly because of its pro-British stand. In 1944, Periyar transformed the Justice Party into the social organisation “Dravidar Kazhagam(meaning, Dravida Federation)” and withdrew it from electoral politics. Goal of this organization was to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including un-touchability.
Annadurai and Dravida Munnetra (Progressive) Kazhagam (DMK): Annadurai was strong follower and disciple of EV Ramaswamy Naicker and he was also with Periyar when he formed Dravida Kazhagam (DK) . However, he differed with Periyar when he married (2nd time) a very young girl. He parted with Periyar and his DK, and he formed his own DMK party. Annadurai was a brilliant writer and skillful orator. Along with M. Karunanidhi and M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) and other film personalities, Annadurai used dramas, films, journals and other mass media to reach out to the people and built up a mass base. He was the one who led anti-Hindi agitation of 1965.He became first non-Congress chief minister of Madras state and renamed it to current name Tamil Nadu. He was the one who started populist schemes like rice subsidy.
Karunanidhi’s era: After Annadurai’s death in February 1969, M. Karunanidhi became the chief minister. When Indira Gandhi developed issues with senior congress leader Kamaraj Nadar of Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi supported Indira Gandhi and formed alliance with her party in subsequent elections and he was always strategic in strengthening his party.
Kamaraj Nadar: Kamaraj Nadar was chief minister of Madras state (before Periyar) from Congress party. He was very strong leader and most of the irrigation projects in Tamil Nadu were taken up during his tenure. When congress losing its sheen across the countries in 1960s, he formulated “Kamaraj plan” according to which all senior congress leaders have to resign to their government posts and take up party posts to strengthen the party and he himself resigned from CM post. The plan was topic of debate in the entire country and he was made president of Congress party (the post that Rahul Gandhi handling currently) by Nehru. After Nehru’s death, party preferred him to be prime minister but he rejected the post and made Lal bahadur shastry and later Indira Gandhi prime ministers. Those days, he was called King maker. But later he developed rift with Indira Gandhi and national congress split into two separate factions, one led by Indira and other by Kamaraj. Many stalwarts including Morarji Deshai (first non-congress PM of India) was in Kamaraj’s syndicate. But Indira’s Congress party was successful in electoral politics. Kamaraj is still remembered in TN for his great work (especially in the fields of irrigation and industrial development) and putting the state on right trajectory.
MGR and Jayalalita: Most of the current generation knows the history from this point. MGR and Karunanidhi, both were disciples of Annadurai and Karunanidhi succeeded Anna (after Neduncheziyan) and became CM in 1969. Later MGR developed rift with Karunanidhi and found Anna DMK in 1972 and became chief minister in 1977. He sworn in as CM thrice and never became opposition leader in life as he died as CM. After MGR, his wife became CM but later Jayalalitha took over party. Now with Jayalalitha’s death, Tamil Nadu facing political vacuum, which super star like Rajinikanth wants to en-cash upon.
(To be continued in part 2)
-Zuran