If the rest of India was 'shocked' over the Tamil Nadu police arresting the Kanchi Sankaracharya in a murder case, it was equally surprised over the passivity of the people in the State, whom they expected would have taken to the streets in protest. The absence of such a 'natural reaction' in Tamil Nadu has simultaneously raised questions about the possible revival of the Dravidian movement, whose core concepts included anti-Brahminism, as represented by institutions like the Kanchi Mutt and individuals like the Acharya. The reasons for the 'indifference' of the Tamil Nadu population to the controversial midnight arrest, that too in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, has to be found not in Draividian polity, but elsewhere. It flows from a product of 'Dravidian rule', if the advent of a lower caste leader like the late K Kamaraj as the Congress Chief Minister of what was then called the Madras State in 1954 could be dubbed one. It was full 13 years later that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the umbrella organisation of pan-Tamil political platform, growing out of a social ideology, came to power, with what is now understood as 'anti-incumbency factor' providing the immediate cause. <br /> <br /> Universal free education at the school-level, accompanied by free meal scheme for the poor among them, initiated by the Kamaraj Government, have since contributed to the emergence of a population that is more 'enlightened' than their counterparts in many other parts of the country. Preceding them was the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution, again at the behest of events in Tamil Nadu, which later went on to provide for job reservations to larger sections of the society than originally mandated under the Constitution. <br /> <br /> In the early years of the Constitution, the Dravidar Kazhagam, under the founder, the late 'Periyar' E V Ramaswami Naicker fought for extending reservations to the backward classes, as originally it was available only to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Until the Supreme Court came out with the 'Mandal case' judgment, where it fixed a 50 per cent upper-limit for all reservations, Tamil Nadu, and even neighbouring Karnataka, had the tendency of hiking reservation percentages as part of the competitive electoral politics. On paper, even today, Tamil Nadu has 69 per cent reservations for various classes put together, though the State Government has not been filling up most vacancies, or creating others, in the post-reforms era. <br /> <br /> There have been other areas in which the Dravidian political administration heralded a new path in social sector development. The competitive politics of the two Dravidian political majors, namely, the DMK and the breakaway AIADMK, obtained for the people largesse that they may not have expected. The expansion of free housing for the Dalits in Tamil Nadu villages, subsidised urban housing for the middle and the poorer segments, better connectivity to interior villages, low prices and regular supplies of essential foodstuff in the State-run PDS outlets were all products of such an exercise. <br /> <br /> All this meant that the poor could have aspirations and ambitions that could be met. The list of rank-holders in the SSLC and Plus-Two examinations in the State would be a pointer, as most of the top rung is filled by students from rural homes with no financial backing to call their own. This in turn has heightened the expectations of their successive generations, which have started patronising CBSE schools with purportedly higher standards of education than a grassroots-level educational system could be expected to meet. <br /> <br /> Over the decades, all this also meant that the Dravidian political parties have exhausted their agenda, and have even outlived their ideological relevance. The parallel to the increasing irrelevance of the Congress movement in the successive decades after it had achieved the single-point agenda of Independence cannot be overlooked. It can even be argued that the two Dravidian majors continue to be politically and electorally relevant mainly in the absence of a strong contender, who has their patience and perseverance of the early years. <br /> <br /> The birth of the MDMK as yet another breakaway faction of the mainline DMK, reflecting the peripheral ideology of the Dravidian movement at its peak, is a pointer. The social relevance, or lack of it, is provided by the advent of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, identified with the majority Vanniar community in the northern and parts of the western region of the State. From the first General Elections in 1952, the Vanniar community is known to have looked inwards, and voted less for a national party like the Congress. After the DMK entered the electoral arena in 1957, the Vanniars had voted mostly for the party, as election analyses would show. <br /> <br /> When the DMK first and the AIADMK later as the ruling party were found wanting in addressing the immediate needs of the backward class community, after they having fulfilled the expectations and aspirations of a larger constituency, the Vanniars were ready to go on their own. Today, the PMK is a political party that has its roots in the community, and cannot be ignored, either. <br /> <br /> Conversely, the Dalits, who had once identified themselves with the Congress movement for historic reasons, veered towards the politically stronger AIADMK, when founded, as the intermediary classes in individual regions who were their immediate concern had been with the DMK for long. The changing composition of intermediary class politics in the past decade, which saw the founding of the PMK in the North, and the equally militant Mukkolathore community getting closer to the AIADMK in the South, has caused the founding of independent Dalit political parties, relevant to individual regions. It is another matter that their electoral relevance has not been as much - at least, as yet. <br /> <br /> The higher rate of employment, whether in the organised or the unorganised sector, has helped not only in improving the economic standards of the individual, thus setting the priorities for him. It has also added an element of status conscience in him. The advent of the electronic media has also helped. The State-centric, and politically divided television channels in the private sector have sought to encapsule for the average Tamil, his daily quota of news and views, delivering them in the drawing-room. The sobby serials on the television, which saves both time and money when both have become scarce, also makes multi-tasking possible, unlike in the case of cinema-hall viewing. They have also provided a new meaning to 'family time' in these days when nucleus families, both in towns and villages, are all hard-pressed for time. <br /> <br /> It is a combination of such factors that have contributed to greater political and social awakening in Tamil Nadu than is generally understood. In turn, this means that the population has learnt to master its emotions, and feels reticent to take to the streets, unlike earlier generations. There are no more as many suicides as used to be in aid of an ideological cause, or in sympathy with a political leader of one's choice. If anything, there has been a positive move against such expressions of strong sentiments. <br /> <br /> Yet, all this would not fully explain the 'growing indifference' of the Tamil population to their immediate circumstances. That could be partly explained also by a procession of such shocks in the past decade and more. Every new shock prepares the people for a successor, even if subconsciously, and thus weakens its impact. It's thus that the electoral impact of the 'Coimbatore serial blasts' was less than that of the 'Rajiv Gandhi assassination', which again was less than that of the 'Indira Gandhi assassination' a decade or so earlier. So much so, the 'Coimbatore blasts' in 1998 also produced the highest-ever, two-digit figure of 10 seats in a total of 40 from Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, for the 'losing' DMK-TMC combine. <br /> <br /> On the arrests front, the controversial midnight arrest of DMK President M Karunanidhi not very long after the AIADMK returned to power in 2001 came as a bolt from the blue. It also tempered the mood for the subsequent arrest of MDMK General Secretary, Vaiko. In this case, the media too had prepared the masses on what to expect. So much so, it was only the choice of the candidate for the more recent arrest that made the difference, not the arrest itself. It should also be conceded that the Kanchi Mutt, despite Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal's efforts to take it to the masses, has remained cocooned for most parts. That meant that the masses were not as much moved as they were concerned. <br /> <br /> Yet, the results of Elections 1996 and 2001, when the State was believed to have yielded, if not resigned, to political passivity, showed that the 'silent revolution' in Tamil Nadu was becoming deep-seated. Better still, not only before the polls where a 'fear psychosis', or a satiation-point in comparative feeling of wellbeing could have been argued to have set in, the voter displayed no emotions greatly, not only before the elections but even after the elections, when his 'fading confidence' could believed to have been restored. All of it could happen all over again, though it is another matter if the current controversy concerning the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya could be one on which an entire election could be won, or lost - that too close to one-and-half years in May 2006, when alone Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu become due. <br /> <br /> <em>* Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Observer Research Foundation.</em>
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