never became a full-fledged political party. Dravidar Kazhagam Flag The flag of Dravidar Kazhagam can trace its origins back to 1937. During that year, Hindi was made into a compulsory subject in South India. In reaction to this, E.V. Ramaswamy organised anti-Hindi protests in which a plain black flag was flown. From these protests, Periyar gained a large amount of popularity and went onto be elected as the president of the Justice Party a year later. When the Justice Party was rebranded as the Dravida Kazhagam in 1944, the party adopted its official flag. The design features red circle with a black background with the color black representing "the deprivations and the indignities that the Dravidians had to face under the strict Hindu religion" while red represented "the tireless efforts taken to eliminate the ignorance and blind faith among the people and to free them from any kind of mental and materialistic exploitation". Activities The party often adopted a hard line approach and was often involved in mass attempts to change the system outright. One such incident involved bringing Adi Dravidas into the inner sanctum sanctorum of temples and threatening Brahmin priests to recite hymns in Tamil instead of Sanskrit. During Indian independence in 1947, the party did not accept the same as Periyar viewed Independence as the transfer of power from British to the Brahmin-Bania combine who occupied all important positions. With a firm belief that caste-based reservations are the only way to empower the under-represented, they supported reservations in education and employment right from 1919. Periyar was instrumental in introducing reservation to the non-brahmins in Tamil Nadu from 1921 even before independence . Legacy The organization laid the foundation for further Tamil people involvement into politics. It enthused a new Tamil spirit that later on led to the formation of many parties that would eventually challenge the Indian National Congress stranglehold. Though it failed to achieve its grandiose idea of an independent Dravidian nation, it fostered a spirit of unity amongst the Dravidians, especially in opposing Hindi language in the seventies. Dravida Kazhagam strongly rooted for the implementation of Mandal Commission report, which was later adopted by the V.P. Singh led government in 1990. It has also involved itself in the Srilankan Tamils issue and has been vocal in the support of LTTE. References External links Dravidar Kazhagam - official homepage of Dravidar Kazhagam Political parties in Tamil