Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Election fever picking up with Parliament elections around the corner. Stakes are high for both BJP and Congress, the two big national parties. Last year, 2018, Assembly elections have shown a power shift at State’s level, BJP lost power in few states, Congress did do well compared to previous election but they just scraped through with few additional seats to hit the half way mark. Story on economy front is mixed bag depending on whom you believe, government reports that keep getting updated every other day or from the grounds. Whether BJP can get a sweep like 2014? Will they lose the seat share but still get a majority or need to form a coalition to form the Government? Not clear at this time but looking at the news, there seems to be some mood shift. Regional Parties sense this and are working to form a third front. Don’t see a consensus yet whether they will align with Congress or go at it alone and decide post the election? Rhetoric and noise level slowly going up. Mandir is not in forefront yet. But it depends on pre-poll results and intelligence reports. If they are not in favor, be assured, BJP and its forces will ratchet up Mandir, Cow, and Beef. US and Them. Pakistan and Nationalism. No, erase that. Anti-national and Anti-Indian. Even if the polls are in favor of BJP, Mandir, Cow, Us and Them will play a key role in handful of states. It isn’t that Congress will keep quiet. They will peddle Soft-Hindutva to counter BJP’s hard Hindutva. It is going to get too personal, too nasty, and we haven’t seen the nadir yet.
This write-up is not about how Mandir, Cow, Us and Them, Pakistan, Nationalism will play out. This write-up is about Tamilnadu (TN) phenomena, which stands out compared to rest of India, where these issues and rhetoric doesn’t get votes (Yes, there is Kerala, I will cover that in future write-ups). When it comes to TN, both these parties hit a wall. What is special about TN? Why Mandir or Beef doesn’t make inroads in TN? Hindu-Us and Muslim-Them also doesn’t resonate in TN like it does in Northern states? When Hindus are in majority in TN also, Mandir and Cow should work in TN like in other states, correct? But so far it hasn’t. I have been pondering over this and given my thoughts. Is there an underlying reason? Is there a Tamil-psyche? I am sure there is more to it than what I called out here. When it comes to society, that too as diverse as our country, one size doesn’t fit all. Each state has its own psyche and dynamics based on history, social movements, leaders, dialogue that goes on among the population. Scope of this article is not about which party is good or which party one should vote for or win, it is more on deciphering ideas that drive people’s thoughts. ideas that has taken foothold in a region. Like genetics, ideas also get passed from generation to generation, think of ideas like Religion, Caste, Gods, Nation, State, etc. Similar to genetics, Ideas also follow the evolution principles.
When it comes to TN, both BJP and Congress face the challenge. Congress ruled TN after Independence till 1967. They got decimated in 1967 elections and post that they could never regain the power. Their manifesto stopped working and couldn’t come up with a manifesto so far that kindle the imagination of the population. They do have a % vote bank but in lower single digits. They have given up on TN and are happy with seats they get if one of the Dravidian parties align with them. Congress has made peace with that. BJP so far has been unsuccessful too. They did get one seat in 2014 Parliament elections, but their vote share remains in lower single digits also. Looking at the rhetoric that is going on in TN in last 2-3 years, post JJ’s death, BJP seems to be making a play for upcoming elections. Is it working? Will they be able to make inroads?
What happened in TN, similar to Kerala and few other Southern States, is that it underwent social revolution pre and post-independence before economic growth. Social upliftment that started in Kerala in 1920s with temple entry movement spread to TN. Multiple leaders joined hands in keeping the social revolution momentum going, that includes Gandhi, Rajaji, Periyar, Subramania Bharathi, and Anna. Unfortunately, Bharathi passed away at a young age. While all leaders contributed to the social revolution and need to be given their due credit, Periyar, E.V.Ramaswami, stands out in igniting the minds of population with his radical thoughts, rational approach, and discourse. Periyar’s ideological and organizational groundwork, laid the foundation for the power transition in 1967. Anyone who goes through his contributions from 1920s to till his death would know why his ideas have become a fathomable force to reckon with.
Along with idea of Periyar, from 1980s, idea of Ambedkar has taken strong roots in TN too. Post his death, similar to Gandhi, Ambedkar also got confined to photo frames relegated to just Father of Constitution. While both Gandhi and Ambedkar worked on multiple agendas, there has been effort to confine them to small box of The Guy who got us freedom and The Guy who wrote our Constitution without talking about the great contributions both made in other areas and ideas they lived for. But thanks to multiple chain of events, idea of Ambedkar started growing from 1980s across India and has become a dominant thought. In TN, things aligned with oppressed castes getting the required education and positions with reservation program, this educated generation latched on to idea of Ambedkar, and they have built a platform to make their voice heard, which wasn’t available earlier.
Compared to other social reformers of their time, Periyar and Ambedkar differed in one big way with their approach. Others tried to reform within the confines of Hinduism, like remove untouchability by saying everyone is equal in front of God and we are interpreting the Shastras incorrectly. But both Periyar and Ambedkar recognized that Hindus observe Caste not because they are inhuman or bad. They do it because they are deeply religious, their Gods and Shastras mold their beliefs and opinions. In their view, what is wrong is their religion, which has inculcated this notion of caste. Enemy we have to grapple with is not the people who observe Caste, but the Shastras which teach them this religion of Caste. They took on Gods, Shastras, and rituals, told the people they are being used to control the masses, maintain the caste hierarchy. Unless we denounce the Shastras and deny their authority, we can’t get rid of the caste. We can’t become a casteless society. For both Periyar and Ambedkar, not questioning the authority of Shastras, permit the people to believe in their sanctity and their sanctions, and then to blame the people and to criticize them for their acts as being irrational and inhuman, is an incongruous way of carrying on social reform. As per them, Shastras, not only need to be discarded, but denied their authority too, as did Buddha and Nanak. If god is omnipresent, then how is it that such cruelties as Caste hierarchy exist? Some castes should not go near the deity, enter the temples, while some others can touch the deity, wash it, cloth it?
Not only they questioned God and Religion, Periyar also put forth his thoughts and ideas on women’s liberty, constraints of marriage, and rights of widows. Periyar’s position is that there is no difference between men and women, setting aside the physical features, in sharpness of intellect or in qualities of courage and heroism. There are intellectuals, and stupid people in both men and women. With that in mind, it is unfair and cruel to continue to denigrate and enslave the female population. Male arrogance and wickedness which lead to women enslavement need to be abolished first for freedom and equality to register growth. He questioned the marriage as it is practiced and his advocacy of contraception is nothing but radical. Periyar considered marriage as it is practiced across the world, not merely in our country, subject women to unnaturally harsh treatment and society conceals the enslavement by calling marriage as divine and cover it with marriage rites. While others, including westerners, advocated contraception taking in to consideration many problems like health of the women, the health and energy of the children, the poverty of the country and the maintenance of the family property, Periyar advocated contraception for women to gain freedom.
B.R.Ambedkar, presenting the constitution to constituent assembly, put forth his views on hero-worship, political democracy without social and economic equality, and nation. No man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty. This caution is far more necessary in the case of India than in the case of any other country. For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero- worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship. As per Ambedkar, Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of its social democracy. Social democracy means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. There is complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. For Ambedkar, political democracy will be in danger if there is inequality in society. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. But in our social and economic life, by reason of our social and economic structure, we will continue to deny the principle of one man one value. If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy. As per him, castes are anti-national. In the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. Sooner we realize that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense of the world, the better for us. Else we are cherishing a great delusion.
Considering the time frame they lived, their thoughts and ideas are nothing short of revolutionary. Both Periyar and Ambedkar were in forefront of various protests in their respective states. Both communicated to the people with their speeches and prolific writings. Their rational and logical approach captured the imagination of many, they had huge following and that continues even today.
In TN, ideas of Periyar and Ambedkar continue to be dominant thoughts and part of the discourse. This is not to say, TN has become a casteless society or full of rational thinking people. Far from it. Even Dravidian parties don’t have representative participation from every community, they are skewed towards few dominant castes. Majority of TN population is still God fearing and religious, believe in superstitions, follow caste distinctions and discrimination. Dropping the name of Periyar in a gathering, you will get multiple reactions, a group that will be very angry at him, another would agree with his message but won’t approve of his aggressive approach, third would agree with his casteless society but not atheism, and fourth would agree with his views but find it inconvenient to move out of social caste framework. Small percentage practice what these two envisioned.
Where TN differs is that there are platforms that have come up for oppressed people to make their voices heard. TN bureaucracy has fair representation from across the society. From Dravidian years by S.Narayan: “Government recruitment from the backward, most backward, and Dalit castes ensured that the structure of the bureaucracy underwent a change. Several of the new personnel were from non-urban areas and could understand village-level conditions. In administration, at the level of the lower rung of police and revenue authorities, the representation of Dalits and other backward classes was more marked. The mere introduction of recruitment based on numerical strengths of the communities in society ensured that forward caste representation in new appointments went down drastically, while opportunities for backward castes and for Scheduled Castes and Tribes increased significantly. The proportion of Brahmins recruited into government jobs became smaller in tune with their proportion in the population. As a result, the number of entrants into government jobs became much more representative of the diversity of classes and castes in the population. This was a very significant change. It brought to fruition the proportional representation. At the same time, it brought into government people from different backgrounds and aspirations as well as from small towns and rural areas. This was, and continues to be, a very important step forward in ensuring social balance in State administration and is instrumental in delivering the social welfare and social benefit services in succeeding administrations.” TN bureaucracy is on top 5 in the country when it comes to social services delivery. To give the due credit to Dravidian parties they did implement social welfare policies that benefited the weaker and oppressed sections of TN. What they didn’t continue with is to work towards casteless society and social equality.
Thanks to reservation, oppressed section presence has gone up in multiple fields. Specifically, silence is broken with their improved presence in media, both print and visual. There is increased representation in literature, magazines, newspapers, TV channels, and movie industry. Someone from outside will get puzzled with all kinds of caste and religion-based parties, and noise that come along with it, but I consider that organic and evolutionary growth and helps in voices getting heard and debates to happen in open. People still are not willing to give up their caste and privileges that come along with it, but thanks to the voices and increased representation, there are forces to counter the superiority feeling or religious extreme narratives to take foothold. This has made it hard for someone to live in echo chamber in TN. You really need to try hard to confine yourself in an echo chamber by restricting yourself to selected social media groups, media channels and friends circle. Not easy considering the fact that even famous and well-respected magazines provide space for counter views. Same with Tamil news channels, yes few of them are party mouth pieces, but overall putting them together with Thanthi TV, and Puthia Talaimurai media outlets, anyone willing to venture out will get a counter view that you don’t get with English news channels. Ignoring the percentage of population who hold and harbor extreme views, who will never change their position, I think (or rather hoping) it is in single digit percentage, rest of the population make their call listening to multiple narratives, go through some amount of thought process to take a position (being neutral is a position too). My take is, this thought process they go through has some influence from Periyar and Ambedkar, influence will vary based on their upbringing but nevertheless they need to cross that barrier. This, I consider, forms the major percentage and big area under the bell curve in TN. Without getting in to right or wrong, what is important and interesting is that those in power and society are forced to listen and consider multiple points of view.
Are there data points to support this? Both central and state policies get questioned with an angle on social equality like NEET, Beef ban, or 10% EWS quota. Beef ban faced high resistance in TN (in Kerala too), and TN got the stay from Madurai High court. We don’t see cow vigilantes in TN. On 10% EWS quota, while DMK voted against, ADMK abstained from voting (they spoke against it in Parliament but abstained rather than voting against due to alliance compulsions). Anti-Indian or Anti-National narrative doesn’t excite or swing the population in TN. 15 years back no one would have openly pointed out undercurrents in music academy. They are being openly discussed and debated in news channels and print media. Yes, music is still divided based on caste but let’s take heart in the fact that it is being debated now and we get to see a movie like Sarvam Taala Mayam. Thanks to the movements, we changed the vocabulary from Gaurava kolai (honor killing) to Aanava Padukolai (Arrogant Killing) in Tamil (English media still continues to use the term Honor Killing. It is time to coin a new term to convey the real horror of the act). Aanava Padukolai still happens, but what changed now is they get called out and victims have become activists taking the movement forward. Kollywood underwent a huge change in last 10 years or so which is very heartening. Ten years back there was no platform for a movie like Pariyerum Perumal (PP). Now PP not only is critically acclaimed but got a wider release. Add to this Kaakka Muttai, Madras, Merku Thodarchi Malai, Kabali, Kaala, Kanaa, where social democracy is either the main theme or undercurrent. Yes, TN has its share of movie ban protests and book bans, like Mercel, Sarkar, and Madhorubagan, but we can take heart in the fact that in all those episodes they survived with the support or won it in courts. What this means is that, TN society is yet to fully understand and appreciate Freedom of Expression, how Periyar and Ambedkar constructively debated their views during their time.
Where am I going with this? My observation is that Periyar and Ambedkar thoughts have taken roots in TN. They have become part of the narrative. Any party that likes to do business in TN has to acknowledge these two guys and call out where they stand on these two guys’ ideas. BJP knows this, need to be given credit for the same, they have figured out Hindu-Muslim, Cow, and Mandir will not give them a mileage in TN. They are also figuring out anti-Indian or anti-National rhetoric doesn’t make a dent in TN. So they have picked up Hindu-Periyar narrative last 2-3 years. Periyar was against Hinduism and Hindu Gods. With the assumption that this will move some percentage of Hindus to their side. Will this help them to increase their vote percentage from 5.5 % in 2014 Parliament election and 2.86% in 2016 Assembly elections? Only upcoming elections will tell us. But what can be seen is the resistance they get, not just from opposition parties but from print, TV, and online media. I don’t know whether their behavior will add to the national narrative and get votes, but what I can say for sure is it has made the current TN generation to read about Periyar and Ambedkar, made the movements to come to forefront again. Children born post 1980s would have gone without paying much attention to Periyar and Ambedkar. Thanks to extreme forces, this generation is getting interested in these two personalities. Just visualize, an educated and working women getting to read Periyar’s writings on Penn Yen Adimaiyanal (English: How women got enslaved)? Their minds would be blown away to know, here was this person who advocated freedom for women similar to what men enjoy in 1930s. Or a student who is curious about caste and its origins hear the beautiful articulation of graded inequality of caste, how this graded inequality makes people in a layer in the caste hierarchy feel superior to layers below them, violence inherent in this superiority feeling, and how this privileged feeling makes this inhuman system survive even after 1500+ years. by Ambedkar.
One thing that hasn’t happened yet is Periyar and Ambedkar movements to join forces and come together. I do see them on the same platform but they operate in parallel. There is some amount of distrust on the leaders of Dravidian parties by Ambedkar followers, they don’t see an alignment with casteless society goal. This can be alleviated only if Dravidian parties work towards increasing the proportional representation of castes and class in key positions in their parties. It would be really great if they join forces since it will function as an effective opposition and counter balance to religious extremist forces.
References:
1. Annihilation of Caste by B.R.Ambedkar
2. Makers of Modern India: Edited and Introduced by Ramachandra Guha
3. Dr. Ambedkar’s last speech in the Constituent Assembly on adoption of the Constitution