Dravidar Kazhagam

Dravidar Kazhagam or Dravida Kazhagam (Dravidian Organization) was the first fully Dravidian party in India. It was a radical party formed by E.V.Ramaswamy Naicker also called Periyar (the Big one) of erstwhile Madras Presidency. Its original goals were to eradicate the ills of the society that existed at that time including untouchability and on a grander scale to obtain a "Dravida Nadu" or Dravidian nation mainly from the Madras Presidency. The founders were motivated by theories that the Brahmins (who were thought of by them as of the north) and Aryans were wreaking havoc on the local Dravidian populace. The DK thus became the first fully Dravidian party and would in turn give birth to many other Dravidian parties like the DMK and AIADMK over the course of time.

Origins

The roots of the DK lie in the Self Respect Association, dominated by its charismatic leader, E.V. Ramaswami Naicker (popularly known as Periyar). Periyar formed the Self Respect Association in the mid-1920s, breaking in the process from the Congress party of which he had been a member until then. The Self Respect Association represented "non-Brahmins". The non-Brahmin community was defined in different ways - sometimes to include all South Indians other than Brahmins, but sometimes mainly the middle castes (which came to be called the `other backward classes' after India became independent). The South Indian Liberal Federation (also called the Justice Party) was an elite organization, formed in 1916, which also claimed to promote non-Brahmin interests. The Self Respect Association and the Justice Party were merged in 1938 under Periyar's leadership. The name of this party was changed to the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) in 1944, at the same time that the party was more formally organised. The DK opposed Brahmin social, political and ritual dominance, and aimed to form a separate country of Dravida Nadu, to include either all of South India or the predominantly Tamil-speaking regions. Its sharp opposition to religion, especially Brahminical Hinduism, was not widely popular. Dravidian ideology is based on rabid anti-Brahminism, and is anti-Sanskrit and anti-North India. However, it never became a full-fledged political party by choice; instead, it prefers to be a cultural movement and a pressure group leaving active politics to its progeny, DMK and AIADMK.

Work

The work of the DK largely centered around removing untouchability, opposing the Brahmins and Aryans often through violent methods, denouncing Hindu Gods and Goddesses, seeking to educate people on superstitions and ignorance as well as women's liberation. The workers of DK were often quite visible as they wore black shirts and white dhotis. The party was very much opposed to Hindi as well as all Northern traditions seen as maligning the south and its unique culture.It continues to remove doubts in astrology.

Controversies

The Party was well known for its hardline approach to fight for the Dravidian rights and was often involved in mass attempts to change the system outright. One such incidence involved bringing in Dalits into the sanctum sanctorum and asking Brahmin priests to preach in Tamil instead of Sanskrit. During Indian Independence in 1947, the party became infamous for hoisting its black and red flag instead of the Indian flag symbolising the "age of darkness" as Periyar viewed Independence as further subjugation by the Brahmin-Bania combine. In spite of DK's alleged efforts to root out untouchability and casteism, Tamil Nadu has one of the highest incidences of extreme caste discrimination, caste riots and the resultant loss of lives and property in India. This the critics say is due to DK's excusive reliance on whipping up Brahmin hatred and encouraging caste feelings by supporting caste-based reservations in education and employment. By connecting all the ills of Tamil society to the presence of Brahmins, it has not developed any intelligent analysis of society and consequently, its ideas and actions are dysfunctional and sterile.

Decline and split

As the party gained prominence, many in the party wanted to contest in the elections and gain power through democratic means. Among these were Annadurai and Karunanidhi. However, E.V.R. refused to think on those lines as he felt that power could achieve little and that a hands-on approach would always be more direct. Moreover, many felt that a greater Dravida Nadu was impossible and even Periyar resigned to the fact that even an independent Tamil Nadu would be a remarkable achievement. With a straining relationship in the organization, E.V.R., supreme leader of the party, committed what many viewed as a blunder. Despite his ideals of women's liberation, at the old age of 70, he married a girl in her twenties, his junior. Furthermore, he began to give more power and control to her and is even reported to have said that she would be his successor. This enraged the veterans of the party who broke up and formed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, later winning the elections in Tamil Nadu. Since then the party slid into decline though it was later headed by Veeramani and continues its existence today as a ghost of the past. The DK was not very successful in its aims to help the backward-castes. "In fact, a few days ago I had come here with the intention of opposing you and stopping your aclivities since all of our DK workers are upset about your starting the Sangh in our village. But when I saw that boys of the agraharam (Brahmin locality) and those from the Harijan mohallas are freely mingling and playing together with joy and enthusiasm and behaving just as the children of a single family, I was totally disarmed. I felt that our founder, Periyar (E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker) too had dreamt exactly of a similar casteless society. Whereas we of the DK have failed to achieve it, you have been silently succeeding in realising his dream. Hence my good wishes and sweets to you."

Legacy

The organization despite its ultimate demise laid the foundation for further Dravidian involvement into politics. It singularly enthused a new Dravidian spirit that later on led to the formation of many parties in the southern states that would eventually challenge the Indian National Congress stranglehold. Though it failed to achieve its grandiose idea of an independent Dravidian nation, it fostered a spirit of unity amongst the Dravidians, especially in Tamilians who continue to oppose Hindi to this day. Its influence is especially felt in Tamil Nadu where since 1967, only the Dravidian parties have won the assembly elections.

While it can be said that DK was instrumental in lessening the importance of Brahmins on Tamil society escpecially in politics and administration, ultimately that was due to the ideas of equality and equal opportunity adopted by the Indian Constitution and the entire educated and political classes which wield influence. DK was only a reflection of the larger social ideas and forces which ploughed upside down the traditional Hindu and Indian attitudes.