Drawdian expansion of Kamal and spiritual politics of Rajini….

Entry of Kamal Hassan into Tamil Nadu politics with the intent to expand the term ‘drawidian’ beyond the state of Tamil Nadu and the earlier announcement of super star Rajinikant to bring clean and pure politics with spiritual intent needs not be seen as two separate ideologies or identities that might contradict the mission of the two mega stars.

The possible reference of Kamal may be to a larger audience where the term Drawidian should not limited to the state of Tamil Nadu alone. Ironically the Drawidian politics has cleverly been made the title drawidian as an index of the state.

Perhaps Kamal wants to demolish such concept and also wants to speak to people of the state that his party is to make a difference and the people in his party are essentially going to be Tamilians and Drawidians. So people of the state needs not see the party of Kamal or Kamal himself as different and truly Kamal is one among them.

In the name of Drawidian politics the state has been ruined in the last two decades. Already one of the soft Drawidian parties is in waning stage and the other one is hard selling the dynasty politics to re-establish its base. If the state ever allows either of the party to come back to power again, none can save the state thereafter and that is how many people in the state feels.

In India, differentiating or demarking people either as Drawidian or Aryan is difficult because the extent of genetic mix between different populations is quite evident and rampant. So the political trade name Drawidian is no more limited to Tamil Nadu. But both of the major Drawidian parties have never attempted to redefine the term Drawidian may be because such an effort might erode their base in the state as for them expanding to other states is almost impossible.

Kamal is redefining the term Drawidian in true sense and reaching out to people of the state not to treat him as alien. On the contrary, what the super star had stated was pertaining to governance.

The term spiritual was neither untouchable nor was absent in Drawidian culture. If we look at the origin of ancient Tamil healing practice called Siddha system, it was believed to have originated from Lord Siva from him the essential were transferred to Parvathi, then to Nandi and then onwards to several Siddhars who were all described to have highest form of spiritual enlightenment and siddhi (divine attainment).

In that sense the spiritual awakening and its essences are integral part of Drawidian culture and what Periyar opposed was superstition and its institutionalization. But in due course of time, the message of superstition and institutionalization have disappeared from the existing form of Drawidian politics and instead the term Drawidian was convoluted as opposite of Aryan culture and all Brahmins in the state are designated to belong to Aryan culture. This was done to divide people on caste line. Subsequently, caste consolidations like Vanniar, Gounder, Thevar etc., started to happen.

But at the end, the politics of Drawidianism has been purposefully reduced to dynast-ism to keep the power and wealth within.

People of the state wants both kamal and Ranji to join together and save the state. The ideology of both the stars is not different.

Drawidian culture pays rich tributes to God, spiritualism and temple culture etc. So the intent of spiritual way of governance and mission of Kamal to expand the term Drawidian beyond the state of Tamil Nadu are one and the same, they are in fact complimentary and co-existing facts.

The term Drawidian is a geographic denominator and not the identity of any person because in India no one is genetically pure Drawidian or Aryan.

Tamil Nadu wants the mega stars not only to stop the repeat of the existing form of Drawidian rule but also wants to take the state to corruption free governance and caste less politics centered on development.