Image Courtesy:thewire.in
Late in May, on the morning of May 29, the locality of Pazhanganatham in Madurai, one of the oldest cities in Tamil Nadu, saw a spectacular turnout of thousands of people. Pouring in from varous districts through various modes of transport, there was a common purpose:
– all of them were wearing red shirts.
Men and women grouped together on one side, on the other a group of youngsters were warming up to play the parai, or drum. Supporters and allies of Marxist, Dravidian and Ambedkarite groups, they had converged on Pazhanganatham to voice their protest against the aggressive efforts of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to further its Hindutva ideology in Tamil Nadu in chourts with the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The AIDMK had been in power in the state till May 2021.
Representing political movements which, in the normal course, stay away from the electoral process, they had come together for the Red Shirt rally under the banner of the Periyariya Unarvalargal Kootamaippu (Coalition of Periyarists), or Kootamaippu for short. Periyar, with his Dravidian, anti-caste ideology, has remained pivotal with his contestation of Brahminical hegemony in the state.
This was not the first rally of its kind that the Kootamaippu, a coalition of more than 140 organisations, had planned. The Red Shirt rally, highlighting the importance of Marxism in the ideological battle to counter Hindutva in the Tamil political landscape, was preceded by a Blue Shirt rally in Coimbatore in February 2020 to mark the Ambedkarite surge against Hindutva ideology and a Black Shirt rally in Trichy in 2018 to stress the need for Periyarist ideology to take on right-wing political ideology.
Together, many of these rallies, over five years, essentially conveyed one single message: the need for Ambedkarite, Marxist and Periyarist ideologies to come together to resist the growth of right-wing forces in Tamil Nadu.
Much in the southern state of Tamil Nadu is different because of the efforts of the Dalit leader Thol. Thirumavalavan and founder of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, says Thirumurugan Gandhi. Thirumavalavan, a Member of Parliament, declared Marxism, Ambedkarism, Periyarism, women’s liberation and Tamil nationalism as the party’s core doctrine. He embraced Periyar’s anti-Brahminism politics.
A significant aspect of this Red Shirt rally was not just the large presence of Left organisations and its sympathisers but also the huge turnout of Periyarists and Ambedkarites. Tamil Nadu has shown that the only way to politically dismantle the BJP’s fascist Hindutva agenda is to have a coalition of Ambedkarist, Periayarist and Marxist movements. Tamil Nadu is showing the way to defeat the four varnas with three vannams, or colours.