Dravidar Kazhagam

திராவிடர் கழகம் Dravidar Kazhagam Dravidian Federation
President	K. Veeramani
Founder	Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
Founded	27 August 1944
Preceded by	Justice Party
Headquarters	Madras
Newspaper	Viduthalai Kudiyarasu
Ideology	Socialism Anti-Brahminism

Dravidar Kazhagam or Dravida Kazhagam (Dravidian Organization) was one of the first Dravidian parties in India. The party was founded by E. V. Ramasamy, also called Thanthai Periyar. Its original goals were to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including untouchability and on a grander scale to obtain a "Dravida Nadu" (Dravidian nation) from the Madras Presidency. Dravidar Kazhagam would in turn give birth to many other political parties including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Dravidar Kazhagam is now headed by K.Veeramani. The fact that the Church orchestrates the undercurrents of the Dravidar Kazhagam always reflect in the nature and campaigns of the Kazhagam and its president K.Veeramani.

The roots of the Dravidar Kazhagam lie in the Self-Respect Movement and Justice party, founded by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. Periyar formed the Self-Respect Movement in 1925, breaking in the process from the Indian National Congress party, of which he had been a member until then. The Justice Party, formed in 1916, also claimed to promote similar interests. The two entities merged in 1938 under Periyar's leadership. The name was changed to Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944.

The party at its inception retained the flag of the South Indian Liberal Federation which had a picture of a traditional type of balance signifying the idea of equality. Its central theme was to remove the degraded status imposed on Dravidians, and to denote this, the party adopted a black flag with a red circle inside it, the black signifying their degradation and the red denoting the movement for upliftment.

...
Wikipedia