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Dravidar Kazhagam Party (India)

Party of Dravidians

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 27 February 2008

Introduction
The Flag

See also:

Introduction

Dravidar Kazhagam (Party of Dravidians), also called Dravida Kazhagam (Dravidian Party), was founded in 1944 as the transformation of Justice Party (founded in 1916). Its goals were the emancipation of Dravidian people, especially low castes and women; promotion of Dravidian languages, especially Tamil, as opposed to Hindi; abolition of discrimination based on religion, which resulted into the pronounced atheism, sometimes even hostility towards Brahmins and Hinduism; and for some time, creation of an independent Dravida Nadu, a country which would comprise Dravidian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The founder and first president of the party was E. V. Ramasamy (1879–1973), known as Periyar ("Respected one" in Tamil). Once very influential in south India, especially Tamil Nadu state, it lost much of its political power since the split in 1949, when Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was formed by some of its former members, but still it is an influential movement for social reforms.[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidar_Kazhagam]

The Flag

The flag of Dravidar Kazhagam was adopted in 1946 [2, 3]. It is black with a large red disc in centre. The aspect ratio is 2:3. Its designer is M. Karunanidhi [2], a prominent party member, who later became one of the founders of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its president (currently he is also the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) [4]. The design symbolizes the struggle for the emancipation of Dravidians from the deprivation and exploitation [3] and seems to have been inspired with the national flag of Japan [2]. This flag has inspired a number of black and red political flags in south India, including that of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Sources:
Wikipedia page about Justice Party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_Party_%28India%29
Periyar.org site - page about life and work of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy: www.periyar.org/html/dk_movement_eng.asp
Wikipedia page about M. Karunanidhi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karunanidhi

Tomislav Todorovic, 25 February 2008

Identical to the flag of Mars from Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy.
Eugene Ipavec, 27 February 2008