the vast majority of tamil as well as non-tamil non-brahmin dravidians had a major grouse against the domineering brahmin community grabbing most of opportunities which were in any case too little. This got settled in three ways – one by the gradual increase of opportunites, very gradual indeed but still a phenomenon (eg. many engineering colleges these days have trouble filling seats), secondly the purely mathematical phenomenon of numerically superior castes triumphing through ballot box once each person got a vote, and thirdly by brahmins themselves slowly moving to cities, leaving lands, migrating away to other states and pursue mostly clerical / mid level office careers on a pan-Indian scale initially and global scale subsequently and abandoning all political ambitions somewhat like Chinese in Indonesia..

With that whatever little enthusiasm that was there for the rabble rousing speeches got eroded and smart *MK politicians started quietly abandoning their anti-hindu and anti-god rhetoric by covertly and then overtly embracing all the trappings of religion. It is now common to see ADMK posters full of leaders sporting ‘thiruneeru’ and I guess the DMK men are just waiting for MK to pop off before doing same. From a religious stand point, what 80+ years of ’self respect’ movement has achieved is that there is a temple every street corner, and a ‘baba’, dubious or otherwise, every postal district!

This combined with the characterless personal lifestyle and disgusting conduct of *MK leaders not to speak of corruption on grand scale made a mockery of all the high principles they were spouting on stage. They still win votes but ideology has been flushed off long since.

I think we are seeing a revival of Congress in TN, perhaps years after it paid a heavy price for infighting, over-ambitious leaders and foolish schemes like Kula Thozhil by Rajaji.

The only other comparable piece of writing on this topic I can think of is Kannadasan’s excellent book in which he talks about his DMK days, his disillusionment and his eventual parting of ways with them.

I can see more than a hint of sarcasm in that you seem to see *MK politics as more of rhetoric and less of action. But you express it quite softly.

Kavignar Kannadasan also narrates a very interesting anecdote of MK getting a gold ring as a ‘reward’ from CNA which MK himself had in fact purchased and given to be ‘presented’ back. CNA of course, talks in his usual flowery language about how he roamed street after street to find a suitable ring for his ‘thambi’. True or not, this seems to capture the essense of the so-called movement which has now become a money minting franchise for some families and a cinema dialogue talk shop for others. Sadly, the SL tamils have relied on these jokers and have suffered too as a consequence.

Talking of TRM and the song from Malaiyitta Mangai, there is another anecdote from TFMPage archies – it seems Kannadasan roped in TRM to play the lead role amidst a lot of opposition from his party (then DMK) because TRM was a brahmin – to placate them this song was created where TRM is asked to sing the praise of ‘dravida naadu’.

The conclusion i come to is either he did not have common sense, which i find a from a man of his calibre difficult to believe, or he was just playing a political game and was never sincere about it in the first place.

The impression i get is by hanging onto Dravidanadu in lieu of a Tamilnadu seperate state, he seems to have deliberately sabotaged the latter.

If he was really sincere he would have gone for both and said whichever comes first we will take it. A bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.

Anna, you took everyone for a good ride.

There is a lesson to learn from this for Srilankan leaders.

1. The president of Srilanka should devolve sufficient powers to the northern and eastern provinces so that the Chief Ministers can function effectively.

2. Get a Chief Minister elected from the Presidents own party to run the provinces{ such as Kamaraj of the Congress party}

3. See that these Chief Ministers are efficient blokes who can deliver the goods for the people.

I have been reading your articles… they seem to be unbiased with a lot of facts

I have questions with regards to this article

In this article dated 9 Oct2009, you mentioned the final and fourth part would appear the following week, I do not see it anywhere on your blog, did I miss it ? If yes, can you please let me know where the final part is ?

I am very eager to read that part to get your perspective about my state’s history.

Thanks and Regards
Karthick

DBSJ RESPONDS:

Dear Karthick

This is a reply to you and many others particularly from Tamil Nadu or Tamil Nadu origin abroad who sent me mails and posted comments on this matter.

This was an extended article I wrote for my regular weekly column in “the English newspaper “Daily Mirror” published in Colombo. The articles were simultaneiusly posted on my blog.

What happened was that I was not keeping well for two weeks and could not complete the final article as planned

Meanwhile developments in Sri Lanka have taken new turns and I had to focus more on topical or current issues for “Daily Mirror”.

Even the one on the 1962 coup is particular relevance to the current situation .

Since I wrote the series for “Daily Mirror” I have to write the last part there. It ’s not proper for me to write it on my blog or elsewhere.

As interesting developments are unfolding rapidly in Sri Lanka I am not able to write on this historic development of the fall of Tamil Nau separatism right now

But I am planning to write the final part during the Christmas- New Year period where events in Sri Lanka are expected to slow down

Please bear with me until then

I am very sorry to disappoint readers interested in that subject

My apologies for this long delay

The Fonska fiasco distracted us and we strayed away from this important artcle. There is a very important para which i reproduce below.

“Nehru being an enlightened leader saw that linguistic nationalism within Indian borders could tear the fabric apart unless it was contained through appropriate adjustments. He decided to re-structure Indian states on a linguistic basis”.

Though Nehru was an enlightened leader, the catalyst for him doing this was the agitation made by Tamil leaders and Telugu leaders, one for Dravidanadu and the other for Andra Pradesh. As a result the whole of India seemed to benefit from a new model because of the racket made by these two.

Why I brought this up was in contrast to these tamil and Telugu leaders in India, our Srilankan Tamil leaders such as GG. Ponambalam etc were like pussycats. I wonder why was that? if the tamil leaders at that time agitated for a Federal state at the time of independence, don’t you think we could have avoided all this civil war. An enlightened sinhalese leader would have given a federal state based on linguistic lines. By the time SJVC brought it up it was too late. The Sinhalese had started thinking colonisation was the answer. The 50:50 proposal of GG seems to be the cause of the present plight of the Tamils, when i compare what happened in India to what happenned here.

Anyway better late than never,

Thank You.I will try and write on other matters in the future……DBSJ

But they don’t know that do they. Keep this top secret. Classified. For your eyes only.

Poor analogy I’m afraid All the creatures on the ride are going around and up-and-down at the same speed