TN Elections: Which Alliance Can SalvageThe Legacy Of MGR And Kamaraj? 

Dravidian politics has used the sufferings of scheduled communities (SC) as a rhetorical weapon against Hinduism, more specifically against Brahmins. If one considers the way Dravidian and Marxist ideologues write about inhuman events like the one which happened in ‘Thinniyam’ where human feces was forced into the mouth of a man of SC community, or the increasing killings of SC boys who marry non-SC (mostly MBC, OBC) girls, the conclusion would be that it is all because of Hindu fundamentalism. Yet, a closer look at all these happenings reveal that they occur in communities which are under the stranglehold of Dravidian parties.

DMK patronized the land-holding non-Brahmin castes in Tamil Nadu. It was under their regime that one of the most gruesome massacre of SC communities happened in Tamil Nadu. Subsequently, DMK also spearheaded a covert drive to promote non-SC communities’ recruitment drive in both the police and judiciary. Unlike the previous Congress government under Kamaraj, which promoted harmonious relations, the DMK pitted community against community and polarized the society for electoral gains.

The DMK’s anti-Hindu and caste-vote bank rhetoric in electoral battle is narrated by a historian of coastal communities - Joe Tamilchelvan. In the 1969 by-election, the ex-Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, K.Kamaraj stood in Nagercoil parliamentary constituency against one Dr.Mathias. In this election, both DMK and Muslim League campaigned against Kamaraj. Mr.M.Karunanithi, the DMK supremo pointed out the religion of Kamaraj : “One is an immigrant alien Nadar and other is our own indigenous Nadar. One person worships Shiva but the other Nadar worships the cross. So the people of Nagercoil should vote in the indigenous Nadar.”

As if on cue, an association called ‘Christian Nadar Federation’ issued an advertisement in a prominent English newspaper dated 8-Oct-1968, condemning the fielding of a Hindu Nadar (Kamaraj) in a constituency dominated by Christian Nadars. Such communal polarization formed the life blood of Dravidian politics.

As against the Dravidian politics, Kamaraj always went for creating harmonious relations between communities in Tamil Nadu. He cared specially for the SC community. Kakkan, an SC member of his ministry was given the important portfolios like Home affairs and Agriculture. Kamaraj’s zest for the social justice in the society was equally matched by his ardent opposition to the Dravidian racial caricature of Hinduism. He drafted a new Dramatic Performance Act and got it passed in the Madras Legislative Assembly to legally curtail the racist hate propaganda DMK was indulging in against Ramayana. In a famous speech during Indo-Pak war, he compared the way Indian troops moved to the way troops moved in the battle field of Kurukshetra.

Another great social reformer politician as well as spiritual seer of Tamil Nadu was Swami Sahajananda. He was the MLA from Chidambaram constituency and he advocated education fo children of the SC community. He was one of the greatest educationists produced by Tamil Nadu. Unfortunately personalities like Kakkan and Swami Sahajananda have been forgotten by the Congress which eschewed these leaders and their ideology after Indira’s grip tightened in the party.

After Kamaraj, perhaps the only leader who attempted such harmonious relationships between various communities was M.G.Ramachandran. Under his regime, the communal forces were kept at bay. He had openly shown his concern for Hindus and worried about the demography change in the state with Hindus alone being swayed by the propaganda for planned families. Interestingly it was the midday meals scheme of both Kamraj and MGR which made Tamil Nadu stand as one of forerunners in the human development indicators in Tamil Nadu. If Kamaraj tried to curtail anti-Hindu propaganda legally, MGR tried to legally stop forced and fraudulent conversions. The idea was first mooted by Justice Venugopal commission which was set up by his government to study the communal riots in Kanyakumari district.

Unfortunately, in the decades after MGR, both the Dravidian parties forgot his and Kamaraj’s contribution in nurturing harmonious relations between communities. Instead, virulent hate campaigns were unleashed against the so-called ‘caste Hindu’ communities among SCs.

Sundara Ramaswamy, a famous Tamil writer once recorded how in a Christian hostel, he saw SC students being taught some songs. These songs abused those who use the name ‘Harijan’ as dogs. Similarly, Dravidian parties and Kollywood created an heroic image of caste purity and violence in the so-called ‘middle level castes’. Graphic imagery of violence attributed to these castes was glorified in mass Kollywood propaganda throughout 1990s. All these have created a completely caste-based, fractured Hindu society in Tamil Nadu. Dr Ambedkar’s critique of Hindu community being ‘communal majority but not political majority’ is well represented by the Hindus of Tamil Nadu.

If the caste violence and communal hatred are to disappear and communal harmony is to be re-established then Tamil Nadu urgently needs an ideological front that can rediscover and update the legacy of Kamaraj and MGR. Both the parties which use the names of these leaders have strayed away from their vision. Worse, the Congress today has reinvented itself as a pro-Dravidian anti-Hindu party - the very antithesis of the ideology Kamaraj stood for.

Who can really carry forward the legacy of these leaders? If there is one alliance in Tamil Nadu that is the inheritor of the legacy of Kamaraj it is National Democratic Alliance (NDA). After all Kamaraj was one of the leaders who led the National Democratic Front of which Bharatiya Jan Sangh and Swatantra Party were the members. In 1969, 91-year old Rajaji began his last great effort to create a genuine strong democratic front to battle the anti-democratic Congress of Indira. In 1970, he came up with a grand coalition which consisted of Swatantra, Congress (O) and Jan Sangh. And it was Congress(O) under the leadership of Kamaraj which supported this move, calling it ‘the consolidation of national democratic forces’.

Question is, do the Tamil Nadu NDA leaders realize their own historical importance and heritage in Tamil Nadu? They have to carry forward the mantle of Rajaji, Kamaraj and MGR. If Tamil Nadu desires a prosperous, vibrant social democracy then it is time we put an end to communal vote bank politics and politics of anti-Hindu rhetoric in the name of social justice. Tamil Nadu progressed whenever it did that. Tamil Nadu became a den of corruption and violence whenever it succumbed to the opiate of Dravidian ideology. Do the voters of Tamil Nadu realize that?