An Encounter with the Dravidians!!

One of the notable features of the Indian Party System is the presence of a large number of regional parties. By regional party we mean a party which generally operates within a limited geographical area and its activities are confined only to a single or handful of states. The term ‘regionalism’ has two connotations. In the negative sense, it implies excessive attachment to one’s region is preference to the country or the state. In the positive sense it is a political attribute associated with people’s love for their region, culture, language, etc. with a view to maintain their independent identity.

But what actually are the implications when regionalism drives a community beyond just holding up its identity, when conserving one’s own language becomes more than a socio-cultural issue? This is what, as far I understood in 2 years, the Tamil Nadu politics thrives on. It cannot but be a concern of every right thinking man to live with the social anomalies in the so called Dravidian land. This is in fact my personal account as an ‘outsider’ to pen down some strange yet ironical experiences of mine.


The first question my landlord asked me while renting me the house took me by surprise. Mr. Ramalingam, my landlord was not interested in where I came from, where I worked. He rather asked me if I was an Aryan or Dravidian. That is not all, you need to pay more for the same house if you are an ‘Aryan’ ! You might be thinking then what decides whether you are an Aryan. Well , that is too simple for the people who claim that they, the Dravidians are true Indian and rest were nomadic groups who settled in ‘their India’. But is that historically true? Surprisingly enough, no one cares in Tamil Nadu. Their only belief that South Indians or the Dravidians true and pure Indians and rest ‘the north Indians’ are mixed blood or descendants of some nomadic tribe. This is infact the soul of every political agenda there as the names of the political parties suggest Annna Dravidra Munnetra Kazagam . Infact the first manifestation of regionalism was the demand for reorganization of states on linguistic basis, but the most effective play of regionalism was the victory of the DMK against Congress in Tamil Nadu in 1960s.


Now it is deep rooted than where it started. It’s a social issue and not confined to political parties anymore and its further implication whether grave or better can only be seen with years to come. This is just an personal attempt to bring out the irony of the much prevailing phenomena, with which perhaps every ‘North Indian’ who has lived there will agree.