Salem Dharanidharan
Revolutionary, reformer and champion of social equality — E V Ramasamy Periyar’s ideologies remain the foundation of Tamil Nadu’s social, cultural, political and economic growth even today, 48 years after his death.
His fight to end caste discrimination and for women empowerment made Tamil Nadu’s growth model unique in the country. While states such as Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have done well in socio-economic development, others like Maharashtra and Gujarat have done exceptionally in terms of economic growth. Tamil Nadu, however, has been able to achieve success in both socio-economic development and industrial growth, with much lower index than that of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Though states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have had caste mobilisations, they could not obtain the results of horizontal mobilisation of the entire gamut of oppressed castes. It is because of the inability to aggregate the subaltern groups to arrive at a common consensus and fight for a common cause.
Renowned philosopher Ernesto Laclau says the most difficult challenge of any movement, across the world, is to unite the left-behind collective identities to aggregate themselves into one popular entity and represent their collective consciousness.
One of the biggest achievements of the Periyar and Dravidian movement was to unite all those left behind horizontally under the common theme of dignity and provide them with the aspiration to achieve more. If Periyar was a movement, then what the successive Dravidian governments did was to implement laws and policies to realise the broader vision of Periyar and the Dravidar Kazhagam. When Tamil Nadu, under M Karunanidhi in 1989, passed the Hindu succession (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 1989, giving women equal access to property as that of her male siblings, it bestowed her with dignity and put her on an equal footing with her male counterparts. Such interventions played a major role in women empowerment — TN has one of the highest participations of women in the labour force at 30 per cent in comparison to the Indian average of 19 per cent.
Another achievement was the ability to bring about a paradigm shift in societal thought — a deviation from one that accepted irrational existing social norms to one that questioned societal irrationality. This is significant because mere passing of legislation does not bring about intended results. A legislation is effective only when there is a broader consensus within society for it. That is the reason why the Congress government that was in power in Tamil Nadu until 1967 implemented policies in a limited sense, in conformity to the Dravidian ethos — such as extending the mid-day meal scheme introduced by the Justice Party and founding of state-level PSUs. Such policies were not pursued by the Congress government in other states.
Increased aspiration led to education for people belonging to different social strata (TN has a gross enrolment ratio of 51 per cent, while the pan-India average is 29 per cent).
Democratisation of bureaucracy along with demand for services from people, was one of the reasons that helped in alignment of bureaucracy with the interests of the public. This is one of the important differentiating factors that could explain the success of the mid-day meal scheme or ‘Amma’ kitchens in Tamil Nadu and failure of such similar schemes in some poorer states. Though the scourge of caste still exists, the state has made significant progress. And in this season of political polarisation and hate, Periyar’s legacy brings hope — if all countrymen could unite under the theme of dignity and social justice.
Source: ‘The Times of India’
