The Dravida Story

(E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker),M. Karunanidhi,M.G. Ramachandran and K. Kamaraj. However,biographies of C.N. Annadurai,the founder of the DMK,a crucial link in the chain,are impossible to find. This is a huge gap for those wanting to understand the state,as a study of Annadurai’s politics helps best understand the complicated and difficult move from the secessionism implicit in the reformist Justice party and the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK,formed in 1944) to the politics of the later DMK.

The son of a “self-styled village scribe” from Conjeevaram (Kanchipuram),Annadurai was affectionately known as “Anna” (elder brother). He left a lasting imprint as a fiery orator,powerful writer and someone who skilfully wove journalism,script-writing,theatre and the cultural space to power a social and political movement and to ultimately fight elections and challenge the then formidable presence of the Congress in the state.

Anna was no atheist,but his mentor was the iconoclast and maverick social reformer,Periyar. The biography charts their difficult relationship,especially in the later years when the once obedient disciple developed a mind of his own and articulated bold departures from Periyar’s line. An incident best brings out the difference in their approaches. While Periyar went about literally smashing idols to hit at the roots of the “Brahminical” hold in the state,and organised a campaign to break the idols of Lord Ganesha,Anna said in a significant statement,“I will not break the Ganesha idol,nor the coconut”,signifying a much more moderate,nuanced form of rebellion,and signalling the need to shift from pure “social reform” and try and turn the support into a political movement. This was something that won Anna scorn from the mercurial Periyar,who debunked him and his followers later as slaves of power and,by implication,corrupted.

R. Kannan’s book describes in great detail the use of Tamil cinema for spreading social and political messages and the importance of scripts,songs and magazines (Karunanidhi’s Murasoli and Anna’s Nam Nadu) to make a point. The author discusses the discovery of Sivaji Ganesan,the arrival of the “sharp-featured”,handsome MGR and the work of a great scriptwriter,Karunanidhi,who in his twenties,wrote the screenplay for Parasakthi,a grand movie that even today signals his political coming of age. In fact,Kamaraj those days scorned the newly formed DMK and its artists as koothadigals or performers. But the scorn must have turned into horror very soon as the “performers” went on to scale big heights and,riding a wave,established a non-Congress government with Anna as the chief minister in 1967. (It was a landmark year as several non-Congress governments were formed across India.)

Anna is written very much for people interested in details — the personal lives,styles and politics. Anna’s encounters with the political stalwarts of the time — Kamaraj’s critique of him,Periyar’s “discovery” of a young Annadurai and the later fallout — are all invaluable for understanding how a very powerful movement in the South acquired the shape it eventually did and came into the national mainstream.

From Periyar writing to Mohammed Ali Jinnah (on August 9,1944) about Dravidasthan,requesting him to plead for both Pakistan and Dravidasthan,to the formation of the parent DK and,subsequently,the DMK,is a long journey and the biography of Annadurai is an interesting device to get there.

Anna’s years as a child were spent looking forward to two days a week at the loom. He was born into a Senguntar Mudaliar family,a weaver caste,and the biographer speculates on how a quiet wait at the loom,just untangling the threads,may have made him a “patient man”,one ready to wait “for his time”. And Anna’s epitaph describes him as “the heart that endures everything”. The author says,“Tamils judge a person by the attendance at his funeral…” and goes on to add how the Guinness World Records called Anna’s the “largest in history… with an attendance of 15 million”.