Tamil politics in India has an enduring characteristic of a sub-nationalist orientation which,
sometimes, bares with the populist mobilization by the political parties of Tamil Nadu. Recently,
the working president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, one of the prominent political parties of
Tamil Nadu, recycles the issue of Dravida Nadu, a hypothetical land for the Tamils own based
on their ethnonational identity, which had been dropped almost 55 years ago. Dravida Nadu
highlights the linguistic, cultural and ethnonational resistance against north-Indian dominated
pan-Indian nationalism. Cauvery water dispute, debate over Jallikattu, anti-Hindi stance, and
protest against the terms of reference of the Fifteenth Finance Commission are the signs of anticentre
campaign in Tamil politics and being used not only for upholding Tamil cultural
nationalism but for mobilizing the people in electoral combat zone in Tamil Nadu.