Stalin’s Tamil Nadu autonomy push not a first, DMK has a history of it

State autonomy has been one of the key ideologies of the DMK.

Ahead of the 2026 state assembly election, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday announced the formation of a high-level committee to review the state’s autonomy and recommend measures for it.

Former Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph will head the panel that also includes former IAS officer Ashok Vardhan Shetty and economist M Naganathan.

“To protect the rightful entitlements of the States and to enhance the relationship between the Union and state governments, a high-level committee has been formed,” Stalin told Tamil Nadu Assembly.

However, this is not the first time that the DMK has pushed for greater state powers.

Key promise in 2021

It was one of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) key poll promises in the run-up to the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly election. Stalin had promised the formation of a committee to consolidate the recommendations of the previous four panels which were set up to discuss the increase in the autonomy of the state.

In 89-page manifesto, Stalin recalled the last wish of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister CN Annadurai. The manifesto sought to bring education from the concurrent list to the state list.
History of DMK’s demand for Tamil Nadu autonomy

State autonomy has been one of the key ideologies of the DMK. Its founder Annadurai advocated for the state’s autonomy.

Annadurai’s debut Rajya Sabha speech centred on the demand in 1962. “I claim sir, to come from a country, a part in India now, but which I think is of a different stock… I belong to the Dravidian stock. I am proud to call myself a Dravidian. That does not mean that I am against a Bengali or a Maharashtrian or a Gujarati,” the Scroll pieces quoted him as having said. “I say that I belong to the Dravidian stock and that is only because I consider that the Dravidians have got something concrete, something distinct, something different to offer to the nation at large. Therefore, it is that we want self-determination.”

But the Chinese aggression in 1962 made him pause on his plans for a separate state. The party formally gave up its demand in 1963 after sixteenth amendment to the Constitution criminalised separatism.

Again in 1969, former chief minister and Stalin’s father M Karunanidhi set up a committee headed by Justice PV Rajamannar to study the centre-state relations. The Committee which submitted its report in 1971 and recommended constitution of inter-State council. In 1974, DMK presented a white paper in Assembly and passed resolution seeking autonomy.

However, since 1996, when the DMK became a part of the Union governments under BJP and Congress. Slowly, the demand for the state’s autonomy mellowed.

Panels formed to study Centre-state relations

In 1983, the Centre constituted Sarkaria Commission to study the Centre and State relations. In 2000, National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution was constituted under chairmanship of the Justice M N Venkatachaliah.

Again in 2007, the UPA government constituted Justice M M Punchhi commission to study the relative roles and responsibilities of various levels of government and their inter-relations.

On Tuesday, Stalin said panel has also been assigned the responsibility of suggesting ways to reclaim subject of governance and policy-making that were originally under the sole jurisdiction of state governments.