Justice Party (India)
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Justice Party was the political wing of Then Nala Urimai Sangam (literal translation: The South Indian Welfare Association). The Justice Party derived its name from an English-language daily of that time, named Justice.
In 1921, the Justice Party came to power after winning the Assembly elections in Madras Province of colonial India. The Justice Party ruled the province for next 15 years, and brought forth several items of legislation, including reservations for government jobs based on social groups and castes, believed to be the first time in India; and bringing the management of temples under government control.
The Justice Party is not to be confused with the Indian Justice Party, which was founded by Dr. Udit Raj.
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[edit] Ruling Party of the Madras Province
From 1921 to 1937, Justice Party was ruling the Madras Province during the time of British rule in India. It was a party which had rich landowners and aristocracy who favoured the British colonial government.
Congress Party was agitating for freedom and was opposing much of the attitude of Justice Party. Congress had all the leaders from the North and only Rajaji from the South. Rajaji was closer to Gandhi but not well liked by the rest of the leadership.
In the beginning Periyar was in the Congress Party and he found it difficult to initiate social reforms as he wanted. The social reforms he proposed were drastic and mostly equal opportunity for everybody. That kind of policies were not acceptable to the Congress leadership .as they wanted to get rid of the foreign rule and replace their rule with the self government.
As such Periyar left the Congress and started a social reform program. It was called the Self-respect Movement .
Justice Party was in power at that time and was ruling the Madras Province. The demands put forward by the Self-respect Movement was accepted by the Justice Party and they implemented equal representation for castes based on the caste ratio. Education and employment in the Province became proportionally represented.
Congress Party did not support these proposals and they were not progressive minded and they did not want any divisions within Indians before independence.
[edit] As an Opposition Party
Around 1937 Rajaji and the Congress Party defeated the Justice Party and captured power in Madras. As national policy Hindi was introduced as a compulsory subject in the schools. Non-Hindi speaking people became volatile and rebelled every where in the South. Periyar under his organisation wanted to put a stop for this turmoil.
Most Brahmins and North Indians thought Sanskrit was a divine language and Indians needed a language like Hindi with lots of Sanskrit words or a language similar to Sanskrit as a lingua franca. Tamils thought that Tamil was the most ancient language in India and they should not yield to imposition of Hindi. They wanted Tamil as an official language with equal footing with Hindi. In fact a South Indian language should have been made a lingua franca on parity with Hindi. It never occurred. Most of the North Indians also found Hindi as a foreign tongue as India is a vast land with several different cultures and languages. Imposing Hindi was a very unfair business. Hindi was a relatively young language. To make matters worse Hindi had a difficult alphabet. They should have chosen a Roman alphabet for Hindi as Indonesians and Malaysians have done.
[edit] Anti-Hindi Agitation
Periyar started the Anti-Hindi Agitation and was arrested and jailed by the Rajaji government.
More than 1200 persons including women with children were imprisoned in 1938, of which two, Thalamuthu and Natarasan, lost their lives due to the rigours in prison. When the agitation gained momentum Periyar was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years, though released in six months While undergoing imprisonment, the Justice Party elected him as its President on 29th December, 1938.
Periyar was an ex-Congress member and a close friend of Rajaji. He was a veteran politician and the greatest reformer of the 20th Century. These credentials were good enough for the Justice Party to make him the president. He was released from the prison as the masses were behind Periyar and Justice Party became popular with Tamils.
At this time the leadership of the Justice Party was handed over from the traditional leaders to Periyar. The traditional leadership were unable to stem the tide of the popular demand for freedom and the rising popularity of the Congress Party. They could not match the knowledge and skills of Rajaji. They needed new dynamic leaders like Periyar. But, Periyar did not have the proper education to run a state like Madras. He had only 5 years of education. They needed learned and educated leaders with vision and charisma. Periyar was unable to handle complicated social problems in a diplomatic manner. And, he was aging slowly nearing 70. To care for him they found a young girl with whom he fell in love and married. To add insult to injury he nominated her as his heir to the party and his wealth.
[edit] Annadurai
Annadurai entered the Justice Paty somewhere when all the old leadership was decimated in an election and an aircraft accident removed Paneerselvam. This left a leadership vacuum. Annadurai was what the party really wanted. He was a man whom the others cannot match in education or intelligence. Most of the Congress leaders were illiterate or from humble backgrounds. Annadurai was from a respected family and more acceptable to the populace.
[edit] Vocational Education and the Caste Factor
Rajaji introduced a modern version of vocational educational system for school children based on their background. Periyar felt that it is a step backward into the Middle Ages as there was no way for the masses to get educated and acquire the modern sciences. Modern scientific education was still in the grasps of the Brahmins who were intelligent, hard working and dominant in all the universities and higher learning institutions.
Periyar's struggles were well rewarded as Rajaji realized the shortcoming of such an education and scrapped it. Rajaji knew that Periyar was on the right and he was wrong. Rajaji was a man of learning and Periyar was a man of little education. Periyar was just trying to rectify all the wrongs of the past and wanted to see the improvements without any further delay.
[edit] The World War II
Periyar was offered the power and the support to rule Madras by Rajaji and the Congress Party as they have to resign from the Government. British government declared war on Germany and the Axis partners and involved India without consulting the Indian government. Some of the Congress leaders like Netaji were indeed in alliance with Germany and Japan and wanted to drive the British out of India with an armed struggle.
Periyar and Justice Party supported the British and opposed the Nazis and the Fascists as they were found to be obnoxious and racist. Furthermore, Periyar wanted the social reform more than the political power and he refused to take over the Madras government even though the Congress Party offered to support him from outside.
[edit] Change of Name and Transformation
In 1944, Periyar was transforming the Justice Party and he changed the name to Dravidar Kazhagam to represent all of the South Indians. The origin of several Justice leaders were non-Tamil and most of them originated from Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam backgrounds they named themselves with the Sanskrit word Dravidar. In fact there was no word such as Dravida in Tamil. Tamils nor Telugus nor Kannadas ever had used a word called Dravida. It is mostly used by northern scholars who has not much knowledge about southern culture and its heritage. It was another much abused word like Aryan. There is no proper scientific background to both these words.
Annadurai was dominating the Justice Paty and became the General Secretary and people were attracted to this great learned man who was also a great orator as well.
Karunanidhi was also a rising star and he designed the flag of the new party which was similar to the Japanese national flag; the white colour was replaced by the black colour.
Thus the Justice Party changed its name and became Dravidar Kazhagam. Its objectives were changed to social reform. It left the parliamentary democratic politics forever.
Later members of the Justice Party left Dravidar Kazhagam and started Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and captured power in Tamil Nadu. Annadurai, Karunanidhi and M.G. Ramachandran became chief ministers and ruled Tamil Nadu and brought several reforms up to now. The legacy of the Justice Party is still in power in Tamil Nadu.
[edit] References
- Countercurrents.org - Periyar's movement
- Rajaraman, P.: The Justice Party. A Historical Perspective 1916-37. Poompzhil Publ., Madras 1988.
