[11] The DMK was founded on 17 September 1949 by C. N. Annadurai (Anna) as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar.

Under Annadurai, in 1967, DMK became the first party, other than the Indian National Congress, to win the state-level elections with a clear majority on its own in any state in India.

[17] After Karunanidhi's death, his son and former deputy, M. K. Stalin, succeeded as the party president and as a Chief minister of Tamil Nadu state from May 2021.

The Justice Party's foundation marked the culmination of several efforts to establish an organization to represent the non-Brahmin upper castes in Madras and is seen as the start of the Dravidian movement.

[22][23][24] Periyar, a popular reformist leader at that time, had joined the Indian National Congress in 1919, to oppose what he considered the Brahminic leadership of the party.

In the 1937 elections, the Justice Party lost and the Indian National Congress under C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) came to power in Madras Presidency.

[27][better source needed] In August 1944, Periyar created the 'Dravidar Kazhagam' out of the Justice Party and the Self-Respect Movement at the Salem Provincial Conference.

[28] The DK, conceived as a movement and not a political party, insisted on an independent nation for Dravidians called Dravida Nadu consisting of areas that were covered under the Madras Presidency.

[28] The party at its inception retained the flag of the South Indian Liberal Federation, which had a picture of a traditional type of balance signifying the idea of equality.

This had a deep societal impact which resulted in increased political participation, which aided the representation of the emergent strata, enriched civic life, and subsequently strengthened the pluralist democracy.

They claimed that the town's proposed new name (after Ramkrishna Dalmia) symbolized the exploitation of South India by the North.

In the altercation with the police that followed the protests, two DMK members lost their lives, and several others, including Karunanidhi and Kannadasan, were arrested.

[38] On 28 January 1956, Annadurai, along with Periyar and Rajaji, signed a resolution passed by the Academy of Tamil Culture endorsing the continuation of English as the official language.

[43] In November 1963, DMK dropped its secessionist demand in the wake of the Sino-Indian War and the passage of the anti-secessionist 16th Amendment to the Indian Constitution.

The name change itself was first presented in the upper house (Rajya Sabha) of the Parliament of India by Bhupesh Gupta, a communist MP from West Bengal, but was then defeated.

The DMK government has been indicted by the Sarkaria commission for corruption in allotting tenders for the Veeranam drainage project.

[55] The interim report of the Justice Jain Commission, which oversaw the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, indicted Karunanidhi for abetting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

[56] The interim report recommended that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the DMK party be held responsible for abetting Rajiv Gandhi's murderers.

[69] On 3 February 2020, M. K. Stalin announced that Prashant Kishor was signed up as a party strategist for the upcoming 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election.

[citation needed] Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam follows the principle of Duty, Dignity, and Discipline, as instructed by C. N. Annadurai.

This involves protecting democratic rights in politics, establishing a non-dominant society, and carrying out reform work based on rationality to promote the revival of Dravidian ideology.

The party believes in promoting the decentralization of powers from the Union government and creating autonomy in the states and federalism at the center.

[80] The anti-Hindi Imposition agitations of 1965 forced the central government to abandon its efforts to use Hindi as the only official language of the country.

In April 1974, the DMK government brought in a resolution in the House urging the centre to accept the Rajamannar Committee recommendations on state autonomy and amend the Constitution of India to pave the way for a truly federal system.

[81] DMK played a crucial role alongside Periyar in the protest for the first constitutional amendment ensuring the provision legalizing OBC reservation.

The symbol was inspired by the leader and scriptwriter M. Karunanidhi's 1950s play Udaya Suryan and is intended to signify the "rising" spirit of the Dravidian people.