BOOK REVIEW

June 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
38
Haunted by Fire: Essays on Caste, Class,
Exploitation and Emancipation by Mythily
Sivaraman (LeftWord: New Delhi), 2013; pp 457, Rs 550.
Decoding Dravidian Politics
D Karthikeyan
If we have chosen the position in life in
which we can most of all work for mankind,
no burdens can bow us down.
Karl Marx
T
his quotation by Marx could as
well dene the career of Mythily
Sivaraman, a prominent Marxist-
feminist activist and scholar from Tamil
Nadu who worked among the masses
participating in and recording their
struggles and offering a critique of the
prevalent sociopolitical norms. Haunted
by Fire is a collection of essays written
over a period of three decades. Mythily
Sivaraman is a person who could hardly
be missed in action at most of the Left-
organised peoples struggles in Tamil
Nadu, and she will be remembered as an
activist-scholar of the Left with the em-
phasis very much on the activist.
The book has rather a lengthy intro-
duction by the editors, social historian
V Geetha and Kalpana Karunakaran,
which situates the author within Tamil
Nadus historical context and gives the
reader a glimpse into the thoughts and
ideas that went into the making of a
p olitical activist. Mythily Sivaraman
grew up at a time when the southern
part of India was undergoing a revolu-
tionary political upheaval under the
non-brahmin movement, which chal-
lenged the complete hegemony of the
brahmins over the rest of the population.
Early on, she was attracted to the anti-
caste rhetoric of Dravidar K azhagam
(DK) and Dravida Munnetra K azhagam
(DMK). Though she initially irted with
Hindu spirituality, she abandoned this
for more praxis-oriented on-the-ground
struggles of common people.
Her sojourn in the US in the 1960s
where she went to graduate school at
Syracuse University gave her an under-
standing of the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1966, Mythily joined the Committee
on Decolonisation, which was estab-
lished in 1962 by the General Assembly of
United Nations to speed up the progress
of decolonisation and it was during this
time that she came across anti-imperial
ideas. From here she moved ideologically
close to Marxism and after her return to
India in 1968, she joined the Communist
Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) in 1969
and got largely associated with the Centre
of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and later
with All India Democratic Womens
Association and has stayed with them till
date. The everyday politics during the
era shaped her activism; and of all chal-
lenges the toughest for her was proba-
bly overcoming the twin challenges of
caste and class within the making of her
own self. As explained by the editors,
her identity as an upper-caste brahmin
from a privileged class background, being
part of a party that largely comprised
dalits and Other Backward Classes, had
made her more aware of the ground
realities and to under stand the com-
plexities of representational factors.
The collection comprises a range of
essays written mostly for Radical Review,
a journal founded and edited by Mythily
Sivaraman during 1969-73, for the EPW
as a correspondent from 1970 till the late
1980s and also occasional contributions
to the journal Social Scientist. Her arti-
cles as an EPW correspondent were
largely journalistic accounts rather than
theoretical and conceptual underpin-
nings, which she did for Radical Review.
The ordering of the essays is not chrono-
logical, but one can read it as an order-
ing of issues that the author took more
seriously. It is no wonder that from this
perspective, dalit struggles form the rst
part of the collection. It was the Keezh-
venmani incident where 44 dalits in-
cluding women and children were burnt
to death for waging a class struggle
against feudal lords that affected the au-
thor the most. Other topics in the col-
lection include understanding the
Dravidian movement, land and labour,
workers and unions, repression and
resistance, electoral politics and
exploring socialism. We will deal with
each issue in turn.
No Change in Dalit Situation
In the rst section of essays on dalits,
her account of Ratnapuri village and the
social relations there gives us an idea
that nothing has changed much when it
comes to caste discrimination. Her des-
cription of how even after major temples
were thrown open to dalits, village tem-
ples remained spaces of discrimination
still holds true (p 72). Here she records
the hypocrisy of the Indian liberals who
were comfortable in condemning apar-
theid and racism elsewhere but were
least interested in talking about caste
discrimination back home. These essays
BOOK REVIEW
Economic & Political Weekly EPW June 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25
39
on dalit struggles provide us a sociologi-
cal understanding of the everyday im-
pact of caste and rural land relations.
They inform us about the subservient
position of d alits in villages and how
even in a situation where they are
numerically strong, their lower accessi-
bility to economic r esources indicates
their vulnerability and also points to the
failure of any redistributive measures
undertaken by the government. What is
signicant here is the fact that even after
three decades the situation has hardly
changed; despite the wider reach of gov-
ernmental welfare schemes and populist
forms of governance undertaken by the
Dravi dian parties, instances of untouch-
ability and patron-client type relation-
ships determine village life in much of
rural Tamil Nadu.
Medias Indifference
towards Periyar
One of the bold critiques of Mythily
Sivaraman was of her own party, the
CPI(M), on its reluctance to study the
ideas of social reformer E V Ramasamy
Periyar and the social context of his
policies. She also points out the indif-
ference shown by the media towards
Periyar. The essays in the section more
or less provide us a summary of the
s ocial conditions that existed in the
e arly 20th century and the hegemonic
control of brahmins both in civil and
political society, which eventually led to
the formation of the non-brahmin move-
ment. Most of her writings on this sub-
ject offer support to the argument made
by Eugene Irshchick in his monograph
Politics and Social Conict (1969). How-
ever, the main point of interest is her ac-
count of iconoclasm practised by Periyar
and how it had an antithetical effect in
terms of political patronage. Her Marxist
emphasis comes through at points, as in
her critique of Periyars efforts in rela-
tion to female oppression she places more
emphasis on a socio-economic u nderstand-
ing than on patriarchal elements. It is
important to note that patriarchy tran-
scends socio-economic factors and is
able to continue its oppressive n ature;
brahmin women are as subjected to
patriarchy as are dalit women. Her critique
of Periyars works, however, highlights
the fact that he was largely anti-brahmin
rather than anti-caste.
She also highlights Periyars ignorant
attitude towards dalits and his use of
the vernacular of Adi Dravidars, not as
a Tamil per se. This analysis has con-
temporary relevance as Tamil Nadus
dalit intellectuals have started to criti-
cally analyse Periyars political dis-
course questioning the marginalisation
of dalits and the paternalistic tone in his
engagement with the dalit question.
The paternalism practised by Periyar saw
the natural ascendancy of non-brahmin
elites rst and then intermediate castes
exerting their dominance and control
over socio-economic resources and pre-
venting the assertion of dalits. Though
she acknowledges Periyars role in creat-
ing a consciousness among the subaltern
against their oppressors, she states that
he undermined the importance of eco-
nomic aspects based on scientic class-
based analysis, again an argument that
needs a much more careful analysis.
DMKs Empty Rhetoric
The emergence of the DMK as a political
offshoot of DK was inevitable in her as-
sessment. The popular support received
by DMK, which was originally a social
movement, made them take the plunge
into electoral politics. The DK advocated
Dravidian nationalism and anti-brah-
minism, but the DMK was emerging as
the vanguard of Tamil nationalism. She
criticises the cultural nationalistic poli-
tics undertaken by DMK that relied on
primordial mobilisation and on culture
and disregarded economic aspects. Her
focus on land struggles in Tamil Nadu
again revolved around the Keezhvenmani
incident. She notes as to how the event
shook the nations conscience, and she
criticised the callous attitude of the
press during the struggle by the dalits in
an essay titled Venmani and Free
Press for Mainstream magazine. The
Mail newspaper (now defunct) stated in
REVIEW OF URBAN AFFAIRS
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Moving around in Indian Cities Dinesh Mohan
Review of Twelfth Plan Proposals for Urban Transport Ranjit Gadgil
Ahmedabads BRT System: A Sustainable Urban Transport Panacea? Darshini Mahadevia, Rutul Joshi, Abhijit Datey
Metro Rail and the City: Derailing Public Transport Geetam Tiwari
Accidents and Road Safety: Not High on the Governments Agenda S Sundar, Akshima T Ghate
Is Public Interest Litigation an Appropriate Vehicle for Advancing Road Safety? Girish Agrawal
Car Sewa: The Iconography of Idle Worship Dunu Roy
Analysing the Urban Public Transport Policy Regime in India P S Kharola
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BOOK REVIEW
June 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
40
one of its stories that the communists
had set re to their own huts (p 174).
Reacting sharply, she noted that it
could be an unparalleled case study in
masochism. This allegation reminds
us of the recent violence against dalits
in Tamil Nadu in Dharmapuri and
Marakkanam where the Pattali Makkal
Katchi has come up with the same
concocted statement that dalits set re
to their own houses to get monetary
compensation.
The efforts of Marxists to mobilise the
dalits of east Thanjavur has a history
soaked in blood with numerous strug-
gles carried out against the most severe
forms of oppression. The Marxist party
there was referred to as a Paraiyan and
Pallan Katchi (the party of Paraiyars and
Pallars, the two most numerous sched-
uled castes in Tamil Nadu). The red ag
became the symbol of the peasantry in
east Thanjavur and Mythilys essays cap-
ture those ground realities and also the
emptiness of DMKs political efforts to
address the land question. She shows us
how the DMKs agrarian policy focused
on increase in production rather than
the rights of landless labourers.
Workers and Unionisation
The 1970s in Tamil Nadu saw the worst
form of oppression against the organ-
ised labour unions. The author, who was
an active participant in those labour
struggles, has captured the essence of
such struggles and the DMKs class char-
acter. The cultural nationalism pro-
pounded by the party had an overarch-
ing effect as it helped the DMK to suc-
cessfully undermine its already vacillat-
ing efforts on the economic front.
The authors observation that the
DMKs rhetoric failed to address local
forms of capitalism and produced locally
powerful landed elites and what she re-
fers to as Dravidian capitalists is im-
portant. She takes into account three
manifestos of the DMK released in 1957,
1962 and 1967 and provide us with an
idea of DMKs initial dilemmas with the
idea of socialism, its Janus-faced posi-
tions on economic policy treating the
labouring class as consumers and how
these were f urther changed to a anti-
labour position that peaked in the 1970s.
Though the DMK promised national-
isation of industries to progressively
minimise the role of private industries
and to allow for greater social owner-
ship of the means of production, all that
its industrial policy had in reality was
provision of subsidies to rms, which
had tendencies to monopolise.
The DMK rule (1969-76) under Karuna-
nidhi turned out to be a nightmare for
labouring classes and saw the attacks
on and arrests of leaders of Left trade
unions. Nevertheless even during such
instances of severe repression, the trade
unions emerged victorious during the
infamous 97-day strike at the Madras
Rubber Factory, which saw the manage-
ment and government machinery com-
ing together to curb the efforts to mobi-
lise the workers.
State Repression
Two horrifying incidents of state repres-
sion during the Emergency are narrated
with meticulous detail in Mythily
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BOOK REVIEW
Economic & Political Weekly EPW June 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25
41
S ivaramans essays, Murder of Seera-
lan and Story of Nagammal, which
were published in the EPW in 1977 and
1978 respectively. The victim, Seeralan,
was a Left activist who was accused of
being a Naxalite a common strategy
used then by the police machinery to
demonise any Left-leaning protester and
who was brutally tortured and mur-
dered by the police. The victims parents
and relatives were subject to severe re-
pression to ensure that they did not bring
the issue to light. In the case of Nagammal
it was her caste that led her to undergo
severe difculties, as she had to face the
brunt of her upper caste cohorts (well
supported by the police) for leaving her
husband and marrying a member of
lower caste origins. Nagammals ardu-
ous journey towards justice is explained
in detail by Mythily Sivaraman.
Though the whole nation was witness
to authoritarian power and state excess-
es in the form of Emergency in 1975, in
Tamil Nadu, the emergence of a police
state was visible in the 1970s. The
DMK paved the way for it and during
M G Ramachandrans (MGR) rule it had
soon reached a stage where it was suf-
fused with extraordinary powers. Both
the Dravidian parties, the DMK and the
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
K azhagam (AIADMK) during their respec-
tive regimes in the later periods have pro-
vided more concessions to the police than
to any other governmental service. A
strong arm of the ruling party indeed,
writes Mythily Sivaraman, and which is
still a worthy topic for further study. The
murder of Seeralan, the gunning down of
persons believed to be Naxalites in Dhar-
mapuri and the rise of custodial deaths
during the time implied the emergence
of a police state and the excesses seen in
Kodiyankulam in 1995, the Tamiraparani
tragedy in 1999 and the Paramakudi vio-
lence in 2011 are arguably remnants of
this repressive order.
The MGR Myth
The essays on MGR are an interesting
read, as the myths surrounding MGR still
obscure analysis. Mythily Sivaraman
dissects how the constructed image of
the actor overlooked the wily politician;
how an authoritarian regime has time
and again been imagined as a golden
rule, and how the working classes and
the poor who suffered the worst under
his rule still voted him to power. She
could possibly be the rst major critic to
have made an attempt to demystify the
MGR phenomenon, as there were no
strong critiques of the actor-turned
politician in the media during his time.
Her articles could have paved the way
for later works on MGR and his fan clubs
by Sara Dickey (1993), M S S Pandian
(1992) and a lot of others. The paternal-
istic populism practised by MGR and its
endorsement in a much more nuanced
way by the Left added value to his
poli tical career.
Her account that the Emergency was
felt more in the north than the south of
the state could be a little misleading, as
the DMK in most of its political and plat-
form speeches, pamphlets and short
publications has tried to memorialise
the Emergency events claiming victim-
hood by explaining how much it had suf-
fered. The former DMK mayor of Madras
city was a victim of police brutality dur-
ing the Emergency and even Karunani-
dhis son M K Stalin suffered. It has also
become part of the popular imagination
and prexes carrying MISA (Mainte-
nance of Internal Security Act) became
common among the DMK cadres of those
time as an effort to relive those tough
times and crisis.
In later writings, she was open with
her criticism of the Lefts distorted un-
derstanding of realities of caste, and its
economic reductionist views. She points
out how the Left leadership was not
open to anti-caste struggles and only
started to address issues related to caste
during the 1990s. Her criticism was
correct as it was only in 2006 that the
CPI(M) formally established a forum, the
Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication
Front. However, this does not detract
from the east Thanjavur struggles involv-
ing dalits as part of the Left movement.
Mythily Sivaraman also boldly criti-
cises the trade union movement which
she found was antithetical to the womens
question and politics of sexuality. She,
along with the women stalwarts of
the Left movement, Pappa Umanath
and Janaki Ammal, established the
Democratic Womens Association, which
was a precursor to the All India Demo-
cratic Womens Association formed in
1981. Unfortunately, the collection
does not have any essay or writings
about her activities as part of the move-
ment apart from a few lines in the
i ntroduction. The last section of the
book consists of essays on socialism in
Cuba and an unpublished manuscript
on the Peoples Republic of China.
Conclusions
The book as a whole captures the politi-
cal mood of Tamil Nadu in the late
1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Despite the fact
that she was a party member, she never
hesitated to openly criticise the party
and her virulent criticism of the inability
of her own party, the CPI(M), and also of
the CPI to stand on their own, deserves
special mention. She writes, their fate
continues to be determined by their
allies (p 364). Though most of the es-
says in this collection were written three
decades ago, no political commentator
focusing on Tamil Nadu would deny this
reality today. The Left for all its efforts
to represent the working class has not
taken any concrete efforts to mobilise an
alternative front to the Dravidian parties
despite the emergence of potential allies
in the dalit parties. This example shows
the enduring relevance of Mythily Sivar-
amans writings and the continuing im-
portance of her work. This book is a
must-read for all students of caste, class
and politics and Tamil Nadu and could
pave the way for more such works from
the women ideologues and workers of
the Left movement in Tamil Nadu who
are behind many a struggle in the state.

D Karthikeyan (karthik.guevara@gmail.
com) is a graduate student at the Centre for
South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, Scotland, the UK.
References
Dickey, Sara (1993): Cinema and the Urban Poor in
South India (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press).
Irshchick, Eugene (1969): Politics and Social Con-
ict: The Non-Brahman Movement and Tamil
Separatism 1916-1929 (Berkeley and Los Ange-
les: University of California Press).
Pandian, M S S (1992): The Image Trap: M G Rama-
chandran in Film and Politics (New Delhi: Sage
Publications).