112 results
Estimating demand for potential disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease in the UK
- Axel A. S. Laurell, Ashwin V. Venkataraman, Tatjana Schmidt, Marcella Montagnese, Christoph Mueller, Robert Stewart, Jonathan Lewis, Clare Mundell, Jeremy D. Isaacs, Mani S. Krishnan, Robert Barber, Timothy Rittman, Benjamin R. Underwood
-
- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry , FirstView
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 January 2024, pp. 1-7
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Background
Phase three trials of the monoclonal antibodies lecanemab and donanemab, which target brain amyloid, have reported statistically significant differences in clinical end-points in early Alzheimer's disease. These drugs are already in use in some countries and are going through the regulatory approval process for use in the UK. Concerns have been raised about the ability of healthcare systems, including those in the UK, to deliver these treatments, considering the resources required for their administration and monitoring.
AimsTo estimate the scale of real-world demand for monoclonal antibodies for Alzheimer's disease in the UK.
MethodWe used anonymised patient record databases from two National Health Service trusts for the year 2019 to collect clinical, demographic, cognitive and neuroimaging data for these cohorts. Eligibility for treatment was assessed using the inclusion criteria from the clinical trials of donanemab and lecanemab, with consideration given to diagnosis, cognitive performance, cerebrovascular disease and willingness to receive treatment.
ResultsWe examined the records of 82 386 people referred to services covering around 2.2 million people. After applying the trial criteria, we estimate that a maximum of 906 people per year would start treatment with monoclonal antibodies in the two services, equating to 30 200 people if extrapolated nationally.
ConclusionsMonoclonal antibody treatments for Alzheimer's disease are likely to present a significant challenge for healthcare services to deliver in terms of the neuroimaging and treatment delivery. The data provided here allows health services to understand the potential demand and plan accordingly.
Evaluating the Use of E-Learning in Indian Emergency Medicine Residency Programs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Cross-Sectional Survey
- Vimal Krishnan S, Sanjan Asanaru Kunju, Sachin Sujir Nayak, Vivek Gopinathan, Freston Marc Sirur, Vijaya Kumara, Jayaraj M. Balakrishnan
-
- Journal:
- Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness / Volume 17 / 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 September 2023, e491
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Objective:
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated e-learning strategies in academic emergency medicine (EM) programs. A study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand e-learning in the Indian EM context.
Methods:After IEC/IRB approval, we conducted a multicenter national survey validated by experts and underwent multiple reviews by the research team. The final survey was converted into Google Forms for dissemination via email to National Medical Commission (NMC) approved EM residency program as of 2020–2021. Data were exported into Excel format and analyzed.
Results:Residents and faculty comprised 41.5% and 58.5% of 94 respondents. The COVID-19 pandemic’s second wave in India significantly impacted response rates. Internet connectivity was cited as a significant barrier to e-learning, while flexible timings and better engagement were facilitators identified by the survey. The attitude among residents and faculty toward e-learning was also evaluated.
Conclusion:This survey reveals a significant positive shift in medical education from conventional teaching strategies toward e-learning, specifically during the pandemic. It also shows the need for all stakeholders (learners/educators) to better understand e-learning and adapt to its requirements. We need more data on the efficacy of e-learning compared to traditional methods. Until then, innovative hybrid/blended strategies would be the way forward.
Selection of inbreds with better combining ability is instrumental in developing CMS-based heterotic hybrids in tropical carrot (Daucus carota L.)
- R. Janani, Amish K. Sureja, Shyam S. Dey, S. Gopala Krishnan, Rakesh Bhardwaj, Shalini G. Rudra, Bhoopal S. Tomar
-
- Journal:
- Plant Genetic Resources / Volume 21 / Issue 3 / June 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 September 2023, pp. 237-247
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Carrot is an important vegetable crop worldwide valued for its fleshy edible roots of varied colours. Owing to its highly cross-pollinated nature and small flower size, cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is being utilized for hybrid development. Among different types of male sterility, petaloid CMS is widely used for hybrid carrot breeding globally. This study aimed to develop selection criteria for parents in developing heterotic F1 hybrids using CMS lines. A large number of agro-morphological traits and Simple Sequence Repeats (genomic-SSRs) were used to assess the diversity among parental lines. We developed 60 F1 hybrids by crossing four petaloid CMS lines and 15 testers in line × tester mating design and evaluated them in replicated randomized block design trial for four vegetative and 11 economic traits. The mean squares of all the traits in line × tester interactions were significant. The estimates of genetic components of variance indicated predominance of non-additive gene action except for root maturity, root length and core diameter. The hybrids with highest per se performance also had significant positive specific combining ability effects. The root yield and root weight showed highest heterosis percentage (33%). The best performing heterotic hybrids were DCatH-5392, DCatH-700 and DCatH-9892. Correlation between genetic distance and relative heterosis of economic traits indicated no significant association and thus genetic distance could not be used to predict heterosis. As most of the yield-related traits were controlled by non-additive gene action, heterosis breeding could be potentially used along with combining ability analysis to reduce time in selection of best parents and crosses in tropical carrot.
Disparities in resource utilisation by families of children with cardiac conditions
- Francisca L. Chou, Denis J. Donovan, Rachel J. Weller, Michael A. Fremed, Julie S. Glickstein, Usha S. Krishnan
-
- Journal:
- Cardiology in the Young / Volume 34 / Issue 2 / February 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 July 2023, pp. 325-333
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Objectives:
There are limited data documenting sources of medical information that families use to learn about paediatric cardiac conditions. Our study aims to characterise these resources and to identify any disparities in resource utilisation. We hypothesise there are significant variations in the resources utilised by families from different educational and socio-economic backgrounds.
Methods:A survey evaluating what resources families use (websites, healthcare professionals, social media, etc.) to better understand paediatric cardiac conditions was administered to caretakers and paediatric patients at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Patients with a prior diagnosis of CHD, cardiac arrhythmia, and/or heart failure were included. Caretakers’ levels of education (fewer than 16 years vs. 16 years or more) and patients’ medical insurance types (public vs. private) were compared with regard to the utilisation of resources.
Results:Surveys completed by 137 (91%) caretakers and 27 (90%) patients were analysed. Websites were utilised by 72% of caretakers and 56% of patients. Both private insurance and higher education were associated with greater reported utilisation of websites, healthcare professionals, and personal networks (by insurance p = 0.009, p = 0.001, p = 0.006; by education p = 0.022, p < 0.001, p = 0.018). They were also more likely to report use of electronic devices (such as a computer) compared to those with public medical insurance and fewer than 16 years of education (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively).
Conclusion:Both levels of education and insurance status are associated with the utilisation of informative resources and digital devices by families seeking to learn more about cardiac conditions in children.
What training should psychiatrists have to interpret six- and 12-lead electrocardiograms?
- George Crowther, Mani S. Krishnan, Jonathan Richardson, Robert Bowes, Andrew Fitzpatrick, Muzahir H. Tayebjee
-
- Journal:
- BJPsych Bulletin / Volume 47 / Issue 6 / December 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 January 2023, pp. 352-356
- Print publication:
- December 2023
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
To monitor for drug-related cardiac arrhythmias, psychiatrists regularly perform and interpret 12-lead (12L) and, increasingly often, six-lead (6L) electrocardiograms (ECGs). It is not known how training on this complex skill is updated or how well psychiatrists can interpret relevant arrhythmias on either device.
We conducted an online survey and ECG interpretation test of cardiac rhythms relevant to psychiatrists.
A total of 183 prescribers took part; 75% did not regularly update their ECG interpretation skills, and only 22% felt confident in interpreting ECGs. Most participants were able to recognise normal ECGs. For both 6L and 12L ECGs, the majority of participants were able to recognise abnormal ECGs, but fewer than 50% were able to correctly identify relevant arrhythmias (complete heart block and long QTc). A small number prescribed in the presence of potentially fatal arrhythmias. These findings suggest a need for mandatory ECG interpretation training to improve safe prescribing practice.
Contents
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp vii-viii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
3 - Human Immanence
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 63-84
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Rather the question is what sources can supportour far-reaching moral commitments to benevolenceand justice.
—Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the ModernIdentityWe have postulated, through the first two chapters,that the populist logic that informed the DMK is thehegemonic assertion of non-Brahmin–Dravidian (thepleb) as Tamil (the populous) through dismantlingthe Aryan–Brahmin hegemony established in TamilNadu. If the name of the people, Tamil, the emptysignifier, is not to eclipse the internal frontiernecessary for the counter-hegemonic assertion, thecatachrestic naming of the non-Brahmin Dravidian asTamil is to be complemented by the synecdochic claimof Tamil Nadu to aspire for a Dravidian republicthat spread all over peninsular India. What we needto consider is that while this can be the populistlogic, whether such counter-hegemonic assertion canbe made without recourse to certain appeal to ahistorical sense of change, which came to be knownas “modernity” or “modernization.” The populistlogic will not work effectively if it does notinvolve what Charles Taylor has called the forgingof a new social imaginary which is involved in themaking of a modern identity through locating a rangeof sources of the self in tradition. Our postulatein that regard in this chapter is that the DMKmanaged to make connections, imaginatively andcreatively, to sources in Shaivite metaphysicwithout having to yield to the Tamil nationalistprodding of neo-Shaivites of the nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries, as argued by some.
We need to recognize that in the Tamil instance, thecreation of modern social imaginary with appeals totraditional sources of the self was fraught withinnumerable conundrums because the core of theimaginary consisted of removing caste from thepublic sphere by either sequestering it to theprivate lives or annihilating it fully to fashion acaste neutral self. This entailed a need torepudiate, challenge, or at least criticallyinterrogate traditional Brahminical mores enmeshedwith practices of rituals and piety. This placed ahuge demand on political actors of all kinds to makea statement on where they stood in terms faith,belief, customs on the one hand, and humanist credoand scientific rationality on the other.
Illustration
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp xvii-xviii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Ideation
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 17-18
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Acknowledgments
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp xi-xiv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Mobilization
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 175-176
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
8 - Power of Fiction
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 159-174
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Namakkal Ramalingam Pillai (1888–1972), a poet and anationalist, was arrested during the CivilDisobedience Movement in 1932 and was incarceratedin a B-class cell in Vellore where many frontlineCongress leaders were also jailed. Bulusu Sambamurtiof Andhra Pradesh was one of them. Sambamurti was awell-groomed person, genteel and energetic, who tooka liking to Ramalingam while the latter was alreadyan admirer of the former. One day, at the prayergathering in the evening, one person sangRamalingam's poems. Sambamurti was impressed withthe lyrics, which as a Telugu speaker he couldn'tunderstand and took help to comprehend fully, askingwhether the poems sung at the prayer were written bySubramanya Bharathi, the famous nationalist poet.People replied that they were written by Ramalingamwho was present there. Sambamurti was delightfullysurprised. After this incident, he starteddiscussing Ramalingam's poems and songs in theirprivate conversations, which were conducted mostlyin English as Sambamurti could somewhat understandTamil but could not speak the language, same asRamalingam who could not speak Telugu, though hecould understand it to some extent. Sambamurti'scell was located next to that of Ramalingam, whichperhaps allowed them to meet often. Ramalingamdescribes one significant conversation that led tohis writing a novel, Malaikkaḷḷaṉ (Thief of theMountains):
On one of the days when we had such conversationsSambamurti wanted to know what kinds of works Ihave written in Tamil. I mentioned a few. Theconversation turned to the need to write fictionin prose, short stories and novels. Sambamurtispoke of many English, French, Bengali and Marathiwriters; he then insisted that I too should writefiction in prose like a teacher would prevail upona disciple. As I had earlier toyed with the idea,after listening to Sambamurti, I felt a definiteimpulse that I try some writing in prose. Istarted writing Malaikkaḷḷaṉ the next day.
The context and tenor of the conversation in the prisonalmost makes it appear like writing a novel in proseis in public cause akin to the service of thenation. Much has been theorized about the intricatelink between nation and narration.
Conclusion: Formations of the Political
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 258-276
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Whereas politics represents just one instance ofa social totality, the political refers to the waydiverse instances are disaggregated and mutuallyarticulated.
—Elias Jose Palti, AnArcheology of the PoliticalThe central argument of the book has been that theDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) accomplished thetask of construction of a people as Dravidian–Tamilthrough or alongside the formations of thepolitical. In borrowing Laclau's formulation ofpopulist reason, we have argued that Tamilfunctioned as the empty signifier that unified thepeople while the divide between Aryan–Dravidian orBrahmin–non- Brahmin functioned as the internalfrontier. We sketched this proposition throughChapters 1 and 2, providing a sum-up at thebeginning of Chapter 3. We will return to this laterto fully expand on its significance and also relateto two previous works on the DMK mobilization byMarguerite Ross Barnett and Narendra Subramanian. Wewill now focus on, in conclusion, our propositionrelated to the formations of the political. In acertain sense, formations of the political have alasting validity and importance that providesstability to the construction of a people. Ourunderstanding of the term “political” and itsformation in Tamil Nadu needs some parsing now.
POLITICAL: PLAY OF IMMANENCE ANDTRANSCENDENCE
In his recent work An Archaeologyof the Political, Elias Jose Palti hassuggested that it was with the separation of thespheres of immanence and transcendence and throughthe play of the two that a historical phase began inwhich regimes of power were organized in what cameto be referred to by the term “political.” He hassketched at least three distinct ages: “the age ofrepresentation” (the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies), “the age of history” (the nineteenthcentury), and “the age of forms” (the late twentiethcentury). Without going into the details of theseepochs and logic corresponding to each, what weborrow for our own analysis is his formulationsuccinctly expressed in these terms: “The political,as we have seen, is a play ofimmanence/transcendence, and the different regimesof exercise of power we have been analyzing arediverse modes of production of the transcendenceeffect out of immanence, a justice effect” (Palti2017, 143).
Introduction: Two Scenes of Departure
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 1-16
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
I claim Sir, to come from a country, a part inIndia now, but which I think is of a differentstock, not necessarily antagonistic. I belong tothe Dravidian stock. I am proud to call myself aDravidian. That does not mean that I am against aBengali or a Maharashtrian or a Gujarati. AsRobert Burns has stated, “A man is a man for allthat.” I say that I belong to the Dravidian stockand that is only because I consider that theDravidians have got something concrete, somethingdistinct, something different to offer to thenation at large. Therefore it is that we wantself-determination.
—C. N. Annadurai, in his maiden address toRajya Sabha, April 1962It rained that evening, September 18, 1949, at RobinsonPark, Royapuram, Chennai, where the public meetingto announce the founding of the Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (DMK) was held. People never fail tomention the rain whenever the legendary first publicmeeting is remembered. The rain has many valences ina narrative; it is primarily a cathartic device thatepitomizes the emotional surge of a moment. It ishard to imagine a greater moment of a mix of intenseemotions for the people gathered there than thatevening. They were sad, bitter, despondent, angry,hopeful, euphoric, and happy all at the same time.They had parted company with the father figure, theinimitable Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879–1973), whohad adamantly refused to listen to their plea fornegotiation over the future of the organization, thefive-year-old Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), molded in 1944from the fragments of the Justice Party, also knownas the South Indian Liberal Federation (founded in1917), and the vibrant group of activists gatheredin the Self-Respect Movement nurtured by Periyar(since 1925).
The public meeting at Robinson Park was the culminationof the deliberations held on September 17 and 18 inseveral rounds. The decision to launch a new partywas first taken by a smaller group of those who wereholding offices in the DK closeted in a room and wasannounced to all those gathered outside. The name ofthe party and a provisional design of the party flagwere decided (the provisional design of thetwo-color flag, black strip on top and red strip atbottom, was later confirmed as the party flag). Thegeneral council, with 133 members, with severalsubcommittees were formed and office bearers wereselected on the 17th. The modus operandi of the newparty was discussed. Following these discussions,the public meeting was held on the 18th in theevening (Tirunāvukkaracu 2017, 325–332).
9 - The Grassroots
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 177-200
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The most remarkable part of the DMK history is theincredible energy that went into grassrootsmobilization, which has remained so elusive to beingcaptured gainfully by the theoretical or analyticallens. We have already noted in Chapter 2 thesacrificial figure of Kilapaluvur Chinnasamy as anexemplar of the spirit of self-immolation thatCharles Taylor invokes in discussing the newer formsof the transcendental aspirations or moraldispositions in the age of modern politicalimaginary. However, such extreme acts of sacrificeshould not distract us from the predominantlypragmatic and programmatic aspects of associationallife, social mobility, and political empowermentthat characterized the lives of hundreds ofthousands of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) partyworkers at grassroots level all across the state inthe eighteen-year period of our study. However, itis obviously impossible to condense qualitatively,let alone measure quantitatively, the myriad formsthe grassroots mobilization assumed in the period,though this precisely is the most significant aspectof history. It should be possible to write anethnographic account of the history of theorganizational formation in a given place but thatwould demand a book-length narration.
When that is the case, to pick from the extensivematerial of ethnographic accounts we mobilized fromvarious locations in a short chapter like this islikely to render it purely anecdotal. For the sakeof brevity, we opt to provide a synoptic overview asan extraction of salient features from all thatmaterial, ethnographic and archival, in which wewill study the phenomenon under five distinctrubrics: the historicalbackdrop, the newsociality, theorganizational structure, fostering of politicalculture, thepolitical insurmountable, and finally acase study which would illustrate all of these.
THE HISTORICAL BACKDROP
It will be useful to conceptually segregate threedistinct dimensions of the formations of thepolitical to begin with: civil societyorganizational formations; discursive formationsthat include both ideational synthesis and diffusearticulations; and finally, popular uprisings,protest events of mass participation, organizedagitations, electoral victories, and so on. Itshould be borne in mind that these three dimensionsare not always welded together; it will often bedifficult to ascribe causal relationships and strictcorrespondences between them, as Shahid Amin hasconvincingly shown in his abundantly illustrativeaccount of the Chauri Chaura “event” in 1922 (Amin1996). More importantly, it would be misleading toidentify one for the other.
7 - Counter-Narratives
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 141-158
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The extent of diffusion of the Hindu Puranic corpusover a couple of millennia among the people of TamilNadu is inestimable. Innumerable would be the extentof local variations and interpretations ascirculated through folk performances, oralnarratives, and many a mode of textualizations frompalm leaves to early access to print during theeighteenth and nineteenth century. Hence, it is hardto hazard a guess whether a commoner would, in themiddle of twentieth century, be aware of, say forexample, the story of churning of the “ocean ofmilk” to extract amṛ́ta, or nectar, a signal Puranicincident, is difficult since a lot would depend onwhat kinds of access he or she had to folk culturalforms and oral narrative traditions, let alone printliterature. We could think of the example ofMenocchio, the sixteenth-century miller of Italy,whose cultural world was so painstakingly laid outto us by Carlo Ginsberg, for thinking of whatconstitutes a common person's view and knowledge ofthings, say as he or she is immersed in “popularculture” (Ginzburg 1992). Unlike the Italian case,much of what informed a commoner in Tamil Nadushould be oral and folk narratives, occasionally, ifever, supplemented by reading due to the high rateof illiteracy reported in mid-twentieth century.What notion of the asura of the puranic lore the commonermight have carried is a matter of speculation. Wecan however be certain that he or she had a rich andvaried sedimentation of cultures to choose from. Itis in such an open field of imaginations that theDravidianists sought to make a case for theassertion of the asuras over the allegedly unjustcharacterizations the Puranic imagination had castthem in.
If we, the authors, were to speak of our ownassimilation of the cosmic scheme of the Puranas,not from studying the Sanskrit texts or the works ofIndologists but as people who had been immersed inpopular culture as we grew up, we should first notethat there were three worlds to contend with. TheDevaloka is the heavenly abode where the devas resided. The Bhulokais the world of the humans. The Patalaloka, thenetherworld, is where the asuras and rakshasas lived.
12 - Eruption 217
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 239-257
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
On the day the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) wasfounded, September 17, 1949, the debates on theDraft Constitution of India were being held in theConstituent Assembly. They were concluded in amonth's time; the draft was approved by November 14,1949, and was formally adopted on January 24, 1950,four months from the day the DMK was founded. Itcould be said that the Republic of India and the DMKwere born simultaneously. The information issignificant because the party mirrored and shared anantinomy of the new republic. The DMK vowed to workfor another republic, the south Indian federation ofstates known as Dravida Nadu. It decided to work forthe goal under the conditions of possibility madeavailable by the Indian republic, a Union of States.We can thus say that the political mobilization ofthe DMK is constituted by an antinomy. This antinomyimmediately mirrored the antinomy of centrifugal andcentripetal tendencies of power consolidation inIndian polity. As per the Constitution, the term“state” is applied to the regional governments thatconstitute the Union. The “union of states” iscentrally governed. There is a lasting antinomy inthe formation. On the one hand, in effect, thepowers are largely concentrated at the Union, makingthe Union government a unitary state with theprovincial governments, grandiosely called States,increasingly becoming dependent on the centralpower. On the other hand, popular politics,particularly electoral outcomes, have beenstrengthening party formations at the regionallevel, thus constituting the antinomy of therepublic in the practice of popular electoraldemocracy.
The DMK was an exemplar of the autonomous politicalformations at the regional level. It was alsodistinguished by the fact that the very building ofthe party structure involved elections to varioustiers of party positions. The way the party wroteits constitution and conducted organizationalelections pointed to the liberal streak of politicsit endorsed, which aligned it with a possibleelectoral participation.
2 - The Uses of Language
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 40-62
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
There is a race known as Tamilian
They do possess a singular character
Their ways are sweet as nectar
Love is the language they speak
—Namakkal Ramalingam (poet, congressman andIndian nationalist)The political rise of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK) was intimately connected to the use of theTamil language, the recovery and circulation of itsliterary corpus of the last two millennia, and acelebration of Tamil difference, its past, itscivilization, and its glory. However, officially,and for all intents and purposes, the DMK aspired towork for an independent federation of the southIndian states speaking four languages, to be calledDravida Nadu. This was the only form of secession itarticulated from 1949 to 1963. It never demanded thesecession of the state of Tamil Nadu alone. Hence,whether one likes it or not, the DMK was not a Tamilnationalist party. This disambiguation is necessaryif we are to understand how exactly the relationshipbetween Tamil, as a signifier that can stand for notonly the language but also a people and a land, andthe politics of the DMK are intimately connected. Itwill be rewarding to begin with a text that bestbetokens the ambiguity surrounding this issue.
Sumathi Ramaswamy's Passions ofthe Tongue (hereafter PoT) opens with the dramaticscene of Chinnasamy, a well-known martyr for theTamil cause and a DMK cadre, walking out of hishouse early in the morning on January 25, 1964, witha fuel can in his hand to douse and set himself onfire. His death cry “Inti oḻika! Tamiḻ vāḻka!”(Death to Hindi! May Tamil flourish!), launches thetrain of reflection for the book. In other words, ina semiotic sense, Chinnasamy's self-immolationprovides the token for the whole enquiry; assumingthat he belonged to the type called Tamil devotee,the enquiry turns out to be about the passioninvoked by language. The book PoT is a history of Tamiḻ paṟṟu, a composite of terms“Tamiḻ” and “paṟṟu”—the latter standing forattachment or allegiance—the act of holding on tosomething, which PoTglosses as Tamil-language devotion.
6 - Critical Hermeneutics
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 123-140
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
If every key text authored by Annadurai in the 1940sthat functioned as ammunition for the ideologicalpropagation of the DMK at its inception wascontroversial in some sense, there is one text thatparticularly makes even his supporters feel awkwardto speak about. In drawing-room conversations inmiddle-class, educated households, the text iswhispered as Annadurai's all-time low. Hisdetractors always lay it against him as anexhibition of bad taste. This text, Kamparacam (Aṟiñar Aṇṇā2008b), is a critical albeit selective reading ofKamparāmāyaṇam.Kamban is the twelfth-century Tamil poet whorendered Valmiki's Ramayana in Tamil as Irāmavatāram (The RamaIncarnation). The text however is popularly known asKamparāmāyaṇam.Annadurai's Kamparacamis a close reading of some of the verses of the textwith explicit and “inappropriate sexual references”that a common reader feels embarrassed to speakabout. However, it is really surprising that in theseventy-five years since Annadurai wrote the text,no critical tradition has developed in Tamilscholarship to actually study what Annadurai triedto do as critical hermeneutics and how far his workcould be validated.
For the limited purposes of this chapter, we would liketo contextualize the work and a pamphlet thatpreceded it known as TīParavaṭṭum (Let the Fire Spread), acompilation of debates that Annadurai had withscholars on the question of whether Kamparāmāyaṇam should beburnt along with another twelfth-century Shaiviteclassic Periya Purāṇamas a program of spreading awareness among the peopleagainst Brahminical Hinduism (Annadurai 1995). Thecall to burn these two texts was given by theSelf-Respect Movement. Since Tamil scholars had cometo be aligned to the Self-Respect Movement from thedays of the first wave of anti-Hindi agitations in1938–1939, their objections to the burning of thetwo literary texts were engaged with in the mode ofpublic debates, a significant gesture in thestill-emerging public sphere. Though there were twotexts to be consigned to flames, what whollypreoccupied the debates was Kamparāmāyaṇam, which excited a sharpconflict in views particularly because of the highliterary value the text was accorded.
5 - The Play Is the Thing
- Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, V. M. S. Subagunarajan
-
- Book:
- Rule of the Commoner
- Published online:
- 15 June 2022
- Print publication:
- 04 August 2022, pp 105-122
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
I’ll have grounds
More relative than this—the play's the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of theKing.
—William Shakespeare, HamletThe Dravidianist journey in the terrain of arts andliterature that we call the domain of imaginationpreceded and substantially contributed to thefounding of the DMK. Of the many key interventionsAnnadurai made in the mid-1940s writing plays forthe stage assumes a unique significance sinceimagination takes the form of the performative andthe theatrical in a highly potent combination. Wehave already discussed AryanAllure, the seminal treatise he wrote in1944, which was to function as a kind of manifestofor the party that he would launch a few years laterin 1949. We will be discussing the intervention inliterary criticism, or rather a challenge to canonformation in Tamil that he made with regard to thetwelfth-century rendition of Ramayana in Tamil byKamban in the next chapter. We will also bediscussing the writing of prose fiction that hepopularized among the party men in Chapter 8. Of allthese, there is a reason to feel that the stageplayed the most crucial role. Given the fact of lackof literary training of the subaltern populace whenthey were barely literate, not to speak of the bulkof illiterate people, theater or plays had theunique facility to combine refined expression inlanguage with melodramatic imagination through whicha certain political sensibility could be cultivated.The language used in the play synchronized with themode of public address that the DMK leaderscultivated in terms of its rhetorical flourish. Suchdiscursive synergy was further enhanced by the factthat the DMK leaders themselves acted in these playswhich they wrote. In fact, perhaps it was the turnto imagination that created the ground for a newparty, the DMK, to be headed by Annadurai, who leadDravidianists in this new battlefront, recruitingable lieutenants like Karunanidhi to wage theculture war on the turf of imagination. The foray ofthe DMK leaders into cinema, enabled by the relativenewness of that cultural form that catered to thewhole of society than any other form that catered toselective audiences, has been muchoveremphasized.