Madurai:
When MDMK leader
Vaiko recently made an unsavoury casteist remark against DMK president M.
Karunanidhi, there was a murmur of lament that the man, known for his silver
tongue once, had stooped to such a low that he was often caught putting his foot
in his mouth.
Indeed, Vaiko comes from
a political tradition, in which public oratory (medai pechu) was seen as an art
and a craft that was employed as a weapon, along with writing, to lure masses
to the Dravidian movement in 1960s. “At
a time when political transformation was brought through armed revolutions in
many countries across the globe, DMK used oratory and pen as tools to bring
political change in our State,” recalls R.T. Sabapathy Mohan, former
Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam-Sundaranar
University, Tirunelveli.
Mohan was a student when
DMK founder Annadurai and Karunanidhi gave a new form to political discourse.
Earlier, political speech was an elite prerogative, which was devoid of
literary flourish. “Elitist leaders from Congress party would address the public
first in English and then switch to spoken
Tamil (kochai Tamil)”, said Tho Paramasivan, a renowned Tamil scholar.
But speakers of Dravidian
movement revolutionised the political discourse, employing sentamil (pure
literary Tamil). “Anna’s verbal eloquence and unique articulation of Tamil’s
identity emphasising the antiquity of Tamil language; the antiquity of its
kingdom and the richness and uniqueness of its literature, stole the hearts
of Tamil people,” said Tiruchi Siva, DMK propaganda secretary and
Rajya Sabha MP, who also became a famous political orator listening to speeches
of DMK stalwarts. “It was real education for at least three generations in the
state,” said prominent Tamil novelist
Imayam.
Thousands of rustic
people from interior villages, who gathered at small towns, would wait for
hours together to listen to those speeches because it helped them trace their
historical roots and know the richness of Tamil literary tradition. It was a
time when knowledge was an exclusive
domain of the elite and trained DMK orators enlightened the masses about their
history and literature.
“The speakers of
`sentamil’ were men of learning, of letters and of intelligence. That is why, I
used to return home with ten new Tamil usages after listening to a speech of
Karunanidhi,” recalls Imayam.
The DMK, too, trained its
speakers by putting them through a week-long session. Perhaps the abolition of
the programme could be a reason for declining standards of oratory, said Mohan.
Famous orator Nanjil
Sampath recounted his continuous speech for nearly nine hours for a campaign at
Aruppukottai for DMK candidate Thangapandian from 10.30 pm. “I was able to keep
the audience attentive by feeding them with information on literature and
history of Tamil,” he said.
Referring to Annadurai’s
famous statement that ‘Medai Pechu’ is an ‘open university’, Mohan said most young DMK orators didn’t have
any formal education, but taught themselves by listening to the speeches and
articles published by stalwarts of Dravidian movement.
“Even in the hot
political climate, we never made personal attacks like today. In the campaign
for the Assembly election after the Emergency, I took pot shots at the Congress
rule by using only stories from Mahabharatham as metaphors,” said 75-year-old Trichy Selvendran, a senior DMK orator.
Esakimuthu, a former DMK
leader in Madurai, says the culture of singing paeans to leaders on stage is
another reason for decline in standards of political oratory. Ironically, the standards have dipped to such
a low that today oratory is employed for caste mobilisation, defeating its
historical significance.
“Medai Pechu is not just
about speeches. It has its own set of etiquettes and practices. Speakers will
be addressed with respect (as avargaley,) all of them will be honoured with a
towel and every one on stage will get a few minutes to address the crowd,”
Selvendran pointed out.
Subaltern people were not
allowed to wear towel on their shoulder and people would be referred by their
caste names in those days. “To put an end to those discriminatory practices,
the Dravidian movement leader meticulously brought in this stage culture to
treat all people with respect,” said Paramasivan.
Though public oratory
is declining with advancement of modern technology such as television and
social media which takes information
faster to people, senior orators say personally targeting political leaders
like what Vaiko did would only set a wrong precedent for younger generations.
