The Dravidian Years: Politics and Welfare in Tamil Nadu

by S. Narayan

From Haryana to Gujarat to Maharashtra, numerous Indian states have been witness to protests by backward classes pressing for quotas and reservations. In stark contrast is the exemplary case of Tamil Nadu, which has managed to effectively integrate economic and development agenda for the backward classes into state policy. In the fifty years of rule between them, M. Karunanidhi, MGR, and J. Jayalalithaa—the iconic leaders of Tamil Nadu politics—managed to effectively transform institutions and structures to deliver a social welfare agenda in the state. Was it pure charisma on part of these leaders that gave us the unusual story of politicians and bureaucrats working hand in hand to implement a social agenda? Written by S. Narayan, who as part of the administration was both a witness to and a participant in these developments, this book is an intimate narrative on the Dravidian years of Tamil Nadu. At an important juncture of Tamil Nadu politics, it also makes us With no charismatic leader in the horizon, who can take the state forward?

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, India, History

286 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 26, 2018

Reviews

[Naveen Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tamilnadu owes its development to Periyar and self-respect movement. Over the 50 years of Dravidian rule, Tami Nadu has grown into a model state for the rest of states in Indian union.

There is a desperate need to revive Periyar's Dravidian ideology in the state at present.

[Sudarshan Varadhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over 35 years ago, Manmohan Singh was taken by surprise, as MGR, the charismatic Chief Minister of the Tamil country, abruptly walked out of a meeting in Delhi. Singh had innocently quizzed MGR about "high" spending on welfare schemes.
"Dravidian Years" is a book by S Narayan, one of the shocked bureaucrats who had to run after MGR to catch up with him as he left Singh shocked. It is an insightful insider account on how one of the country's poorest states became an engine of equality and enterprise.
The book throws light on the culture within the DMK and ADMK - both of which the philistine North Indian, Brahmin news media mostly wrongly associates with terms such as freebies, corruption and regional.
Narayan served as a TN bureaucrat from 1967-1997, and later the union government including Vajpayee's PMO, helping give the book an insider's fly on the wall view as well as an eagle-eyed broader perspective.
Narayan describes early DMK as a democratic setup committed to the ideals of eradicating social inequality. He tells us how party cadres, irresponsibly described as middlemen by the delusional urban media, became the agents of grassroots democracy and created a framework of delivering social justice that is followed till date.
He also describes how grassroots democracy created too many power centres, and contributed to leakages and lack of focus.
DMK thinkers to date blame MGR for diluting the Dravidian ideology. But this book describes how the undemocratic, hero-worshipping culture of the ADMK helped put in place what is possibly the world's most successful large-scale universal feeding scheme, which radically improved human development.
He explains how it would have been difficult to execute under a democratic DMK, elucidating how power structures are complicated. MGR simply fired those who didn't toe his line, and the files approving the scheme were thin as Tamanna: and this undemocratic process - criticized as unscientific - worked!
And then there are instances of how frameworks created in the early Dravidian years functioned on autopilot - like the early Jayalalithaa years. And how popular narratives got things wrong - the narrative on the creation of Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corp, the largely leakage free PDS system that served as a model for the rest of the country, even when there was ostensible governance chaos.
And oh, the role of the common man in pushing the governments to outdo each other - thanks to "awareness" created during the early Dravidian year grassroot movements, to be read differently from literacy.
Read this book for plenty of such things that worked and why. The last two chapters, based on second-hand inputs, are a letdown and some are downright wrong broadbrushes. The book also suffers from some boring bureaucratic language, despite perceptible best efforts by the author.

[Rick Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Easy accessible read for general audience.

I'm interested in the question,

1. "How could Tamil Nadu reshape it's future to grow better socio-economically?"

For that - I'd have to read widely from all angles to give a cumulative case, someday.

I learnt a bit more on Political History from this work.

Especially on MGR, Party Structure.

Outline:

1. The Social Reform Movement: Early Years
2. The DMK and Social Change: 1967 to 1977
3. Social Welfare and MGR: 1977 to 1987
4. The Politics of Welfare: A Case Study of the Midday Meal Programme
5. The Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Programme: A Case Study
6. The AIADMK after MGR: Jayalalithaa and Welfare
7. Welfare as Politics: The Post-1996 Scenario
8. Freebies for Votes: 2006 to 2016
9. Looking at the Future

2. Why read this?
For anyone, wanting to know Political History of Tamil Nadu

3. Why care about Political History?
Because your future is shaped by policies [Income, Growth, Investment, Education]

4. Other thoughts?

Wish, I could look, at the numbers, balance sheet,
finances of Tamil Nadu from 1960-now?

4.a -Why?

It might give me exactly what happened, decisions that shaped the future.

Eg: Per capita incomes grew.

From:
a) Rs 2,311 in 1990
b) Rs 11,320 in 1997.
c) It's at Rs.229,000 now.

4.b How? (Yapadi?)


Deus Vult,
Gottfried

[Nallasivan V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good summary of what worked well for TN over the last 50 years. But it doesn't have anything insightful to say about what didn't work well. Narayan, with his long experience in Bureaucracy is not very critical about the many shortcomings - both political and administrative.

[Vivek Anandh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written by Mr.Narayan.

But WHY?

Unfortunately, I was not able to find any answer whatsoever in any of the 9 chapters in this book.

As a person who is born and brought up in the state of Tamil Nadu, I was deeply interested in knowing the historical causative forces that shaped the state as we have it now. There are many areas of human development index where this particular state is leaps and bounds ahead of all other states in the country put together. There are many academic writings of economists and sociologists that tries to explain this phenomenon. But none too approachable for a layman like me. They speak in numbers and jargons, nor were able to find the link with the ideology that created the fertile ground for such a development. So it was with a great deal of interest that I picked up this book from my shelf.
Alas, I was disappointed is an understatement. The initial chapters are a mere repetition of history that adds nothing much to the existing literature, except for the fact that it is from the author's POV. The chapters then moves into reading of numbers just like anything else that I have read so far, steering away completely from the theme. However, there are some interesting snippets of information about the AIADMK rule of MGR, which gave me some relief from the monotony. But I had to plod through the pages just for the sake of finish reading it.
Quite apart, this is the second book that I read in recent past that is replete with editorial mistakes. I was able to notice many jarring SPELLING mistakes, ill formed sentences, ill structured arguments. I do not know what the editors were doing. It is more disappointing to see this happening in an Oxford publication.

[Pradeep Kirubagaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful period of Tamil history of progress and social development. in depth description on the mid day meal scheme, good work done by the politician and bureaucratic system. another apt example of all the magic "political-will" can do even in a cash strapped country. and perfect example of investment in Human capital is prime importance, which i don't think even the north indian states and current central government has realized yet.

[Gowtham · Rating 4 out of 5]

என்றும் நன்றியுடன் 😍

[ARNESH · Rating 4 out of 5]

When i started reading i was skeptical that it could be very biased. On the contrary, It was an objective narrative of the events along the past century that lead to where currently Tamil nadu is today (politically, ideologically and economically). It clearly demarcates the difference in approaches that tamil nadu took compared to other states in india and opportunities seized by the political figures.
Finally, on a personal level, I felt like living through and traveling three lifetimes of my grandparents, parents and current generation. The only drawback would be there are repetitions of phrases and sentences among chapters, which reduced reader attention.

[Manikandan Thenmozhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insight from former civil servant about TN and how bureaucracy contributed to progress which made TN a developed state . Administration machinery's commitment towards growth of the state was not recognised when we talk about factors attributed to it . He emphasised on these points . Though I differ in perception of him with respect to few matters , as whole , book is good starter for reading pertains to TN

[Vinoth kumar Balu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to know about the political history of Tamilnadu and how different leadership style evolved and served linearly which made a tremendous impact on the growth of the state. Generally we get to know more about leader's ideology and the impact they have created in the society but in this book we could understand how they reacted to the demanding situations and how it made a significance.Recommended to all those who are interested in politics and leadership.

[Aravindh Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is anecdotal to a fault but he brings our the behind the scenes working of the administrative apparatus in TN. This book is more focused on the bureaucracy and administrative hierarchy than politics. The extremely thorough case study of selected nutrition programs detracts from the overall structure or theme of administration in TN.

[Kiran Gowtham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good insider account on administrative machinery of TN. Politically neutral.