Nadar (caste) - Politics

Politics

In the 1920s and 1930s, Nadar Mahajan Sangam supported the non-Brahmin movement and Justice party. W. P. A. Soundrapandian Nadar as the president of Nadar Mahajana Sangam led the effort to ally the community with Periyar E. V. Ramasamy's Self-respect movement. The Nadars joined the Justice party in its attack against Brahmins on cultural and religious front. Nadars also practiced self-respect marriages during the non-Brahmin movement. The Northern Nadars would continue to give their support to the justice party until the rise of Kamaraj Nadar. Kamaraj, the Nadar freedom fighter, was stoned by the Nadars when he tried to speak on behalf of the Congress in Kamudi, and branded as a traitor of the Nadar community for supporting the Congress.

However, in the late 1940s the Nadars' support shifted to Indian National Congress. Though Kamaraj was detested by his own community initially, his political success gradually changed the Nadars' support to Congress. Kamaraj went on to become the Indian National Congress president,from 1964 to 1967, and Chief Minister of Madras state,from 1954 to 1963. After the end of Kamaraj's era, the Nadars' political support have become diffused across various parties and the Nadar Sangam has become less politicized.