GENDER POLITICS AND UTERATURE IN TAMIL NADU 6 3 and others and extended patronage to indigenous musical traditional instruments like the nadasiwram (wind instrument). This was also the entry point of women of the Devadasi community making a mark in the field of Carnatic music. M.S. Subbalakshmi, M.L. Vasanthakumari, Veenai Dhanmmal and her nieces Brinda and Mukta came mostly from the Isai Vellalar community which had historically been associated with the Devadasi tradition. Balasaraswati, one of the greatest exponents of Bharatnatyam was also a niece of Veenai Dhanammal and hailed from the same community. It is a point of sociological interest that while the male children born to Devadasis took to playing the nadaswaram, the female children took to the profession of their mothers. The Tani Tamizh lyakkam by its attack on Sanskrit/Hindi logically extended its struggle to encompass anti-Brahmanism in all its manifestations. It therefore became associated with the South Indian Liberation Front started in 1916 which then led on to the foundation of the Justice Party, the Dravida Kazhagam etc. The Justice Party with its anti-Hindi, anti-Brahmanical programme, formed the government in Tamil Nadu after the 1920 elections. The Self-Respect Movement of E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker better known as Teriyar' , followed immediately after. All these features are present in the gender-related writings of this period. For women however the Tani Tamizh lyakkam represented an even more crucial avenue for self-expression. It provided them a powerful vehicle of protest against patriarchal practices and institutions. Women' s active participation in the politics of the freedom struggle in Tamil Nadu is set against this complex and intricate grid of national interests, ethnic, linguistic and regional identities as well as gender concerns. This problem of multiple identities and their prioritisation resulted in women striking different and even mutually contradictory stances. Achalambikai Ammaiyar and Kumudini were both anti-Hindi and strongly opposed to western education as well. They charhpioned Tamil and joined the lyakkam on the grounds that English education would corrupt the female mind. Their efforts as educationists were oriented to turning the Tamil woman into an ideal wife and mother. Both appear to be anti-Hindi/Sanskrit but pro-patriarchy. Moovalur Ramamritham Ammaiyar on the other hand clearly comes out as one who fought against the patriarchal order which had made her a Devadasi. She married and separated, both acts of flagrant social violation since a Devadasi was not permitted to marry and marital separation in orthodox Hindu society