What’s in a moniker? Ego, ambition, brand

Edappadi K Palaniswami has to fight several battles within the party and in courtrooms to earn the title of AIADMK general secretary. On August 20, however, he gifted himself another one: Puratchi Tamizhar (Revolutionary Tamil). Well, technically the party bestowed the title on EPS at a conference in Madurai to mark its golden jubilee.

AMMK leader T T V Dhinakaran said the best title for EPS would be ‘Betrayer Tamil’; OPS, another political fugitive, said EPS cannot even pronounce Tamil properly. But what EPS fans and critics didn’t realise – and what senior journalist R Rangaraj did – is that the title ‘Puratchi Tamizhan’ has already been taken by actor Sathyaraj. It’s another matter that the title didn’t stick to the actor, but a YouTube channel still goes by the name ‘Puratchi Tamizhan Sathyaraj’.

Tamil politicians think monikers are their birthright. Some earned them through their body of work, some others thrust titles upon themselves. Periyar earned the title through his sustained campaigns for self-respect (though he got as many critics and detractors as he had followers). C N Annadurai was called ‘Perarignar’ (Scholar) for his wide-ranging knowledge and oratory skills.

The title ‘Makkal Thilagam’ rested so gracefully on MGR’s shoulders, though the ‘Puratchi Thalaivar’ bit came as a political prop. M Karunanidhi can rightfully claim to have been a ‘Kalaignar’ for his contribution to Tamil literature and cinema, not to speak of the art of politics. Jayalalithaa inherited the title from MGR, in its feminine form ‘Puratchi Thalaivi’, though it remains a mystery what revolution she championed.

K Kamaraj was indeed ‘Perunthalaivar’ (Big Leader) and his mentor S Satyamurti, who courted arrest several times, deserved the title ‘Dheerar’ (Courageous).

E V K Sampath was called ‘Sollin Selvar’ not for nothing – he rivalled Anna in oration. As richly deserving have been the titles ‘Silambuselvar’ for Ma Po Si and Kappalottiya Tamizhan for V O Chidambaram Pillai as were ‘Mahatma’ for Gandhi and ‘Chacha’ for Nehru.

Last year, when DMK cadres raised slogans hailing Udhayanidhi Stalin as ‘Ilaya Thalaivar’ (Young Leader), ‘Moondram Kalaignar’ (Third Kalaignar) and ‘Chinnavar’ (Young Man), the sports minister chose the last one. He should know that ‘Chinnavar’ was a moniker MGR got early in his film career when his elder brother M G Chakrapani was also into acting.

In a land where politics has been so entwined with films, film stars were quick to adopt titles. When MGR was hailed as ‘Makkal Thilagam’, Shivaji Ganesan fans bestowed on him the title ‘Nadigar Thilagam’, something he more than lived up to. Vijayakanth is known as ‘Captain’ after his 1991 movie ‘Captain Prabhakaran’, and the moniker came handy when he entered politics. His spin doctors’ attempts to brand the DMDK leader as ‘Puratchi Kalaignar’ (a combination of the monikers of MGR and Karunanidhi), however, fell flat.

Actor-turning-politician Vijay has graduated from ‘Ilaya Thalapathy’ (Junior Commander) to ‘Thalapathy’ (Commander) after Stalin vacated the space to become ‘Thalaivar’ by stepping into his father Karunanidhi’s shoes (though many party insiders continue to refer to Stalin as ‘Thalapathy’). And, of course, we have ‘Superstar’ Rajinikanth, ‘Ulaganayagan’ Kamal Haasan, ‘Thala’ Ajith and lesser aspirants.

Musician Ilayaraja is truly an ‘Isaignani’, but poet Kannadasan proved his greatness was not thrust upon him when he discarded the title ‘Kaviyarasu’. “Call me, at best, Kavignar’ (poet),” he had told his rasikars. Much after Kannadasan was gone, Karunanidhi gave the title ‘Kaviperarasu’ to poet Vairamuthu – something Kannadasan fans objected to.

So, what purpose do monikers serve? Besides pampering the person’s ego, it helps brand himself/ herself. And branding is as important for politicians as it is for products. In the book ‘Branding: A Key Marketing Tool’, Leslie Collins says this in a chapter titled ‘Psychology of Names’: “A name is capable, with familiarity and repetition, of being a kind of incantation.

Philosophers since time immemorial have pondered over the idea of names. Plato said every object with a name probably has an ideal version in heaven so we relate different versions of the object with the name. This was later developed into the ‘celestial warehouse theory’.

Voluminous research papers have established links between monikers and images. So, titles do help our politicians, but only if their deeds at least attempt to justify the titles. And if one, like Kannadasan, lets only his genius speak, monikers don’t matter. Like Shakespear’s Juliet said, “That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet”.

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