About the Book: Rule of the Commoner: Dmk and Formations of the Political in
Tamil Nadu, 1949-1967
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has been singular in heralding and
establishing a firm regional polity among the Indian states after the Indian
Union was inaugurated as a republic. Academic scholarship has often treated the
DMK as a Tamil nationalist or ethno-nationalist formation without conceptual
clarity or critical insight. Rule of the Commoner demonstrates with persuasive
evidence that the DMK appealed to a federalist and not nationalist imagination.
The DMKs combining of the non-Brahmin Dravidian identity and allegiance to Tamil
language led to a counter hegemonic formation of the