COMMUNISM AND TAMIL NADU

Muthuvel Karunanidhi is among the many Tamilians who have at least paid lip service to Communism by naming their son Stalin. In fact, Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala are two states where you find many Lenins and Stalins. Socialist-sounding sops have also helped the grand old man in his rhetoric. Remember last year's electoral promise of rice at Rs 2 per kg.

Which is why it's not surprising that the canny politician recently spoke about his belief in Left ideology to Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta. He even went on to say he would have been a Communist if not for Periyar and his Dravidian movement.

It may sound a grandiose statement now from Karunanidhi, but more than five decades back, history did throw up possibilities for Communism to cast its spell over the then Madras State. It's now easily forgotten that the Communists nearly formed the state government in 1952.

Out of 375 MLAs the Congress had only 165, agonisingly short of a majority. Even though the Communists had only 62 seats, they were in a position to cobble together a majority with other socialist outfits. Also the fledgling Dravidian movement was inclined to support them.

The New York Times dated January 24, 1952 shouted, "SOUTH INDIA'S REDS GAIN IN ELECTIONS; 3 Provinces Indicate Trend (Madras, Hyderabad, Travancore-Cochin)-- Nehru Calls Top Party Group to Study Menace.

The Congress wasted no time in their efforts to shut the 'menace'. Madras Governor Sri Prakasa invited the Congress to form the government, despite the party being in a minority. And guess who a panicky Congress sent all the way to helm the state, and negotiate for the extra numbers. C Rajagopalachari, who had been Governor-General of India till 1950, assumed charge as CM. Something like A P J Abdul Kalam becoming Tamil Nadu CM now.

A year later Andhra became a separate state and after the 1956 reorganisation of states Malabar became part of Kerala. Which in turn led to a drastic fall in Communist numbers in the Madras Assembly. But having said that the course of Tamil Nadu could well have been different if the Communists had come to power in 1952. Aspiring to a similar vote bank, being in power the Communists could have checked the rise of the DMK.

Instead the Congress was firmly in power and failed to gauge the emotional appeal of the Dravidian movement. Communism was reduced to a footnote with some pockets of influence, for example industrial hubs like Coimbatore and Tiruppur. (Kalanemi writes in his blog about growing up in hammer and sickle town Tiruppur).

And their ideals were reduced to props in DMK speeches and films, with MGR the underdog majestically trampling over all the odds in film after film.