Rising sun still shines but has the fire dimmed?

CHENNAI: Seventy-five years ago this day, fired by ambition and hunger for power, a group of gifted young men gathered at 7 Coral Merchant Street in George Town, Chennai, to found the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Their leader, an unassuming 40-year-old C N Annadurai (Anna, the diminutive also means elder brother), had rebelled against his maverick boss, the 72-year-old E V Ramasamy ‘Periyar’ who had passed the torch of the Dravidar Kazhagam, a social movement to his 40-yearyounger wife Maniammai.The Dravidar Kazhagam stood for Dravidian self-respect and an independent Dravida Nadu.
M Karunanidhi, 25, was listed last at the public launch the following day. The man who would become the party’s mascot, M G Ramachandran (MGR), was nowhere in the picture.
Anna held himself and his cohorts up as ‘commoners’. The commoners spoke a new idiom of restoring Tamils to their past glory of riches and power. Peddling ‘thamizhunarvu’ (Tamil affinity) and kudumba pasam (family affection), the DMK resembled a large family, with Anna, the caring elder brother to his younger siblings, thambis.
Anna was a spellbinding speaker, playwright and scriptwriter. Karunanidhi was no less. The DMK pantheon featured a stellar cast of speakers who could sway: Peri-yar’s nephew E V K Sampath, V R Nedunchezhian, T K Srinivasan, K A Mathiazhagan and K Anbazhagan. Further, agitprop kept the party in public consciousness. Karunanidhi had emerged as the hero of the 1953 Kallakudi agitation. That year, he wooed his dashing Rajakumari (1947) hero MGR into the party. MGR took Anna and the DMK to the masses.
Even Sampath and others resented the influence of cine personalities — read Karunanidhi and MGR. The party gave up its separatist slogans in 1961 and rose to power in 1967. The DMK’s arrival was also the arrival of the commoners. Thanks to MGR, Karunanidhi succeeded Anna in 1969. MGR was made treasurer.
Karunanidhi was in the right place at the right time. As the Congress divided in 1969 and expelled Indira Gandhi, he propped up her minority govt. The lucky streak continued in the 1971 elections when he took on the K Kamaraj-C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) duo to record the DMK’s best performance. MGR now claimed the DMK’s Tamil acronym Thi Mu Ka, meant Tiruvarur Mu Ka – initials of Karunanidhi and his hometown. Karunanidhi wished this was true, for MGR cast a long shadow. For his part, he said that those like him ‘had risen’ because of MGR.
The chief minister sowed the seeds of social change, expanded the PDS, nationalised buses, added SIPCOTs and houses for Adi Dravidas, and created the Slum Clearance Board. But Kamaraj felt corrup-tion was being institutionalised. On Aug 30, 1971, when Karunanidhi lifted prohibition, Kamaraj’s followers taunted: ‘Kamaraj said padi (study), Karunanidhi said kudi (drink).’
The 45-year-old’s shrill cries for autonomy, citing Bangladesh’s Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, rattled Indira Gandhi’s Tamil lieutenants.
A smarting MGR became a vehicle for their designs. To end the moniker ‘MGR party’, Karunanidhi was scripting his eldest son, M K Muthu, into a hero.
On Oct 8, 1972, the former hero became a villain when he charged that DMK functionaries had enriched themselves and asked them to account for their wealth. MGR was expelled. Even an elephant can skid, goes a Tamil adage. Indira Gandhi proclaimed the Emergency in June 1975, which MGR and his AIADMK quickly supported. Karunanidhi blew hot and cold. He was dismissed on corruption charges weeks before his term ended, and his son and nephew interned.
In the 1977 elections, the DMK contested 230 of the 234 seats, its highest number. However, MGR had captured power, ushering in the DMK’s political winter.
Karunanidhi made up with Indira Gandhi in 1980 and agreed to share power — but in vain. MGR’s reign continued until he died in 1987, and two years later, thanks to a divided AIADMK, Karunanidhi was back in the saddle — in a first, the DMK also shared power in Delhi in V P Singh’s National Front govt. This time, Karunanidhi enabled women to inherit equally as their male brethren. However, his rule was cut short on charges of letting the LTTE run wild.
In 1991, Jayalalithaa ushered in a reunited AIADMK to power. Despite Vaiko’s exit in 1993, allegations of corruption and misgovernance against Jayalalithaa brought the DMK to power in 1996 and it was also part of the Deve Gowda and I K Gujral govts. This term, Karunanidhi ignited TN’s second industrial wave.
In 1999, to keep Jayalalithaa at bay, Karunanidhi allied with the BJP. In the 2001 elections, Karunanidhi — the warrior of a casteless Tamil society — politically isolated struck deals with every caste outfit only to lose. However, in 2004, he jumped ship and became part of the Congress-led UPA I and II govts.
Alliance arithmetic and the promise of free TVs saw Karunanidhi in power one last time in 2006, albeit a minority ministry.
In 2011, Jayalalithaa returned to power thanks to her alliance with Vijayakanth. Jayalalithaa died in 2016, and Karunanidhi in 2018.
Karunanidhi’s son and successor M K Stalin has been in power since 2021. Although his govt prides itself on a ‘Dravidian model’ it remains buffeted by dynastic politics and corruption charges. Yet, DMK seems secure for now, thanks to a divided opposition. However, sharing power increasingly looks the way forward. The dalit drift, caste parties, Hindu assertion, and a narrow Tamil vision continue to chip away at the DMK’s all-inclusive Tamil narrative. Actor Vijay will likely add to its woes.
In its long history, the DMK has brought the faceless and the lowly forward. But, once a movement, the spoils of power have made DMK like any other political party. Like the DMK’s founding youngsters, would a new generation of leaders emerge to usher in change?
(The writer is author of The DMK Years: Ascent, Descent, Survival)