Baffling both Dravidian and Saffron, Gen Z spearheads changing political lingua of TN

As Gen Z gains greater visibility in the political domain, they appear to redraw the contours of public discourse and political lingua. Don’t be surprised, ‘bro’ has now become the new mode of political lingua for addressing one another, including the leaders!

From discarding the old emerges the new trend. When fashion drives modern life, change becomes irresistible in overcoming long-established tradition, and politics is no exception. And Tamil Nadu, considered the Dravidian heartland, is leading the transformation.

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The post-millennial generation has brought its own language into public discourse as dominant political parties get corporatised and continue to carry on with an ossified mode of addressing politics. Two political formations, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) of film star-turned neta Vijay and filmmaker-turned Tamil Nationalist Seeman, leading the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), are spearheading this phenomenon.

In the TVK’s diction, it is ‘bro’ and no more ‘aiyya’ (elderly) or ‘anne’ (elder brother) or ‘ji’, with its president and movie icon, Vijay himself addressing his supporters as such. In the NTK, it is ‘urave’ (kith and kin). Even a cursory look at the social media posts and speeches at public rallies is proof enough of this change to which the new generation is accustomed.

While the Dravidian as well as Tamil nationalist parties have coined new political idioms rooted in Tamil culture, the national parties, especially the BJP and the Sangh outfits, continue to be captive to the mode in North India, remaining alien to local sentiments, thereby limiting their appeal. The Congress, however, moved ahead by shedding that with the exception of its national leaders. In the BJP, former State president K Annamalai had attempted to bring about a change, but it has yet to replace the entrenched language.

When the Congress was the dominant force and Sanskritised Tamil remained commonplace in the conversations of the educated and in public meetings, ‘Thambi’ (brother) was the one brought into currency, used by DMK founder and late Chief Minister ‘Anna’ (CN Annadurai), and ‘udanpirappe’ (sibling) by DMK patriarch and late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. For AIADMK founder MGR, it was ‘en raththathin raththame’ (my blood). For more than 60 years, this was the diction of political discourse. Now, a new breeze is blowing across the political spectrum.

“The conferences of the Self Respect Movement of Dravidian icon Periyar EV Ramasamy and that of the DMK since its inception in 1949, and of the Left parties were designed to educate the party cadre. Also, they were part of mass mobilisation,” observes sociologist S Thirunavukkarasu, teaching at the Central University of Hyderabad, while admitting that at present they have lost their charm and remain as a ritual.

Vijay’s arrival on the political scene has changed more things that the Dravidian movement has shaped by exposing the façade of party conferences of three days and two days with ideological harangues by speakers on various topics. Politics bereft of ideology and dynastic succession has robbed its charm. Platform oratory, which was a distinctive characteristic of the Dravidian parties, has become a thing of the past, and its remnants have slid into obscurity.

In contrast, Vijay’s rallies and party conferences do not extend more than an hour or two, and his address does not last more than 15 to 20 minutes, which sounds similar to that of filmy dialogues. “This is due to political immaturity and lack of sincere political engagement with the people. Further, this displays overconfidence that film charisma is enough for success in electoral politics,” reasons, C Lakshmanan, former faculty at Madras Institute of Development Studies.

However, looking at the larger picture, Thirunavukkarasu says, “it is symptomatic of the advent of depoliticised political communication. Though it was a failure of the Dravidian parties, the Left also has a share in this decadence. Not all those who swarm to the rallies of Vijay are illiterate. But they are politically castrated. The economic trajectory of the country and particularly Tamil Nadu after the 90s has made the youth highly individualistic, career-oriented and ultra conservative but looking for a messiah in a film icon.”