Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao
Though the Tamil Nadu state elections are scheduled for early 2026, the vote bank consolidation efforts started early with all the parties positioning for the scheduled caste and tribes vote, as those communities make up 21% of the state’s voters and their votes which were hitherto split into different groups is in ‘path of unity’ this time around, hence a worrying point for all the parties, especially to the ruling DMK. Hence the scramble to get early commitment from the Dalit voters to their parties through inducements, promises and also expression of regrets for the past failures to keep up their promises to the Dalit communities.
Tamil Nadu which proclaims the legacy of social reforming Dravid movement and DMK, currently in power, claims to be the inheritor of Periyar Ramaswamy’s ‘self-respect’ movement is under attack for its exploitative Dalit centric politics. That Dravidian movement was primarily anti-Brahmin movement aimed at throwing away Brahmins from all fields in the state and it succeeded largely as the Brahmin community, both Ayyangars and Aiyars, left the Tamil areas post 1967 and settled in other metros and thence migrated to other American and European nations where their talents were suitably recognised and utilised. The loss was, in general to the state, while the gain was to the Dravidian political leaders.
It is a fact that the Dravidian self-respect movement helped some communities to gain the political power and entry into various fields including the government employment. But those first generations who gained by the ‘self-respect’ movement, primarily DMK cadre, consolidated their hold on the society and has not allowed the SC communities to be the beneficiaries of self-respect. In a move of great political significance, the DMK directed their ‘rationalism’ only against the Hindu society while encouraging the irrational practices in other faiths to consolidate the votes of them. Ever since they came to power the atheist DMK allowed the Church a free hand to convert the down trodden to Christianity and build a committed vote bank of SCs using the church leaders. The coastal Tamil Nadu is under the control of foreign funded church and that fact was exposed when anti- Kudamkulam atomic power plant was opposed through the missionary sponsored agitation. Thus a project of national importance got delayed and the country suffered. The Christian population in Tamil Nadu, as in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, is three to four times more than what it was there in the official records. The Dravidian parties, especially DMK, as a political tactic has encouraged the growth of the selected individual leaders of Scheduled caste communities, who are politically committed to the party, to grow economically and politically and through them suppressed the collective interest of the communities. Their one more political strategy was not to allow the consolidation of the SCs but to divide them in the name of groups. Thus, though the Dalits are 21% in total, their votes were split as Paraiyars (13%), Pallars (5%) and Arunthathiyars (3%).
Dalit population understood how the Dravidian parties played with them politically and what they were used as vote bank without caring for their ‘self-respect’. They also realised that the DMK is not allowing the BSP, which represents their castes at the national level, to gain foot hold in the state. The SC communities in the rural areas are terrorised and control the DMK middle level leaders and the practice of untouchability in various forms in Tamil Nadu, the state where DMK always speaks about self-respect, is reportedly very high. The influence of cinema medium on Tamil politics is well known and the same media being now used by the Dalit activists, connected with the cinema, to expose the unchanged status of Dalits under the DMK rule. Cine director Pa Ranjith through his Neelam Cultural Centre is spreading the silent Dalit assertion across the state of Tamil Nadu. The incidence where human faeces was mixed into the water tank which is supplying drinking water to the SC colonies and M.K. Stalin government feeble response in arresting the offenders seriously hurt the Dalit. The July 2024 murder of BSP leader K. Armstrong is a turning point in Dalit assertion political movement. The Dalit leaders in the DMK and other Dravidian parties are not taking the pro-community stand but are remaining as the subordinates to the top leadership of the party.
In this context, as SCs assertiveness gaining ground in Tamil Nadu their voting preference is turning crucial in coming elections and every party has started assuming the Dalit protector role to garner Dalit support through different ways. That Dalit vote is spread across the state and not concentrated in constituencies is a hindrance for their votes to influence substantially in the elections. Consolidation of Dalit vote is a major challenge for the community leaders and they are trying to overcome that through the social media messages not to commit to any party but to wait and respond to the community leaders’ call of tactical vote in selected constituencies to get their voice heard in the assembly.
Entry of cine hero Vijay into politics and speaking against the atrocities on Dalit in Tamil Nadu and “need for emancipation of those communities” has added new dimension in Dravidian politics. He declared ruling DMK as his political opponent and started taking pot shots at father-son duo administration which is primarily anti-Dalit as he claimed. His political stance has already attracted one functionary of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a party in alliance with ruling DMK. Vijay’s claim that “DMK alliance will not be the same in numbers and composition as the elections approach” is a warning to CM Stalin and his son Udayanidhi Stalin. Dr B R Ambedkar’s death anniversary function on December 6th was successfully utilised by Vijay with the book release on Ambedkar in Tamil. Vijayan, unlike a typical Tamil Nadu politician, is not vocal in his speeches but delivering enough political punches in his speeches. Quoting from the official records Vijayan is accusing the current DMK ruling at the way the Dalit are treated in the field and his accusation that atrocities against the Dalit rose by 28.4% between 2021 and 2022 has not gone unnoticed. The response to the intended assertion of Dalit is not visible in the field till now but the undercurrent dissatisfaction against the DMK for not making them part of ‘self-respect’ movement and keeping them still as they were before the Dravidian movement is slowly and steadily building up. Who will attract and consolidate the dissatisfied Dalit vote is what is waited in the Tamil Nadu and if Dalit revolt against the DMK’s duplicity of ‘self-respect’ it is a huge game changer in that state.
(Author is retired professor. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at duggarajusrinivasarao@gmail.com)
