In Tamil Nadu, education has never been just about classrooms, exams or school reforms. It has been about language, about identity, about federalism, and, of course, about power.
For over five decades, Dravidian parties built an entire political grammar around resisting what they saw as Delhi’s attempts to centralise education, whether it was Hindi imposition, the three-language formula, NEET, the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) or, more recently, the PM SHRI schools.
The message was clear, always. Ultimately, Tamil Nadu would decide what worked for Tamil Nadu.
This political consensus held remarkably steady across generations. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam aka AIADMK fought each other bitterly on almost everything else, but when it came to opposing central education policies seen as threats to Tamil identity or state autonomy, the state often spoke in one voice.
Now, for the first time in years, there is a new variable in the equation. Actor-turned-politician Vijay and his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). And the question many in Tamil Nadu’s education circles are beginning to quietly ask is this:
Could Vijay end up softening the state’s traditionally hardline stand on education policies from the Centre?
TAMIL NADU’S LONG WAR WITH DELHI OVER EDUCATION
To understand why this debate matters, one must understand how deeply education is woven into the very fabric of Tamil Nadu’s political identity.
The roots go back to the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1930s and 1960s, when Dravidian leaders like C N Annadurai and Periyar framed Hindi imposition as cultural domination by North India. The protests eventually shaped Tamil Nadu’s famous two-language policy, Tamil and English, rejecting the Centre’s three-language formula altogether.
To give you a backgrounder, the 1960s were marked by student protests across the world, but few movements changed the course of politics as dramatically as Tamil Nadu’s anti-Hindi agitations.
Led largely by students and youth groups, the protests against the imposition of Hindi became a turning point in the state’s political history. It is this uprising that largely helped unseat the Congress and brought the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to power in 1967. Nearly six decades later, Tamil Nadu remained firmly in the grip of Dravidian politics… a legacy rooted in those language protests.
We have seen how that resistance later evolved into broader opposition to centralised education frameworks.
When NEET was introduced as a national medical entrance examination, Tamil Nadu argued it disproportionately favoured CBSE studentsurban coaching cultures and wealthier families while hurting rural and state-board students.
Successive governments, both DMK and AIADMK, sought exemptions and repeatedly challenged the exam politically and legally.
Then there was the issue regarding National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) that triggered another showdown.
Tamil Nadu strongly opposed provisions linked to multilingualism and the three-language framework, arguing that it opened the door to indirect Hindi imposition. The state also resisted signing up for PM SHRI schools because the scheme was tied to NEP implementation in the state.
In February 2025, (now former) Chief Minister MK Stalin openly accused the Centre of “blackmail” after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan linked the release of education funds to the implementation of NEP provisions. Even opposition parties backed the state government on the issue.
It is true that education in Tamil Nadu had effectively become the front line of Centre-versus-state politics.
Many believe that the newly appointed chief minister, C Joseph Vijay (popularly known as Thalapathy Vijay), the state’s outlook towards education policies may undergo a sea change. But, will it?
ENTER VIJAY, THE WILDCARD
It is true that Vijay’s arrival has made the conversation more complicated. Publicly, TVK has largely echoed traditional Tamil political positions, and Vijay has backed the two-language policy and criticised the Centre over the NEP row.
At a major party event held in 2025, he had even mocked both the BJP-led Centre and the DMK government for behaving “like LKG and UKG children” while fighting over education funds and the three-language formula.
TVK has also formally positioned itself as supportive of social justice and Tamil Nadu’s two-language policy. And yet, educationists and political observers believe Vijay’s politics may eventually become more negotiable than the rigid ideological resistance practised by older Dravidian parties.
Partly because Vijay lacks decades of ideological baggage. Partly because coalition politics could force compromises. And partly because Tamil Nadu’s financial realities may increasingly require closer engagement with Delhi.
“I do think there will be some softening in the approach,” said noted educationist and career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi.
“Any emerging political force like TVK will inevitably have to engage closely with the Centre. Naturally, the central government too will also push for greater alignment with national education policies such as NEP, PM SHRI schools and perhaps even aspects of NEET.”
According to the gold medallist from Anna University, Vijay may soon discover that education politics in Tamil Nadu is not as emotionally straightforward as cinema politics.
“Vijay will be walking a tightrope,” Gandhi maintains. “On one side, allies may pressure him to resist certain central schemes. On the other, there will be the attraction of central funding and the pressure to cooperate with Delhi.”
Is Vijay already signalling a softer line, we ask him. Interestingly, some political observers believe Vijay’s language so far has been noticeably less confrontational than the old Dravidian guard.
Unlike DMK leaders who frame NEP as a direct ideological threat, Vijay has often criticised the handling of the issue rather than launching a full-frontal attack on the policy itself. His remarks have also tended to focus on governance failure, coordination problems and political theatrics instead of aggressively positioning education policy as a Tamil identity war.
That distinction matters.
“He is trying to avoid looking anti-development while also not alienating Tamil sentiment,” said education policy analyst R Kesavan, who tracks higher education reforms in Southern India. “The older Dravidian parties approached education through ideological resistance. Vijay may approach it through political flexibility… and that could fundamentally change how Tamil Nadu negotiates with the Centre in the future.”
Kesavan believes TVK may eventually support selective engagement with central schemes, especially those linked to infrastructure funding, skilling and technology-driven education.
“There may not be an outright surrender to NEP. But there could be gradual accommodation,” he says.
HAS GEN Z VOTED FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORMS?
Possibly not. That may be the biggest irony in this entire debate.
For decades, Tamil Nadu politics treated education as a deeply ideological issue but many younger voters supporting Vijay appear driven less by policy and more by personality. “I interact with thousands of students regularly, and honestly, I don’t think education policy was the primary reason many young people supported Vijay,” Gandhi tells us.
“A large section of the younger generation backed him because of the image they had built around him through his films — his dialogues, screen presence and public persona.” According to him, social media has amplified the kind of hero worship once seen during the era of M G Ramachandran.
“I have even seen Class 8 students passionately supporting Vijay online. But most of them have very little idea of how he may function as a political leader or what his education policies might actually look like,” he asserts.
That generational shift may itself alter Tamil Nadu’s education politics.
“Younger voters today are more aspirational and mobility-driven,” argues Chennai-based academic Dr Sarathi Devi, former vice-chancellor and long-time education activist. “For many families now, the focus is on jobs, national mobility, global exposure and employability. Emotional resistance to every central policy may not resonate in the same way it did in the 1960s or 1980s.”
At the same time, she cautioned that Tamil Nadu’s concerns over centralisation are not imaginary. “The fear is not just about Hindi,” she said. “It is about losing the ability to shape education according to local social realities.”
THE REAL BATTLE: AUTONOMY VERSUS ALIGNMENT
At its core, Tamil Nadu’s education debate has always been about one question. Who gets to decide what children should learn — the state or the Centre? That argument is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
“As an educationist, I have always believed states should retain greater authority in shaping their own education policies,” Gandhi says, adding, “The Centre can frame broad guidelines, but states must have the flexibility to decide what works best for their own social and educational realities.”
And Tamil Nadu certainly has achievements to defend. The state consistently performs strongly in higher education indicators, engineering enrolments, Gross Enrolment Ratio and institutional rankings.
DMK leaders have frequently pointed to these successes while arguing that Tamil Nadu’s model does not require ideological correction from Delhi.
But politics is changing.
The old Dravidian parties built their resistance after decades of movement politics, anti-Hindi agitations and ideological mobilisation. Vijay, by contrast, is entering politics in the age of Instagram Reels, influencer culture and aspirational youth voters. That may eventually produce a very different kind of negotiation with the Centre… perhaps less ideological, more transactional.
Whether that becomes political pragmatism or ideological dilution will depend on how TVK evolves once it begins facing real governance pressures.
For now, Vijay has managed to keep both sides guessing. And perhaps that itself is the clearest sign yet that Tamil Nadu’s education politics may already be entering a new era.
Over to you, CM Vijay!
– Ends
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