politics in tamil nadu essay

Political Process and Governance in Tamil Nadu

18 Pages Posted: 17 Mar 2016

Subramaniam Chandran

Vinayaka Missions University (VMU)

Date Written: Feb 24, 2016

India has had ancient legacy in political ideas and practice. Politics is understood as practice of goodness. Monarchs did not ignore the guidance of scriptures, elders and wise. It was believed that the sovereignty was given by the God and the monarchs were the legitimate rulers. It is true in Tamil Nadu, a southern State of India, as well. Tamils have their own ethical and spiritual foundations in harmony with other parts of the world. Despite all these virtuous governance, conflict and battles were frequent among the neighbouring kingdoms. As India witnessed several invaders, their impact on Tamil region was also happened. Territorial expansion and tax were rule of the day. Kings and kingdoms were survived on these exercises. Medieval time was influenced by several invasions and frequent mobility of people. Politics and governance were gradually sensitized by language and culture. Modern era mostly occupied by British colonialism taught the people the rule of law and representation. Nationalism was also grown with it. Besides, social and religious reforms were envisaged by enlightened people as well. The whole India was moved with the idea of nationalism and struggle for independence from British imperialism, the Tamil region of Madras Presidency was inculcate with twin notions that independence should be both from British imperialism and the nationalist. The British managed to give up the imperialism and extended freedom to India. Even before that the British facilitated the politics of Madras Presidency to establish its own which in turn brought far reaching impact on the regional forces to sustain their power. Political process signifies from thought to practice.

Keywords: Dravidian Movement, social justice, south India, Tamil Nadu

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Political Process and Governance in Tamil Nadu

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Populist Cultural Politics of Dravidianism

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Dravidian electoral parties have established populist governments in Tamil Nadu since 1967, navigating across E.V. Ramasamy Periyar’s progressive social reform discourses; patriarchal cultures – sustained and preserved in Dravidian electoral cinema – and non-Brahmin resistance centrally manifested through caste-based affirmative action.

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Divya, A. (2024). Populist Cultural Politics of Dravidianism. In: Chacko Chennattuserry, J., Deshpande, M., Hong, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of New Populism and Responses in the 21st Century. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9859-0_403-1

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Politics & Governance

Inclusive growth in Tamil Nadu: The role of political leadership and governance

Briefing 20th January 2020

By multiple experts (2)

Although the culinary and linguistic differences between North and South India are widely known outside the country, less well understood abroad are the differences in how the two groupings of Indian states have fared on development. A comparison of Tamil Nadu, a southern state, and Uttar Pradesh, a northern state, is indicative of broader regional trends. In 1960-61, these two states were not so different across a number of measures related to development, albeit with Tamil Nadu achieving a generally higher performance. For instance, at that time, Tamil Nadu had a per capita income 51% higher than that of Uttar Pradesh—5,053 as compared to 3,338 Indian rupees. [_] This gap, however, narrowed to 39% by the early 1980s. The two states were even closer together when it came to poverty: from the early 1970s (and probably before) to the late 1980s, Tamil Nadu’s poverty rate was equal to or higher than that of Uttar Pradesh. In fact, in 1960, the rural poverty rate in Tamil Nadu checked in at just below 70%, much higher than Uttar Pradesh’s rate of 48%.

Decades later, we see a much different situation. By 2005, Tamil Nadu’s per capita income outpaced Uttar Pradesh’s by 128 percent—a gap more than twice as big as it was in the early 1960s. And in 2009-10, Tamil Nadu’s rural poverty rate dropped to nearly half that of Uttar Pradesh (21.2% vs. 39.4%), and its urban poverty rate was less than half of Uttar Pradesh’s (12.8% vs. 31.7%).

Today, Tamil Nadu is India’s second-largest economy despite being only its sixth most populous state, and among India’s 12 largest states, Tamil Nadu has the third-highest GDP per capita. [_] Located at the southernmost tip of the subcontinent with a population of more than 70 million, it is India’s most urbanised state and one of its most industrialised, with a strong manufacturing base and a large services sector. At the same time, it ranks second on the Human Development Index among India’s 13 largest states. [_] In other words, the state has achieved high growth rates and economic transformation in combination with significant progress on social outcomes, which has been key for enabling broad swathes of the state’s population to share in its growth.

How did Tamil Nadu do this? The state’s development path illuminates some key points regarding how governments can effectively promote inclusive development. Underlying the policies and investments that the Tamil Nadu state government has pursued are:

An inclusive vision traced out by widely popular Tamil cultural figures turned political leaders, such as former chief ministers (the top executive post at the state level) M. Karunanidhi and M.G. Ramachandran (widely known by his initials MGR), for whom social justice and uplifting disadvantaged groups were central concerns

Policy consistency and commitment of the state’s political leadership to industrial development, which cut across the administrations of Karunanidhi, MGR and their successor Jayalalithaa, as well as the predictability that this created over time for investors—despite power alternating between the state’s two primary parties on a regular basis

The effectiveness of the bureaucracy in policy implementation, due to the recruitment of socioeconomically diverse cadres who were attuned to local challenges; the ideological ties between bureaucrats and the regional political parties (and the competitive pressures to deliver that this created); and the establishment of specialised agencies, such as the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT), to drive delivery of the state’s economic vision.

The state’s competitive, clientelist political system and history of towering political leaders are also common features of politics in many African countries. As a result, Tamil Nadu’s experience in channelling this system towards inclusive development holds important lessons about governance that can be instructive for African countries.

Tamil Nadu has been one of India’s best-performing states when it comes to inclusive development. Since 1994, poverty has declined steadily in the state, resulting in Tamil Nadu having lower levels of poverty than most other states in India. This trend has played out in both rural and urban areas of Tamil Nadu, the former seeing a 35-percentage point reduction in poverty between 1994 and 2012 and the latter seeing a 27-percentage point reduction during the same period. [_]

Population below poverty line across Indian states, 1994-2012

Rapid economic growth over the past several decades has played a major role in the state’s poverty reduction story. From 1991 to 2012, Tamil Nadu averaged 7% growth in GDP and approximately 6% growth in GDP per capita [_] —both clocking in above the all-India average. [_]

Average annual growth rate of per capita income in selected Indian states, by decade

Importantly, economic transformation has underpinned the state’s growth, as people in Tamil Nadu have moved off the farm and into other types of work over time. The state’s non-farm employment share in 2012 ranked fifth among all Indian states.

Employment share by sector in Tamil Nadu, 1994-2012

Services have led the way in terms of contributing to growth and employment, but industry has also played a critical role—accounting for approximately 30% of Tamil Nadu’s growth between 1991 and 2012. [_] The state ranks first among all Indian states in terms of number of factories and industrial workers, and has a diversified manufacturing sector. It is among the leading states in automobiles, components, textiles and garments, leather products, pharmaceuticals and other industries. [_] Major automobile manufacturers, such as Hyundai, Ford, Renault and BMW, have had production facilities in and around Chennai (the capital of Tamil Nadu) for years, and the Tiruppur-Coimbatore-Salem corridor has been dubbed the “Manchester of South India” due to its large cluster of textile firms.

This economic success has coincided with substantial progress on human development. Infant mortality has declined substantially and rates are now among the lowest in India. Malnutrition is also among the lowest in the country, and is below the national average for all income groups. [_] Across a range of health indicators, Tamil Nadu stacks up well against other high-growth, high-income states, such as Gujarat.

Table 4: Basic Health Indicators in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, 2005-06

On education, children in Tamil Nadu are staying in school longer, and the share of adults with secondary schooling is above the national average. In terms of educational attainment across socioeconomic groups, Tamil Nadu again compares favourably with Gujarat. [_]

To be clear, Tamil Nadu still has much room for improvement: non-farm job growth has been slow in recent years, and is not keeping up with the expansion of the working-age population; women have dropped out of the labour force (mirroring a countrywide trend); open defecation remains commonplace among low-income households; and learning outcomes in primary school are no better than the all-India average. Nonetheless, the state’s significant economic and social progress both during and after economic liberalisation in 1991 should not be brushed off, as its experience demonstrates what can be achieved when political leadership and governance set out and follow through on a strong, inclusive development agenda.

Tamil Nadu has successfully combined a coherent industrial policy with social welfare programmes, which has generated a virtuous cycle of development. Industrialisation has provided the resources to invest in social policies, and these social policies have bolstered the health, productivity and skill base of the state’s population. [_] Higher skills among workers, in turn, have allowed the state to move into more complex economic activities, diversify its economy and thus sustain growth.

Industrial policy

Tamil Nadu’s industrial policy has focused on a few key elements. First, the state has invested in infrastructure—upgrading road, rail and port networks—to enhance connectivity between its hinterland, industrial clusters and urban markets. [_] For instance, major ports, such as Chennai, were essential in making the state an attractive location for export industries. Investments in communications infrastructure were also prioritised to enhance connectivity, enabling Tamil Nadu to become one of India’s major IT centres. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the government invested heavily in boosting the state’s electricity generation capacity, a critical input for manufacturing. These investments created suitable background conditions for foreign manufacturers—ranging from Standard Motors in the 1950s to Hyundai and Ford in the 1990s—and domestic business houses—such as the TVS Group, Rane and Amalgamations Group—alike to set up shop and to grow. [_]

Second, the state government emphasised the spatial dimension of industrial development, by promoting industrial parks and clustering. Industrial estates have been a part of Tamil Nadu’s economic landscape since India’s independence in 1947. The accession to power of Karunanidhi and his regional party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), in the late 1960s reinforced this trend by leveraging new state agencies—and capable Cabinet members, such as the Minister of Industry S. Madhavan—to accelerate industrial development. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), set up in 1965 by the previous Congress Party-led government, obtained many industrial licences and regularly partnered with the private sector to establish new industrial activities in the state, including various IT parks in the 1990s. [_] The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) was established in 1971, and, through aggressive land acquisition, created land banks that enabled foreign investors to obtain land in a more streamlined fashion. These were used to successfully develop many industrial projects and complexes. [_] In particular, industrial clusters and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been set up in specific sectors, including in footwear, engineering products, automobiles and IT. Consequently, Tamil Nadu now has the most SEZs in the country and is among India’s highest recipients of FDI. [_] Another result of this spatial focus is that Tamil Nadu’s industrial development is spread out across the state (more so than in most other Indian states), and is diversified across a number of sectors. This has allowed both domestic SMEs and foreign investors to contribute to technological upgrading and the expansion of export capabilities. [_]

Third, the state government pursued complementary policy measures prior to India’s liberalisation in 1991 that readied Tamil Nadu to grasp new opportunities as they arose in post-liberalisation India. [_] For instance, MGR opened new avenues for education, particularly geared towards industry. His administration expanded lower-level technical education by setting up a variety of industrial training institutes and polytechnic colleges all over the state—thereby laying the foundation for Tamil Nadu’s successful automobile industry. [_] Starting in the 1980s, he also allowed private groups to establish engineering and medical colleges. While this was a means to distribute patronage (e.g. land below market-value rates, privileged access to a lucrative business opportunity) in exchange for political support, it helped to create a pool of human capital that has effectively served the state’s fast-growing IT sector since the 1990s. [_] Forward-thinking policymaking in the state has continued long after liberalisation—for example, on the contentious issue of land acquisition, where Tamil Nadu amended the process at the state level in 2015 to make it less time-consuming while other states have yet to take such steps. [_]

Social Policies

While other Indian states have pursued similar industrial policies, Tamil Nadu stands out in its parallel focus on social welfare policies, in the areas of public education, social security and healthcare. In addition to technical education, MGR vastly increased the educational quota for disadvantaged communities, from 30% to 69%. [_] Successive governments have strongly supported public education, with concerted efforts aimed at expanding free education and developing a large network of schools and universities. [_] Since the 1970s, various initiatives have been designed to encourage school participation, including the provision of free uniforms, textbooks and laptops, as well as cash incentives to reduce dropout rates. Among these, MGR’s universalisation of the existing midday meal scheme is still widely seen as one of the state’s most noteworthy accomplishments. [_] As a result, Tamil Nadu today has universal primary school attendance, and the highest gross enrolment in higher education in India. [_] These advances have played a crucial role in equipping Tamil Nadu with an educated and technically skilled workforce, making it an attractive state for investment.

Midday Meal Scheme (MMS)

The launch of the universal midday meal scheme (MMS) in 1982 is widely seen as a pioneering idea that had a major impact on health and education outcomes in Tamil Nadu. While similar initiatives had been in place since independence, it was MGR, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 to 1987 and leader of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (an offshoot of the DMK party), who universalised the idea. It initially served primary schoolchildren in rural areas, and within a few years, all children up to the age of 15 were entitled to a nutritious meal each day in school. [_] At the time of its implementation, the scheme was widely derided by economists as a “populist” programme and a waste of resources.

However, World Bank appraisals have shown that the MMS has curbed malnutrition, reduced infant mortality and lowered birth rates. [_] It has also driven school enrolment rates and led to greater classroom participation. In fact, various studies have found a dramatic positive effect on learning achievements, making the school meal programme a highly cost-effective way to improve skills among future workers. The extent of the MMS’s success can be seen in the fact that the central government adopted the Tamil Nadu model as a template for its own national scheme 20 years later. [_]

In the provision of essential public services, Tamil Nadu follows a universalistic principle, making services as broadly available as possible. [_] This approach has several advantages. Households below the poverty line can be difficult to identify, both conceptually and practically, meaning that targeting public services can lead to substantial exclusion errors. Moreover, when everyone has a stake in the system, its likelihood of working greatly increases. Otherwise, it is often the case that “services for the poor will always be poor services”. India’s public distribution system (PDS), designed to provide households with a minimum quota of subsidised food, is a case in point. From the late 1990s, many states targeted the PDS towards poor households, though Tamil Nadu continued with a universal approach. This is widely acknowledged as one of the primary reasons why Tamil Nadu is one of the states with the fewest leakages of funds in its PDS system. As a result, it has reduced the poverty gap in the state by up to 60%. [_] The experience of Gujarat, another high-growth state, contrasts sharply with this: leakages are as high as 63% and half of the state’s poorest people do not receive any subsidies due to poor coverage. [_]

A similar story can be told regarding healthcare. Unlike most of India’s large states, Tamil Nadu has a clear commitment to widespread access and affordability in healthcare. From the late 1980s, significant investments have transformed the state’s health infrastructure. Initiatives that were launched by the central government were vigorously implemented, such as the large-scale expansion of primary health centres. [_] Moreover, the state has launched its own schemes to complement these, such as the provision of around-the-clock services to improve women’s access to obstetric care or decentralised immunisation programmes. Overall, health outcomes have been transformed in Tamil Nadu. Today, it has the country’s second-lowest infant mortality rate and has achieved a 70% reduction in maternal mortality in the nearly 30 years since liberalisation, an area in which India as a whole is doing poorly. [_] It achieved the Millennium Development Goals far ahead of most states and is well on the way to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. [_] This focus on healthcare has not only protected public health, but also helped to build the state’s developmental infrastructure, aiding rapid industrialisation. This is illustrated by the fact that areas like Hosur, which have long suffered from endemic plague and cholera, are now seeking to develop as industrial zones. [_]

Tamil Nadu’s state government has had a major influence on the state’s development trajectory. It has taken an open stance towards investment while simultaneously pursuing policies to ensure that broad swathes of the population could benefit; maintained policy consistency and commitment to industrialisation across changes in political leadership; and built up a bureaucracy that could implement its economic and social policies effectively. As many African countries are also seeking to achieve inclusive economic transformation, they can draw lessons about political leadership and governance from the Tamil Nadu experience.

Forward-thinking leadership married to social development

The political climate in Tamil Nadu has long been influenced by ideas of social justice. Dravidian social movements, representative of the indigenous ethnolinguistic group in Tamil Nadu, have historically been a key player in this regard. These movements, dating to the early 1900s, demanded social reforms and public benefits, particularly for disadvantaged (i.e. lower-caste) groups in society. The role that they have played not only in putting legitimate demands on the state government, but also in birthing the DMK and its offshoot the AIADMK, is frequently cited as a major pillar of the Tamil Nadu model. [_]

In response, Tamil Nadu’s political leadership was forward-thinking in pursuing an inclusive development agenda, particularly in the decades following India’s independence. Both the DMK and AIADMK not only responded to popular mobilisation and public pressure but, in many cases, they were at the forefront of it. Karunanidhi’s predecessor as Chief Minister and at the helm of the DMK, C.M. Annadurai (known as Anna, or “big brother” in Tamil), used theatre and cinema to advocate for anti-nationalist, anti-casteist and other progressive ideas, as he understood that focusing on uplifting disadvantaged groups was a key to progress. [_] Karunanidhi, a lauded screenwriter in Tamil cinema as well as a novelist, political commentator and orator, entered politics not only on the back of his popularity in these domains but also through his direct involvement in local political protests. His time as Chief Minister in the 1960s and 1970s saw a continued focus on the disadvantaged; he made education free, subsidised power and took various other measures aimed at reducing discrimination and supporting the welfare of marginalised groups. [_]

His supporter turned political rival MGR was a Tamil film star, and around this time starred in a number of films that promised that the state government would take care of the poor. [_] Indeed, MGR himself insisted on the MMS in the face of opposition, as he saw it as crucial to prevent hunger and improve learning. His leadership skills were critical in maintaining political support for the scheme and raising funding through tax increases. [_] Similarly, the state’s preventive approach to healthcare relied on a long-term perspective on the part of state leadership, particularly in the face of political pressures to “fight visible fires” that were more immediate. [_] Broadly speaking, social welfare policies in Tamil Nadu were designed to invest in the common man—with the recognition that these investments would drive further growth.

The inclusive ideals of these political leaders have also been reflected in Tamil Nadu’s industrial schemes, particularly regarding land acquisition. The state’s approach includes offering generous compensation packages to the dispossessed, employment and training opportunities, and land redistribution. In other words, “land acquisition in Tamil Nadu is accomplished more through consent than coercion”. [_] Tamil Nadu’s experience contrasts sharply with that of other states, as the establishment of SEZs in the state has encountered no systematic resistance or major confrontation. [_]

Commitment to industrialisation and policy consistency

Since the 1960s, Tamil Nadu’s main political parties have been politically committed to industrialisation. State agencies such as TIDCO and SIPCOT were set up to advance industrial development (see below). From Karunanidhi on through Jayalalithaa, successive chief ministers provided strong political support, in terms of funding and in backing contentious actions such as land acquisition. [_] This political support, in turn, enabled consistent goal-setting at the highest levels of government. With a clear direction from the top, the state bureaucracy was then given space to figure out how to deliver on the industrial development agenda. [_]

Political commitment to industrialisation in Tamil Nadu manifested in at least two important ways. First, political leaders such as Jayalalithaa and their top bureaucrats made hands-on, tailored efforts to attract specific companies and sectors. The automotive industry during the mid-1990s is a notable example. Despite Maharashtra’s existing strengths in the sector, Ford decided to set up its first factory in India in Chennai in 1995. In addition to the facilitation role that the bureaucracy played, Jayalalithaa herself was instrumental in bringing the investment to the state. She made a sizeable chunk of land available to Ford to set up its plant, and offered incentives related to infrastructure, sales and output tax exemptions, and capital and power subsidies. [_] It was also rumoured that Jayalalithaa spoke to senior officials in the US government to encourage them to persuade Ford to invest in Tamil Nadu. [_] Ford’s entry played a catalytic role in developing the sector: Hyundai soon followed Ford’s lead in investing in Tamil Nadu, and the Hyundai plant near Chennai is now the company’s global export base for small cars. [_] The snowball effect has carried on even in recent years, as Jayalalithaa’s most recent administration signed MoUs in 2012 with five global automobile manufacturers, including Daimler, Nissan and Yamaha. [_] Today, Tamil Nadu is one of the top automobile hubs in the world, with a world-class ecosystem centred around Chennai, the “Detroit of India”. [_]

Another example is the IT sector, which was beginning to boom in the 1990s, in Chennai among other Indian cities. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an Indian software engineering firm, became a key private-sector partner in this process, in part by establishing their own IT campus in a Chennai suburb in 1999. Jayalalithaa aided TCS immensely: a company representative has stated that, “We had to build the roads. We had to buy land from government and private parties. When we had a problem with some clearance, the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa stepped in and sorted it out.” [_]

The second way in which political commitment to industrial development manifested in Tamil Nadu was through the policy consistency that successive, opposing administrations maintained over time. Though the DMK and AIADMK have frequently swapped places in power, the state’s approach to investment has remained relatively stable and predictable. As certainty in contracts and property rights are critical to attract and retain investors, the fact that neither party has reneged on major investments negotiated by the other since 1989 has significantly strengthened Tamil Nadu’s ability to attract investment. [_]

Policy consistency has been an enduring feature of Tamil Nadu’s politics not despite but because of the political competition and rivalry between the DMK and AIADMK. Neither party could wipe out the other on ideological grounds, since as discussed previously, they shared a range of positions. Their similar viewpoints translated into overlapping constituencies, for whom they had to compete intensely and deliver tangible benefits. In addition, ideological closeness increased the chances that power would alternate between the two parties regularly, as they had little policy basis on which to differentiate themselves from one another. As a result, it was not in the interest of any given administration to reverse successful policies or block investments secured by the previous administration; doing so would likely go against their own ideology and the preferences of their own constituents. In fact, as a senior ex-bureaucrat in Tamil Nadu said, “If one party’s policies worked earlier the newly elected party would have no hesitation in adopting and improving upon it.” [_] This policy stability was a boon to productive industrial sectors, and even lured those investing in technology-intensive businesses despite their longer timelines for learning and pay-offs.

Again, the automotive industry provides an interesting example. A change in the investment climate following an Enron scandal and state elections in Maharashtra in 1995 influenced Hyundai’s decision to locate in Chennai. Before Hyundai’s operations had been established there, Jayalalithaa and her party, the AIADMK, were trounced in state elections in 1996 by the DMK, again headed by Karunanidhi. Yet his administration lived up to previously agreed government commitments, enabling Hyundai to roll out the first car from their operations in Tamil Nadu in September 1998. [_]

Summing up both these points, a former executive vice-chairman at TIDCO cited the strong support from the state government and the coherent ideas of political leaders from the different ruling parties as the most important factor in boosting FDI inflows, stating: “Government support is very important to promote investments. The commitment of the government to creating relevant policies and incentives is necessary. In the system of democracy, the government (ruling party) keeps changing. An election keeps coming and after five years the government changes. But an industrial development plan needs 40 or 50 years, it does not respect this change of governments. A successful government should keep the promises of the previous government in pursuing such investment projects continuously. This is business, not politics [for economic growth]. Both the DMK and the AIADMK governments consider investment projects as significant for the industry, so the successive government[s have] honoured such industrial promises of the previous government[s].” [_]

Competent and effective administration

Tamil Nadu has a reputation for innovative design and effective implementation of its economic and social welfare policies, which has proven instrumental for the state’s development. [_] This has enabled the state government to translate its lofty ideals into tangible progress on industrial development, education and health (while also reducing leakages of public funds). Indeed, Tamil Nadu’s overall governance is ranked as the second most effective among Indian states. [_]

A variety of factors have made Tamil Nadu’s bureaucracy strong. During the tenures of Anna and Karunanidhi as Chief Minister in the 1960s and 1970s, the state government actively sought to recruit from lower-caste groups, many of whom were from rural areas and thus could better understand rural conditions and issues. [_] As the civil service became more representative of the population, it became more attuned to the expectations and aspirations of the state’s main political parties, the DMK and AIADMK. As a result, civil servants could play a bridging role between these aspirations at the political level and the realities at the community level, which proved useful in delivering tangible social benefits to the state’s residents. [_]

Interestingly, the competition between the two main political parties also served as an impetus to drive implementation. Given the depth of the competition between the DMK and AIADMK, bureaucrats were forced to choose which party to support; remaining neutral was not a viable option. Committing to and openly identifying with a particular party meant that, when that party was in power, civil servants faced pressure from party officials to execute their development agenda as effectively as possible. At the same time, both parties had similar agendas across several dimensions—for instance, both sought to encourage industrial investments and develop links with the private sector. Hence, despite political divisions spanning not only electoral politics but also the bureaucracy, bureaucrats of either political leaning continued to implement policy effectively even if their party of choice was not in power; after all, they were unlikely to have major differences of opinion on policy with the party that they opposed. [_]

The establishment of TIDCO and SIPCOT, nodal agencies for industrial development, also positioned the bureaucracy to follow through on the state government’s economic vision. The focused mandate of these agencies, combined with the prioritisation of industrialisation at the political level, made clear the task of bureaucrats in these agencies—to facilitate between investors and the state government—and, in turn, empowered them to play this role effectively.

For example, with the limited but critical mission of acquiring and managing industrial land, SIPCOT has developed, maintained and managed industrial complexes and SEZs in 12 districts across Tamil Nadu. Commenting on SIPCOT’s performance in 2012, a former Finance Minister of the state, said: “I think our state does not need to worry about land acquisition for the next 15 years as we have already acquired enough land for building various industrial complexes.” [_] SIPCOT’s ability to execute this mandate has served as a foundation for the state to attract domestic and foreign investment alike.

Likewise, TIDCO has played a key role in promoting the state for investment and in getting the state government to meet investor requirements in order to secure their investment. For example, Chennai was initially Ford’s last choice, behind two other potential investment destinations in India. In response, the Tamil Nadu Export Promotion and Guidance Bureau, set up in 1992 under the oversight of TIDCO, “put together a highly professional multi-media presentation on the state which left a very favourable initial impression”. [_] In further discussions, Ford raised hundreds of detailed queries for TIDCO to respond to. As the TIDCO chairman at the time put it, “they were so particular. They wanted us to make sure that there was no other industry within twenty kilometres which will create dust pollution because of their ultra-modern paint shop.” In fact, TIDCO and the state government went beyond this: they guaranteed uninterrupted power and water supply, and immediately started work on an international school for the children of Ford’s staff. [_] Today, TIDCO has institutionalised its investment facilitation efforts, by creating a thorough monitoring system to attract investment projects and regular meetings to push forward the implementation of investment policies. [_]

Like many African countries, Tamil Nadu’s government and political system has been characterised by intense competition between political parties; networks of patronage encompassing politicians, voters and businesses; and political leaders with big personalities and ambitions. What Tamil Nadu’s development experience in the last several decades illustrates is that these characteristics do not have to render a government completely ineffective in promoting inclusive growth. Indeed, the Tamil Nadu state government, like all governments, has had some degrees of freedom to promote development that improves the lives of a wide range of people in the state. Rather than attempting to detail all of the various elements that have contributed to Tamil Nadu’s development story, the focus of this case study has been on the role that political leadership and administrative capability have played. In particular:

Successive chief ministers of Tamil Nadu in the second half of the 20th century, from Anna all the way through to Jayalalithaa, crafted visions for development in the state that aimed to include disadvantaged groups in the economy and society through job-creating investment/industrial development and broad-based social programmes.

These same chief ministers maintained a commitment to industrial investment and development, as well as a consistent policy approach to encourage them—despite alternating power with opposition parties.

Tamil Nadu’s bureaucracy developed capabilities to effectively implement the state’s inclusive development agenda, as the state’s leadership diversified recruitment along socioeconomic lines; set out clear ideological foundations that bureaucrats associated with them could work from; and established nodal agencies to drive industrial development, such as TIDCO and SIPCOT.

The takeaways for many African countries are simple but important. The economic vision should be geared toward the needs and aspirations of society at large, and should be clear to all parts of government, the private sector and citizens. Economic transformation takes time and thus requires policy consistency and sustained commitment spanning changes in political leadership across multiple decades. And implementation of the vision is just as critical as the vision itself, and calls for the bureaucracy to improve its ability to deliver over time—even if the starting point is a handful of specialised agencies that function as “pockets of effectiveness”. Tamil Nadu is still in the middle of its development journey, but its experience thus far underscores how political leadership and state capability can be leveraged in African countries that seek to follow a similar path.

Samuel Paul and Kala Seetharam Sridhar, “The Paradox of India’s North-South Divide: Lessons from the States and Regions”, Public Affairs Centre, 2013, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b75c/9f230e69d919765efcfb10f7712f2d2c35e1.pdf?_ga=2.16148854.1580342347.1574403766-880392272.1574403766.

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Paul and Sridhar, “The Paradox of India’s North-South Divide”.

A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Tamil Characters: Personalities, Politics, Culture (New Delhi: Pan Macmillan India, 2018).

Roy, “The Political Economy of Growth”.

Ravindranath, Surge.

Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze, “More than Amma: Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze on Tamil Nadu’s Social Development”, The Wire, 6 December 2016, https://thewire.in/economy/amartya-sen-jean-dreze-tamil-nadus-social-progress-development.

Amarnath K. Menon, “Why Tamil Nadu is the Overall Most Improved State in India Today’s Annual State of the States Rankings”, India Today, 7 November 2016, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/state-of-the-states-india-today-tamil-nadu-overall-most-improved-350680-2016-11-07.

Santosh Mehrotra, “Well-being and Caste in Uttar Pradesh: Why UP is not Like Tamil Nadu”, Economic and Political Weekly 41(40), 7 October 2006.

Aiyar, “Lessons in Progress”.

Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera, “Recent Social Security Initiatives in India”, SSRN, 2016, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2978483_code2564647.pdf?abstractid=2800699&mirid=1.

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Dreze and Khera, “Recent Social Security Initiatives in India”.

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R. Parthasarathi and S.P. Sinha, “Towards a Better Healthcare Delivery System: The Tamil Nadu model”, Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 41(4), 2016, http://www.ijcm.org.in/article.asp?issn=0970-0218;year=2016;volume=41;issue=4;spage=302;epage=304;aulast=Parthasarathi.

Divya Gupta, “How Tamil Nadu has Made an Incremental Difference”, The Hindu, 16 September 2010, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/How-Tamil-Nadu-has-made-an-incremental-difference/article15949250.ece.

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Venkatachalapathy, Tamil Characters.

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Shin, “Land Management and Industrial Development”.

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4 Tamils in the Nation: Post-Independence India

• Published: August 2016
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This chapter analyzes the post-independence political competition between the Tamil revivalist Dravidian movement and the pan-Indian Congress in Tamil Nadu and explains how the once separatist Dravidian movement was peaceably accommodated within the Indian nation-state framework. It argues that the competition between the Dravidian movement and the Congress was bounded by overlapping commitments to cultivating Tamil identity and interest that were in turn compatible with the pan-ethnic conception of national identity associated with the Congress party and contained in the Indian constitution. It shows that the peaceable accommodation of Tamil Nadu in post-independence India rests on an inclusive conception of Indian identity rather than the federal provisions of the Indian constitution or the moderation of the Dravidian parties.

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Tamil Nadu is a state in southern India . It covers more than 50,200 square miles (130,000 square km). Tamil people constitute the majority of the state’s population, and Tamil is the state’s official language. Tamil Nadu’s capital is Chennai , which is an industrial centre, but the state is essentially agricultural.

Where is Tamil Nadu?

Tamil Nadu is located in the southernmost part of the Indian subcontinent. It is bounded by the states of Andhra Pradesh to the north, Karnataka to the northwest, and Kerala to the west and the Indian Ocean to the east and south.

Tamil Nadu means “Tamil Country.” Tamil people constitute the majority of the state’s population and are understood to be descendants of the early inhabitants of India (the so-called Dravidians). They were driven southward between about 2000 and 1500 BCE when the Aryans (speakers of Indo-Aryan languages) pushed into the Indian subcontinent.

The history of Tamil Nadu begins with the establishment of three Tamil powers in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent: the Chera , Chola , and Pandya kingdoms. The earliest mention of these kingdoms is of the Pandyas, which appears in Greek literature of the 4th century BCE. Tamil Nadu became the official name of the remnants of Madras state in 1968.

In addition to the long history of the Tamil people, Tamil Nadu is famous for its temples, festivals, and celebration of the arts. The Hindu temples and monuments at Mamallapuram have become famous tourist attractions. One of the many festivals in Tamil Nadu is the Koovagam festival, where thousands of people gather to celebrate their transgender identities. In Tamil Nadu Bharata natyam ,  Karnatak music , and movies are all widely popular.

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Tamil Nadu , state of India , located in the extreme south of the subcontinent . It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the east and south and by the states of Kerala to the west, Karnataka (formerly Mysore) to the northwest, and Andhra Pradesh to the north. Enclosed by Tamil Nadu along the north-central coast are the enclaves of Puducherry and Karaikal , both of which are part of Puducherry union territory . The capital is Chennai (Madras), on the coast in the northeastern portion of the state.

Tamil Nadu represents the Tamil -speaking area of what was formerly the Madras Presidency of British India. The Tamils are especially proud of their Dravidian language and culture , and they have notably resisted attempts by the central government to make Hindi (an Indo-Aryan language ) the sole national language. While it has an industrial core in Chennai, the state is essentially agricultural. Area 50,216 square miles (130,058 square km). Pop. (2011) 72,138,958.

Tamil Nadu is divided naturally between the flat country along the eastern coast and the hilly regions in the north and west. The broadest part of the eastern plains is the fertile Kaveri (Cauvery) River delta; farther south are the arid flatlands surrounding the cities of Ramanathapuram and Madurai (Madura). The high peaks of the Western Ghats run along the state’s western border. Various segments of this mountain range— including the Nilgiri , Anaimalai , and Palni hills—have peaks exceeding 8,000 feet (2,400 metres) in elevation. Anai Peak , at 8,842 feet (2,695 metres) in the Anaimalai Hills, is the highest mountain in peninsular India. The lower peaks of the Eastern Ghats and their outliers—locally called the Javadi , Kalrayan, and Shevaroy hills—run through the centre of the region. Tamil Nadu’s major rivers—the Kaveri , the Ponnaiyar , the Palar , the Vaigai , and the Tambraparni—flow eastward from the inland hills.

Apart from the rich alluvial soil of the river deltas, the predominant soils of the state are clays, loams, sands, and red laterites (soils with a high content of iron oxides and aluminum hydroxide). The black cotton-growing soil known as regur is found in parts of the central, west-central, and southeastern regions of Tamil Nadu.

The climate of Tamil Nadu is essentially tropical. In May and June, the hottest months, maximum daily temperatures in Chennai average about 100 °F (38 °C), while minimum temperatures average in the low 80s F (upper 20s C). In December and January, the coolest months, temperatures usually rise from about 70 °F (21 °C) into the mid-80s F (about 30 °C) daily. The average annual precipitation, falling mainly between October and December, depends on the southwest and northeast monsoons and ranges between 25 and 75 inches (630 and 1,900 mm) a year. The mountainous and hilly areas, especially in the extreme western part of the state, receive the most precipitation, while the lower-lying southern and southeastern regions receive the least rainfall.

Forests cover roughly 15 percent of the state. At the highest elevations in the Western Ghats, the mountains support subalpine vegetation. Along the eastern side of the Western Ghats and in the hills of the northern and central districts, the plant life is a mixture of evergreen and deciduous species, some of which are markedly adapted to arid conditions.

Tamil Nadu has several national parks and more than a dozen wildlife and bird sanctuaries. Among the most notable of these protected areas are the Mudlumbai Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in the Nilgiri Hills and the large Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park at the southern tip of the Western Ghats. These sanctuaries provide a safe habitat for a broad spectrum of fauna, including elephants, gaurs (wild cattle), Nilgiri tahrs (goatlike mammals), wild boars, sloth bears, and various species of deer. Tigers, leopards, and an assortment of primates, including macaques, langurs, and lorises, also inhabit these areas. Venomous king cobras are among the many species of reptiles that make their home in Tamil Nadu. Woodpeckers and flycatchers are common woodland birds; aquatic birds find a haven at the Vedantangal sanctuary in the south-central part of the state.

The area’s population evidently has changed little over the centuries. As speakers of a Dravidian language , the Tamils , who constitute the majority of the population, are understood to be descendants of the early inhabitants of India (the so-called Dravidians), who were driven southward between about 2000 and 1500 bce when the Aryans (speakers of Indo-Aryan languages ) descended into the Indian subcontinent . In addition to the Tamils, the population includes various indigenous communities , who live primarily in the hill regions; these people also speak Dravidian languages. In Tamil Nadu, as in the rest of the country, the caste system is strong, even though discrimination has been banned by the constitution of India . Members of Scheduled Castes (an official category embracing those groups that traditionally occupy low positions within the caste system) account for about one-fifth of the population. Scheduled Tribes (those indigenous peoples who fall outside the caste hierarchy) account for just a small fraction of Tamil Nadu’s residents.

Tamil , the official state language, is spoken by most of the people. Other Dravidian languages used within the state include Telugu , which is spoken by roughly one-tenth of the population, as well as Kannada and Malayalam , which are spoken by much smaller numbers. In the western region—near the convergence of the borders of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka , and Kerala —Kannada (and its dialect Badaga) and Malayalam are stronger. There also is a community of Urdu (an Indo-Aryan language) speakers. English is used as a subsidiary language.

The overwhelming majority of Tamil Nadu’s residents practice Hinduism . There are, however, notable minorities of Christians and Muslims , with a large concentration of Christians in the far southern segment of the state. A small community of Jains is found in northern Tamil Nadu, in and around the cities of Arcot and Chennai .

Although Tamil Nadu is one of the most urbanized states of India, more than half the population in the early 21st century continued to live in rural areas. The Chennai metropolitan region, covering the industrial areas, townships, and villages surrounding Chennai city, has the largest population. Other important urban agglomerations include Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu, Madurai in the south-central region, and Tiruchchirappalli in the central part of the state.

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Nuances Of Tamil Politics and Culture

Rethinking Social Justice was published earlier this year in honour of MSS Pandian, the late historian of South India. The volume comprises an array of essays on a wide range of topics that are thematically organized into five sections: ‘Politics of Culture and Identity’, ‘Critical Social History’, ‘Nation and Region’, ‘Political Economy’ and ‘Cinema and Society’. The thematic organization of the book is representative of the range of Pandian’s intellectual interests: the political and social history of Tamil Nadu, caste and agrarian politics, the intimate nexus between cinema and politics in Tamil Nadu and so on. Some of the essays are co-authored by Pandian himself. The main challenge before the reviewer of such a rich and diverse volume is doing justice to unfamiliar terrains of scholarship. As a scholar of modern Tamil literature, reading the book expanded my own knowledge of the nuances of Tamil politics and culture. For the purposes of this review, I provide a broad overview of some of the essays of the book and pose questions that bear significance to some of the essays.

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Tour Tamil Nadu to get people’s opinion to ensure poll win: Stalin to DMK panel

CHENNAI: In his first meeting with the party’s recently constituted coordination committee on Monday, Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin asked the five-member panel to extensively tour across the state to meet incumbent and former functionaries of the party and senior cadre, according to sources.

The objective is to gather opinion from the ground on the party’s current performance and identify changes needed to improve the party’s standing in the political arena and electoral battles.

The committee, tasked with recommending measures to transform the party organisation to make it ready for the 2026 Assembly election, was announced by Stalin on Saturday. It included ministers KN Nehru, EV Velu, Thangam Thennarasu, Udhayanidhi Stalin and the party’s organising secretary RS Bharathi.

Party sources said that at the meeting on Monday, Stalin asked the committee to prepare a schedule for their work. He reportedly stressed the need for consulting functionaries of all the 23 wings of the party to get their feedback. Importantly, he also instructed the committee to assess the strength of alliance parties in each region.

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Vijay Enters Politics: A New Chapter in Tamil Nadu's Political Landscape

Popular actor vijay takes a plunge into politics in tamil nadu.

Popular actor Vijay has begun the process of launching his own political party in Tamil Nadu. According to sources, Vijay has been elected as the leader of his newly formed party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam. The actor, affectionately called 'Thalapathy' (commander in Tamil), announced the launch of his political party, marking a significant shift in his career.

Vijay's decision to enter politics follows the footsteps of Kamal Haasan, who also made a foray into the political arena. Ajith and Rajinikanth, however, refrained from entering Tamil politics. Despite an initial stint, Haasan later shifted his focus back to his acting career. It remains to be seen whether Vijay's venture into politics will be a long-term commitment or a temporary detour.

The announcement of Vijay's political party has generated a mixed response among the people of Tamil Nadu. While some have welcomed his decision, others remain skeptical about the actor's ability to navigate the complexities of politics. Tamil Nadu BJP vice president Narayanan Thirupathy has stated that everyone has the right to start a political party, highlighting the democratic nature of Vijay's entry into politics.

Vijay's popularity and status as the highest-paid actor in Kollywood have brought significant attention to his political aspirations. The actor's immense fan base has eagerly awaited this moment, and they have been vocal in their support for his political journey. As Thalapathy Vijay officially announces his entry into Tamil Nadu politics, let's take a look at how fans of the actor have reacted to this news.

Vijay's entry into politics marks a new chapter in Tamil Nadu's political landscape. With his massive popularity and influence, he has the potential to attract a significant following. However, he will face challenges in establishing his party's credibility and gaining the trust of the electorate.

The entry of filmstars into politics is not a new phenomenon in Tamil Nadu. Vijay follows a long line of actors who have ventured into the political arena, including MGR, Jayalalithaa, and Karunanidhi. The state's strong connection to cinema and its influence on politics make it an intriguing and dynamic environment for actors turned politicians.

Vijay's political plunge also raises questions about the impact he will have on the existing political landscape. Will he align with established parties or emerge as a formidable third force? The coming months and years will provide answers to these questions as Vijay navigates the intricacies of Tamil Nadu's political scene.

In conclusion, Vijay's entry into politics has stirred up excitement and curiosity among the people of Tamil Nadu. As he launches his political party, all eyes will be on him to see how he shapes his political agenda and mobilizes his supporters. Whether he can successfully transition from being a popular actor to a successful politician remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain – Vijay's entry into politics has added a new dimension to Tamil Nadu's political landscape.

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Harris campaign requests vetting materials from several possible running mates

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has requested vetting materials from five possible running mates, according to two sources familiar with the effort to review the backgrounds of those being considered.

The five Democratic vice presidential contenders are North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper; Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; Sen. Mark Kelly, of Arizona; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and North Carolina are among the critical battleground states that Harris may need to win the Electoral College in November.

Two other possible names under discussion include Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and former Rep. Cedric Richmond, of Louisiana, who has served as a Biden-Harris campaign co-chair, one of the sources said. It's not clear if the two received vetting materials.

NBC News has reached out to all of the potential picks.

Kevin Munoz, spokesman for Harris' campaign, dismissed any speculation about who could be her pick.

“Any reporting on developments or updates in Vice President Harris’ running mate search are premature and speculative. Vice President Harris is considering a large pool of qualified candidates, and will choose a partner that shares her commitment to fighting for the middle class, protecting Americans’ freedoms, and protecting our democracy. And when that candidate is chosen, together, they will handily defeat the Trump-Vance ticket in November," he said in a statement.

Sources didn't say whether Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who was considered another possible pick, received vetting materials.

Eric Holder, who was the attorney general in the Obama administration, has been tasked with leading the vetting process for Harris' potential running mates, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Holder and the law firm where he is a senior counsel, Covington & Burling LLP, will oversee the operation, which is taking place on a more compressed timeline compared to other election cycles given President Joe Biden’s late decision to exit the 2024 race. 

The goal is still to have a vice presidential nominee for Harris ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, scheduled for Aug. 19 to 22.

The exact mechanism for how that person will be formally nominated is still being worked out and the process remains fluid. The Democratic National Committee is still expected to hold a virtual roll call around the first week of August to nominate Harris. The rules committee will meet Wednesday to discuss how that process will work. 

On her first full day as a presidential candidate Monday, a majority of pledged convention delegates endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination.

Monica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.

Yamiche Alcindor is an NBC News Washington correspondent.

Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

The Gunman and the Would-Be Dictator

Violence stalks the president who has rejoiced in violence to others.

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When a madman hammered nearly to death the husband of then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump jeered and mocked . One of Trump’s sons and other close Trump supporters avidly promoted false claims that Paul Pelosi had somehow brought the onslaught upon himself through a sexual misadventure.

After authorities apprehended a right-wing-extremist plot to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Trump belittled the threat at a rally. He disparaged Whitmer as a political enemy. His supporters chanted “Lock her up.” Trump laughed and replied , “Lock them all up.”

Fascism feasts on violence. In the years since his own supporters attacked the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election—many of them threatening harm to Speaker Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence—Trump has championed the invaders, would-be kidnappers, and would-be murderers as martyrs and hostages. He has vowed to pardon them if returned to office. His own staffers have testified to the glee with which Trump watched the mayhem on television.

Now the bloodshed that Trump has done so much to incite against others has touched him as well. The attempted murder of Trump—and the killing of a person nearby—is a horror and an outrage. More will be learned about the man who committed this appalling act, and who was killed by the Secret Service. Whatever his mania or motive, the only important thing about him is the law-enforcement mistake that allowed him to bring a deadly weapon so close to a campaign event and gain a sight line of the presidential candidate. His name should otherwise be erased and forgotten.

It is sadly incorrect to say, as so many have, that political violence “has no place” in American society. Assassinations, lynchings, riots, and pogroms have stained every page of American political history. That has remained true to the present day. In 2016 , and even more in 2020, Trump supporters brought weapons to intimidate opponents and vote-counters. Trump and his supporters envision a new place for violence as their defining political message in the 2024 election. Fascist movements are secular religions. Like all religions, they offer martyrs as their proof of truth. The Mussolini movement in Italy built imposing monuments to its fallen comrades. The Trump movement now improves on that: The leader himself will be the martyr in chief, his own blood the basis for his bid for power and vengeance.

Christopher R. Browning: A new kind of fascism

The 2024 election was already shaping up as a symbolic contest between an elderly and weakening liberalism too frail and uncertain to protect itself and an authoritarian, reactionary movement ready to burst every barrier and trash every institution. To date, Trump has led only a minority of U.S. voters, but that minority’s passion and audacity have offset what it lacks in numbers. After the shooting, Trump and his backers hope to use the iconography of a bloody ear and face, raised fist, and call to “Fight!” to summon waverers to their cause of installing Trump as an anti-constitutional ruler, exempted from ordinary law by his allies on the Supreme Court.

Other societies have backslid to authoritarianism because of some extraordinary crisis: economic depression, hyperinflation, military defeat, civil strife. In 2024, U.S. troops are nowhere at war. The American economy is booming, providing spectacular and widely shared prosperity. A brief spasm of mild post-pandemic inflation has been overcome. Indicators of social health have abruptly turned positive since Trump left office after years of deterioration during his term. Crime and fatal drug overdoses are declining in 2024; marriages and births are rising. Even the country’s problems indirectly confirm the country’s success: Migrants are crossing the border in the hundreds of thousands, because they know, even if Americans don’t, that the U.S. job market is among the hottest on Earth.

Yet despite all of this success, Americans are considering a form of self-harm that in other countries has typically followed the darkest national failures: letting the author of a failed coup d’état return to office to try again.

One reason this self-harm is nearing consummation is that American society is poorly prepared to understand and respond to radical challenges, once those challenges gain a certain mass. For nearly a century, “radical” in U.S. politics has usually meant “fringe”: Communists, Ku Kluxers, Black Panthers, Branch Davidians, Islamist jihadists. Radicals could be marginalized by the weight of the great American consensus that stretches from social democrats to business conservatives. Sometimes, a Joe McCarthy or a George Wallace would throw a scare into that mighty consensus, but in the past such challengers rarely formed stable coalitions with accepted stakeholders in society. Never gaining an enduring grip on the institutions of state, they flared up and burned out.

Trump is different. His abuses have been ratified by powerful constituencies. He has conquered and colonized one of the two major parties. He has defeated—or is on the way to defeating—every impeachment and prosecution to hold him to account for his frauds and crimes. He has assembled a mass following that is larger, more permanent, and more national in reach than any previous American demagogue. He has dominated the scene for nine years already, and he and his supporters hope they can use yesterday’s appalling event to extend the Trump era to the end of his life and beyond.

The American political and social system cannot treat such a person as an alien. It inevitably accommodates and naturalizes him. His counselors, even the thugs and felons, join the point-counterpoint dialogue at the summit of the American elite. President Joe Biden nearly wrecked his campaign because he felt obliged to meet Trump in debate. How could Biden have done otherwise? Trump is the three-time nominee of the Republican Party; it’s awkward and strange to treat him as an insurrectionist against the American state—though that’s what Trump was and is.

David Frum: Biden’s heartbreaking press conference

The despicable shooting at Trump, which also caused death and injury to others, now secures his undeserved position as a partner in the protective rituals of the democracy he despises. The appropriate expressions of dismay and condemnation from every prominent voice in American life have the additional effect of habituating Americans to Trump’s legitimacy. In the face of such an outrage, the familiar and proper practice is to stress unity, to proclaim that Americans have more things in common than that divide them. Those soothing words, true in the past, are less true now.

Nobody seems to have language to say: We abhor, reject, repudiate, and punish all political violence, even as we maintain that Trump remains himself a promoter of such violence, a subverter of American institutions, and the very opposite of everything decent and patriotic in American life.

The Republican National Convention, which opens this week, will welcome to its stage apologists for Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its aggression against U.S. allies. Trump’s own infatuation with Russia and other dictatorships has not dimmed even slightly with age or experience. Yet all of these urgent and necessary truths must now be subordinated to the ritual invocation of “thoughts and prayers” for someone who never gave a thought or uttered a prayer for any of the victims of his own many incitements to bloodshed. The president who used his office to champion the rights of dangerous people to own military-type weapons says he was grazed by a bullet from one such assault rifle.

Conventional phrases and polite hypocrisy fill a useful function in social life. We say “Thank you for your service” both to the decorated hero and to the veteran who barely escaped dishonorable discharge. It’s easier than deciphering which was which. We wish “Happy New Year!” even when we dread the months ahead.

Adrienne LaFrance: Thoughts, prayers, and Facebook rants aren’t enough

But conventional phrases don’t go unheard. They carry meanings, meanings no less powerful for being rote and reflexive. In rightly denouncing violence, we are extending an implicit pardon to the most violent person in contemporary U.S. politics. In asserting unity, we are absolving a man who seeks power through the humiliation and subordination of disdained others.

Those conventional phrases are inscribing Trump into a place in American life that he should have forfeited beyond redemption on January 6, 2021. All decent people welcome the sparing of his life. Trump’s reckoning should be with the orderly process of law, not with the bloodshed he rejoiced in when it befell others. He and his allies will exploit a gunman’s vicious criminality as their path to exonerate past crimes and empower new ones. Those who stand against Trump and his allies must find the will and the language to explain why these crimes, past and planned, are all wrong, all intolerable—and how the gunman and Trump, at their opposite ends of a bullet’s trajectory, are nonetheless joined together as common enemies of law and democracy.

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J.D. Vance on the Issues, From Abortion to the Middle East

Like Donald J. Trump, the Ohio senator has been skeptical of American intervention overseas and argues that raising tariffs will create new jobs.

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By Adam Nagourney

• Published July 15, 2024 Updated July 17, 2024

Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Donald J. Trump’s newly chosen running mate, has made a shift from the Trump critic he was when he first entered politics to the loyalist he is today. It was a shift both in style and substance: Now, on topics as disparate as trade and Ukraine, Mr. Vance is closely aligned with Mr. Trump.

Here’s a look at where the senator stands on the issues that will most likely dominate the campaign ahead and, should Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance win in November, their years in the White House.

Mr. Vance opposes abortion rights, even in the case of incest or rape, but says there should be exceptions for cases when the mother’s life is in danger. He praised the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. As he ran for Senate in 2022, a headline on the issues section of his campaign website read simply: “Ban Abortion.”

Mr. Vance has said that he would support a 15-week national ban proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. He has also said the matter is “primarily a state issue,” suggesting states should be free to make more restrictive laws. “Ohio is going to want to have a different abortion policy from California, from New York, and I think that’s reasonable, he said in an interview with USA Today Network in October 2022.

Mr. Vance has been one of the leading opponents of U.S. support for Ukraine in the war with Russia. “I think it’s ridiculous that we’re focused on this border in Ukraine,” he said in a podcast interview with Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump adviser and longtime ally. “I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”

He led the battle in the Senate, unsuccessfully, to block a $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine. “I voted against this package in the Senate and remain opposed to virtually any proposal for the United States to continue funding this war,” he wrote in an opinion essay for The New York Times early this year challenging President Biden’s stance on the war. “Mr. Biden has failed to articulate even basic facts about what Ukraine needs and how this aid will change the reality on the ground.”

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UNDERSTANDING TAMIL CINEMA AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT

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Tamil Cinema in the Twenty-First Century

Vijay Devadas

VEDA PUBLICATIONS

VEDA'S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE [JOELL]

Cinema is a popular medium of art. In earlier days, cinema in India did deal with social problems in a peripheral way. It often failed to address the social realities, especially caste disparities. Cate issues were always portrayed as economic backwardness. But recent times have witnessed that popular and commercial cinema has begun to open up towards the discussions of gender and caste. In the case of caste discussion, it is the Tamil Cinema industry that creates more movies on it. Tamil cinema is comparatively rich with Dalit representations in the arena of filmmaking. Some directors, writers, and actors initiated the discussions of caste hierarchy in popular cinema. The political situations of Tamil Nadu have been a deep influence in molding these directors and their courageous ventures of popular cinema with Dalit subjects. Dravidian Ideology, Mandal politics, and the recent revival of Ambedkarite politics have been fuel for this. Still, fitting Dalit issues into the frames of the popular and commercial film have both pros as well as cons. Hence, this article analyses the relevance of the socio-political situations of Tamil Nadu in initiating mainstream Dalit cinemas. It also looks into the pros and cons of the popular narrative of Dalit subjects.

IRJET Journal

The aim is to examine some of the changes that have taken place in Tamil cinema over the last hundred years, especially the Tamil cinema films that have generated great expectation, commercial reception, and success over the past decade and their social thoughts. The content analysis methodology is adopted in this research. Success of films depends on many factors. The success list goes on and on, depending on choice of films that have been accepted by the majority of the people, Tamil films that have been acclaimed by the majority of film critics, Tamil films that have received less investment and higher profits, and which have been released in more theaters and have earned more revenue. Films like Nallathambi, Parasakthi, and Manthirikumari were selected for this analysis. Recently released Tamil films which had social contents were also taken for this analytical study. This research clearly shows the social reflection and social changes during the past hundred years. Studies on the societal perspectives behind modern Tamil cinema have not been fully analyzed. Although the impact of cinema on Tamil society has been around for a century, complete studies on it have not been analyzed. In addition, it is important to examine the modern trends in Tamil cinema that reflect society.

UGC Care Group 1 Journal

Judy Anitha

This research is to study about political Ideology in Tamil films in Tamil Nadu. This study explores the Extensive Use of politics in Tamil films. The qualitative method has been applied to identify Tamil films and the usage of politics in cinema. This paper applies content analysis technique for which the primary and secondary data was utilized as a source of data collection of this study. It proceeds to introduce the entry into the Tamil film industry of M. Karunanidhi, whose films were treated as the primary source for this study to understand politics in Tamil films.

Soudhamini Soudhamini

Published in 'Behind the Scenes in Hindi Cinema', Kit Publishers, Netherlands

Nithin Kalorth, PhD

A new wave in Tamil cinema is happening on screen which contrasts conventional film style of Tamil Nadu. A visible layer of difference between urban and rural identity and new perspectives of nationhood is being seen in Tamil cinema. The formulas of films are shifting and it can see from the presentation of the character in the marketing of the film. This paper tries to understand the characteristics and outline the Tamil new generation (new wave) cinema.

manoj P jinadasa

The objective of this study is to explore the psychic, moral, ethical and logical significances in the spectatorship of Bollywood and Tamil film in the Sri Lanka. Bollywood and Tamil film has been taking a very popular cultural performance in Sri Lanka. The original Indian spectatorship of these film traditions has been diverted by the cultural and political psychology of Sri Lanka. Hence, this local orientation of the Indian cinema remains a quite metamorphosis and deconstruction in its appreciation and screening in terms of the social, cultural and political features that deeply-rooted in Sri Lankan history, culture and geographical limitations. For this study, several film texts, which include typical Bollywood and Tamil film characteristic features were used and observed on how they have been absorbed in the Sri Lankan cultural society. And on the other hand, some audience surveys specific to different film appreciation contexts were conducted. They included urban slums, semi-rural Muslim societies, north and east areas of Tamil villages, Colombo urban society, Tamil state areas and Kandyan Sinhala rural villages. In the textual analysis of the film content, implicit psychological narrations and their social and aesthetic interpretations were revealed in the analytical explanations. Using the audience surveys, many different opinions that can be traditionally filtered in the screening and appreciation of these film traditions specific to their living cultural settings were also identified. In conclusion, perception in Sinhala film has been considerably designed by the experience of Bollywood and Tamil film spectatorship is deducted by this study. Hence, not only this social trend affected to the appreciation of film in local general audience but also in all the facets of film production (script writing, shooting, acting, dialoguing, music and choreography and screening) has also significantly being influenced by the Bollywood and Tamil film. As a result of this evolution of local film culture, most recent trend in Sinhala film noir is also being followed by the early subjective consequences of Bollywood and Tamil film culture in Sri Lanka.

Karthikeyan Damodaran , Hugo Gorringe

Acknowledgements: We are immensely grateful to Stalin Rajangam for insightful comments and to the anonymous reviewers of the journal who helped to sharpen the argument. The authors are indebted to the University of Edinburgh and the ESRC respectively for funding the fieldwork that enabled the discussions and observations on which this paper draws.

Sathya Prakash

This paper tries to address some of the intriguing aspects related to representation of Telugus in Tamil Cinema. It further tries to assess the impact of Tamil cultural politics in the last century on Telugu identity and the efforts of Telugus at identity re-fashioning in the public sphere(s). The paper makes an attempt in this direction by piecing together and correlating diverse evidences from political and cultural spheres, including Cinema.

“The 1970s Tamil Cinema and the Post-Classical Turn.” South Asian Popular Culture (Routledge), 10 (1), April 2012, pp. 77-89.

Swarnavel Eswaran

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

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3 White Papers to be Tabled in Andhra Pradesh Assembly

VIJAYAWADA : Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has said the special grant of Rs 15,000 crore for state capital development in the Union Budget would raise hopes of better days for Amaravati.

Speaking in the state Assembly on Tuesday, on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address, the Chief Minister said it was not possible to present a full state budget now because of the state's financial problems. "We will take two months to introduce the full Budget,” he said.

The opposition YSRC legislators did not attend the Assembly.

Naidu noted that the state bifurcation took place 10 years ago, but the AP people who faced many difficulties can now hope to get a world-class capital city in Amaravati. The YSRC government had wasted time by proposing three capitals, he said.

The CM said India would be among the top two world powers by promoting the Viksit Bharat-2047 concept of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Naidu claimed that this development started after the preparation of his Vision 2020.

He said the three-party alliance led by the Telugu Desam got 57 per cent of the polled votes with a strike rate of 93 per cent seats in the state Assembly. “I had never in the past seen such a (favourable) result in my political career.”

Naidu said, “Behind the success of the alliance is the hard work of all. The last five years have been very difficult. Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan visited me in jail. Pawan stressed that the anti-government vote should not be split. After we made an alliance, the BJP joined hands with us.”

Naidu said, "We will work together to develop AP. The last five years were dark days. No lands and properties are left anywhere. They put a knife on the neck of landlords to grab the lands in their name. We have seen a lot of atrocities, vandalism, seizures, attacks and cases.”

“Government revenue was looted in the last five years. Looting of lakhs of crores took place in the name of sand and liquor in AP. Development was affected due to inefficient decisions. AP’s growth rate has fallen since 2019. We will repair the roads. We will introduce three more white papers in the Assembly from tomorrow," the chief minister said.

“Under Jagan Mohan Reddy's rule, all the systems were destroyed due to his inefficiency,” Naidu claimed.

On the Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case, the Chief Minister said, “Viveka's murder case took many turns. The question, Who Killed Babai (Viveka), will be answered soon.”

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