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The Annamalai factor—Why the BJP needs a new Southern strategy

The Dravidian identity, artificially created during colonial rule, is about racially dividing Indians between the Aryan north and the Dravidian south. It also has a caste component of virulent anti-Brahminism.

The rise of the Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), a political party set up by actor Joseph Vijay in Tamil Nadu, implies the slow uprooting of Dravidianism in the state. With a 35 percent vote share, TVK is still lower than the combined share of the DMK and AIADMK, with 45 percent, but a far cry from the above 70 percent combined share that the latter held in 2021.

The Dravidian identity, artificially created during colonial rule, is about racially dividing Indians between the Aryan north and the Dravidian south. It also has a caste component of virulent anti-Brahminism. Tamil politicians raise the idea of the Dravidian identity to ridiculous levels of differentiation, where the Hindi north is pitted against the south, where even the supposed Hindu religious connections between north and south, as evidenced by the existence of thousands of temples in southern India, is deemed to be different from the the north. It is less so outside Tamil Nadu, but the undercurrent is there. There are cultural differences, but to treat the south as another planet is the handiwork of bigoted politicians.

This racism, which had its origins in Tamil Nadu’s Periyarist politics, has been given a rude jolt by the rise of Vijay’s TVK, but it will not entirely go away, for the two Dravidian parties will try to fan it whenever they see an opportunity. Even Vijay, who is a Christian by faith, sees the BJP as an ideological opponent, and, if his party starts losing traction politically at some point, he may also find Dravidianism a useful political tool to deploy.

This makes the BJP’s rise in the south a difficult one. If the party really wants to grow deep roots in the four main southern states, it needs to have a different strategy from what works for it in the north, west........

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