CHENNAI: A term that has gained currency in the run-up to the Assembly elections is the contemptuous “tharkuri”, which loosely translates to “illiterate”. It is often used by the opponents of actor and TVK president Vijay, primarily supporters of the DMK, to refer to young fans and supporters of the debutante party for their perceived lack of political understanding and dogmatic support to the actor.
The slur, and the broader question of youth engagement in politics, has become a hotly debated topic this election season with all political fronts vying to attract nearly 1.18 crore voters below the age of 30, who account for about 21% of the 5.67 crore electorate.
Such blanket criticisms of Vijay's supporters is countered by critics on at least three fronts: the belittlement takes away the agency of the actor's supporters, it is counterproductive, and importantly, if the youngsters indeed lacked political awareness, it was the failure of successive Tamil Nadu governments.
They point to the near-total disappearance of campus politics and student elections across colleges and universities in the state, particularly after the violent clashes during student polls at Presidency College in Chennai and the scrapping of campus elections in 2015. "Even without a government order, colleges were discouraged from conducting elections. Over time, it became an unwritten rule," said a former principal of a government college in Chennai.
However, scholars argue that violence was a convenient justification as those in power did not think it was desirable for students to engage in politics. This is ironic since campuses were centres of active political engagement and it was indeed the enthusiastic participation of youngsters that catalysed the transformation of Tamil Nadu into a land of Dravidian politics.
When DMK came to power in 1967, it was a 25-year-old student leader P Seenivasan who defeated incumbent CM and Congress stalwart K Kamaraj in Virudhunagar. Though the disappearance became near-complete since 2000s, the shift began in the 1970s, with protests at Annamalai University against the awarding a honorary doctorate to then CM M Karunanidhi, which resulted in police action and the death of a student.
Prince Gajendra Babu, founder of the State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN), attributes the shift largely to the rapid expansion of private institutions from the 1980s. “Private colleges preferred compliant students who would not question authority. Over time, there was a deliberate move to suppress student elections, and successive governments yielded to market pressures,” he said. The replacement of the Pre-University Course (PUC) system in 1978 with the 10+2 system weakened spaces where political engagement once thrived, Babu noted.
C Lakshmanan, former professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, said Dravidian parties that once nurtured student politics later began to see student leaders functioning with autonomy as a threat. “Over time, political engagement among youth was reduced to fan club culture,” he said.
Ramu Manivannan, former head of the political science department at the University of Madras, said universities have largely ceased to be spaces where students learn to debate, organise, and develop political thinking. “Many young people today are politically expressive, but not politically educated. This vacuum partly explains the rise of platforms like TVK,” he said. He said reviving elections in campuses is important for safeguarding democracy itself.
Former Madras High Court judge K Chandru, who submitted a report to the state government on eradicating casteism in educational institutions, linked the absence of student governance to issues such as ragging, drug abuse, and factional clashes. “Elected student bodies create accountability and leadership. Without them, campuses lose an essential democratic mechanism,” he said.
Student leaders say the lack of representative bodies has made collective action difficult. SFI state president S Mridhula said, “From poor hostel infrastructure to lack of basic amenities, many institutions face issues, but students have no formal mechanism to raise them.” She added that protest culture is increasingly being criminalised. “Those who protest risk police action or even expulsion,” she said.
A political science professor in a state university said that youth wings of parties do not constructively engage with youths as these are often dominated by people, aged above 40. “This underscores the lack of avenues for generation transition within parties. Young voters are gravitating towards alternatives like TVK because mainstream parties failed to cultivate grassroots youth leadership,” she said.
In a recent interview with TNIE, Higher Education minister Govi Chezhiaan, who himself emerged from student politics, said campus elections stopped because of UGC regulations and interventions of private and government-aided colleges.
"The concern is real and the reasons behind it need to be examined carefully. When we come back to power after this election, we will take it up with CM (MK Stalin) and work towards reviving campus politics in a meaningful way," said Chezhiaan.