Tamil National Party was a short-lived political party formed in 1962 in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India. The party finds its roots with the split in

Dravidar Kazhagam Dravidar Kazhagam is a social movement founded by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, also called Thanthai Periyar. Its original goals were to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including untouchability and on a grander scale to obtain a " ...

after which

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

(DMK) was formed.

E. V. K. Sampath Erode Venkatappa Krishnasamy Sampath( – 23 February 1977), usually referred to as ''E. V. K. Sampath'' was a prominent politician from Tamil Nadu, India. He was an advocate of the Dravidian Movement of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy and was conside ...

, a founding member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, left the party following differences with the party leadership. The differences arose due to the DMK's stance on achieving an independent nation called

Dravida Nadu :''Dravida Nadu was also the name of a Tamil language publication started by C. N. Annadurai.'' Dravida Nadu is the name of a proposed sovereign state demanded by the Justice Party led by the founder of the self-respect movement, E.V. Ramasamy ...

. Nevertheless, within years the Tamil National Party was merged with

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

E. V. K. Sampath and DMK

E. V. K. Sampath was nephew of

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973), revered as Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the 'Fa ...

and for a long time considered his political heir. He entered into a feud with Periyar after the latter married a woman much younger to him. Periyar soon after the marriage declared his new wife as his political heir and thus upsetting Sampath's aspirations. The marriage itself had caused opposition within the

, the social organisation that Periyar was heading. E. V. K. Sampath along with

C. N. Annadurai Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai (15 September 1909 – 3 February 1969), popularly known as Anna also known as Arignar Anna or Perarignar Anna (''Anna, the scholar'' or ''Elder Brother''), was an Indian Tamil politician who served as the fo ...

broke away from Dravidar Kazhagam and formed their own party

Differences on using movie media

Tamil cinema has been used extensively for propaganda for Dravidian politics. Although the

in the region did use movies and stars for propaganda, it was shunned upon by major Congress leaders. DMK to the contrary used the

Tamil film industry Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood ...

as a major political organ. Thus movie stars held high ranks in the party. Sampath vehemently opposed the importance given to film stars in the party.

Birth of Tamil National Party

The differences between E. V. K. Sampath and Annadurai finally gave way on their stands on

. Dravida Nadu was envisaged by

Periyar E. V. Ramasami Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973), revered as Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the 'F ...

as an independent nation that included South India. Periyar and later Annadurai considered that remaining in the Union meant accepting linguistic domination of the North and backwardness of the South. Nevertheless, after touring the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, E. V. K. Sampath opposed the call for Dravida Nadu and declared that the idea of independent Dravida Nadu was an impossible task to achieve. With this difference E. V. K. Sampath and his supporters left DMK and formed their own party. Thus Tamil National Party was born in 1962. Some of the well known members of the party included

Kannadasan Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Freq ...

, M. P. Subramaiam,

Pazha Nedumaran Pazha Nedumaran ''Krishnan Pillai Pazhaniyappan'' ( ta, பழ. நெடுமாறன்/கிருஷ்ணன் பிள்ளை பழநியப்பன்) is a Tamil politician from the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He is an ex-n ...

and

Shivaji Ganesan Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Ga ...

Policies of the party

The policies of the party were: * Autonomous National linguistic regions with the freedom to secede from the federation based on the free will of the peoples. * Establishing a society sans inequalities by Industrialisation of Tamil Nadu. * Eradication of superstitions, castes, religions and all atrocities against humanity to usher in a just society based on rationalism.

Merger with Congress

Soon after the departure from DMK Tamil National Party members closely associated with that of the Congress party. At that time Periyar and his

was close with

Kamaraj Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975, hinduonnet.com. 15–28 September 2001), popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras State (Tamil Nadu) ...

the leader of the Congress party. Thus when Kamaraj invited Sampath to join the Congress, Sampath merged Tamil National Party with the Congress party in 1964.

References

{{reflist Defunct political parties in Tamil Nadu Dravidian political parties Political parties established in 1962 Political parties disestablished in 1964 1962 establishments in Madras State