Casteism Within Dravidian Parties - What Maamannan reminds us

 Till the first quarter of the twentieth century and during the British Raj, Indian law was not equal to all castes. Dalits and many OBCs had been barred from entering the temples. Ambedkar and Periyar found religion as the main source of discriminatory practices and reacted against the same in different ways. Ambedkar embraced Buddism, a dominant faith once, which was also reactionary against Vedic religions, as a mark of protest. Periyar, on the other hand, renounced religions altogether. For Ambedkar, the primary objective was annihilation of castes, as he himself was a victim of the caste system. For Periyar, who belonged to an upper caste equality for all was important.

TN, that had been at the forefront of socio-economic developments, was not socially inclusive enough which necessitated Periyar, who belonged to an upper caste, decided to represent all the people except Brahmins because he saw Hinduism and Brahminism as synonymous. He faced resistance not only from the brahmins, but also from other intermediary castes who had tacitly approved brahmin hegemony and enjoyed administrative positions in temples with social respect second only to the brahmins. 

Periyar’s activism led to temple entry of Dalits and other marginalized castes. He did not stop with that. He championed the cause of social inclusion as well economic uplift of those people and also women, who he considered as marginalized even in the brahmin house holds. Enrolment of such people in the public schools, reservation for education and employment, widow-remarriage, self-respect marriages sans religious rituals and priests and  property rights were significant contributions in this regard. Yet, he looked down upon electoral politics as corrupt means and desisted from any activities in this direction.  As he represented a broad spectrum of ethnic identities of South India he named his cultural movement as Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), as opposed to the pan India ethnic identity of Brahmins as Aryans.

One of his most devoted disciples and lieutenants, C.N. Annadurai believed socio-political activism without empowerment would be less productive and his choice favoured electoral politics. This ideological difference led to the breakaway of Annadurai and his followers to float a new political party entitled Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK), which translates into an “institution of development of the Dravidians”, which, except for the choice of electoral politics, embraced the same ideology proposed by Periyar, who also became the party’s political mentor and practiced atheism.

The party has achieved, despite splintering away of Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) due to MGR’s disagreement with M. Karunanithi, the successor of DMK after Annadurai, over administrative reasons and not ideological reasons. However, MGR’s ADMK too contributed to the social inclusiveness of the marginalized, but there was no ideological enmity with the brahmins. Interestingly MGR has a Sri Lankan- Kerala ancestry which did not deter the Tamil masses to worship him to the level of a cult figure Successor of MGR, J. Jeyalaitha herself was a brahmin with Tamil- Karnataka origin, who also proved herself to be a devout Hindu by a major contributor to temples and protector of brahmin status in the state as well. People were not bothered by her mixed identity but also worshipped her as Amma. She also protected the reservation policy and contributed for its status. ADMK CMs, all OBCs,  after JJ were never averse of Brahminism or Hinduism and JJ’s legacy of temple patronage and the state’s patronage of Hinduism almost became official in status.

DMK lost its sting in its fight against Brahminism in contrast to the vehement anti-Brahminism of the 1960s. M.K. Stalin, in the wake of the pervasive Hindutva all over the country, has been more inclusive in matters of faith, though he himself remains an atheist, just like his father and his ideological ancestors. All these changes in the political landscape of Tamil Nadu point to the fact, that the Tamil people are more accommodative and uphold the ethos of Dravidian ideology as a way of life with Dravidian being inclusive of all people and languages of South India.

 

In this socio-political transition, the primary objective of the ideological Dravidian politics has remained committed for the cause of the socio-economic uplift of the OBS’s, SCs and STs. 69 percent reservation, successful public distribution system (PDS), huge number of educational institutions, welfare schemes and many more have ensured success in this aspect.

However, what remains true is the poor political representation of Dalits in all major parties in Tamil Nadu. There have been some Dalit leaders in key party or cabinet positions in these parties. However, beyond their value as tokenism, Dalit at the helm of affairs is still a distant dream. The state has progressed on many developmental parameters. Yet, centuries of caste pride among the people of intermediary OBCs nurtured and encouraged by theology and hegemonic culture have so pervasive, efforts by Dravidian parties to come out of the shackles of their own imprisonment in caste system is still a distant dream. Vengai Vayal incident, the prevalence of two-tumbler system, separate crematoria for Dalits and OBCs, honour killing for marrying outside the caste are still a reality.

Though the  Dravidian parties have achieved considerable success in socio-economic development of Dalits social inclusion is a matter of cultural attitude and political under-representation of Dalits is an extension of the same attitude. Yet, considering the situation which prevailed half a century ago, their rights have been legally protected. Government, court, NGOs, activists and media respond when they are in distress. Yet, during major caste conflicts it is the caste based political parties like VCK and Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) and human rights NGOs like Evidence and People’s Watch need to interfere in order to bring the complete truth to the public awareness. The need for caste related human rights organization like Evidence points to the fact that social inclusion of the Dalits is still a dream and caste based human rights violation is a reality. The fact that Dalit political parties like VCK and PT are thriving indicates how the political aspirations of the Dalit people remain unfulfilled. Interestingly, Puthiya Tamilagam party has aligned with BJP and NDA, the very party that DMK, VCK and Left alliance are ideologically opposed to,  with a hope and demand that BJP will alter their status from Scheduled caste to OBCs.  The ideological choice between two Dalit parties also indicate two different aspirations, political empowerment and social equity for one hand and social inclusion and change of social status for the other. 

What Dravidian ideology and political parties have contributed for the cause of social inclusion have empowered OBCs in a big way politically. With limited success, Dalit political empowerment, needs to cover more ground. But the rapport and importance the Dalit parties enjoy in political alliances in TN, their demography and vote strength are their major bargaining power. As the Dravidian politics is leftist in ideology, it offers a robust political space in Tamil Nadu. It still needs to be seen if it leads to substantial representation in the cabinet, party positions in Dravidian parties and, results in becoming the head of the state.