Parasocial Politics

Inside Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, cameras panned across ministers, bureaucrats and cinema celebrities gathered for the swearing-in ceremony of the debutant chief minister, C Joseph Vijay. But it was not the oath-taking itself that immediately drew attention. The ceremony began with “Vande Mataram,” followed by the national anthem. The “Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu”—the hymn to Mother Tamil that occupies a singular emotional and political place in the state—was played only afterwards.

For many outside Tamil Nadu, the sequence may have appeared trivial. But in the state, symbols are rarely incidental. The order of songs at an official event carries the weight of political history, linguistic identity and decades of resistance to cultural imposition from the union government. Within minutes, social media was flooded with criticism. For many in Tamil Nadu, “Vande Mataram” is associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s cultural politics and is viewed by some as carrying anti-Muslim undertones. It has therefore never enjoyed broad acceptance in a state that has long defined itself through secular and progressive traditions. This moment revealed something vital about Vijay’s party and about the break from the past that his victory seems to represent for the state.

Tamil cinema has produced political leaders before, but Vijay’s rise is very different from those of MG Ramachandran, M Karunanidhi or J Jayalalithaa. Those leaders grew through party systems, public speeches and ideological movements. How did the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, a newly formed party with no conventional political lineage, manage to break the Dravidian duopoly of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam?

The answer lies partly with social media. Vijay belongs to this new era. Reels, memes, viral clips and short-form political messaging, combined with his charisma and cinematic familiarity, helped create what many described as an “algorithm-driven election.” Young voters formed the core of Vijay’s support base, while the established parties continued to rely largely on conventional campaign methods. Even so, his first electoral victory in a state long dominated alternately by two Dravidian giants has come as a shock.