Surely the "uncultured" among Tamils should be quivering in their chappals. For the never-say-die Maruthuvar Ramadasu has floated a new movement to redeem the lost Tamil honour and is threatening to unleash a crusading black-robed horde on those found transgressing.

For the uninitiated Maruthuvar Ramadasu is how that flaring-in-the-nostrils founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and father of India's fashionable Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss would like to be called. And that is how the name is spelt in most invitations and the ubiquitous wall-posters.

For such is supposedly a pure Tamil version of his name, along with the honorific of doctor. While that latter translates into maruthuvar, Ramadoss, when Tamilised , becomes Ramadasu.

And what is the father if not a champion of everything Tamil? Never mind the son has a penchant to be seen suited and booted as often as possible.

In an attempt to calling his bluff further, a journalist calls him Maruthuvar Maaladimai. For Doss or Dasu, it is still Sanskrit in origin, meaning slave – adimai in chaste tamil. Rama is also Tamilised Sanskrit and hence Maal is a better term. Ramadoss never relishes such irreverence.

That rather lengthy introduction only by way of highlighting the hypocrisy of the man.

He has now floated what he calls Thamizhar Maana Meetpu Iyakkam (Movement to redeem Tamils' honour), and has come out with some stern diktats.

All state government communication should be in Tamil. And of course all Tamils had better learn Tamil without fail.

Only it is not clear what he and his brave soldiers fighting for the Tamil cause would do if the rest of the society do not fall in line. The PMK cadres are known for their 'strong persuasive skills'. And significantly Ramadoss lets us know that he has "trained" some 300 volunteers all over the street to deal with the wayward among Tamils.

Whether they would, in a fit of misguided enthusiasm, seek to pull out his own grandchildren learning Hindi in elite schools and of course in English medium, is not known.

While some scribes work themselves into a rage whenever Ramadoss comes up with such solemn pronouncements, and some middle class Brahmins sound scared, the rest seem to shrug their shoulders.

Of course the violent PMK cadres on cue could run amok and pick on easy targets. But then by and large, barring some localised violence, Ramadoss has ensured that his party remains on the right side of the law.

Still one can't be quite sure. What happened to actress Kushboo sometime ago is still fresh in many minds, the PMK was in the forefront of the frenzy then, it should be remembered.

Now the new retrieval force is also threatening to take to moral policing.

Days before its launch, Ramadoss had commanded that no youth be seen on the streets after eight in the night. And he also wanted cinema theatres to restrict to just two shows during weekends.

"If youngsters are forced indoors after eight, then the crime rate will come down drastically. An incident like the kidnapping and murder of Aravind by his own schoolmates (the news had sent shockwaves in Chennai recently).would not have happened," Ramadoss reasoned.

He has been on this kind of moral crusades at predictable intervals. But he doesn't seem to have pursued any of his agendas vigorously, except for egging his followers to some sort of mild rowdyism.

It is something like the tantrums of this man's counterpart in Bombay, who would act out some kind of hooliganism whenever he is on the ropes, in order to bounce back to reckoning. (Only Thackeray is a far more dangerous man.)

That apart, the transformation of Ramadoss from a tree-feller to a moral cop is both amusing and intriguing. He had led violent protests in the eighties, felling trees being one of his favourite tactics then, demanding reservation in jobs and educational institutions for Vanniyars, a backward caste.

His Vanniar Sangam became the Pattali Makkal Katchi (the party of the proletariat) when Ramadoss realized that his caste men and women constituted a sizeable chunk of the electorate. As the party gained more and more political recognition, thanks to some well-crafted alliances, he started pretending he was becoming ever more sober.

With a lot of fanfare he launched the Pasumai Thayagam (Green Motherland), an NGO and went on a big tree-planting campaign. The irony did not miss the eyes of anyone, but he seemed to believe that such gestures would work.

His party ritually invokes the names of Periyar E V Ramasamy, Ambedkar and Karl Marx. But that did not prevent him from joining hands with the BJP and winking at the horrid riots of 2002.

He would also hosting glittering parties for mediapersons at five-star joints, when there would be an almost unceasing flow of alcohol. He would also periodically lavish expensive gifts on people who matter.

And for long he has sought to project himself as a more genuine champion of Tamil nationalism than the Dravidian leaders.

From support to LTTE to Tamilising administration or insistent demands for more and more reservation for almost all non Brahmin castes, Ramadoss spits fire, but his vote bank has been coming down steadily, as his own caste folk seem to have realized that he has built massive empires by playing the caste card.

A majority of Vanniars could still be with him, hoping to catch whatever is trickling down, but he does not enjoy unquestioned sway anymore. In fact he has been losing ground steadily in the Vanniar heartland, especially to that actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth..

Interestingly for all his flaunting of Periyar's images, he would not dare speak up for atheism, a cardinal of the late iconoclast. "We are of course guided by the great man's principles. But atheism is slightly dicey. Many in our party do believe in god, that's no secret. Anyway how does it matter? Belief or not, that's not going to prevent us from doing what we are asked to do by our Maruthuvar Aiya..," explained away one of Ramadoss's lieutenants.

The Tamizhar Maana Meetpu Iyakkam.is also anti-feminist. See, what they have to say on women's rights. "Well, we will strive to ensure equality for women, but we would also like to disabuse our young girls of certain false notions bred in their minds by interested parties. Like you know, some think freedom means drinking, smoking and sitting cross-legged in front of men. We've to battle out such insidious philosophy and protect our Tamil culture," said the functionary mentioned above.

As a senior Tamil feminist put it succinctly, "Whenever anyone talks about restoring Tamil culture, we are nervous. For we know we would be the first casualty of such policemen and women. Now these people, representing patriarchal thinking at its worst, pose a great danger to modernity and progress."

The fact is that every variety of aggressive ethnic nationalism has always tended to see women as objects that need to be protected from the onslaught of outsiders. All ethnic supremacists see women as a source of moral degeneration.

Fortunately in Tamil Nadu Tamil nationalism seems to have run its course, notwithstanding the noise a vocal minority keeps making.

If Periyar succeeded in whipping up anti-Brahmin sentiments and mobilized non-Brahmins under a banner of Tamil nationalism, positing Brahmins as non-Tamils, that was because objective conditions then had enabled such a mobilization.

But once Brahmins were thrown off their pedestal, the intra-sect tensions among non-Brahmins came to the fore, and Tamil nationalism fell by the wayside.

These days attempts to demonize even Marwaris fail to evoke much of an enthusiasm, though their being usurious moneylenders or ruthless money-makers in every which way they can should make them an easy target.

First Rajaram as minister in the MGR cabinet, then Pazha Nedumaran with his Tamil National Movement and now this Ramadoss outfit, they all could ratchet up rhetoric, but none cares.

Only a couple of years ago Ramadoss made a big show of joining hands with Dalit leader Thirumavalavan when they launched their Thamizh Paadhukaappu Iyakkam (Tamil Protection Movement).

The Kushboo issue became their moment of reckoning, but they only attracted notoriety as Kushboo walked away with the sympathies of Tamil women in general. Anyway that tie-up came under enormous strain when Dalits and Vanniyars clashed and Thirumavalavan had to face a lot of embarrassment in the process. Finally at the election time they found themselves on different sides of the divide, giving the lie to all claims of Tamil unity.

It should also be noted that those hankering to jump into the gravy train of all- India coalition politics or make the best of globalization will have little time for Tamil nationalist hollerings.

Finally, any government in the state, whether led by the DMK or the AIADMK, will crack down with impunity on any rabid Tamil nationalist indulging in violence. Very few shed tears when such things happen.