Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Evolution of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from the Dravida Kazhagam 5
Assembly Elections and the rise of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to power 8
The changing nature of electoral pursuits of the DMK post AIADMK’s formation 9
The Tamil Eelam movement and its relevance for the DMK 10
Status of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Tamil politics of today 11
Introduction
The political history of South India intertwines at odd ends with the one of the North. In 1944, North India transited from the Quit India movement to the Gandhi-Jinnah talks on Pakistan. South India on the other hand raged with a ‘quit India’ movement of its own. The emergence of anti-Hindi, anti-North sentiments ruled the roster and virtually paralleled the anti-British notions. Leading the front was the Dravida Kazhagam (DK) (Dravidian Federation), a metamorphosis of the Justice Party under E V Ramasamy Naicker. (Hardgrave Jr, 1965)
While the ‘grand old party’ of India is undoubtedly the Indian National Congress (INC) owing to its legacy, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Dravidian Progressive Association) deserves this title in Tamil Nadu. This notion is proposed despite DK, the DMK’s parent organisation still being active within Tamil Nadu. While the DK abstained from electoral pursuits, the DMK adopted the Indian electoral system and capitalised on the need for a political Tamil voice within the country.
Right from its’ inception, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was perceived as a party which had eliminating the Hindi language from Tamil Nadu as a prime agenda. The birth of the DMK on September 17, 1949 was accompanied with future General Secretary C N Annadurai stating that ‘linguistic imperialism’ has been established b...
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... communications exposure.” DK strongholds in Tanjore District and the Congress strongholds in the rural areas were uncaptured by the DMK. (Robert L Hardgrave Jr, 1964-1965)
Fortunes of the DMK also shined after the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 came in force. The Act redistributed territories of erstwhile Madras along linguistic lines. The state of Kerala and territories of Andhra Pradesh were carved out of the Madras. Changing the approach towards wooing the voters, the DMK contested the elections on “basic economic issues” and the “plight of underdeveloped South.” (Robert L Hardgrave Jr, 1964-1965)
Annadurai death
Kamaraj Congress split
Karunanidhi and MGR
The changing nature of electoral pursuits of the DMK post ADMK’s formation
The Tamil Eelam movement and its relevance for the DMK
Status of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Tamil politics of today
The relationship between cricket and politics is clearly delineated in South Asia from 1880 to 2005 through the easing of the stress between totally different caste members, although the stress mitigated wasn't forever from a religious aspect between the Pakistanis, Indians, and also the British. The various issues that arose in South Asia was largely class or caste systems (Docs 2, 3, 4), rivalry (Docs 1, 6, 10), and religious tensions (Docs 5, 7, 8, 9) against the various countries and cricket groups. Throughout its interaction with Indian politics from 1880 to 2005, cricket has served as both a unifying force between totally different political groups and also has divided political groups in periods of power struggle and political variations, as well as making sturdy bonds between countries.
The Partition of India led to millions of people displaced and marked as one of the largest mass migration ever over the world. August 15, 1947 was a very significant day for Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and many others. It marked the day of the British partition of India, and India won its freedom from colonial rule, ending nearly 200 years of British rule. This successful attainment of independence from colonial rule defined a narrative of religious nationalism, but also has led to displacement and violence between the two nation states of India and Pakistan. Once a peaceful union of Muslims and Hindus had become separated, whereas Muslims got Pakistan and Hindus got an independent India (Best et al, 2008). “The Other Side of Silence” (Butalia, 2000, pp.264-300) the oral testimony of a Punjabi woman Maya Rani, who was a child living in Pakistan during the Partition. Her testimony was crucial to understand the historiography of the event, because she was a witness of the impact of the Partition, but she was not directly involved in the violence that the emergence and independence of India that has brought.
In Nehru’s India, women were victims of a “passive revolution” that subtly advanced bourgeoisie men of higher castes under a guise of parliamentary democracy. Though women have presided over the Indian National Congress, served as a prime minister, and represent a large part of India’s la...
James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. New York: St. Martin's, 1998. Print.
One of the most important factors in the British loss of control over India was the establishment of English as a unifying language. Prior to British colonisation, India was fragmented and multi-lingual, with 15 major languages and around 720 dialects. English served as a common ground for Indians, and allowed separate cultural and ethnic groups to identify with each other, something which had rarely if ever occurred before on a grand scale. Although it was mainly educated Indians of a privileged caste who spoke English, these were the most influential people in terms of acting as facilitators for nationalist ideas to be communicated throughout the populace. The publication of magazines and journals in English was also a great influence on the rise of Indian nationalism. Although most Indians received nationalist ideas orally, these journals allowed Indians who were literate in English to come into contact with the ideas of social and political reformers.
Arnold, David and Peter Robb. Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader. London, UK: Routledge, 1993. Print.
During the Cold War, many regional conflicts occurred and were noted as the significant battles which later led to decolonization. One of the regional conflicts were India and Pakistan fighting for their independence. In 1947, India was released under Great Britain’s control and gained its independence. However, the country was divided between Muslims and Hindus, which share different religions. Muslims wanted church and state to become unified while Hindus wanted a separation of these two establishments. Since these two ethnic groups disagreed, it was difficult to create a new government. Therefore, India was divided into two nations: India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims. Hindus and Muslims were racing to the border in order to get to their nation state which led to killing 500,000 people due to rioting. Although, Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian National Congressman, wanted to obtain peace between these two religions. Pakistan refused the H...
In On Democracy, Robert Dahl presents five criteria that states are required to meet in order to satisfy the primary aim of democracy, which is to provide political equality to all of its citizens (1998, 37). The criteria include effective participation, equal voting, enlightened understanding, open agenda setting and inclusion. (Dahl, 1998, 38). Above these criteria, this paper will only focus on effective participation and enlightened understanding to apply them to India; this is because its citizens are going through a tough time with the two criteria to become a state with effective democracy. Therefore, this paper will demonstrate that India is in the process of achieving effective participation, but significantly lacks enlightened understanding.
After WW2 Britten had been considerably weaken because of World War 2. The fighting also took an exhausting tool on them and on the military and financial recourses. They were so exhausted from the war that they did not resist much when a global independence move swept through the countries they colonized. While the colonized people had a new desire to fight for their independence the Europeans were to war-weary and had little desire to fight back. For years now India had been demanding self-rule from Britten, but as their wish drew closer so did the tension between the Muslim minorities in a land who’s majority was Hindu. Most of the leaders in India were Hindu and they wanted to involve both Muslims and Hindus into the Congress Party. But
4 # Stein, Burton (2001), a History of India, New Delhi and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiv, 432, p.222
The poorly-planned withdrawal of the British from its Indian ‘colony' left close to one million people dead and created chaos, hatred and violence that lasted over 50 years and forced Winston Churchill to condemn it as the ‘shameful flight.' These historical events complicated the histories of India, Britain and Pakistan because of the ill-informed partition program carried out by British authorities. The Shameful Flight covers the periods between the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942 and Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. In this book, Wolpert's thesis argues against the death of hundreds of thousands of people who died after the partition of India. For example, Wolpert believes that the catastrophe resulted from Mountbatten's rushed process of the nationhood in which the new border lines in the middle of Punjab and Bengal prompted murder, arson and violence that left over 10 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs displaced from their homes and over five hundred thousand dead.
Radu Ban and Vijayendra. (2007). The Political Construction of Caste in South India. Working paper
Thus, because of the lack of enthusiasm for creating new parties, the old ones may face electoral demise (Mainwaring, 380). The future of Christian Democracy in the region counts on the existing parties while a lot of them have virtually disappeared from the electoral stage. Maybe Christian Democracy will disappear given the difficulties that they
There is a distinct difference between popular Indian nationalism, that is the nation believing in a state independent of Britain, and Indian nationalist movements, for example the Muslim League or the Hindu revivalist movement. These movements fought for independence but were far more religiously orientated and were fighting in their own interests. Although Indian nationalism initially found expression in the Mutiny of 1857, its deve...
Malik, Y. K. (1988). India: The Years of Indira Gandhi. The Netherlands: Brill Academic Pub .