Understanding South India: Its Political Regimes and Social Security

Understanding South India: Its Political Regimes and Social Security Anil Kumar Vaddiraju* Abstract In the context of so much that is written about south India and its achievements in social policies (Sen and Dreze 1991, 1997, 2001), this note probes as to what enabled such social policies to be adopted in the first place. While delineating the specific and general political factors that broadly enabled social security policies to emerge, the paper finally asks the question: is such combination of circumstances unique to south India or that the north Indian states can also emulate it thereby making the lives of its poor better? In the process of the argument, the note makes a fervent plea that the understanding of south Indian political regimes and social policies is possible only from a historical perspective. Key words: South India, Political regimes, Social security, Backward caste movement, Princely states, Linguistic diversity This paper deals with political regimes and public policies in south India and their relationship to social security 1. Political regimes defined as governments in power that have certain political ideologies, social bases and some political stability determine the public policies. Public policy preferences are integral part of how a political regime can be determined. Together with ideologies, social bases and reasonable stabilities, political regimes also determine policies. This is true of not only at the level of formulating public policy frameworks but also throughout the policy processes. Regimes matter at the level of conceptualization, decision making and implementation of policies; policies also determine whether the political regimes can win back the political mandate to continue in power. Electoral politics in India is increasingly determined by the effectiveness of the policies that specific political regimes carry out. This note aims to reflect on the relationship between the political regimes and public policies. The relationship is often direct. The public policies often * Associate Professor, CPIGD, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore - 560072. E-mail: anilkumar@isec.ac.in. Acknowledgements: This paper has benefitted from the comments given by M R Narayana, N Sivanna, Anand Inbanathan and T S Syamala, Sobin George, M Balasubramanian, Sunil Nautiyal, Elumalali Kannan and Komol Singha. I thank all my colleagues and the anonymous referee for their erudite comments on the previous draft.

Vol.16 No.2 Anil Kumar: Understanding South India 359 determine, besides the political stability, also the political continuance of governments in power. This is true of all Indian states as well as the Union government. The Indian electorate as is evident from the recent assembly and parliamentary elections, is increasingly responsive to concrete policies in contrast to more intangible benefits in terms of national/regional pride or identity-based appeals. Although it is too early to announce that the identity politics has run out of steam, the trends show that the policies that bring in their wake tangible material benefits increasingly determine the political continuance. In this context it is important to explore the relationship as to what policies determine a) tangible benefits to the electorate b) political stability of regimes in power; c) what other contingent factors determine the political and policy continuance and/ or discontinuance. This is true at both the levels of national and state governments. The all-important caveat here is that the above sketched relationship is more dramatic at the state level than at the Union level. This is particularly so because there has been of late an emergence of states as strongly relatively autonomous entities in Indian politics (Stern, Howes and Lahiri 2003, Jenkins 2004, Rudolph and Rudolph 2001). Now more and more electoral outcomes are determined at the state arenas rather than on a pan-india basis. As political choices become more and more of immediate relevance to the ordinary people, the support to immediate policies is likely to increase. Also, till the recent election in 2013 in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, and even after that election, one can decisively argue that the regional/ state-level political regimes have attained a certain dynamics of their own relatively independent of the national politics. The pan-india appeals at the electoral times are unlikely to yield electoral outcome as in the times of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or even Atal Bihari Vajpayee. (The 2014 parliamentary election in which BJP led by Narendra Modi has won a landslide victory appears to be an exception to this; however, Modi s victory has not happened in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The respective parties that have held on to the turf in these States, even in 2014, are TRS, TDP, AIADMK and Congress and CPI(M): therefore, even though Modi s pan-india appeal has worked to a large extent, it is still not the case in South India). This trend particularly began with the advent of coalition era in 1989, and ever since even pan-india identity appeals such as Hindutva are not yielding results. For example, the India Shining campaign in 2004 by the NDA was a failure. Likewise, the Congress party s and UPA s electoral victories in 2004 and 2009 were more crafted at the state level than at the pan-india level. The state political leaders, like Y S Rajasekhar Reddy of AP Congress party, have with their state-level mandates bestowed the Congress party with national mandate (Srinivasulu 2011). The state leaders rather than the national appeals and charismatic national leaders made the UPA win. Therefore, the political regimes at the state level and their politics have become crucial to understand the national level politics. Also, since the economic

360 Journal of Social and Economic Development July-Dec. 2014 reforms in 1991 and coalition era since 1989 there has been a nationalization of regional parties and regionalization of national parties (Sarangi 2005). The regional parties leading state-level regimes have become crucial players in the national coalitions. And within the national parties, the regional leaders with their regionbased political regimes have more decisive role for the existence and continuance of national coalitions both in and out of government. The intervening variables for national politics and political regimes in India are still numerous and multiple. Whereas at the state level these can more easily be identified and studied. Given the above reasons, it is of enormous significance to study state-level regimes in India politics today. The key to understanding the policy processes in India lies today in the study of state-level politics, albeit operating under the national Constitutional structure. Particularly, this note focuses on how the political regimes are sustaining at the state level because of state-level policies and also whether these policies have been beneficial to ordinary people. This makes us consider the specific question of social security. Our question is, in the times of globalisation and shrinking state, have these rejuvenated state-level regimes been able to offer any social security measure for the poor of the states? Earlier on in India, the poverty alleviation policies announced at the Centre such as the Twenty-point programme during Mrs Indira Gandhi s time or Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and later Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) under Rajiv Gandhi dispensation, used to take care of the social security of the poor and bring back votes for Congress. The BJP relied excessively on pan-indian Hindutva identity and failed to deliver any significant social security and consequently suffered at the hustings. But the state-level regimes, particularly in South India, have been very different in this aspect (Balasubramaniam and Balasubramaniam 2008). They always had their own state-level social security programmes owing to compulsions of political competition and political wisdom at the state level. Not that they have not been part of the national schemes and programmes, they have very much been. But often they have gone ahead of the national social security policies and created and propagated their own social security policy regimes. This has happened with varying intensity and success but mostly attempts were made. Also, they made use of the national schemes to their advantage. As said earlier they have partaken in the national social security schemes, presently such as that of MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme). But even the governance of such pan-indian social security has been strongly influenced by local party, administrative and political cultures. It is well noted in the literature on Indian politics that the regionalization of politics along with the emergence of coalitional politics is still a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. This is truer with the peninsular India where the diversity of the states is high and their politics and political culture is also varied. These

Vol.16 No.2 Anil Kumar: Understanding South India 361 states are of diversified nature and without a single thread of either one language, say the one such as Hindi, linking them or without a single political culture that determines politics; these states have varied political histories each state since and prior to the Independence. The historical and political specificities are varied and as also their linguistic and socio-political cultures. When it comes to the south India, the policy regimes of today are crucially determined by the history of south India. For example, the much recognized achievements of Kerala in policies towards human development, favourable demographic indicators and women s agency are partly rooted in its history of matrilineal heritage, the progressive policies of the Travancore and Cochin princely states much, much before nationalist movement and independence and the history of progressive civil society initiatives such as Sri Naryana Guru in terms of social reform and social rejuvenation (Rao 2010). Likewise, the major impetus to social reform in Karnataka came with the 12 th century Basava movement with which came the caste-reform, critique of Brahmindominated Hinduism and the emergence of non-brahmin, so-called backward castes. Also, the policy regimes adopted by the princely state of Mysore for example, towards affirmative action for the lower non-brahmin castes was important in laying foundation for progressive social policy. And interestingly most of these initiatives, both from below in terms of reform movements and from above as policy initiatives of local states, have began much before independence and the ascendance of the congress party to power at various levels. Interestingly, even in the part of south India that was under the British Presidency rule, that is, the Madras region, or contemporary Tamil Nadu, the impetus for progressive policy discourse began much before Independence. The social reform movements of E V Ramaswamy Periyar (1879-1973), particularly the anti-brahmin and prolower caste social reform movement, were very powerful in Tamil Nadu and laid foundations for certain kind of social policy and social upheaval (Washbrook 1989). Which has led to the prevalence of backward caste, Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu in combination with progressive pro-people social policies. In Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, the Communist movement started much before the Independence and grew along with the nationalist movement led by Congress. The Communist movement has taken deep roots in Andhra Pradesh and asserted its ideological hegemony over the state s intellectuals even before the nationalist movement came. The Telangana peasants armed struggle against Nizam s oppressive rule, the progressive rationalist and atheist movements in coastal Andhra Pradesh were very important for developing a critical discourse on state and state policy regimes in AP. The leadership for even Telangana peasants armed struggle came much from the coastal Andhra for example, Puchchalapalli Sundarayya, Makineni Basavapunnaiah and Moturi Hanumantha Rao, leaders all of Telangana Armed Struggle (Pavier 1981), came from Coastal Andhra and therefore the Communist ideological influence has been high in the entire state of AP before and

362 Journal of Social and Economic Development July-Dec. 2014 after the Independence. The number of electoral seats won by the Communists may have been only a few, always, but their influence on the public sphere, public discourse, media, academia and popular mobilisation of different varieties has been huge. And it continues to be so. This even included very radical feminist literary movement that came up in Coastal Andhra under writers like Gudipati Venkatachalam, Muppala Ranganayakamma and others 2. Therefore, it can be summed up that the pro-poor, social reform-oriented and even egalitarian-oriented public and social policy regimes of the four south Indian states have their roots in the south India s historical evolution which we do not find in other regions, say, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh. This is not just a search for support in the past. The past is so much present in the political and policy regimes of south India that we cannot always see them separately. This note further aims to examine the relationship between political regimes and their relationship with public policies particularly vis-à-vis social security in the four south Indian states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Each of these states had their own historical provenance. Parts of these states were under the colonial rule and parts of these states were under princely rule prior to the Independence. And even for those parts of south India which were under the princely rule, the nature of the princely rule varied. Some princely states were retrogressive and oppressive such as the regime of Nizam in Andhra Pradesh. Nizam s regime had no progressive social or political policy other than continuing its own rule; in contrast with that some princely states had the record of 3 progressive social and political policies incorporating politically and socially weaker sections in the policy regimes that gave them historical advantage in terms of education, jobs and participation in governance. (The Nizam was notorious for having nothing other than a harem and a wardrobe!) Affirmative action was not new to all princely regimes. The princely states of Mysore in Karnataka and Travancore in Kerala had social policies of affirmative action before Independence. These differences and historical specificities have shaped their political trajectories in the post-independence period. These states have also witnessed progressive social and political movements during and prior to Independence. So-called backward castes and their social movements for self-respect and material betterment pre-date Independence in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh had the experience with the Communist movement, circa the national Independence (Pavier 1981). Therefore, given the nature of the southern Indian states, as described above, a reflection on political regimes and their public policies is quite interesting and makes a case for significant understanding of social and political policy regimes in these states. We can also periodize such study taking the liberalization policies of the 1990s as watershed in Indian politics. The key questions that such reflection leads to are: What are the political determinants of regimes in these states? How

Vol.16 No.2 Anil Kumar: Understanding South India 363 social bases determine political and policy regimes? For example, Karnataka has its own political determinants in the form of two distinct social groups Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes playing a decisive role in determining the regimes, also along with other factors (Manor 1989, 2004). In fact, the backward caste mobilisation which began with 12 th century Basaveshwara Shaivaite movement has created so many Matths (religious ashrams with Gurus, mostly of the Shaivaite sect) in Karnataka that the caste which champions it the Lingayat caste has been very prominent in Karnataka politics. This is only countered by another non-brahmin, peasant/farmer, so-called backward caste Vokkaligas. The Lingayat social base is largely spread across the North Karnataka while the Vokkaligas have been a dominant caste in the erstwhile Mysore state region. Today, the historical emergence of these two castes has left little room for Brahmins in Karnataka politics. Since Karnataka does not have, much like the rest of south India 4, a Rajput/Kshatriya/ martial caste, these so-called backward castes have been dominant in state politics. The historical social reform movements have led to the present dominance of these castes in the social and political arena in Karnataka. Andhra Pradesh has Kammas and Reddys determining the substance of political regimes. Kammas have their social bases in Coastal Andhra and partly in Rayalaseema regions (Ram Reddy 1989) 5. They are a dominant, mostly land-owning and enterprising farming caste in the region. Whereas Reddys pre-dominate in Telangana and Rayalaseema regions. The Reddy community has its presence even in Coastal Andhra Pradesh but it is a numerically minor community though influential in that sub-region. The Reddy caste, which is again a peasant/farmer dominant caste, wields strong influence in the Rayalaseema and Telangana regions. The political leadership of these two castes always mobilised other castes under their leadership and formed basis for political regimes and rule in Andhra Pradesh. Even the Communist movement has been influenced by these castes in Andhra Pradesh and significant numbers of Communist leaders have always hailed from Kamma and Reddy castes from their respective regions. Though these Communist leaders have always downplayed the caste and regional loyalties, these loyalties have been prominent in the state s Communist movement too. In a broad sense, the Kammas and Reddys have always held political leadership, regimes and controlled public and social policies in Andhra Pradesh, certainly since Independence: initially, for a long time under the Congress tutelage and later under the regional political party regimes. The divide between these two dominant castes persists even today. Tamil Nadu has enduring non-brahmin political and social groups determining the politics: the Dravidian, backward caste movement was most influential in Tamil Nadu. It combined social reform, atheism, rationalism and other progressive ideas. Strong focus on women s agency was also there as a prominent element in the movement. The focus was on self-respect of the so-called backward and lower castes. It was directed against what is seen as the dominance of Aryan

364 Journal of Social and Economic Development July-Dec. 2014 Brahmin caste (Washbrook 1989). It was a strong reform movement that defined the Tamil politics for all times to come. Added to this is the fact that the numerical preponderance of backward, peasant/ farmer castes is also an important factor in determining the political regimes in Tamil Nadu and south India in general. The politics in Tamil Nadu has its own specificities. But it has as a common running thread: primarily backward caste Dravidian politics characterized by strong tones of personality politics and populism. The social security policy regimes of Tamil Nadu politics are borne out of this in the later days. Kerala historically has had the most oppressive caste system. Consequently, Kerala has seen most spectacular social movements. The Naryana Guru Dharma Paripalana Yogam movement was the most influential social reform and anti-caste movement in Kerala. From the days of this movement on and combined with the efforts of Travancore and Cochin princely states, Kerala has always seen a combination of civil society movements with broad social base on the one hand and progressive social and public policy regimes from above on the other. Therefore, though caste has always played a strong role in Kerala since the pre-independence time, and the Syrian Christians and the Hindu upper castes have dominated here, the social and political ambience in which the dominance is exercised is very different. The broad base of civil society and social movements and a very aware citizenry means that policy regimes are both determined by pressures from below and initiatives from above in a dialectical relationship. The influence of Communist ideology is very high in Kerala. Kerala had the first Communist government in India led by E M S Namboodiripad and dismissed by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Therefore, since the early days of Independence Communism has always been a major ideological force in Kerala society. And coupled with a strong and widely based social movement and public action oriented civil society, Kerala s public policies have largely been quite progressive. Kerala ideologies strongly determine the political regimes with Communist and non-communist political regimes alternating in power every five years. In such situations, how the political regimes are determined in politics: Can we in such cases describe the political regimes in terms of their social and ideological bases as is usually the case while studying the state-level politics, or, are there other factors? The other significant aspect is the evolution of the political cultures of these four states. The political cultures of these four states are to a large extent similar but they also have internal differences and these differences between states matter and they determine the political regimes. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have a history of film actors and cultural icons shaping the political regimes. This is the case more so with Tamil Nadu but also later the case with Andhra Pradesh. M G Ramachandran was a film hero and ruled the state as AIADMK leader for many years. His opponent, M K Karunanidhi, who led and leads the DMK now, and was

Vol.16 No.2 Anil Kumar: Understanding South India 365 also chief minister many times, was also a script-writer for Tamil movies though he never was an actor or hero. MGR s heir and many times chief minister J Jayalalithaa has also been a very popular heroine and major film icon (Pandian 1992). In Andhra Pradesh this southern legacy was taken over by N T Rama Rao his entire family and later by Chiranjeevi. NTR was a very famous Telugu film hero. So is the case today with, though not equally, with Chiranjeevi 6. NTR commanded the Telugu film industry like a colossus for many years as a hero. He came to politics only after retiring from the film industry. And, it is pertinent to note that at that time the Telugu film industry was based in what was known as Madras (Chennai). Karnataka and Kerala have decisively different political cultures; Karnataka though had a popular film hero, Raj Kumar, he never entered politics. Even today, popular film personalities might star in some political campaigns, but are not major factors of influence in Karnataka politics. The same is the situation in Kerala too. There are no film actors in Kerala politics. Though there are actors like Murali and Innocent in Kerala politics, they are not as prominent a phenomenon as NTR or MGR or even Chiranjeevi (the author is particularly grateful to the anonymous referee for this information). Both the United Democratic Front led by Congress and the Left Democratic Front of the Communists have their own supporters and well-honed cadres but not film personalities of any kind. In both Kerala and Karnataka, it is the national parties and different aspects such as ideologies, active civil society elements that determine the politics. In the context of such diversity of political cultures, to what extent sociopolitical cultures determine the political regimes and their policy regimes? This question is decisively important in south India because the major film personalities of South India such as MGR, Karuananidhi, Jayalalithaa, NTR and others have always swayed masses to their parties and governments with great influence. In order to do this, they also combined their personal charisma with populist politics. This often took the shape of public policies and schemes that were decisively in favour of the majority of the people in the respective states. And perforce these policies involved social security measures. For example, MGR s mid-day meal scheme in Tamil Nadu and NTR s two-rupee per kilogram rice in Andhra Pradesh. While such policies always bolstered their larger-than-life persona in politics, they also delivered a modicum of social security to the poorest of the poor and thereby reinforced their image as popular leaders. A politics which was later abandoned and replaced by a different set of policies in AP which has brought the ruin of TDP (Rudolph and Rudolph 2001). As a consequence, when electoral competition came the other parties and leaders were compelled to announce and practise similar policies and social security measures. For example, after the Telugu Desam Party rule, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy also combined personal charisma with a great measure of populist policies (Srinivasulu 2009). Thus personal film charisma, political appeal

366 Journal of Social and Economic Development July-Dec. 2014 and social security policies were combined in the political regimes of south Indian politics. The nature of public sphere in these states also matters enormously. How civil society, the middle class and the related aspects create and determine the nature of politics and political regimes? Is the concept of public sphere applicable to the politics of these states? This is significant question in the sense that the media, print capitalism and visual capitalism surely have come to shape the characteristics of politics in these states. It is interesting to note in that connection that in three of the four southern states Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh all major political parties have their own newspapers and TV channels in respective vernacular languages. In Kerala, even the Communist party has its own TV channel 7. The newspapers and weeklies in south Indian languages are proliferating and thriving. The literacy rate being high in south India, the reading public is huge and the average number of dailies and weeklies in each south Indian language easily outstrips the national average for any language. This is the most striking aspect of the linguistic diversity of south India. All the four south Indian states have four different languages but they have high literacy rates in those languages and have thriving and vibrant vernacular press and reading publics in all the four languages. All this shapes the public sphere. And this is in addition to non-attached 24/7 news channels in those south Indian languages. Films and film stars also play a major role, as mentioned, in political outcomes in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Another aspect of political regimes in south India that has close connection to social security for ordinary people is the extent to which electoral populism determines the trajectories of politics. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have both regional parties that have their umbilical cord to the culture industries and these parties have fostered active and competitive populisms in these states. Both the AIADMK and DMK go to any extent to satisfy their voters (Kennedy 2004). Telugu Desham Party and Congress in Andhra Pradesh do likewise (Srinivasulu 2011, Mooij 2007), whereas the populist appeals matter much less in Kerala and to even lesser extent in Karnataka. In Karnataka, fiscal prudence is still a popular virtue. In Kerala, the populist political culture does not exist and instead the political discourse is saturated with the ideological and to some extent economic factors. In other words, populism, political regimes and social security policies are interlinked in south India. The summing-up of this note can therefore be as follows: 1. Political regimes in south India are determined by their social bases, ideologies and public policies. 2. The public policy orientations of these regimes are determined by their social bases ideological leanings and social security proclivities.

Vol.16 No.2 Anil Kumar: Understanding South India 367 3. Other factors such as populism, political culture and public sphere also matter crucially in south India for social security policies. 4. The primary factors that propel political regimes in south India towards social security polices are their social bases, political ideologies they espouse and their broad social security orientations. The secondary aspects are populism, political culture and public sphere. 5. Both the primary factors (social bases, ideologies and social security policy proclivities) and secondary factors (populism, political culture and public sphere) are significant in south India in order to understand the relationship between political regimes and social security. 6. However, this note limits itself to studying the fundamental factors, viz., social bases, ideologies and social security policy preferences of the political regimes in four south Indian states. South Indian politics with all their diversity, therefore, cannot be studied separately from south Indian social and political history. The evolution of south Indian society historically holds crucial keys to understand and unlock the present situation of political regimes and social security in south India. Therefore, this note concludes with the proposition that studies of political regimes and public policies, particularly social security policies, of all, but surely of south Indian states, need to have historical orientation. Finally, are the conditions discussed above about political regimes and social security policies unique to south India, or, the rest of India can also emulate them? The answer is that, partly the evolution of south Indian politics is unique, and partly what made the above discussed achievements possible was the frequent alteration of political discourse from exclusivist caste and religious issues to social policy issues both by chance and by deliberate choice. Can that transformation of political discourse towards social policies in general and social security policies in particular happen in rest of India? Notes 1 It should be mentioned at the outset that much of the social change discussed in this paper is qualitative, while quantitative support can also be marshalled to demonstrate this. The quantitative and qualitative picture of three sample states from east, north and south India is available in Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen (ed, 1997). Hence this paper does not get into statistical exercise. 2 This is in addition to the Virasam (Viplava Rachayatala Sangham Revolutionary Writers Association) for which for some time, Sri Sri or Srirangam Srinivasa Rao known in Telugu literature as Maha Kavi (Great Poet), was a major influence and popular inspiration. This critical literary tradition in Andhra Pradesh has never properly been brought to national focus. This Telugu literary culture which is basically of subversive

368 Journal of Social and Economic Development July-Dec. 2014 variety is also least researched in the English social science and hardly ever brought to notice while discussing the Telugu politics. That the radicalism in Andhra Pradesh owes much to its literary traditions is often goes unrecognised. Such vernacular literary traditions and their fecund linkages to regional political cultures is largely an unexplored subject except perhaps for Bengal and to some extent Maharashtra. 3 Compare Nizam s historical record to that of Travancore: V K Ramachandran while recognising that not all reform was done from above, says this: The administrative history of nineteenth-century Travancore was marked by an extraordinary series of state-sponsored reforms and declarations of intent. Free and universal education was declared to be an objective of public policy. Schools were opened and instruction was introduced in Malayalam. The first public library in India was established in Thiruvananthapuram and the state sponsored a remarkable programme of translations. Legislation against chattel slavery was passed. Civil and criminal laws and laws of legal procedure were codified. A system of public health was introduced and hospitals were built. Land tenure legislation brought Travancore closer to a system of ryotwari, investing proprietary rights in the sections of persons who were actually responsible for farming the soil (Ramachandran 1997: pp302-303). 4 This is the point frequently made by M N Srinivas that south India always lacked a martial caste such that of a Rajput caste and this made tremendous difference to its caste politics, gender discrimination in society and women s agency in south Indian society (Srinivas 1996 and passim). 5 The politics of accommodation that G Ram Reddy wrote about is suspect today because the present Telangana protagonists would hold that they were never actually treated on par with other sub-regions in Andhra Pradesh. Secondly, whatever politics of accommodation existed came to an end with the Naidu regime---the reason because of which K Chandra Shekhar Rao, the present leader of TRS, had actually come out of TDP ministry and started the Telangana Rashtra Samiti with which began the present separate Telangana movement. G Ram Reddy must truly be turning in his grave for having claimed that Andhra Pradesh political culture is accommodative. G Krishna Reddy (2002) brings out this regime shift in AP in his paper. 6 These cine-politics in south India are not fully researched and brought to light. For example, the Chiranjeevi phenomenon in AP and cine-actor Vijayakant phenomenon in Tamil Nadu are hardly researched and reported. National media too has not focussed sufficiently on the film-politics nexus in south India. 7 The public sphere of south India is least researched. Not many know the facts outside the specific states. This is true even within the south Indian states, thanks to their linguistic diversity. For example, the Communist parties in West Bengal may not have their own TV channels but Kerala has one. Likewise, in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh every political party has its own devoted TV channel. It is indeed amazing how the south Indian political parties have taken to electronic media and TV channels to propagate

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