For one, like Muthuramalinga ‘Thevar’ and several other leaders with national stature and nationalist credentials, Kamaraj too now runs the risk of getting converted posthumously into a caste leader. Pity Kamarajar has been projected as a community leader dwarfing his towering personality, a physical and metaphorical fact! Politics has always walked with caste and cinema on either side in TN. Now the latter two have joined to form a vicious triangle. The Justice Party, the purported ancestor of the present Dravidian parties, was touted to stand for social justice and a caste-less society, but the leading lights of that party rarely gave up their casteist leanings. In fact they made it a point to be known by their caste appendages. Even the ultimate reformist, Periyar, seemed to entertain no particular objection to being addressed as Ramaswamy Naicker. It is perhaps owing to such hypocritical political genetics that caste reigns supreme in the polity today even as several self-styled champions have been busy ‘erasing’ it. Or may be they thought wiping out caste is as simple as wiping off caste names from street corner plaques. A symbolism typical of rationalists. Caste is a well-entrenched historical and social reality of India . According to researchers on the subject, castes are a result of ‘religious distinctions, tribal and racial differences and still more out of hereditary crafts, occupations and even modes of life’. Social classifications existed even in the pre-Vedic periods. Manu probably only codified them. But assuming that he was the one who started it all, as some allege, how did the four ‘rigid’ varnas of Manu proliferate into the thousands of castes that we see now? Clearly, down the ages there has been a consistent intermingling of castes through marriage. There are even historical instances of Kings ‘elevating or demoting’ people on the caste hierarchy by decree. Thus social reform is not a brain-child of rationalists or reformists but a natural historical phenomenon. However all that inter-mingling has not erased caste but only created more castes explaining the numerous sects and sub-sects. The caste cauldron which has been on boil since millenia is churning out new castes even today, say, with every so-called reformist marriage. If anything we can look forward to more castes in the future. Hindu converts to other religions religiously carry their caste baggage with them, despite claims to the contrary. In such a milieu, caste is also a personal reality and a fact of life in India :It catches up with you at some stage. It is both unnatural and impractical for anyone to shed his caste identity or affinity. It rarely happens. And none would admit openly the positive spin-offs of caste for fear of being on the wrong side of political correctness. Kamarajar’s own castefolk were in the social dumps in 19th century. The Nadar community’s remarkable rise to economic glory of the present is a success story directly attributable to its caste cohesiveness, that cut across even religious faiths. Many cases of caste spawning economic growth and thereby social status can be listed. That differences exist in God’s world is a fact. It is in rising above those differences that humans become divine. But humans beings are rooted in notions of superiority, on some count. Ethnic, racial and linguistic biases are universal phenomena and it would need more than our kite-flying politicos to fight them. It would be of interest to find out how many ‘reformist marriages’ the rationalists have conducted in their own families involving their kin. Indeed, it would be obvious that caste would survive its ‘reformers’. Often for the community quota case the Dravidian parties quote its Justice party lineage and its pioneering efforts. Caste politics has always remained a sheer monkey business with politicos aping the fabled ape with aplomb in fooling the gullible cats, read, caste groups. Of course, the monkeys have always prospered personally by walking away with the entire cake. Perunthalaivar Kumarasamy Kamarajar - A Noble National stonemason In the beginning of the 20th century, the vast majority of the Nadar community were suppoters of Self Respect Movement, parties supproting the downtrodden and suppressed Nadar community under the leadership ofWPA. Soundarapandian : the first President of Thandai Periyar’s `Suya Mariyadai Iyakkam’. It’s not without reason that the ’self-respect movement’ of the Justice Party and Dravidian parties succeeded in Tamil Nadu,and its various manifestations ruled the roost at the height of the socio-political churning of the society. The nawab of Arcot giving away revenue collection rights to the British East India Company in the mid-eighteenth century meant that a region with no great kings or kingdoms came under the British rule. And along the way, jobs-on-merit at the hands of the alien ruler meant equal opportunity for equal talents in a race for the survival of the fittest. If the need for societal spread made the non-brahmin movement adopt education and employment as its `equaliser-slogans’, the attainment of this goal, first with the formation of the Justice Party and more so with that party’s coming to power in the 1919 elections, made the movement itself near-redundant. The Communal G O of 1921 and its later-day modifications, all formalising and legitimising the non- brahmin movement’s demands for reservations in education and employment, benefited only the non-brahmin upper castes initially. In the home town of K.Kamarajar then known as Virudhupatty was the fort of Justice Party followers who spread the message of Self Rspect among the downtrodden but wealthy Nadar community. The Virudhunagar hosted the 3rd self respect coference and first women Self respect conference with total success with the support of the affluent Merchant community of the town and neighbourhood towns. When young Kamarjar, who was penniless as he was not involved in any business, but was attracted by Congress Movement, and he faced repeated antagonism within his own wealthy community members in home town for about 2 decades. He had to undergo through insults such as Veshti stripping, threat to his life by Justice Party stronghold areas at Virudhunagar, Pattiveeranpatti etc. Pasumpon Muthuramaliga Thever was responsible for developing a strong base for Congress Movement in South Tamilnadu during 1930s and 1940s. At Virudhunagar too, Pasumpon Thevar ensured he provided support to Kamarajar whenever required till 1937 under the strong undercurrent influence of justice party, till when Kamarajar was given a prominent place in Congress Party with support of Thevar. However Thevar was later influenced by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and slowly drifted towards the ideals of Forward Block. During 1940s and 1950 Kamaraj was wrongly depicted as antagonist towards Thevar as both were working in different ideologies, but this is not the case in the developing years, but they situation in the later years were grossly misinterpreted leading to second level caste leaders domination of their actions. The intermediary castes and the harijans, the later-day backwardsand the scheduled castes respectively — to whom education and hence, non-farming, formal employment — were alien, were left mostly untouched. It was thus left to `Periyar’ E V Ramaswami Naicker to take the non-brahmin movement to the masses, a decade and a half after Gandhi had succeeded in doing so with the Congress movement It was a single youth Kamarajars efforts to slowly spread the message of Nationalism to develop the movement for Congress after the Temple Entry Movement allowing Nadars to emples in 1939 in the dravidian heartland and slowly win over the people of Tamilnadu between the after 1937 to bring the downtrodden community people in the national mainstream. If the Justice Party could fill the political vacuum and use its own presence to ensure equality in education and employment for the non-brahmin upper castes, `Periyar’ necessarily had to demythify the social status of the brahmins drawn mainly from religious edicts. Once the `brahmin question’ was settled, then naturally came the divisions within the non-brahmin segments. The `Periyar factor’ and the post-Independence socio-economic reforms, particularly during the chief ministership of the late K Kamarajar has since ensured the spread of education to all social grades, economic well-being and consequent social awareness among the lower strata of the non- brahmin segments Later with the influence and charisma of Kamaraj, even his own community in South Tamilnadu began to switch over from Self-Respect Movement to enmass support to Congress movement in the late stages of freedom struggle and then during Congress Rule in the state. The evolution of Legendry Mass Leader of Poor: K. Kamarajar was humble and poor in a backward area . He belonged to one of the most depressed castes of Hindu society. His schooling lasted only six years. He was barely fifteen when he heard of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre which was the turning point in his life. Kamaraj became an able organiser in mobilizing people for public meetings addressed by patriots to take the people from Self Respect aspects to national mainstream. Appreciating his skill, Satyamurthi took him under his fold. He worked hard for the cause of the freedom movement, unmindful of his personal comfort or career. He was eighteen when he responded to the call of Gandhiji for non-cooperation with the British. He carried on propaganda in the villages, raised funds for Congress work and took a leading part in organising meetings. A pre-Independence party like the Congress which had nothing to offer to its cadres exceptsuffering and imprisonment under the British rule, became the home for Kamaraj. In April 1930, Kamarajar joined the Salt Satyagraha Movement at Vedaranyam and he spent most of his youth in jail. He grew fond of books and through interactions with intellectuals in prison Kamarajar developed his leadership skills that proved a valuable asset to him as an administrator in later years of his life. Kamarajar was elected President of the Tamilnad Congress Committee in February 1940. He held that post till 1954. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946, and later to Parliament in 1952. On 30 March 1954, Kamaraj took up as the new chief minister of Madras State (today’s Tamil Nadu) supplanted C Rajagopalachari (1879-1972), the intellectual Brahmin nationalist and last governor general of India . The Legendry unselfish noble statesman During his tenure as Chief Minister, Kamarajar was as corpulent and rustic as Rajagopalachari was ascetic and urbane though Kamaraj knew little English since he had left school as a boy. This transition from one highly educated leader namely Rajaji to another humble and lowly educated Kamarj suggested that India’s encounter with democracy might be more than a flirtation. But what turned out to be other way was the Golden Socio-politcal progress for entire Tamilnadu under the ruling period of Kamarajar. But Kamaraj was not in high position as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu in easy environment, which was infact very turbulent due to certain section of people taking up anti-Hindi agitations and Dravidian Movement as the main agenda to tackle Congress Government. To compare the situation of the conditions of then Madaras state, in contrast, as it happened, a democratic endeavour came apart within weeks in neighbouring Pakistan . In East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh ), the aged AK Fazlul Huq led a united front to a big victory in provincial elections in March. He formed a government that lasted only two months before its secessionist-sounding rhetoric provoked its dis-missal by the central government in West Pakistan . The situation in South India (espeically Madaras state) was different, but the social and linguistic diversity out of which Kamaraj rose had some similarities. Though the Congress Party had not done well in Madras in the general elections of 1951-2. Rajagopalachari was able to form a government only with the support of independents and smaller parties. In addition, a resilient Dravidiastan movement which is basically anti-north, anti-upper caste, anti-Hindi movement campaigned for local autonomy or even a separate governing state, ill defined but possibly extending even to complete independence from Indian subcontinent. If Pakistan, why not Dravidistan (land of the southern peoples),was the question raised by few followers & supporters of Dravidian Movement which were essentially offshoot of Self-Respect Movement & Dravida Kazhagam started by E.V.R.Periyar. “A `battle for religion’ is on in Tamil Nad as then the Times of India reported, conoclasts relentlessly preaching godlessness and godfearing people urging … the need for piety and faith The din of this verbal “jehad†is heard even in the remote corners of the city [of Madras] as scores of lectures … are held daily at every available maidan or public auditorium either to denounce God or sing His praise. The provocateur was EV Ramaswami Naicker, who had founded the Dravadi Kazhagam with the main focus of anti-Brahmin or anit-Aryan organisation. In the face of above background in then Madaras Presidency, the rise of Kamarajar as a from-the son-of-the-soil leader, who “mobilized the masses†and renewed the roots of the Congress in the Tamil areas. He could easily suppress anti-Hindi feelings and anti-upper community movement with projection for mass educational programme and irrigational plans for every village of Tamilnadu, Kamarajar won two elections, held the chief minister-ship for nine years and became president of the Congress Party and the maker of two prime ministers after Nehru’s death. Keeping pace with Nehru’s visionary efforts at the national level,Kamarajar was instrumental in building many irrigation dams, Several institutions such as Tanjore Medical College , Several industries such as BHEL, linking the villages by all-weather roads and constructing hospitals in remote places. Today he is talked about for making primary education completely free. In fact, he felt that a major part of his life’s mission was fulfilled by this one act. Kamrajar had also introduced themid-day meal scheme for the poor students at school based on Annadhanam scheme practiced at several places of Tamilnadu. It helped arrest dropouts. It is now being replicated at the national level. But when he left Tamil politics to become president of the Congress Party in 1963, the Congress lost its base in society. After Kamarajar, the Congress did not win a state election again in Tamil Nadu. Dravida Kazhagam, that went on, in muted form after his ejection, to displace the Congress as the government of Tamil Nadu in 1967. One can observe the plain speaking Kamarjar as a political stone mason, tapping away at a piece of rock, listening and feeling for ways that it will slice or split. No one can ever eqaual the charisma of Kamaraj among the poor masses. Shri Kumarasamy Kamarajar who rejected the idea of entering into family to serve the people through political system of India in pre and post Independance era remained a high integrity personality in his lifetime without counting a penny. When the family elders put pressure on him to enter into matrimonial ties, he not only vowed to remain a brahmachari till the country is free of foreign rule and other economical shortcomings, he also made few more of his friends in his home town to swear to similar promises for the welfare of the nation. When people have ambitions of accumulating wealth, he refused to even allow his partymen to purchase the residence at Chennai where he we residing, as he feared any property in his name would lead to dispute among his relatives in the future. While he hails from a depressed community that gives a high importance to lavish food with varities of curry, Kamarajar preferred a simple diet without salt and spices and ensure he did not succumb to the taste of food to rule him. For this simple reason, he never invited anyone to dine with him at his residence where his food was prepared by his assistance. In the history of political world, no world leader can match to this noble statemanship of Kamarajar. The Tamil community cannot dream of one more political leader to the selfless stature of Kamaraj arising from the state in the near future. He lead a simple personal life based on Gandhian values and upheld the Gandhian values while his ruling in Tamilnadu and later when he was heading the Congress in New Delhi . Later even when Kamaraj had to lose his political power in TamilNadu and sit in the opposition, he still remained a respected national figure both among his colleagues and opponents. Kamaraj died of a massive heart attack on October 02,1975. But the one that came from Justice Krishna Iyer said it all: A common man with an uncommon common sense. The saga of beneficiaries post- Kamaraj period in tamilnadu continue to be limited to previleged and high profiled personalities connected to business and film industries who can manipulate million to billions and trillions and were essentially the offshoot of Self Respect Movement and the ealier Justicve Party in the various political formats. No son-of-the-soil leader from Tamil country of subsequent generation, has the capacity and capability to mobilize the poor masses in the right mass need based economical and socio-political direction for the betterment of this state and the country
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 08:56:06 +0000
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