From: rags@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Raghavan Jayaraman)
Subject: Re: On the relevance of Satyagraha
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 18:51:47 GMT

In article <1drhb0INN3t2@network.ucsd.edu> nl@chem.ucsd.edu (Dr. N. Elango) writes:
>rags@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Raghavan Jayaraman)
>
>stuff deleted--
>
>[2] Thani Tamilnadu
>>>	Yes! DK asked for Dravida Nadu to be rejected by all except TN. The
>
>stuff deleted--
>
>I do not fully understand what do you mean here. 
>
>As far my understanding goes, when periyar organised DK, one of their ground
>rules for the party was that it should not contest any election. That means
>to me that they were not after enjoying power like any political party
>in today's world. They wanted to bring social reform in the decans. which was 
>necessary. Thanks to their efforts. When the fact is that how would one 
>convey such a meaning as you portray in these lines are the views of DK? 
>I understand that from time to time today's DK leadership has bent to the 
>ruling party.
>
>Elango (nelango@ucsd.edu)

Probably this would help.  I am reproducing part of my previous posts.
-----------------------------------------------
Let us see here how the indian tamil ethnic population palyed a role in
this accord. Let me remind you briefly  about the tamil secessionsist
movement which played a role in the ouster of TN congress.  British played
the card of brahminism-anti brahminism in the early part of this century to
contain congress in Madras presidency. Similar card was played in Ceylon
i.e., tamils against sinhalas. This led to the formation of Justice Party
from which Periyar quit  later and started his own Dravida Kazhagam. In the
post independence period, hindi was made compulsory in Madras presidency, a
blunder made by Delhi elite. Periyar bounced on the oppurtunity and claimed
[by extending brahmins and North Indians are aryans] that aryans were
trying to oppress the non-brahmin dravidians by imposing hindi and started
garnering momentum for a separate Dravida Nadu. Interestingly his Dravida
Nadu comprised of present Kerala, Andhra and parts of karnataka. His claim
was rejected by the respective states after reorganisation during the post
independence period.

Even before independence, DK was the first to vote for formation of
Pakistan merely to use this later to form its own requirement of Dravida
Nadu.  This momentum for secessionist movement was reduced by Anna Durai
when he called his cadres not to boycott the independence day as planned by
Periyar.  This along with with his rejection of Periyar marrying a young
girl led to the formation of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam by Anna.  Thanks to
Anna atleast the movement was for time being subdued. Now regarding
anti-hindi campaign. Rajaji who was for Hindi before independence understood 
about the futility of such imposition in TN from Anna after he formed his
Swatantra party. Now both of them started campaigning against hindi
imposition. Later in 1967 when DMK contested for state assembly elections,
it had to swear to relinquish any call for dravida nadu and thus such a
calamity was averted thanks to Anna and Rajaji.
----------------------------------------

Now the informations you had requested:-
	To start with "Manila suyatchi" [means self-rule by states] had
already come into existence when our federal structure was formulated. How
much of power should be weilded by states is a question under debate in
every state  now and it is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from dravidanad.

Now some history:- Justice party was formed in 1916 by Thiyagaraja
Chettiar, Dr. T.M. Nair, C.Natesa Mudaliar and others [ref.4] who formed
ministry in Madras in 1920 with the help of Mrs. Besant. Periyar during
this time left congress party due to his anti-brahmin feeling but could not
join Justice party as their leaders were religious. He founded Self-Respect
movement in 1929. When Rajaji became chief minister of Madras presidency,
[1937] he introduced compulsory hindi in schools [ref.4]. Periyar and Anna were
jailed for their protests. In 1942 in a conference in Salem, Justice party
came in to the hands of Periyar. In the conference a resolution was passed
to change the name to Dravida Kazhagam. Regarding the dravidanadu let me
quote part of the speech made by Anna at the time of independence [ref.4]

"Congressmen are entitled to the claim that it is the success of their
great struggle: it is legitimate, just claim. They had struggled for 60
years. At the same time Jinnah has achieved his goal in just six years.
This is an object lesson for us who are demanding a separate Dravidanad. We
shall work for achieving our goal in six years as he has done.
................ Many of them have not understood what we mean by our
demand for a separate dravidian nation.Let us not belittle them, just
because they do not quite feel about this demand of ours in the same
forceful way as we do....... To look on the 15th of August except in terms
of it being a great day seems to be narrow mindedness. Let us not belittle
this great day. Our leader Periar wants us to agitate for our objectives
between the 9th and 11 th of August. By doing so we shall be defeating
ourselves. While placing our demand for a separate Dravidanad, we have not
yet prepared ourselves  properly in any manner; nor have we sacrificed in
any way..."

On 17 th Sep. 1949, DMK was formed by Anna.

Later in 1965 [ref. Hindustan Times Oct. 25, 1965] Anna said that he would
not violate the 15 th amendment to the constitution making secessionist
propaganda an offense. He also said that any move to violate the
anti-secessionist measure would be suicidal to the party. Subsequently in
1967 he won by thumping victory.
-------------------------end of repost------------------
raghavan
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