Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
This article on Tamil nationalist politics makes clear that crises of legitimacy and credibility after the January 8th election is not a factor that is limited to politics in the South. Article argues, the victory of the Yahapalana coalition has unexpectedly exacerbated the gap between the priorities of the major Tamil political parties and the needs of the Tamil people in the North.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020
This paper attempts to revisit the populist politics of Tamil Nadu. Tamil politics in India has an enduring characteristic of a sub-nationalist orientation which, sometimes, bares with the populist mobilization by the political parties of Tamil Nadu. Recently, the working president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), one of the prominent political parties of Tamil Nadu, recycles the issue of Dravida Nadu, a hypothetical land for the Tamils own based on their ethnonational identity, which had been dropped almost fifty-five years ago. Dravida Nadu highlights the linguistic, cultural and ethnonational resistance against north-India dominated pan-Indian nationalism. Cauvery water dispute, debate over jallikattu, anti-Hindi stance, and protest against the terms of reference of the Fifteenth Finance Commission are the signs of anticentre campaign in Tamil politics. These are being used not only for safeguarding the Tamil cultural nationalism but for mobilizing the people in electoral combat zone in Tamil Nadu.
This paper attempts to map Tamil Transnational politics of the past, present and the future by outlining some key developments in Tamil transnational political activism since the struggle for the independent state of Tamil Eelam began. The military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 resulted in several drastic changes in Tamil politics in Sri Lanka and the diaspora, one important change being the emergence of several factions in the Tamil polity in the Tamil homeland and in the Tamil Diaspora. Some of the key questions this paper attempts to address include: Is there a political divide between the diaspora and those in the “homeland”? What are the dynamics that animate Tamil transnational politics in the post May 2009 era? What are the main differences between Tamil transnational politics in the pre- and post- May 2009 era? What could be the future trends in Tamil Transnational politics? After providing a brief overview on theoretical perspectives of transnational practices and transnational political activism, this paper discusses Tamil transnational political activism from a perspective that questions the validity of the concept of long distance nationalism. The paper argues that Tamil political activism pre-May 2009 could be seen as transnational if the LTTE is viewed as a transnational political formation. Post-May 2009, the transnationalism of Tamil political activism is more obvious, and the paper focuses on political formations such as the TGTE, GTF and National Country Councils, and discusses the tensions around these political formations. The paper concludes by discussing three possible scenarios of Tamil transnational political activism in the future. Keywords: Tamil Transnational politics, LTTE, TGTE, GTF, National Country Councils, TNA
2000
The history of the Dravidian parties … reveals the most systematic and durable populist features to be seen in the semi-industrialised world" (Subramanian 1999: 15) "Populism (can) attain sustained success in semi-industrialised societies and aid the representation of emergent social groups" (Subramanian 1999: 13, 310) "In sharp contrast to the claims of most critics, Tamil Nadu's record on the dimensions of economic performance … is remarkably good (and) in its performance on social indicators (the) MGR government really shines" (Swamy 1999: 144) This paper is mainly concerned to offer a more extended review of Narendra Subramanian's book Ethnicity and Populist Mobilization: political parties, citizens and democracy in South India (OUP 1999) than the one which I wrote earlier for Frontline (17 March 2000); but in discussing Subramanian's arguments I shall refer as well to the work of Arun Swamy, another Tamilian of the same generation, whose Berkeley PhD thesis The Nation, the People and the Poor: sandwich tactics in party competition and policy formation, India 1931-96 (1996) deals quite substantially with the politics of Tamil Nadu 1 , and develops a theme which overlaps with Subramanian's. I think this is a worthwhile task not only because Subramanian's book is the most substantial study of Tamil politics, in English at least, to have appeared for a quarter of a century (since Marguerite Ross Barnett's book The Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South India was published in 1976) but also because I find the work both of Swamy and of Subramanian of much wider significance in view of what they have to say about the nature of populism in politics and policy. More generally their works are of interest as studies of 'an actually existing political system', when these rarely fit into the neat conceptual boxes of political science-hence, in part, the problem of the way in which 'populism' is regarded; and because of the centrality of political parties in their analyses. Political parties have not been so much the object of study in the more recent past, while they seem to be regarded in some of the more programmatic literature on 'governance' as being rather a problem, presumably because they cannot be relied upon as instruments of rational policy-making and implementation. This may be part of the reason for the
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: The political parties are missing inner democracy which keeps many perspective leaders deprived of their rights.some political parties indulge in the use of money and muscle power for winning elections.The use of money and muscle power hamper development and it is against the spirit of democracy .And many peoples are also accepting the bribe which is given by a political party to win the election.
In 1999, the largest Dalit movement organization in Tamil Nadu abandoned a decade-long boycott of elections and entered party politics as the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panther Party, VCK). The focus of this article will be on the processes of institutionalization both into political institutions and into socio-cultural ways of doing politics. It will chart both how the party has changed as a result of entering formal politics, and the ways in which it has managed to change the institutions it entered. Looking at institutionalization in this way problematizes the usual focus on a party's electoral success or failure and compels us to analyze their political performance within its specific context. I show how institutionalization in Tamil Nadu has taken particular forms which have some benefits for VCK supporters, while also creating a rift between the party and its core support.
Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory and Practice edited by Asanga Welikala, 2012
'One man's revolutionary is another man's terrorist.' Madras Cafe,2013. The essay highlights the honour, progressiveness and also false representation of the 'Tamilian Identity' in the Contemporary World Politics and also the Indian Sub-Continent. The essay does not only uphold the struggle of the LTTE as ' a just revolution' in Sri Lanka, which proscribed as 'terrorism' by the Europe and also the US but also romanticizes the culture, an egalitarianism and humility of the 'Tamils' in the World Politics.
Contemporary South Asia, 2013
Commentary on Indian politics frequently uses the term populism narrowly to refer to short-term, electorally driven expenditure. However the term is more insightfully used when referring to an ideological construct that celebrates the importance of the people as an undivided group. Politics in Tamil Nadu has had a strongly populist character since the 1960s with both the DMK and AIADMK making appeals to the ‘people’ of the state. In the last decade the DMK has adjusted its populist appeals to better connect with lower status groups, a constituency traditionally targeted by the AIADMK. The AIADMK re-worked its approach, using a technocratic populist discourse during its campaign to win the 2011 assembly elections, addressing concerns of higher status voters while still acknowledging its poorer supporters. Populist appeals have been adjusted to compensate for political weaknesses in the two governing parties. Economic and social changes since the late 1990s have created opportunities, as well as imperatives, for reworking populist appeals.
Stokke, K. (1998). Sinhalese and Tamil Nationalism as Postcolonial Political Projects from “Above,” 1948-1983. Political Geography, 17, 1, 83-113.
This article examines Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka in the period from independence in 1948 to the rise of militant Tamil separatist nationalism in the early 1980s. Inspired by recent developments in political geography, the core of the argument is that Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism represent post-colonial political projects where nationalist material and discursive practices have been initiated by segments of the dominant class for the purpose of mobilization within political alliances. More specifically, it is argued that Sri Lankan post-colonial politics has been characterized by three kinds of political alliances; ethnic class alliances, political patron-client networks and strategic government alliances. The emergence and radicalization of Sinhalese and Tamil nationalist politics should be understood as a matter of continuities and changes in the material and discursive practices within these alliances, In the early post-colonial period, this politics of alliances ensured a degree of political participation and social redistribution, and as such served to defuse ethnic and class tensions. In the late post-colonial period, the neglect of the material and discursive practices of the ethnic class alliances and particularly the strategic government alliances undermined the legitimacy of the political system and led to a radicalization of Tamil nationalist demands in the 1970s and the emergence of militant Tamil nationalism from below in the 1980s.
The union government by Modi, rather extending its arms to end up the dismal that is the present situation of Tamil Nadu, just stopping by and waiting for its opportune moment to take hold of the control and the instances and incidences make those very sure. Such activities of negligence and indulged in inapt activities literally kills the democracy. The failure of the pillars of democracy is in it's progression. The failure of the pillars leads to failure of the democracy.
Kumar Ponnambalam Memorial Lecture, August 2013
Istanbul University - DergiPark, 2013
örgütleriyle girdiği iş birlikleri üzerinden bölgesel gücün güvenliğini tehdit eder konuma gelmesi, devletlerle çatışan etnik örgütlere verilen dış desteğin sebebiyet verebileceği tehlikeyi ortaya koyar niteliktedir.
Growth and Change, 2000
Regionalism has commonly been expected to dissolve as a consequence of the administrative regional penetration of the centralized modern state and the homogenizing forces associated with modernization. This mode of reasoning has reappeared recently among authors who see globalization as a universal force that will eradicate regional economic inequalities, local identities and regional political mobilization. Contrary to these expectations, regional autonomy movements continue to play a central political role within many states. Consequently, it remains an important analytical challenge to understand the construction and politicization of regional interests.
Eranga Chathura Perera, 2022
Sri Lankan Army and LTTE On May 18, 2009, the nearly 30-year war between the terrorists ended. The state of Tamil Nadu in India can be pointed out as a state that played a major role in bringing about post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka after the end of the war. The purpose was to pressure the Central Government of India and, through the Government of India, the UN Human Rights Council to punish war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan Army for harming the Tamil people. It is a question of whether the Tamil Nadu political parties that preceded Tamil nationalism were genuinely sympathetic to their fellow Sri Lankan Tamils or used the Sri Lankan Tamil people to assert their political supremacy and existence. They have always had a very anti-government policy towards the Government of Sri Lanka. Indeed, it is also questionable whether Tamil Nadu was sincere in its efforts for post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Instead of bringing about real reconciliation in Sri Lanka, it can be concluded that the Tamil Nadu politicians sought to further frustrate the confidence of the Sri Lankan Central Government in the Central Government of Sri Lanka, undermine confidence and pursue other narrow political interests. In this context, the United National Front for Good Governance, which came to power in 2015, made India the focal point in determining the direction of its foreign policy. Thus, qualitative data have been analyzed systematically using primary and secondary data to corroborate the above topic of Tamil Nadu's influence and influence in determining post - war Sri Lankan reconciliation and foreign policy.
This article explains the impact of substate nationalism on the political dynamic surrounding ethnic kin migration through a case study of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. Examples drawn from the migration studies literature identify ethnic kinship between refugees and host as an indicator of favorable reception and assistance. While this expectation is borne out to an extent in the Tamil Nadu case, it is tempered by a period of hostility following the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber, when the refugees were figured as a disruptive and dangerous presence by Tamil Nadu's political elites. A version of the “triadic nexus” model of kin state relations, reconfigured to accommodate the larger political unit within which the substate nationalism is incorporated, is proposed as a framework of analysis for these events. This can better account for Tamil Nadu's substate ethnonationalist elite's movement between expressions of coethnic solidarity with the refugees and the more hostile, security-focused response postassassination.
Third World Quarterly, 2007
Tamil Ottawa Conference Proceedings, 2019
This paper critically engages evolving frameworks of nationalism scholarship in International Relations (IR) and the wider social sciences, and their significance for Tamil nationalism, particularly in the current global political context. Nationalism has gone through three phases of scholarly engagement from the period of the Cold War to the present: from a willingness to engage the phenomenon during the Cold War, to the initial post-Cold War period when nationalism was marginalised in scholarship – concurrently with its disqualification in western policy and practice, and in the current juncture, where the sheer proliferation of nationalist movements, notably including in the West, is compelling a renewed focus on the phenomenon.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.