Rule of the Commoner: DMK and the Formations of the Political in Tamil Nadu, 1949-1967

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has been singular in heralding and establishing a firm regional polity among the Indian states after the Indian Union was inaugurated as a republic. Academic scholarship has often treated the DMK as a Tamil nationalist or ethno-nationalist formation without conceptual clarity or critical insight. Rule of the Commoner demonstrates with persuasive evidence that the DMK appealed to a federalist and not nationalist imagination. The DMK's combining of the non-Brahmin Dravidian identity and allegiance to Tamil language led to a counter hegemonic formation of the plebes and left populism. Drawing on Ernesto Laclau, the book argues that the DMK achieved the construction of a people as Dravidian-Tamil, with Tamil being the empty signifier of the social whole, Brahmin vs. non-Brahmin divide functioning as the internal frontier leading to the formations of the political. It elaborates the conceptual scheme under the three rubrics of Ideation, Imagination and Mobilization.

Rajan Kurai Krishnan is Associate Professor at the School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Dr B R Ambedkar University, Delhi. He regularly publishes articles on political theory, philosophy, global affairs, climate change and film theory.

Ravindran Sriramachandran is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University. His research interests include semiotics, environment and development, South Asian politics, and film studies.

VMS Subagunarajan is an independent researcher in Chennai. He has written extensively on the Dravidian movement, especially on Periyar.