Dalit Parties and the Dilemmas of Democratization in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

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.