Documenting and analysing 75 years of the DMK

Biographer R. Kannan delves into the history of the DMK in his latest book, covering its evolution and political impact.

On September 17, 1949, a group of young Tamil men, led by their leader C.N. Annadurai, gathered in Robinson Park at Royapuram in Madras to launch the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Within two decades, it evolved into a major regional party that was elected to power in 1967, replacing the Congress in the then Madras State.

As the party is set to complete 75 years in the political scape, biographer R. Kannan in his latest work ‘The DMK Years: Ascent, Descent, Survival’ (expected to be launched in the next few weeks) attempts to provide an objective account to look into the political mobilisation of the DMK, the major splits, including those led by late leader M.G. Ramachandran, Vaiko and the various watershed moments

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Kannan, who has published biographies of late Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai and M.G. Ramachandran, who had founded the DMK and AIADMK respectively, clarifies that his latest work was not only a ‘biography’ of the party but a work on the State’s post-independent sociopolitical history. It would be a good reference book and also very readable, he said.

The book has electoral data — both the Assembly and the Parliamentary — from 1952 up to the present (except the recent 2024 Parliamentary election). It also summarises the manifestos of the three major players of Tamil Nadu from 1952 to now – two major Dravidian parties: the DMK and the AIADMK, and the Congress O.

“The book brings into English for the first time with original material found in Tamil,” according to him. It took about four to five years for Mr. Kannan to complete this work. When asked about his travel for this book, he acknowledged that he had spoken to a cross-section of ‘DMK-philes and phobes’.

Mr. Kannan is currently an adjunct faculty at the University of Georgia School of Law, where he teaches a course on international organisations and serves as a Dean Rusk International Law Centre Council member. He has also served for the U.N. during his three decades long career.