Anti-Brahmin rhetoric on the core of Dravidian movement is widespread, nonetheless have you learnt Brahmin participation inside the toxicity? The story of VP Raman

The anti-Brahmin rhetoric and hate on the core of the Dravidian movement is a matter of widespread info. What is not widespread info, nonetheless, is the participation of Brahmins inside the movement.

After the present decision to rename Lloyd’s Road in Chennai, which was renamed Avvai Shanmugam Road, to V P Raman Road, now, his memory comes once more into most of the people eye.

What is of curiosity to us is the life and work of V P Raman for instance of the dearth of the elite Brahmins of the time to utterly comprehend the character of the Dravidian movement. 

Mr V P Raman’s son and former Advocate General of Tamil nadu, Mr P S Raman, has written a biography of his father- The Man Who Would Not Be King, which can be very well-referenced and has a wealth of aspect.

Mr P S Raman paints a portrait of a really sensible man born into privileged circumstances, who went on to show into an excellent lawyer, well-networked socialite and devoted family man.

With his intelligence and contacts, he may need been thought-about one in every of India’s storied judges or dominated the Bar at Delhi in essential constitutional cases or in firm cases working in Mumbai. He, nonetheless, chosen to take solely options that bought right here his strategy, reluctantly, and the legacy he seems to have left behind are recollections of his psychological brilliance and attention-grabbing persona amongst household and pals, furthermore his private close-knit, caring family.

Sivaji Ganesan as Barrister Rajinikanth in his 1973 film, Gowravam, for which he studied VPR’s persona

Mr Raman in his commonplace formal attire whereas conducting enterprise
V P Raman, Attorney

Mr Venkata Pattabhi Raman was born in 1932 because the one son of a well-off businessman. He obtained a strict upbringing, principally beneath the supervision of his mother, a ‘Tiger Mom’ of those cases. He was a straight topper all via his education and went into approved observe. His effectivity on the Law College, profitable almost every single tutorial medal attainable, is however to be matched, 75 years on! He was very quick to make a mark for himself. He was made Additional Solicitor General to The Government Of India in 1975 and gave it as a lot as be made Advocate General Of Tamil Nadu in MGR’s first authorities, between 1977 to 1979.

He was non-public buddies with six Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu – Rajaji, whom he affectionately generally known as ‘thatha’ (grandfather), Kamaraj, CN Annadurai, MGR, Karunanidhi, with whom he shared an enthusiasm for Carnatic music and cricket and Nedunchezhiyan. Sivaji Ganesan is claimed to have modelled his iconic perform of Barrister Rajinikanth inside the primary ‘Gowravam’ on Mr Raman.

Mr Raman would have continued his approved occupation in Delhi, nonetheless he refused to defend Sanjay Gandhi inside the Shah Commission, which investigated the excesses of the Emergency. The motive given by Mr P S Raman inside the e ebook is that his father was upset by the incidents at Turkman Gate via the Emergency. After a stint as Advocate General, MGR might be said to have cooled to him, not attributable to expert causes, nonetheless on account of MGR felt let down by Mr VP Raman’s to proceed as Advocate General even after Indira Gandhi had dismissed his Government.

During his tenure as Advocate General of Tamil Nadu, he had occasion to upset one different shut buddy, since he wanted to participate inside the Sarkaria Commission’s investigation of corruption in direction of M Karunanidhi’s DMK Government. Time heals all wounds. True to that, he reconciled with every males ultimately of time.

VP Raman’s politics

Picture taken in 1967

Many people who bought right here of age on the time of India’s Independence had been taken by Socialism. It was true of many worldwide areas internationally. Mr Raman was no completely totally different from many 1000’s and 1000’s of youthful people. However, he did understand the principal conundrum in India, in that caste variations play as large a job in inequity as variations at college. Sometime in 1949 or 1950, when a latest entrant in Madras Law College, he wrote his proposal for modifications to the CPI’s manifesto. He wanted bridging caste and non secular divides to be as essential as a result of the Marxist-Leninist goal of uniting the working class. It is claimed to have been considered and talked about by the CPI politburo after which discarded. He parted strategies with Socialists after this incident.

At this time, the Dravidian movement, notably the DMK, which was started by C N Annadurai, positioned itself as working to determine an egalitarian society. In 1954/1955, he first bought right here in contact with the founding father of the DMK, Mr C N Annadurai at a public meeting in Triplicane, Madras. 

As with many alternative people, paying homage to Karunanidhi and Kannadasan, VPR was left awestruck at Annadurai’s oratory and persona. Breaking with EV Ramasamy’s Dravidar Kazhagam, Annadurai was at pains to degree out that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was a movement for the welfare of all people inside the Dravida space and did not oppose Brahmins as folks nonetheless solely Brahminism and its rituals and practices. This farce has prolonged since been put to rest by the fixed hate speech of Dravidian ideologues, writers, movie makers and politicians, nonetheless VPR seems to have taken it at face value. The persona of Annadurai, alongside together with his easy camaraderie and ability to assemble consensus, would have carried out a large perform on this.

He plunged into the movement, and campaigned for the fledgling celebration in all elections. He stayed inside the movement to see his buddies, Annadurai, Karunanidhi, Anbazhagan, Mathizhagan and others assume office. In 1958, when the celebration decided they needed to position in place a correct construction, a drafting committee led by N V Natarajan and with celebration ideologues EVK Sampath, Era Sezhiyan, Karunanidhi and VP Raman was formed. For a 26-year-old lawyer like VPR, this was pretty an stunning acknowledgement.

VPR was moreover appointed Assistant Editor of the DMK’s English publication – ‘Homeland’, which he used to put in writing down on many issues. One of his articles on the Sri Lankan Tamil concern, printed in 1958, was not too way back reproduced by the celebration, to disclose the consistency of their help to the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

The DMK moreover garnered a big advance in electoral politics, when it bettered the effectivity of the Congress inside the 1959 Madras Municipal Corporation elections. At this time, warfare clouds had been gathering on the China and Pakistan fronts. The nation would go on to battle a debilitating Himalayan warfare in 1962. 

Against this backdrop, VPR wanted to revisit the celebration’s demand for Dravida Nadu, an neutral union of States inside the Southern part of the sub-continent inside a unfastened federation generally known as India. Earlier, in 1957, on the Trichy celebration conference, this comparable topic had been talked about, with VPR, EVK Sampath, Era Sezhiyan and Kannadasan in favour of renouncing the demand and affirming faith inside the integrity of the Indian Republic. At the 1957 conference, Annadurai had firmly made his alternative acknowledged for persevering with with the Dravida Nadu demand.

In 1959, VPR generally known as for a gathering of the Executive Committee, with out consulting Annadurai. Annadurai abstained from the meeting and a choice within the route of integrating with the rest of the nation and firming the nationwide materials was carried, attributable to help from Era Sezhiyan and EVK Sampath. Annadurai was upset at what he perceived as high-handedness and indiscipline. The determination was withdrawn and the demand for Dravida Nadu remained. VPR had no alternative nonetheless to cease his celebration. This was his closing engagement with direct politics. 

The experience left the alternative leaders with a foul aftertaste. Due to this, and totally different contributing parts, EVK Sampath and Kannadasan left in 1961.

In any case, attributable to revised authorized tips that can disqualify separatists from holding office as elected representatives, Annadurai would resign the demand in 1962, nonetheless not sooner than he gave a speech to announce his tactical retreat.

Evaluating his political legacy

We will not delve too deep into VPR’s approved occupation. Our focus shall be the transient interval of 5 to 6 years when he was a part of the Dravidian movement.

To begin with, we are going to lay to rest any doubts that his interval of engagement had one thing to do with power and pelf. He joined the movement as soon as they’d been a fringe movement and left merely as they began to attain political credence. His family was wealthy enough that his father, Mr A Venkata Raman purchased his dwelling on Lloyd’s Road to MGR at a value that MGR may choose and let MGR pay him at any time when he may. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister of instantly, Mr  M Ok Stalin purchased his current residence on Chittaranjan Road from VPR’s in-laws.

His appointments as Law Officers had been made by Indira Gandhi and MGR. In any case, his recognition was such that he was destined for prime office. In his first transient on the Supreme Court, he appeared sooner than then Chief Justice PB Gajendragadkar. His effectivity so impressed them that they generally known as them to their chambers and half-jokingly requested him if he would take up a proposal to show right into a select. Since he did not have even 10 years inside the Bar, the present could not be adopted by the use of. He on no account tried to take a spot on the Bench, since he felt himself temperamentally unsuited for the job.

Thus, one can safely assume that VPR was a member of the Dravidian movement out of conviction. To understand how VPR and totally different elite Brahmins of the interval on no account really opposed the Dravidian movement, one has to know the zeitgeist.

Until the Nineteen Sixties, Brahmins in Tamil Nadu had good political illustration and until the Eighties, had been successfully represented inside the paperwork, academia, enterprise and judiciary. The elites regionally did not actually really feel the specter of the movement.

Annadurai and his consensus-building, people-friendly persona was a large situation inside the creation of an excellent image for the DMK.

VPR and plenty of Tamil Brahmin elites hailed from the Kaveri Delta space, the place attributable to a mixture of a strong proportion of the inhabitants inside the Thirties and land possession, the Brahmins felt a kinship with totally different dominant castes that led the DMK. This continues to as we speak, to some extent, with a non-trivial proportion of Brahmin votes in Kaveri Delta districts going to the DMK.

Many of the primary lecturers, politicians and intellectuals of the Dravidian movement reside within the equivalent neighbourhoods as a result of the elite Brahmins, frequent the equivalent golf tools and are followers of the equivalent non secular heads. It is nonetheless pure that these sturdy non-public relationships cloud the true character of the Dravidian movement.

In the final word reckoning, the tribalism of leaders from the lower heart class like Rama Gopalan, a Swayamsevak who devoted his life to the Hindu set off or H Raja, the BJP chief who rose from origins as a result of the son of a small-town PT trainer, may get rather more dignity for the standard Tamil Brahmin of their very personal homeland.