Take the fight to the North

The DMK is having a bit of a good moment in parts of the national conversation. On its policies, its governance initiatives, social justice imperatives, opposing Hindi, lampooning the Centre over GST and federalism, the DMK’s clamour is strident. These wedge issues are diverse, and they’ve been lingering for decades. The Hindi issue, for example, does repeat appearances. These matters beg the question: Why haven’t parties away from the north that are opposed to the Hindi belt’s domination not taken the battle to the Centre to remould Indian politics away from Delhi? Herein, the DMK makes for a special case vis-à-vis other regional parties.

The DMK is a solid grassroots organisation in Tamil Nadu, and its prime rival, the AIADMK, is a local rival more than an ideological nemesis. In many ways, both Dravidian parties are natural ideological opponents of Hindutva. So, one wonders over their future, given the current BJP’s appropriation of Ambedkar and its inroads into ‘lower’ caste voter groups in North India. If Hindutva needs to be fought, it will need to happen ideologically. This is where Dravidian politics has a body of thought and action that cries out for an India-wide spread.

The recent, tiresome circus over Hindi brings up an unspeakable query: If the issue resurfaces so routinely, what have its opponents being doing about it for so long? To be sure, many regional parties, including its fierce current opponents like the DMK, joined the BJP-led NDA in the past in (more accommodating) coalition governments. Past and current regional heavyweights, some of whom once sided with the BJP, cannot be cribbing over federalism or Central hauteur whenever issues like Hindi rebound. What is their long-term strategy? Is it in only being regional or state-level players? If it’s the latter, that’s a losing, negative mindset. Some of our tallest regional heavyweights are culpable of such complacency. With the Congress fading, they are paying bitterly; they have no option but to deal with a bellicose BJP-led Centre.

In this situation, among Hindi naysayers, the DMK with its vaunted legacy of social reform and justice going back almost a century begs the question: Being in power for decades and almost-forever at loggerheads with the North India-dominated Centre, why did it not go pan-India, or at least pan-South India? Is its politics bound only to matters of Tamil identity and language? Does obsession with Tamil – obviously its core strength – make the Dravidian movement parochial? Why didn’t some of its stars not spread its message across North India more forcefully? Nearly all these criticisms apply to other regional parties that disparately and varyingly oppose Hindi and the Hindi belt’s control over Indian politics.

To this writer, many eye-catching things that the Aam Aadmi Party does come out of political playbooks that define Indian politics. Some of its schemes and measures draw from India’s past of social reform, including the Dravidian movements. So, a newish, growing Hindi heartland party manages to capture public imagination. Of course, the AAP speaks Hindi, and that helps.

Regional players like the DMK and the AIADMK are generations old. Their messaging hasn’t filtered across many corners of India, especially the Hindi-speaking states. Many regional parties have a solid track record of developing their states. Under the clench of North India, the rest of India doesn’t get to hear their stories, their life arcs. The states cannot blame the north all the time. With the Third Front nary a starter, for their own future, the regional parties ought to take fight to the north from the states.