Inclusion through modernity: Dravidian urbanisation in Tamil Nadu state, India

Tamil Nadu state in India boasts high levels of economic growth, human development outcomes and urbanisation. How might we understand these concurring outcomes in this particular region? We propose that the Dravidian Movement’s vision for social and economic justice in the state centred a quintessentially spatial imaginary. Recognising that a socio-spatial ordering was central to the upkeep of traditional divisions of labour and associated hierarchies, Dravidian thinkers and leaders emphasised the need to transform the spatial order to create a more egalitarian society. The urban, in particular, was seen as a site of potential transformation, and urbanisation, as a way to break traditional caste-based oppressions and hierarchies. Until the 1980s, inclusion in Tamil Nadu was fostered through intentional, ideologically backed state processes to spatially involve many parts of the state in urban processes, and socially include multiple caste groups in turn, thus influencing urbanisation trends. In a contribution to scholarship on urban trajectories and the role of politics in spatial transformation, this article attempts to locate the role of political and ideological mobilisations in driving particular spatial and urban outcomes in Tamil Nadu state that are relatively different compared to the rest of the country. The critical differences between Nehruvian visions of modernity at the national level and those in Tamil Nadu, historical and geographical specificities of the region and the ideological and implementational bases of Dravidian mobilisation help explain the diffused – but not quite decentralised – urbanisation model in the state.