NOTES ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF 'DRAVIDIAN* IDEOLOGY 85 line how the early formulations of the 'Dravidian* ideology developed by the Vellala elite were transformed by the Self Respect Movement into 'a new arsenal with which the ruling elite was attacked*. The first section of the paper outlines the context in which the early versions of the 'Dravidian* ideology got formulated. The second section details the contours of this ideology through a reading of Maraimalai AdigaPs writings and looks at the limitations of this ideology as a possible basis for a broad-based radical politics. The third section deals with the conflict between the Saivite Vellalas and the Self-Respecters; and the final section analyses the specific ways in which the Self Respect Movement transformed the Saivite version of the 'Dravidian* ideology so that it could now meet the needs of a radical agenda meant for the politics of the subalterns. The early 'Dravidian' ideology was developed and refined in a sociopolitical milieu which exhibited, among others, three important features: (1) the near monopoly over the public administration of Madras Presidency exercised by the English educated Brahmins; (2) their privileging of Sanskrit as their own distinct cultural marker and the simultaneous inferiorisation of Tamil culture/identity by them; and (3) the efflorescence of a kind of Orientalist scholarship which offered a-picture of glorious Tamil/Dravidian past/identity as distinct from Sanskrit/Aryan past/identity. The interaction among these distinct but closely related aspects during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, constituted the context for the Vellala inspired 'Dravidian' ideology. Let us begin with an account of the Brahmin's control over the Madras administration. Referring to the late 19th century Madras Presidency, Suntharalingam (1980:123) notes, 'A feature of administrative recruitment [in Madras Presidency] was the preponderance of the Brahmins ... In 1886 the Brahmins held 42 per cent of all posts in the Madras Government carrying a monthly salary of over Rs. 10. Brahmin domination was even more marked at the higher level of the Uncovented Service: of the 349 elite posts in the executive and judicial lines in 1886, no less than 202 (or 58 per cent) were in Brahmin hands. In certain special departments. Brahmin representation was just as preponderent. In the Registration Department, for example, 217 out of 365 officers were Brahmins ... * This trend continued with increased vigour through the early 20th century. Comparing the distribution of government jobs across different castes between 1896 and 1912, Arooran (1980:38) has shown that, '. . . the non-Brahmin Hindus had lost ground over the years 1896-1912, while the Brahmins had considerably increased their position.'4 It