The politics of caste in Tamilnadu – The journey of Dr.Ramadoss and Thol. Thirumavalavan (Part – 1) For hundreds of years caste has determined our people’s way of life, their ideologies and beliefs. Even in today’s modern world when urbanization and globalization of our society brought so many modern tools, we use the same modern tools to sustain the divisive caste in different forms. Matrimonial websites and classifieds in even Marxist leaning newspapers continue to promote caste in caste’s own Sanctum sanctorum which is marriage. When caste cannot be broken in the marriage the chances of it getting broken elsewhere appears remote. Popular Tamil journalist and columnist Gnani Sankaran righteously called for a campaign against the tools that promote modern day casteism such as Matrimony websites. There are “n” number of matrimonial websites which first started as Tamil Matrimony and went on to become Vanniyar Matrimony, Mudaliar Matrimony and so on. In the modern Chennai where cookie cutter apartments are raising every day, builders are building apartments only for a particular caste and didn’t feel shy about giving ads in the newspapers and other popular media calling for only a particular caste. Caste went global when Tamils migrated from Tamilnadu to distant lands such as America. Caste only functions such as Kongu Pongal were organized even in America (kongu.us/mandram/) where American law proclaims equality despite of color, nationality or ethnicity. It seems that even in modern world and modern society Tamils can never win over the caste malaise which is inherent in the Tamil society. Even this modern facebook tool is used to promote caste and people like our group are using the same tool to oppose caste. Caste was inherent part of the society for the all the wrong reasons for hundreds of years. Caste is so influential in the Tamil society that it even determined the ideological leanings. Except for few rare people like Mr. Chinnakuthoosi Thiyagarajan Dravidian movement’s ideology forced majority of Tamil Brahmins to Indian Nationalism and left wing Brahmins to Communism. Left leaning Brahmin intellects used communism to project that class is the problem in the society when Dravidian movement was projecting that caste is the problem with Brahmins at the top of the caste hierarchy. Brahmins accused the Dravidian movement as a movement of Non-Brahmin upper class elites. Right wing Brahmins promoted Indian jingoism to negate the Dravidian movement’s Dravidanadu separatism. Though Dravidian movement proclaimed themselves as representing the Non-Brahmin castes the fact of the matter is Dravidian movement mostly represented the upper castes among the Non-Brahmin castes. The downtrodden sections of the backward castes and Dalits went largely unrepresented by the Dravidian movement. The reservation meant for the other backward classes were largely enjoyed by the upper castes. As a result the most downtrodden sections of the society felt that the Dravidian movement and the Dravidian political parties such as DMK and AIADMK are not catering to their needs. ********* In 1980 Vanniyar Sangam was formed by Dr.Ramadoss to fight for a separate reservation for Vanniyars. In North Tamilnadu the Vanniyar community felt that its aspirations for rightful reservation in Education and Jobs are being overlooked by the Dravidian movement and political parties. North Tamilnadu comprises many backward districts of Tamilnadu with predominately Vanniyar and Dalit population. With very few job opportunities there was an active Naxal movement in the North Tamilnadu during 1980s. North Tamilnadu was also a hotbed of Tamil Nationalism. The Cashew forests of North Tamilnadu was the home to movements such as Tamilnadu Liberation Army (TNLA). These movements predominately had Vanniyars in its rank and file. There was a desperate need for Educational and Job opportunities as poverty was rampant in North Tamilnadu during that time. Dr.Ramadoss felt a need for Educational quota to overcome the poverty that was prevalent in those time. Hence Vanniyar Sangam’s single point agenda was reservation for Vanniyars. Vanniyar Sangam demanded 20% quota for Vanniyars in Tamilnadu and 2% in the central government jobs. Vanniyars who were in various political parties were consolidated under one umbrella called Vanniyar Sangam. Dr.Ramadoss focused mainly on getting the reservation for Vanniyars. Hence Vanniyar Sangam quickly grew in strength. In 1987 Vanniyar Sangam launched one week road blocking agitation demanding 20% reservation in Tamilnadu. This agitation hit national headlines as the road transport from South Tamilnadu to Chennai was completed blocked. There were shootings by the police to quell the agitation in which more than 10 agitating Vanniyars were killed. The success of this agitation put Dr.Ramadoss in firm control of the Vanniyar community. He was respected as a leader who was committed to the upliftment of the Vanniyars. In the early days Vanniyar Sangam was against entering the electoral politics. Dr.Ramadoss even called for boycotting the 1989 Assembly elections. There was a mass boycott of elections by Vanniyars in 1989. Though the election boycott was a success Vanniyar Sangam realized that it is not going anywhere with its demand of 20% reservation for Vanniyars. After nearly a decade of various agitations and more than 10 lost lives, the reservation for Vanniyars appeared a distant dream. Dr.Ramdoss came to a conclusion that starting a political party is the only way to get the quota for Vanniyars and hence PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi) was born in July 1989. In the January of 1989 Mr.M.Karunanidhi became Chief Minister again after being out of power for nearly 13 years. The demise of Mr.M.G.Ramachandran(MGR) created a political vacuum in the state and the AIADMK split into two. Ms.Jayalalitha was heading one faction and the other faction was led by MGR’s widow Mrs.Janaki Ramachandran. With the split of AIADMK, DMK romped to power after 13 years. In the same year when PMK was launched, Karunanidhi saw PMK as a threat to his Vanniyar votebank. Karunanidhi who is known for his shrewd political games, created a separate 20% Most Backward Class quota which included Vanniyars and other castes to negate the influence of PMK over Vanniyars. Vanniyar Sangam’s decade long major battle was won with the first electoral political move of forming PMK. In the next couple of decades the 20% reservation for Vanniyars helped the Vanniyar community to improve its education and economic wealth. Many in the Vanniyar community who enjoyed the benefits of quota owe their allegiance to Dr.Ramadoss. Dr.Ramdoss is a larger-than-life personality for many in the Vanniyar community. ********* While, Vanniyars were fighting for reservation, Dalits also felt that they were not represented by the Dravidian movement and the Dravidian political parties. Untouchability was rampant and the Dravidian movement did very little to stop the caste discrimination against Dalits. In fact it was left to the active Naxal movement who made stern efforts to stop the caste discrimination against Dalits. In North Tamilnadu the TNLA leader Mr.Tamilarasan who himself was a Vanniyar by caste made a novel approach by asking Vanniyars to bring rice and paruppu to Dalit houses and cook food and eat with the Dalits. Dalits were also invited to Vanniyar villages to cook food and eat with Vanniyars. These kind of stern methods against catesim did yield results to overcome the caste discrimination which was otherwise overlooked by the Dravidian movement and Dravidian political parties. In 1989 Thirumavalavan became the leader of Dalit Panthers of India (DPI). Thirumavalavan himself is of the opinion that Dravidian movement’s vote bank politics and its appeasement of the oppressor was the cause for the continued Dalit oppression (TALISMAN - Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation by Thirumaavalavan). Thirumavalavan says further in his book “TALISMAN - Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation” as below “It can be said that these parties (DMK & ADMK) have changed to a direction against Periyarism, particularly because the oppressive forces that commit castesist atrocities against the Dalit people exert power over both these parties. In this situation, the faith on the Dravidian parties has been removed and it has become an inevitable necessity for the Dalit people to independently rise and dare to assert themselves as a political force” While Thirumavalavan had a favorable opinion of Periyar many Dalit intellects didn’t share the same. Dalit intellects such as Mr.Ravikumar (Writer and Leader of VCK) accused that “Periyar was someone who was jealous of the constitutional safeguards that were given to the dalits” He went on to say “Periyar was not the leader of all Tamils. He worked solely for the cause of the non-Brahmin upper castes”. This accusation stunned the Tamil intellectual community. It was also alleged that Periyar overlooked the Kizhavenmani Dalit massacre as one orchestrated by the Communists rather than to condemn the massacre. Kizhavenmani Dalit massacre was a shocking episode in the long history of caste discrimination in Tamilnadu in which 42 striking Dalits who demanded higher wages were burnt to death for striking against the landlords. When Thirumavalavan became the leader of Dalit Panthers of India (DPI) in 1989 he changed DPI into a militant Dalit movement. The birth centenary of Dr.B.R. Ambedkar resulted in the mobilization of Dalits across India and Tamilnadu is no different. Dalit assertion has just begun. Thirumavalavan called on Dalits to resist oppression. He also called them to “Hit Back” at the oppressors. Thirumavalavan along with Dr.K.Krishnaswamy emerged as two major Dalit leaders leading the Dalit assertion. Thirumavalavan though started doing grassroots level work in South Tamilnadu, he moved his base to North Tamilnadu in the Mid 1990s. DPI garnered huge support among the Dalits of North Tamilnadu and DPI’s message also resonated with the Dalits. Dalits who until now were submissive with their oppressors started asserting themselves with pride and self-respect. DPI was against the electoral politics and continued to boycott elections until 1998. However in 1998 DPI which was renamed as Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) entered the electoral politics. Two major communities Vanniyar and Dalits both of them felt letdown by the Dravidian movement and Dravidian political parties, found their own political path (This is a first of a series of articles on Dr.Ramadoss and Thol. Thirumavalavan. We will look into the stormy alliance of PMK and VCK in our next article)
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 05:49:54 +0000
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