Caste and vernacular politics in Tamil Nadu, South India 1

Abstract

Contemporary commentators frequently express surprise at the resurgence of caste politics in Tamil Nadu. The distinctive Dravidian regional culture, it is assumed, had put Tamil Nadu on a path to social reform and the eradication of caste. This perception is usually signalled with references to the outspoken Dravidian social reformer Periar. 2 Such readings are rather superficial, but they do draw our attention to the expansion of a vernacular public arena in Tamil Nadu that gathered momentum in the 1950s and reset the ways in which the politics of caste was discussed and understood.