Stage, Speech, Cinema, Clothing: How Dravidian Politics Won The Tamil Public

Summary of this article

• It was in the 19th century that new theories about Indian languages took shape. Grammar and literary treatises of Indian languages were printed.
  
• The Dravidian movement can take credit for using treadle printing machines—used locally only for printing wedding invitations—to print pamphlets and magazines.
  
• Cinema, which arrived in Tamil Nadu in the 1930s as a modern, technology-driven art form, was used with remarkable effectiveness by the Dravidian movement leaders from the early 1950s.
  

Thanthai Periyar launched the Self-Respect Movement in 1925 after quitting the Congress. It later evolved into the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) and then the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was also a continuation of that legacy. It is now nearly a 100 years since the movement was launched, and about 60 years since it first came to power. Today, the DMK, which rules Tamil Nadu, identifies its governance as the “Dravidian Model”.