How Slaughter Ban Revived the Demand for #DravidaNadu

Amidst the protests against slaughter ban, #DravidaNadu has become a popular trend on Twitter.

Police trying to control the members of SFI, DYFI shouting slogans against the proposed beef ban by the Central government, in Bengaluru on Monday. (Photo: PTI) 

Most of South India is enraged with the new ban on cattle slaughter notified by the Government of India. Kerala and Madras High Courts have already stayed the ban for a month.

While the opposition has slammed the Tamil Nadu government for not taking a strong stand against the Centre’s infringement on state’s right, Kerala CM Pinayari Vijayan has vocally critiqued the Centre’s decision. V Narayanswamy, CM of Puducherry, and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee too stood in defiance of the notification.

Amidst all the protest posed by commoners and politicians, is the revival of an old demand — #DravidaNadu, which is one of the top trends on Twitter currently. The demand for hypothetical state for the speakers of Dravidian language was first posed by EV Ramaswamy, popularly known as Periyar, who had pioneered the Dravidian movement in South India.

It is worthy to note what disposition led to Periyar’s call for a secessionist state. In 1925, he resigned from Indian National Congress, accusing the party of catering to the interests of the upper class Brahmins. Periyar, who was an atheist himself, contended that the Dravidian society was free of casteist divisions until it was later imposed by the Aryan invaders.

DMK’s Annadurai later elaborated upon the Brahmanical North’s exploitation of the Dravidian and carried the demand forward. Even though the movement was dissolved with the creation of separate South Indian states along linguistic lines, its recent revival bears the sentimental tinge of the same old protest against Aryan domination over traditional South Indian lifestyles.

That the Central Government, led by a national party largely popular in the north of India, should attempt to impose a dietary ban overwriting the state laws on cattle trade and slaughter, is being viewed as a North Indian upper-caste hegemony.

The fresh demands for Dravida Nadu on social media platforms isn’t sudden. Before the beef protests erupted in Tamil Nadu, DMK’s Working President MK Stalin had revived the anti-Hindi dissent.

Although it began with the use of Hindi language on milestones on National Highways, the anger got bitter with the Centre’s proposal for Ministers, and other dignitaries including the President, to deliver speeches in Hindi.

When Hindi was introduced in schools in 1937-38, during C Rajagopalachari’s rule over Madras Presidency, Periyar saw it as further proof of Aryan domination.

Quick to note the encroachment of Hindi over Tamil, the DMK upped the ante against the BJP, making a return to its core ideology.

Politicians from leading national parties are keeping away from adding to secessionist demands. Congress leader from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor tweeted that lobbying for Hindu ideals in a democratic is worrisome, this shouldn’t be an excuse for Southerners to promote secessionist demands.

Yet, Dravida Nadu is gaining support, this time from non-Tamil quarters as well.