‘Is It Family or Politics?’ Reflections on Gender and the Modern Tamil Subjectivity Constitution in the Discourse of C. N. Annadurai
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023018797528 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Author | G. Sujatha |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
‘Is It Family or Politics?’ Reflections
on Gender and the Modern Tamil
Subjectivity Constitution in the
Discourse of C. N. Annadurai
G. Sujatha1
Abstract
This article attempts to investigate the relationship between the domestic and the politics in the
modern Tamil subjectivity constitution during the period spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s. More
specifically, it takes up the political discourse of C. N. Annadurai—a significant founding member of the
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and a man who played a decisive role in shaping the culture and
politics of the state—and attempts to examine the spatial tension, that is, the fusion and commonalities
between the domestic sphere and political space in modern Tamil subjectivity construction and the
implications it had for gender.
Keywords
Domesticization of politics, modern Tamil subjectivity, gender, C. N. Annadurai, public/private
The Tamil political sphere is often considered to be characterized by the values and ethics of the domestic.
This is particularly true with the political performance of DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or the
Dravidian Progressive Alliance), a regional party that emerged in the late 1940s. Its performance of
politics - which includes its mode of address, political rhetoric and practices, specific use of language
that is often coded and marked by double entendre, the very imagination of the party and the political
community and the performance of gender-specific roles by men and women within the party - is viewed
as predominantly 'familial' in nature (Geetha, 1991; Geetha & Rajadurai, 1993; Lakshmi, 1983, 1984,
1990; Pandian, Venkatachalapathy, & Anandhi, 1991; Sathya Murthy, 1996). Similarly, the expression of
women’s support to, and the participation of women in, such politics is also critiqued as being ‘familial’,
for they function as a mere reproductive vessel of patriarchy (Lakshmi, 1990, p. WS-81).
The emergence of this domesticization in the political sphere is rightly traced to the 1940s, a period
which marks a major paradigm shift in the political history of the state with the advent of the anti-Hindi
Studies in Indian Politics
6(2) 267–281
© 2018 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2321023018797528
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
1 Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Palakkad, Palakkad, Kerala, India.
Corresponding author:
G. Sujatha, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Palakkad, Palakkad, Kerala 678557, India.
E-mail: sujathakannagi@gmail.com
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