3. Caste Politics Surrounding the Issue
PMK(Paataali Makkal Katchi) has demanded separate statehood for Northern Tamil Nadu in 2002. The Tamil organ namely ‘Poraali’ of erstwhile TN unit of PW published an article against it in the same year. Apart from Vanniar caste Party based in Northern Tamil Nadu, no other mainstream political parties including DMK, ADMK, Congress, CPI and CPM support the demand.
PMK, for its own interest, has already proposed the idea of trifurcation of TN with the aim of capturing the political power of Northern Tamil Nadu, which happens to be a Vanniar caste dominated region.
During the 1980s, due to the underdevelopment, a low-key demand had been there for separate statehood for Southern Tamil Nadu, with the headquarters based in Madurai.
But it has lost its sheen since the 1990s. This is because, the dominant caste namely Mukkulathor of the southern parts of Tamil Nadu, gained ascending dominance in government, state machinery, state government jobs since Jayalalitha became the General Secretary of ADMK and had been CM for four times. Additionally, the Nadars, an influential southern TN caste in the trading sector gained relative prominence in the industrial arena. Similarly, the Muslims of Southern Tamil Nadu also ascended in trading and SMEs spheres as well as in political spheres.
Prior to the CMship of Edappadi Palanisamy, who belonged to the numerically as well as otherwise dominant caste in western TN namely Gounder, the caste associations of the latter have demanded separate statehood for the ‘Kongu’ region. But after Edappadi Palanisamy became CM of TN in 2017 and his cabinet became essentially Gounder cabinet, the demand for separate statehood for the ‘Kongu’ region lost its fervor.Reiterating this, it is significant now that these Gounder caste associations are not raising the demand. On the other hand the big bourgeoisie classes of ‘Kongu Nadu’ have grown at all-India level, a few of them internationally. To name a few are below:
1. The Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) group: one of the only groups that manufactures all kinds of textile machinery in the world.
2. Suguna Hatcheries: which has come up to the top position at an all-India level in the poultry sector.
3. Sakthi Motors: which manufactures one-fourth of the steering wheels for cars in India.
Apart from these big bourgeoisie industrial groups, the ‘Kongu Nadu’ is home to a number of industrial sectors which have a prominent place both at the all-India level and global level.
This includes textile (spinning, ginning, knitting, dyeing, bleaching, home furnishing), engineering (textile machinery, auto components, bodybuilding of heavy vehicles, foundries, Agri/industrial motor pump sets), bore-well drilling, poultry, cargo transportation, etc.
In the agricultural sector, the proposed ‘Kongu Nadu’ supplies turmeric, tapioca, edible oil, coconut etc, to national and global markets. If this has been so, why must the big bourgeoisie of ‘Kongu Nadu’ favour the creation of the latter? There is no necessity.
