Tamil Nadu Toilers Party
The Tamil Nadu Toilers Party ( TNT , Tamil தமிழ்நாடு உழைப்பாளர் கட்சி , "Tamil Nadu Workers' Party") was a party in the former southern Indian state of Madras (now Tamil Nadu ). It was founded in 1951 and represented the interests of Vanniyar - castes . In 1956 the party was absorbed into the Congress Party .
Party history
The party was founded to represent the interests of members of the Vanniyar caste. The Vaniyar (formerly: Palli ) made up about 10 percent of the Tamil -speaking population of the then state of Madras and were mainly concentrated in four districts ( North Arcot , South Arcot , Chingleput and Salem ), where they made up about 25 percent of the population. They were mainly farm workers, but some of them also owned land and some large landowners. Already during the time of British colonial rule they had developed a pronounced self-confidence and showed efforts to raise their own status, which corresponded to that of a lower caste in the Hindu hierarchy. In the run-up to the first parliamentary election 1951–1952 in independent India, representatives of the Vanniyar decided to found their own political party. The party was named Tamil Nadu Toilers Party . Leaders in founding the party were NA Manikkavelu Naicker, a lawyer, and SS Ramaswami Padayachi. A committee has been formed to organize the selection of Vanniyar candidates across the state for the upcoming election. However, a falling out occurred shortly afterwards and in the district of South Arcot the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party was established under the leadership of Padayachi, while the Vanniyar in the districts of North Arcot and Chingleput founded a second party, which was named Commonweal Party , and was under the leadership of Naicker. Both parties were purely interested parties and did not represent a fixed ideology, with the TNT taking somewhat more socialist positions. In the 1952 election to the regional parliament of the state of Madras, which took place parallel to the all-India election, the TNT won 852,330 votes (4.3%) and 17 of 309 constituency seats (5.5%). The party also won four constituencies for the Lok Sabha . When the northern 12 districts of Madras were separated when the state of Andhra was formed in 1953, the members elected there left the parliament of Madras, so that it then comprised 190 members. The relative weight of the TNT MPs increased to 8.9% of the MP's vote.
From the general election for the state parliament of Madras in January 1952, the Congress Party emerged as the strongest party, but it had missed an absolute majority of the seats. It was therefore dependent on coalition partners. The Commonweal Party formed a coalition with Congress, while the TNT initially remained in opposition. When C. Rajagopalachari resigned from the office of Chief Minister of Madras in 1954 and was replaced by K. Kamaraj (who, in contrast to Rajagopalachari, was not a Brahmin but a member of a lower caste), the TNT decided to support his government. In the Kamaraj government, two out of eight cabinet posts were occupied by Vanniyar caste members. In the run-up to the second all-India parliamentary election in 1957, both the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party and the Commonweal Party disbanded and their MPs joined the Congress Party. The dissolution was officially recognized by the Indian Electoral Commission in July 1956.
Later developments
The special awareness of the Vanniyar persisted even after the end of the TNT and the CWP. In 1988 a political party of the Vanniyar, the Pattali Makkal Katchi , was re-established , which in the following years gained some influence in the regional politics of the state of Tamil Nadu.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph: The Political Role of India's Caste Associations . In: Pacific Affairs . tape 33 , no. 1 . University of British Columbia Press, March 1960, pp. 5-22 , JSTOR : 2753645 (English).
- ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on December 10, 2016 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence).