The Bharatiya Janata Party has managed to dominate India like no other party in recent times but has not been able to even influence the political domain in Tamil Nadu, Why? This answer cannot be determined without dwelling on the past: long before India attained independence.
The first incident that shaped modern Tamil Nadu politics is the circumstances and the ultimate formation of the Justice Party. The lack of representation of the lower caste community in political and administrative divisions and the discrimination and ignorance by both British and the Congress led to the development of the Justice Party as an anti-brahmin group who were against both the British and the Congress.
The founders felt that Congress was ignorant towards the lower caste people and their issues and only bothered about them when they needed crowds to oppose the British. This was not a false claim as Congress was in fact dominated by upper-caste Brahmins barring a few leaders like Periyar.
But in 1925 Periyar exited Congress citing its casteist environment and started his movement called the ‘Self Respect Movement’, this movement was a product of his philosophy summed up in a single line by himself, “no God, no religion, no Gandhi, no Congress, and no brahmins.” This movement aimed at promoting and establishing self-respect, dignity, and social equality for the lower caste people and the marginalized sections of society including women.
This movement brought substantial revolutions in the Tamil society and turned it into a society taking pride in their Tamil identity, culture and language instead of any religion or caste. Though Periyar initially claimed that Justice Party is not doing enough for the Dalits; he later went on to associate with them and ultimately took on the helm of the party in 1944. Periyar renamed the party to Dravida Kazhagam and withdrew it from electoral politics.
The next event of importance in Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian political past is the split in the Dravida Kazhagam and the formation of Dravida Munetra Kazhagam by C.N. Annadurai. Though ideologically Periyar and Annadurai were very similar differences escalated between the two arose when Periyar promoted his wife to the top of the party’s leadership and sidelined other senior leaders. Annadurai during a Rajya Sabha session in 1962 reiterated Periyar’s calls for a separate state for the South Indians called ‘Dravidu Nadu’.
DMK further split to give formation to All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) by MGR, the formation of the party happened due to the differences between Karunanidhi and MGR who were the top leaders of DMK then. Even though there have been multiple splits and the emergence of many regional parties, most of the parties even today still more or less associate themselves with the philosophies of Periyar and the importance of upholding the Tamil identity.
That brings us to the present day where a party like BJP which has one of the best election and media presence and machinery, along with a pack of very influential leaders, still finds it hard to find space between the domination of mighty regional powers. The outright rejection and disapproval of the BJP can be due to three major reasons.
One, the Hindi language, the BJP since its victory in 2014 has been vocal about the ‘one country, one language’ policy. BJP is the political representation of the Sangh Parivar, a collection of Hindutva organisations that follow the philosophy of Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan.
Tamil people have rejected any attempts to impose Hindi by the centre with passion and aggression like no other. In multiple instances, we have seen how the government and the masses alike have protested and demonstrated against any measures that give significance to Hindi rather than Tamil. They consider their responsibility and duty to uphold the ideals and causes for which Periyar and Karunanidhi rallied; many decades before.
The second reason could be the strong anti-casteist sentiments in Tamil Nadu. Though the BJP does not openly implicate supporting one particular caste they have been accused of being supportive of the upper caste. According to 2018 data, 65% of the BJP leaders belong to the upper castes.
This emotion took its strongest form when S. Anitha, a Dalit student from Tamil Nadu, committed suicide in September 2017 after failing to qualify for medical college admissions despite scoring well in the entrance exam. She studied in the state board in Tamil medium. Her excellent entrance marks were not enough for college admission and her family could not afford coaching or other study materials which led to her poor performance in the NEET examination.
She tried to fight for justice but ultimately gave in, and her death caused massive outrage in all of Tamil Nadu, massive protests broke out and the Centre was accused of being biased and not doing enough to support the legal fight of Anita. Even though in recent years BJP has been putting on an anti-casteist image, the Tamils still do not trust them.
Third, the lack of respect for the Tamil language and culture. Incidents that bring forth this claim include the controversial ban on ‘Jallikattu’ by the Supreme Court and the inaction of the Centre to oppose this, lack of financial support for the promotion of the Tamil language, Tamil farmers protesting for more than 100 days not getting any attention from the government and Modi’s preferring to attend film stars’ reception instead of paying a visit to Tamil Nadu that was hit with a devastating cyclone in 2018.
Though BJP has made forays into Tamil Nadu politics recently through the crucial alliance with AIADMK they have been forced to give up their Hindu Nationalistic ways and adopt a form of ‘Soft Dravidianism’ instead. BJP’s policy in Tamil Nadu is a stark contrast to what it practices in the north. All eyes will be on BJP going into the 2024 elections and how they deal with the voters of Tamil Nadu.