1. Calling it 'anti-hindu'.
It's not. Dravidian Movement started out as a machination of the British. Monarchies of the Russian and German Empires had collapsed during the course of the Ist World War. The British saw those developments very keenly. Dyarchy, or, 'rule from two centers' (One in London and other in India) was conceived taking those developments into consideration. It was a gradual devolution of power. They sought the help of their allies on the ground. The local de facto powers.
In Tamil Nadu, those de facto powers were the nayakas, Balija Naidu (Periyar's caste. Periyar was the descendant of the Nayaks who had ruled TN. அதனால் தான் அவர் பெரியார்), and the band of elites, namely
- Thondaimandala Thuluva Vellala Mudaliar (Or, just 'Mudaliar')
- Nattukottai Nagarathar (Or 'Chettiar')
- Saiva Vellalar (title - 'Pillai')
Now, these were the most ritualized, most sanskritized, most hinduest and the topmost castes among the tamils. Dravidian Movement and one hundred years of Brahmin hate was built by the most hinduest of all tamils. Its a great folly to say that Dravidian Movement and Periyar are 'anti-hindu'.
That view has been popularized by many including the book 'Breaking India...'. The co-author of that book, Aravindhan Neelakandan, is a vellala. He knows very well that his very ilk, saiva vellalas, are the chief creators of Brahmin hate in Tamil Nadu. The other 2 elites were not as steeped into religion and ritual like the vellalas. In fact, the other elites depend on the saiva vellalas for language-religion-culture-ritual within the 'tamil' context.
This is an SOP with the vellalas. Carry out malice and jump to the opposite camp, and claim to oppose that malice, WHICH WAS BUILT BY THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Just to send false signals to confuse others.
2. Calling it 'the hate of the lower castes on the upper castes, or savarnas'
This is not so popular as the first one, but this exists too. I guess this is the view of the people who are past the 1st point, stage but this is wrong too. The folks who built Dravidian Movement and a hundred years of Brahmin hate :- Chettiar, Mudaliar, Pillai, are the topmost of all tamil castes. There is no concept of 'savarna' in Tamil Nadu (and AFAIK, in South India itself)
This is not the hate of the lower/middle castes on upper castes. Brahmin hate in Tamil country is a unique phenomenon. The topmost tamil castes built Brahmin hate and since 'Dravidian Movement' was also built by them, they infused their deep personal hate for Brahmins into that socio-political movement. This didn't have to be so. The British-given need for attacking Brahmins was political. But they had so much of deep hate that they made it very very personal, and ugly and visceral. In fact, their hate was so deep that Brahmin-hate is the very core of the Dravidian Movement. This was because it was built by the topmost tamils who were right next to the Brahmins. So deep was, and is, their hate.
Dravidian socio-political movement is defined as 'having the ideology of 'Dravidianism' at its center.'
They say they are purely ideology driven. Anything and everything goes, in Lemuria. And, that ideology, 'Dravidianism' is defined as 'the counter to Brahminism, which is the same as 'aryanism'. In their lemurian world, this ideology of 'Brahminism', a.k.a. 'Aryanism' is the ideology of separating people at birth and putting them in a hierarchy, and of making the woman lower to the man. And their counter ideology, 'Dravidianism' (thiraavidam and aariyam, in tamil) is defined as saying 'all are equal at birth. All humans are equal to each other. Man is equal to woman.' Its nice to hear, and that's exactly the point. If their narrative on the ground was as impersonal as this, then there would have been no problem. But, this is just a respectable facade for their deep hate. In fact, Brahmin hate of Chettiar-Mudaliar-Pillai (Dravidian) Movement is *always* completely garbed and coated in this terminology of 'social justice, caste annihilation, equality', etc. Its never open.
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