How Dravidian parties changed the course of Tamil Nadu’s progress Premium

The abolition of hand-rickshaws, along with other major social reforms initiated in Tamil Nadu by a government inspired by the ideals of the Dravidian Movement, helped make the State a leader in social justice reforms in India.

The scenes of thespian Sivaji Ganesan pulling a hand-rickshaw in the film Babu (1971) and actor Om Puri wading through knee-deep rainwater with the vehicle in the streets of Kolkata in The City of Joy (1992) testify to forms of labour once prevalent in the country, stripped entirely of human dignity. The present generation in Tamil Nadu might witness the spectacle of one man pulling a rickshaw occupied by another only on screen, as the DMK government led by M. Karunanidhi abolished the practice in 1973. In West Bengal, however, it took another three decades for the State to finally end this inhuman system. The government there cited the absence of alternative employment for the steady flow of immigrants from Bangladesh and the local poor — an explanation that was, at best, a flimsy excuse.

The abolition of hand-rickshaws, along with other major social reforms initiated in Tamil Nadu by a government inspired by the ideals of the Dravidian Movement, helped make the State a leader in social justice reforms in India. The DMK government achieved even what a Communist regime in West Bengal had failed to accomplish. In contrast, Congress-led governments, and leaders who preferred maintaining the status quo on many social issues, could not recognise the aspirations and material needs of the majority. They allowed such practices to continue with little remorse, revealing a deep disconnect between the party’s leaders and the masses they claimed to represent during the freedom movement.

Why did it not occur to them that such inhuman labour practices ought to have been abolished after Independence? Power had passed into the hands of the national bourgeoisie, who failed to feel the pulse of the people. The Congress government, of course, laid the foundations for industrial growth and infrastructure. Yet it would not be an exaggeration to say that Congress leaders were conservative in their approach to social issues even during the freedom movement, and that their policies failed to take into consideration the aspirations of the subaltern. Perhaps, the only notable exception was K. Kamaraj, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, who envisaged and implemented the free mid-day meal scheme in the State.

The Dravidian Movement, by contrast, was initiated and propagated by what the Italian Communist leader Antonio Gramsci would describe as organic intellectuals with an organic ideology. “Our aim is not to form a ministry and rule. We work to make the world understand the greatness of the Tamils and to create a new history by understanding Tamil people, Tamil tradition, and Tamil history. There should be a new government that will protect the Tamil language and tradition,” said C.N. Annadurai, the founder of the DMK and the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, at the Virugambakkam conference preceding the 1967 State elections.

Labour-oriented progress

For all his rhetoric on Tamil identity, language, and culture, Annadurai — fondly known as Anna — possessed a strong understanding of economics and industrial development, a rare quality among regional leaders. After returning from tours of the United States and Japan, Anna told All India Radio (AIR) in 1968that in a country like India, endowed with abundant manpower, industries and development projects ought to be more labour-oriented than capital-oriented.