Tamil Nadu in uncharted territory
In the absence of a stalwart like Karunanidhi, it remains to be seen whether the Dravidian movement will be diluted in the southern Indian state
There is little doubt that in the wake of M. Karunanidhis death, the Indian state of Tamil Nadu will enter an uncertain, even rocky, phase. It may take some time for the sense of disquiet and foreboding to become apparent. There may even be a period of relative calm as Karunanidhi’s chosen heir, his younger son, M.K. Stalin, assumes charge of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party.
But the reprieve is likely to be the calm before the storm. By the time the next assembly election is due in 2021, the dark clouds of the rivalry between the two brothers, Stalin and M.K. Alagiri, may well threaten the DMK’s smooth functioning. The only silver lining for the party will be the rival All India Anna DMK’s (AIADMK) perceived weakness as a challenger. It is no secret that after the death of the AIADMK’s guiding star, Jayalalithaa last year, the party has not been able to get its act together despite its formal hold on the levers of power.
Be it Chief Minister E.K. Palaniswami or Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, neither has the aura of a winner. They have little charisma and even less administrative capacity. Moreover, by initially denying a burial place for Karunanidhi in Marina beach, where the graves of Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa are located, the two AIADMK leaders revealed a petty mentality. It is obvious that singly or together, they are unable to fill the void created by Jayalalithaa’s death.
There will also be another point of interest. It is about the extent to which the Dravidian movement will be affected by the deaths of the two stalwarts, Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi, within eight months of one another. The movement is known for its atheistic, anti-Hindu and anti-Hindi orientation. Of all the other major regional parties of south India — the Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress of Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi of Telangana and the Janata Dal-Secular of Karnataka — the DMK and the AIADMK of Tamil Nadu have stood out, till now, for their uncompromising rationalism, which owes its origin to Ramaswami Naicker, better known as Periyar (1879-1973).
There has undoubtedly been a dilution of this stridency in recent years when both the DMK and the AIADMK have teamed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is known for its championing of the Hindu cause. The AIADMK is believed to be moving closer to the BJP at present to compensate for its weakness as a political force while the DMK has been close to the Congress for the last decade-and-a-half.
Although the BJP has always been a marginal player in Tamil Nadu, it must be looking forward to making its presence felt in the state in the present uncertain scenario. The film stars, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, too, have sensed an opportunity in the present situation to launch their political careers, although they appear to be unable to make up their minds as to which of the two Dravida Kazaghams is closest to their line of thinking.
Arguably, India has changed from the time of the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu in the 1960s, which made India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru promise that English will continue to be used as long as the non-Hindi-speaking states want. Thanks to Bollywood, Hindi is now much more widely understood and spoken although any attempt to push it by the pro-Hindi lobby in North India is bound to be strongly resisted.
Nevertheless, it will be fair to say that the Dravidian movement today is far from what Periyar said and did. Tamil Nadu, therefore, can be said to be entering unchartered social and political territory.