Since the IPKF's withdrawal from Sri Lanka in March 1990, the LTTE's once-powerful influence in Tamil Nadu has faded.
On March 24, 1990, as the last batch of soldiers in the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) boarded the Indian naval troopship INS Magar at Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka, they were informed of a change in plans.
The then prime minister, V P Singh, would not be present to welcome them in Madras.
Instead, they would board an IL-76 transport aircraft in Madras and fly to Palam in Delhi, where Singh would facilitate them before returning to Madras (now Chennai).
The then Tamil Nadu chief minister, M Karunanidhi, had decided to 'boycott' the IPKF's return.
Lieutenant General A S Kalkat, the officer commanding the IPKF, later told interviewers: 'The humiliation was not in Sri Lanka because there was no humiliation (there). The humiliation came when we came back to India.
'The question people asked was: Why did we go there? And the main thing was the so-called boycott of IPKF soldiers when they arrived at Madras port. I think that was a needless act. It was no good. I think the DMK (then in power in Tamil Nadu) was the one'.
A lot has changed in the 35 years since that afternoon.
"Today, if you ask whether the Tamils of Tamil Nadu are sympathetic to the Tamils of Sri Lanka? Yes, they are. Do they endorse their viewpoint? No, rarely," says A S Panneerselvan, former Reader's Editor at The Hindu and author of a biography of M Karunanidhi, a leader crucial to the growth of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the development of Dravidianism as an ideology.
According to Panneerselvan, Dravidianism has reached a level of sophistication that most analysts fail to appreciate.
It is not limited to language or culture. In both India and Sri Lanka, the DMK opposes the creation of a 'monochromatic' State.
Panneerselvan cautions against reading Dravidianism wrongly: "Jaffna Tamils overlook the element of pluralism in Tamil society; those who live in eastern Sri Lanka (home to Tamil-speaking Muslims as well) are also Tamils. Those who live in the plantation areas of Sri Lanka are also Tamils. Those who live in Tamil Nadu are also Tamils."
Conflating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with Tamils or Dravidianism is a major mistake, he adds.
Although the rivalry between various Sri Lankan Tamil groups had begun spilling over into Tamil Nadu as early as 1982, sounding warning bells for the Dravidian parties -- especially the DMK -- the major turning point was the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
This act repulsed voters in Tamil Nadu, prompting the DMK to sever ties with individuals and organisations advocating an LTTE-like militaristic approach to a political problem.
One such individual was V Gopalaswamy (Vaiko). Once considered senior enough to be named the party's leader in the Rajya Sabha, he was expelled from the DMK in 1993.
A vocal supporter of the LTTE, Vaiko believed his views would help him win over a sizable portion of DMK voters.
He launched his own party after his expulsion, but it failed to gain traction.
In the 2024 general elections, his influence had diminished to the point that he was allotted just one seat as part of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance.
Kolathur Mani founded the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (DVK) in 2012 based on strong anti-upper caste views and hero worship of LTTE chief Prabhakaran.
However, his purist and inflammatory Dravidian rhetoric has found little electoral success.
The DVK does not contest elections itself but supports various candidates. However, its influence remains negligible.
"The other example is P Nedumaran," Panneerselvan says. "In the Congress, he was once seen as the most powerful leader after Kamaraj. But at 89, when he announced two years ago that Prabhakaran was alive and would soon return, no one took him seriously." Nedumaran was long considered the "official unofficial spokesperson of the LTTE".
He travelled to northern Sri Lanka multiple times to meet Prabhakaran.
The only exception to this trend is the rise of the Naam Tamilar Katchi (We Tamils), led by film director and actor Seeman.
The party emphasises Tamil rule in Tamil-majority areas and opposes Dravidian parties, which it accuses of contributing to the decline of Tamils.
It believes in the idea of Tamil Eelam and that only a Tamil should serve as chief minister of Tamil Nadu (Seeman claims M K Stalin is Telugu).
The party contested all 39 seats in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, failing to win any but increasing its vote share from 3.9 per cent to 8.1 per cent.
In the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, it also won no seats, but its vote share rose from 1.06 per cent (2016) to 8.09 per cent (2021).
However, scholar and social activist Ramu Manivannan argues: "Seeman is a backwater channel for the BJP in Tamil Nadu, who drew the attention of undecided youth and peripheral voters."
Most military and political analysts agree that another expeditionary intervention by India in the region is highly unlikely.
But Colonel R Hariharan, who led intelligence operations for the IPKF in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990, warns: "In times of threat to Tamil identity and culture, ideas of secession could probably surface, just as it did when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency. A 2013 WikiLeaks message revealed that during the Emergency, Tamil Nadu's DMK minister K Rajaram asked a US diplomatic representative in Chennai whether the US would assist Tamil Nadu if it decided to secede from India.
"The minister clarified that while no such move was in the making, young people within the DMK were talking about separatism. Of course, the US representative reiterated his government's support only for a unified India."
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
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