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Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam party (India)

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 27 November 2010

Description of the flag

See also:

Description of the flag

Introduction
Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (Periyar Party of Dravidians) is a Tamil political movement which seems to be descended from the Dravidar Kazhagam, the original organization founded by Periyar (E.V. Ramasamy), whose ideas they claim to follow. Although most Web resources related to them are in Tamil, from the few ones in English can be found that it is a nationalist movement, which loudly supports Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka, and also struggles for the emancipation of low castes in India. The things which both organizations have in common are the use of the same colour set on the flags - black and red - and their activists' dress code: black shirts combined with white dhotis or trousers (black saris for women). Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam also frequently uses Periyar's portraits, in real life as well as on the Web. [1, 2, 3]

The flags
The flag of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam has a large red star on black field. It is obviously derived from the flag of Dravidar Kazhagam by replacing the red disk with the same-coloured star. The earliest examples of its use date from 2007 [2] but it might have been introduced a bit earlier. At that time, another flag design was also used (see below), but by 2009, this seems to have become the only flag in use [3].

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 27 November 2010

In 2007 [2], a black-red-black horizontal triband was also frequently used. This is the reversal of the colour pattern from the flag of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, another party from Tamil Nadu. Whether this suggests that one flag was derived from the other, or that one political organization was founded by the members or former members of the other, is yet to discover, although members of both organizations do seem to work together sometimes [3].

Sources:
[1] Wikipedia page about Dravidar Kazhagam: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidar_Kazhagam
[2] Earlier blog of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (entries from 2007): http://periyardravidarkazhagam.blogspot.com/
[3] Later blog of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (entries from 2009): http://periyardravidarkazagam.blogspot.com

Tomislav Todorovic, 27 November 2010

The first flag you attached is exactly the same flag that U.S. music band Rage Against The Machine uses as variant as well
http://socialpsychologyeye.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/450px-flag_of_the_ezln-svg.png, source: http://socialpsychologyeye.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/f-you-i-wont-do-what-you-tell-me-rage-against-the-pop-machine,
which is the EZLN flag.
Esteban Rivera, 28 November 2010