Fifty years on, the Dravidian juggernaut continues to roll

Half-a-century has passed since the DMK became the first regional party to be voted to power in the country defeating the Congress and relegating it to the periphery of Tamil Nadu’s politics.

It was on February 23, 1967, that the DMK, led by its founder C.N. Annadurai, won 138 of the 173 seats it contested in the Assembly elections. The party also bagged 25 Lok Sabha seats.

Reacting to the victory, Annadurai had said, “The people wanted something solid and substantial instead of only promises. The people found that the slogan of democratic socialism of Congress ill-fitted with the structure of the party. They found the present day Congress members self-seekers, black marketeers and people who had nothing to do with Congress principles or policy.”

For the DMK itself, the victory was a surprise as party leader M. Karunanidhi recalled in his autobiography ‘Nenjukku Neethi’ saying, “No one expected that the Congress, as solid as a mountain, will be dislodged and the DMK, ridiculed as a State party, will attain the status of a ruling party.”

‘An incredible victory’

According to AIADMK spokesperson Panruti S. Ramachandran, who as a 30-year-old won from the Panruti constituency and became the chairman of the Assembly Estimate Committee, Annadurai thought the DMK would win somewhere between 82 and 90 seats. “When we told him that we are going to win the election, he could not believe our words,” he recalled.

“The downtrodden section of the society threw its weight behind the DMK as it strongly believed that only a Dravidian party could represent its interest. The Congress was seen as a party of bus owners, landlords and the rich,” said K. Thirunavukkarasu, historian of the Dravidian Movement.

Even though the Congress government had many achievements to its credit, its leaders failed to sell Kamaraj’s development politics. “The DMK leaders spoke in a language that the captured the imagination of the layman while the Congress indulged in outdated narrative,” said Mr. Thirunavukkarasu.

A thing called pride

R. Kannan, biographer of Annadurai, agreed. “The Congress had greatly underestimated Tamil pride, cultural resurgence and Tamilness. The DMK spoke in a new idiom of Tamil glory, prosperity and power. They handled Tamil as a language like never before,” he said.

The stage and films in the era of rural electrification took the DMK and its leaders and policies to the nooks and crannies of the State. On the one hand, the DMK had formed an alliance comprising an extreme right wing party like the Swatantra, and on the other, the CPI(M), representing the Left.

“There were a whole lot of issues including anti-Hindi agitation that worked in DMK’s favour. But the tipping point was the shooting of MGR by M.R. Radha,” said Mr. Ramachandran.

Asked about the charge that the Dravidian movement was responsible for degeneration of politics, Mr. Kannan said India’s public life had consistently degenerated since Independence and it was unfair to blame the Dravidian movement alone.