#Dravidanadu on Twitter: Can a pressure group of southern states take on New Delhi?
Conceptually, Dravidanadu is a separate nation geographically identified with South India and whose inhabitants belong to the Dravidian race, in contrast to the North Indian Aryans. It is not a new idea. One of the first thinkers to propound the concept was the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu led by the social reformer EV Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar.
Not surprisingly, much of the positive response to #Dravidanadu tweets came from Tamils in Tamil Nadu.
This twitter war aside, #Dravidanadu does raise some questions: should the concept, in its modern avatar, be seen as a call for secession at all? Can the southern states come together to form a pressure group to “protect” their culture and politics from an increasingly assertive North Indian ruling establishment at the Centre?
Pressure tactic
Given all this, Dravidanadu today seems an impractical idea. However, this does not mean the southern states cannot come together as a pressure group to resist policies such as the beef ban and Hindi imposition, which infringe their cultural practices and are largely driven by North Indian sensibilities.
Together, the five southern states form a formidable grouping given their economic might and human development. They contribute as much as 30% of the country’s tax revenue and continue to grow at healthy rates.
At the moment, there is no evidence to suggest mass support for a separate Dravidian nation. But the threat of secession has cropped up during popular protests such as the one for Jallikattu in Chennai last January, serving the purpose of forcing the Centre to listen to the voice of these states. In that sense, Dravidanadu can act as a check on the Centre’s unilateral policymaking.
If anything, the popularity of the #Dravidanadu hashtag conveys the flawed nature of governance that Narendra Modi’s BJP government has come to represent. By pursuing ideologically-driven policies such as Hindi imposition and cattle slaughter restrictions, the BJP has brought to life a long-forgotten idea. If such alienating policies continue, Twitter may not be the only forum where ideas like Dravidanadu are expressed.
https://scroll.in/article/839026/dr...-group-of-southern-states-challenge-new-delhi