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Fact Sheet: Dravidian Movement

The uncanniness of the way the Indian caste system works has never seized to amaze us all,
with how almost staggeringly slow it has been in its approach towards development, moreover,
evolution. Our past saw Brahmins being favored over the rest while the remaining lower castes
got exploited, harassed, and suffered discrimination on a daily basis. It was simply unfair, so
many social reform movements were launched amongst which Dravidian movement too had
reformation in this caste-based system as its prime target.

Justice party

The non-Brahmins, after suffering years of oppression and inequality, started


demanding their rights which further led to them questioning the self-established
supremacy of Brahmins in everything, even their own lives and this pretty much
led to the Dravidian movement. In 1916, a South India Welfare Association in
Madras Presidency was established by the Zamindars and the Maharajas to
curtail the increasing ascendancy of Brahmins in the society as well as in politics.
Prominent non-Brahmin leaders such as Dr. TM Nair, Theagaroya Chetty, Dr. C
Natesa Mudaliar, Panagals Raja and Sir A Ramaswamy Mudaliar looked
after the functioning of this association. The association began publishing English
newspaper Justice,' whose influence soon picked up speed as well as
popularity, so much so that even the society came to be recognized as the

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Justice Party. In 1921, the Justice party contested the election, and for the first
time, the Indian cabinet was established in Madras Presidency.

Self-respect Movement

In 1925, V. Ramaswamy Naicker 'Periyar' established a Self-Respect


Movement for he was entirely against the falsely assumed supremacy of the
Brahmins and their presumed dominance in not only the society but also in the
Congress Party and he wanted the non-Brahmins to avail equal rights as the
Brahmins. The movement aimed towards achieving equal human rights for
backward castes in the society. Its two key features were:
1)Anti-Brahminism
2)Self-respect Marriages
The movement encouraged inter-caste and inter-religious marriages and also
morally validated marriage ceremonies being carried out without Brahmin priests.
Post independence, Tamilnadu did the unthinkable and became the first state to
legalize Hindu marriage without Brahmin priest.

Dravidar Kazhagam

The justice party, however, failed to remain standing despite all odds and its
influence finally succumbed when in 1936 none of its candidates got elected to
state legislature. After being ruthlessly smacked down, the justice party
approached Periyar who took it under his capable wings, withdrew from politics
himself, and transformed it into a social organization Dravidar
Kazhagam(Dravidian Organization).

Anti-North Orientation and Dravida Nadu

The manner in which we received our independence was not exactly a matter of
celebration for Periyar, and he shunned any form of independence celebration,
as he believed that the British dominance just got metamorphosed into
dominance of North India and Congress, which was dominated, again, by the
Brahmins. This led to him making a rather preposterous request for a separate
and independent south Indian nation/ Dravida Nadu or Dravidsthan which did
not receive any support from many other party leaders, including CN Annadurai.
The 16th Amendment, popularly known as the Anti-Secessionist Amendment,
discouraged the secessionist tendency and declared it illegal, and no further
demands for politically independent nation were made.

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Split in Dravidar Kazhagam and formation of DMK

Periyar's marrying a woman 40 years younger than him further deepened the
gorge created between the party leaders and caused them to split, and CN
Annadurai established a new party Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam(Progressive Dravidian Organization).

AIDMK

Tamil cinema star M. G. Ramachandran(MGR) propagated the Dravidian


ideologies through his movies. After the death of CN Annadurai, the differences
between MGR and party president M.Karunanidhi became extremely intolerable
which even led to MGR being suspended from the party for anti-Party activities.
This only provoked him further to create a party of his own, the All India Anna
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Anti Hindi Movement

In 1938, Tamil Nadu and many other non-Hindi speaking states blatantly
opposed to Hindi being used as the official language and forced the government
to withdraw their issued order in 1940. Post-Independence, people again felt
agitated when Hindi was given a special status and the talks of it becoming the
official language of India surfaced. The official language act issued provisions to
use English for the transaction of business in Parliament, by Centre and states
and for certain purposes in high courts for 15 years. 1967 brought about an
amendment which allowed English to continue being used for official purposes.
The language related issue persists because even in 2006, Tamil Nadu passed
a resolution to make Tamil the official language of Madras high court.

Critical analysis of Dravidian movement

The Dravidian movement turned out to be a total failure as far as liberating


women, and lower caste goes. Its influence too failed to propagate further than
Tamilnadu's boundaries. The only notable betterment that it caused was a little
reduction in upper caste supremacy, especially in administration, and it
further strengthened the middle class which is the core supporting entity
for any developing country's rural economy. However, as there are no well-
formed land reforms middle-class dominates the rural economy which

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suppresses and worsens the conditions of the lower castes.However, the
Dravidian movement was not entirely a waste as it successfully abolished
Devadasi system, promoted inter-caste and inter-religious marriages and
legalized marriages without Brahmin priests.

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