Rise of Dravidian Parties To Power in Tamil Nadu - North South Divide

North South Divide

The differences between North and South India, both as in languages as well as in social structure were compounded in Tamil Nadu through the feeling that the nation was dominated by the North and that the South had been both neglected and exploited. The antipathy towards the north developed as the animosity against Sanskrit; which were two folds as hostility towards Hindi (a Sanskritic language) as well as Brahmin (as a proponent of Sanskrit). Brahminism was seen as the instrument of this "tyranny". Ritually and socially superior to the non-Brahmin masses, a Brahmin commanded a dominant political and economic position in Tamil Nadu. With the rise of Dravidar Kazhagam and birth of DMK, along with the ascent of Kamaraj in the Congress, the Brahmin dominance was already on the process of being displaced in the Madras State.

The North South divide in India was more prominent by the 1960s with the both the mass and the politicians of the North looking at English as a foreign language that has usurped the rightful place of indigenous languages, whereas the South feared that English to be replaced by Hindi which is equally foreign to its tongues.

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