While the North unified under Gandhi's call for Non-Cooperation, the Justice Party saw an opening in Madras. They boycotted the boycott, choosing to align with colonial levers rather than revolutionary lanterns.
The Tamil landscape, for centuries, had been shaped by the self-denying, often severe, philosophies of Jainism and Buddhism.
Pundits and laypersons, Tamil Nadu confounds everybody alike. What makes it the strongest citadel of regionalism in contemporary politics that is now soaked in nationalism? Why is it a unique entity even among its culturally similar southern states?
By branding Pongal as a "Dravidian festival", Chief Minister M K Stalin has turned a centuries-old harvest celebration into a political statement ahead of the 2026 polls, reopening a familiar debate in Tamil Nadu over culture, identity and where regional pride ends and national tradition begins.
Thirupparamkundram, very much in the news these days, is where it all began, literally and metaphorically: Bhakti got localised with sacred sites and attendant pilgrimages. And this is now a legal and political journey too.
Everyone wants to own a copy of the Thirukkural—for the self or the shelf. And almost everyone wants to appropriate Thiruvalluvar — as mascot, master, mentor, or moral alibi. Politicians invoke him; parties claim him; communities adopt him.
The author of Tolkappiyam, Tolkappiyar, may be regarded as one of the earliest anthropologists of the ancient world.
What concerns us here is not geography or geology, but grammar — how a civilisation understood itself before it theologised itself.
Bishop Robert Caldwell remains an inescapable and towering figure. His 1875 Comparative Grammar successfully executed an epistemological upheaval, providing the intellectual framework for the cultural, linguistic and political assertion of the South, particularly Tamil Nadu where he was most active, as separate from the 'rest'.
Dravida began life as a Sanskritic whisper — yet by the first millennium CE, Tamilakam's saints, scholars, sovereigns and subjects had turned it into a roar. Rajas and Prajas alike gave the word currency, credibility and even a circular halo. Tamil ploughed its lone, luminous furrow, but Dravida lingered like an uninvited uncle who refused to leave the public wedding feast.
