From ‘matchbox’ to ‘jackfruit’ and ‘mike’ to ‘bicycle’, parties and candidates campaigned to popularise their symbols among the voters in the 2024 Lok Sabha election that concluded in Tamil Nadu last week. Among the lot, however, was one symbol that completed 66 years last month in being the identity of a recognised party — the ‘rising sun’ of the DMK.
Referred to as Udhayasuriyan in Tamil, it symbolises the sun rising between two mountains and bright yellow rays spreading far and wide. Initially a free symbol with the Election Commission (EC), the ‘rising sun’, however, became synonymous with the DMK in the then Madras State only eight years after the party was launched by C.N. Annadurai and after the EC recognised it in 1958, following the party’s performance in the 1957 election.
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State parties recognised
A report in The Hindu throws light on how the EC, on March 2, 1958, accorded recognition to four new State parties, including the DMK, as they had secured the minimum percentage of votes required for the purpose. In the EC report, however, the DMK candidates were classified as Independents, and according to The Hindu report, the party had bagged 10.56% of the votes polled in the State.
“When the party staked a claim for the ‘rising sun’, the EC retained it as a free symbol, allotting it to many candidates and some Independents. [Navalar] Nedunchezhian [then in the DMK] was allotted the ‘cock’ symbol, and a local businessman, contesting as an Independent, was given the ‘rising sun’,” recalls author A.S. Panneerselvan in his book Karunanidhi: A Life.
Held by others
The symbol, however, had been held by different parties and candidates. Reports in The Hindu point out how the Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad staked a claim for the ‘rising sun’ in New Delhi in 1951. In 1956, in Andhra Pradesh, the Praja Party had also held on to the symbol. The symbol also had its share of history in Tamil Nadu before becoming a part of the DMK.
“[Vanniyar leader] A. Govindasamy had the ‘rising sun’ symbol for his Vanniya Kula Kshatriya Party. He later became the secretary of Ramasamy Padayachi’s Toilers Party, which had ‘rooster’ as its symbol. In 1954, when Padayachi merged his party with the Congress, Govindasamy, on Anna’s [Annadurai’s] advice, revived the Toilers Party and, instead of the rooster, chose the ‘rising sun’ as its symbol. In 1957, Annadurai requested the EC to allocate the symbol officially since Govindasamy was part of the DMK,” author and commentator on Dravidian politics R. Kannan told The Hindu.
Mr. Kannan says there was no specific reason for the DMK to go in for the ‘rising sun’. It was, he says, “an easy symbol” that the party wished to capitalise on. It was already familiar in the Vanniyar pockets, where the party was making inroads, he said, adding that the DMK contested in the Corporation election in Madras city in 1959 on the ‘rising sun’ symbol before the 1962 election. “We did not go looking for the symbol,” says DMK organising secretary and former MP R.S. Bharathi. “The EC had allotted it to us then, and it became a part of us. If you look at other parties through the years, such as the Congress, their symbol changed following splits. The DMK is the only party in the history of India to have contested on the same symbol from 1957 till now,” he contends.
Efforts to spread the symbol
From the time of its allotment, the DMK made various efforts to take the symbol to the people. “We took to songs and spread the party’s propaganda and the symbol through cinema, plays, and songs,” says DMK spokesperson and former MP T.K.S. Elangovan. “The song by E.M. Nagoor Hanifa, Odi Varugirar Udhayasuriyan, played a major role in taking the symbol to the people. Besides, songs like Engal Dravida Ponnade took our ideology and the party forward simultaneously,” he adds.
Party stalwarts, whenever they went on campaign or visited places across the State, named infants after the symbol in a bid to increase its popularity and extend the party’s reach, recalls Mr. Bharathi. One such person, who is now the MLA of Sankarapuram, T. Udhayasuriyan, told The Hindu, “Perarignar Anna was the one who named me when he visited my native place in 1964. The DMK did not contest in the election in 1952. But such was the popularity of the symbol in 1957 that in a particular place, called Thanneerpalli, all votes went to the ‘rising sun’.” Mr. Panneerselvan’s book, too, records a similar observation.
Interestingly, the name of the character portrayed by late actor and AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran in the film Chakravarthi Thirumagal (1957) was also ‘Udhayasuryian’.
Contested only once
However, despite the splits in the DMK over the years, its symbol was in contention only when Vaiko (then known as V. Gopalsamy) was expelled from the party in 1993, says Mr. Elangovan. “When E.V.K. Sampath and M.G. Ramachandran quit, they floated their own parties. But Vaiko claimed a right to the DMK and its symbol. But, even then, the symbol was retained by Kalaignar Karunanidhi, as we had more general council members with us and could prove majority.”
“Mr. Gopalsamy has not been able to show, let alone prove, the majority of the general council members. [The group headed by Karunanidhi and] Mr. K. Anbazhagan [the general secretary] has demonstrated the support of the majority by producing individual affidavits of 905 members who claim to be the General Council members and have declared their support to their group,” the EC ruled in 1994, as recorded in The Hindu, and the DMK faction, led by Karunanidhi, was declared the “parent party” and allowed to retain the ‘rising sun’ symbol.
Reaching the next generation
With the symbol now having penetrated the nook and cranny of the State, when asked how would it be taken forward to the next generation, Constantine Ravindran, DMK spokesperson and editor, The Rising Sun, the English fortnightly of the party, says, “Today, if anyone sees the ‘rising sun’ image, they automatically recall the DMK. This is quite natural because the symbol has been part of the State’s politics for over 65 years. As for the magazine, it will make the next generation recall both the ideology of the Dravidian movement as well as the symbol of the party.”
“Perarignar Anna took it [the symbol] forward, then Kalaignar carried it forward, now Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has done it. In the future, [Minister] Udhayanidhi Stalin will take it to the next generation,” says Mr. Bharathi.
