Tamil Nadu Timeline

PoliticsDMK-AIADMK alternation

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi contests elections for the first time

· Chennai

The Dalit Panthers movement led by Thol. Thirumavalavan, later the VCK, entered electoral politics for the first time in 1999.

The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) grew out of the Dalit Panthers of India movement in Tamil Nadu, founded in 1982 and inspired by the Dalit Panthers of Maharashtra. Thol. Thirumavalavan became its leader in 1989 after the death of its founder. In the 1990s the movement grew by highlighting caste discrimination and violence against Dalits. In 1999 it contested elections for the first time, beginning its path to becoming a recognised state party.

Related events

  1. 1886

    1. 1886ChennaiSocial Reform

      Iyothee Thass declares Dalits are not Hindus

      Anti-caste activist Iyothee Thass declared that the depressed classes were not Hindus, a stand he later carried into the Dravida Mahajana Sabha and the 1891 census.

  2. 1891

    1. 1891ChennaiSocial Reform

      Rettamalai Srinivasan founds the Paraiyar Mahajana Sabha

      Rettamalai Srinivasan set up the Paraiyar Mahajana Sabha, an early Dalit body, and launched the Tamil paper Paraiyan in 1893.

  3. 1922

    1. 1922ChennaiSocial Reform

      Council adopts the term Adi Dravida

      Acting on a resolution by M. C. Rajah, the Madras Legislative Council adopted Adi-Dravida officially in place of terms like Paraiya and Panchama.

  4. 1990

    1. 1990ChennaiSocial Reform

      Separate 1 percent reservation for Scheduled Tribes

      The Karunanidhi government split the combined SC/ST quota and gave Scheduled Tribes a separate 1 percent reservation.

  5. 1999

    1. Sep 1999ChennaiPolitics

      DMK allies with the BJP; NDA wins 26 seats in Tamil Nadu

      With the AIADMK out of the NDA, the DMK allied with the BJP for the first time and the NDA won 26 of Tamil Nadu's 39 Lok Sabha seats.

  6. 2009

    1. 2009ChennaiSocial Reform

      Internal reservation for Arunthathiyars

      Tamil Nadu set aside 3 percent within the Scheduled Caste quota for the Arunthathiyar community.

Open in the timeline explorer