The Flame

The Flame:

Dr. Anna was not born with a silver spoon, but he was born with a silver tongue. With his eloquence (in English and Tamil), and lofty ideal he was able to revive the pristine glory of ancient Tamil culture and millions of men-young and old, followed him. With his masterly skill, he effectively utilised the mass media like cinema, drama, press and platform to awaken the Tamils from their slumber. The magazines like "Dravida Nadu" and "Murasoli" edited by Anna and Kalaignar respectively, educated, enlightened and enthused the cadres; became effective weapons in the armoury of the party and fostered family bond – a unique feature in DMK – among its followers and leaders. Like a small seed of a banyan tree, the DMK got rooted deeply and grew gigantic that would shake the bastion of religious tenets, shape the society and shelter the lives of millions. 

From its inception, the DMK continued to carry the mission set by Periyar in social reforms and dedicated itself to eradicate jointly and individually the social evils through constitutional methods. Dr. Anna declared that DMK and DK would function like a double – barrelled gun. 

Committed to achieve his goal only through fair and legitimate means, Dr. Anna trained the cadres to adhere to the three principles dear to him, namely Duty, Dignity and Discipline. The DMK developed into a mass movement and emerged as a ruling party within a short span of eighteen years which no political party could achieve.