CHENNAI: The Dalit movement in Tamil Nadu, which began in the time of C Iyothee Thass in the 1870s, predates the Dravidian movement. Still it was only in the late 1990s that political parties aimed at representing Dalit communities rose in the State. However, 20 years later, political consolidation of Dalits, who account for close to a fifth of the state’s population, is lacking.
Experts said reasons for this range from the parties’ unwillingness to experiment in their early years and playing, all too soon, into the hands of the two Dravidian majors.
A promising movement that lost the steam
Dalit intellectual Stalin Rajangam said that those at the forefront of the Dalit movement restricted themselves to taking up civil rights issues. “To some extent, Dalits had the backing of the Constitution. So they restricted their roles to demanding that those in power enforce the law. It did not occur to them that it was necessary for them to be in power in order to bring about the social democracy that they wanted,” he said.
The political success of Dravidian movement, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, empowered the intermediate castes. This resulted in an increase in tension between these communities and Dalits. The Dravidian parties have been criticised for failing to address oppression of Dalits -- it was the Left parties that broadly worked with Dalit communities, but along the axis of labour and class rather than caste. As Dravidian politics succeeded, Dalits noticed that all positions of power had come to rest with intermediate castes.
“The voices of those affected by these conflicts were identified by Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Puthiya Tamilagam (PT), both of which are village-based parties. They began asserting themselves to take over these positions of power,” said Stalin.
The Thol Thirumavalavan-led VCK took the electoral plunge in 1999, the same year as the Dr Krishnasamy-led PT. However, both parties indulged in seat-sharing with the Dravidian parties. The VCK contested the 1999 Lok Sabha polls with the Moopanar-led Tamil Maanila Congress and allied with the DMK for the 2001 Assembly polls. PT also fought in the 1999 polls with the TMC and joined the DMK for the 2001 elections.
Consolidation, a far cry
The lack of a single Dalit voting bloc is indicated by the vote shares enjoyed by these parties. In 2016, VCK contested 25 seats as part of the People’s Welfare Front and secured 3,31,849 votes, with a vote share of 0.77 per cent. In the same election, BSP contested 158 seats and secured 97,823 votes (0.23 per cent). Puthiya Tamilagam fought the 2016 elections as a DMK ally, contesting in four seats and securing 0.51 per cent of votes.
Ramu Manivannan, head of department of politics and public administration at the University of Madras said in TN, Dalit votes were mobilised on both sub-regional and sub-caste terms. The sub-regional mobilisation is used by each Dravidian party as a counter-balancing strategy against the other.
The VCK is said to have a base among the Paraiyar sub-caste and some sections of Arunthathiyars, while the PT is said to represent the interest of Pallars (also known as Devendra Kula Vellalars). The AIADMK too is said to have a strong following among Arunthathiyars.
“Dalit sub-castes such as Arunthathiyars have always needed a separate voice and often had to raise their demands over those of Paraiyars,” he said.
Besides, there is a growing demand among the Pallars to be removed from the Scheduled Caste list. A Marx, a political commentator said a number of Pallar youngsters believed exclusion from the list would bring them higher social status. “So, they (Pallars) will never ally with other Dalit castes. The leadership that emerges from one of the communities will not be accepted by other two,” said Marx.
A solution that they may look at, is to build a common space for a statewide Dalit movement rather than as a vote bank, Manivannan said.
In this context, Thirumavalavan’s decision to take up Tamil identity politics and broaden his party’s appeal, may have cost him the loyalty of Dalits as the move was perceived as putting Dalits and their oppressors in the same bracket.
Unwillingness to experiment
By entering into pacts early in their electoral careers, the PT and VCK failed to experiment and gauge their strength, experts said, drawing a comparison to Vanniyar-dominated PMK. During the 2016 assembly polls, for instance, PMK contested all 234 seats alone. They did not win a single seat. “Their goal, however, was not to win. They aggregated the number of votes that they secured in each constituency and used it as a bargaining chip while negotiating seats with the Dravidian parties. Without substantial work on the ground, the party could secure seven seats while the VCK is struggling for one or perhaps, two,” said Stalin.
“VCK and PT should have experimented along these lines to assess their own strength. Dalits are there but how would the VCK show the DMK that it actually translates to votes for them?” he asked.
The VCK’s only ‘experiment’ was its participation in the People’s Welfare Front- an alliance of MDMK, VCK and Left parties - that was formed in mid 2015.