The political career of E.V. Ramasami Naicker : a study in the politics of Tamilnad, 1920-1949

Abstract

As E.V. Ramasami Naicker's movement grew out of opposition to the Brahman ritual superiority and their political dominance in society, this study starts with an analysis of how, over the centuries, the Brahmans combined ritual authority and land-ownership with political leadership and gained pre-eminence in the country, and how this was challenged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century first by the non-Brahman intellectuals and later by the political leaders. The first organized effort to challenge the Brahman political leadership came about when the non-Brahman leaders banded themselves into a political party and participated in the legislatures established in the Presidency of Madras under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919. However, the first attempt to arouse the non-Brahman masses and to create in them a sense of pride in their cultural and historical traditions and an awareness of their rightful place in society was made by Naicker, a staunch nationalist, who in early 1926 launched the Self-Respect movement in the Tamil districts of the presidency. This thesis seeks to examine how Naicker rose in the party hierarchy of the Madras Provincial Congress and what groups gave him support. Further it examines the causes that led Naicker to leave the Tamilnad Congress and organize a radical movement in the Tamil country. In doing so it also examines the radicalism of Naicker, the objectives of the movement he fathered, the means he adopted to disseminate the new cultural and political values in the community and the castes and communities to whom he appealed. Naicker's probings in order to align himself with non-Brahman political parties, his attitude to the Congress and its policies as well as his pro- British and pro-bureaucratic stance are analyzed. As he was concerned with the ultimate results of the constitutional processes and not with its details, this thesis touches only on the broad aspects of these changes in so far as they held the attention of Naicker. The radical Self-Respect movement was further radicalized under the influence of Soviet style communism in the 1930’s. This study, besides delineating this new phase of the movement, seeks to examine the reasons that motivated Naicker on the one hand and the Justice leaders on the other to come to a political understanding in 1934. It also proposes to show how this informal alliance between Naicker and the Justicites failed to improve the Justice Party’s prospects either in the 1934 or in the 1937 elections, and how it enabled Naicker to become the leader of the party in 1938. After a landslide victory over the Justice Party in the 1937 elections for the provincial legislative assembly, the Congress headed by C. Rajagopalachariar formed the ministry in Madras later that year. Within a year of coming to power the Congress ministry introduced Hindi as a compulsory subject of study in some of the lower secondary schools in the presidency. What this language policy meant to the Tamil academics and the non-Brahman politicians opposed to the Congress, and how the fears of the educated non-Brahmans concerning imposition of Hindi was exploited by Naicker to awaken Dravidian nationalism among the masses are investigated in this study. The effects of the 1937 electoral defeat on the Justice Party on the one hand, and on Naicker on the other, will be assessed. It is evident that "the defeat was a crushing blow to the Justicites and that it provoked considerable searching of heart among them. The tangible effect of all this was an invitation to Naicker to assume the leadership of the organization. This study seeks to examine what Naicker did to the party organization on taking over the leadership; why it declined, and what considerations weighed with Naicker’s principal followers like Annadurai,to rechristen the Justice Party as the Dravida Kazhagam in 1944. In doing so, the study focuses attention on the emergence of the Annadurai-Naicker alliance in politics and the impact it had on the Justice organization in the 1940’s. On the adoption of Annadurai's resolution at the Salem conference in 1944» the old-guard of the Justice Party decided to break away from the then transformed organization to form a splinter group of their own, whioh facilitated the emergence of Naicker and Annadurai as the only two important leaders in the D.K. This thesis briefly examines the progress of the D.K., the hopes it raised among its followers and the set-back it received in 1949* It also shows how Annadurai was able to build up an independent following both in the party and in the Tamil districts and with what techniques he became a leader of importance in the 1940's. As this study is approached from the broad biographical context of Naicker, only the relevant factual details concerning the Tamilnad Congress, the Justice Party and the Ministerial Party are brought into focus. In this thesis no single system of spelling Indian words has been adopted. In the case of proper names the old usage is adhered to as far as possible. All words written in Tamil irrespective of their origins, and titles of Tamil books, are transliterated according to the scheme followed in the Tamil Lexicon. Diacritical marks are used for the Tamil books included in the bibliography. In conformity to Tamil tradition, the caste name *Chetti* is appended with honorific suffix 'ar' to read 'Chettiar' when followed by first names. The 'Raraasami' is spelt in different ways, such as Ramaswami, Ramaswamy and Ramasamy; the spelling used in this thesis is Naicker's own usage. Although Ramasami Naicker dropped his caste title 'Naicker' after the first Self-Respect Conference held in 1929, the title is retained in this study, as he has been known to the outside world rather as Naicker and, of late, as Tantai Periyar or 'Venerable father' than as Ramasami.