Speaking in a crowd of students at a college event in Chennai today, high-level DMK head, and Parliamentarian Dayanidhi Maran, on the educational status and social standing of women in India, drew sharply polarized lines.
The Controversial Comparison
Maran hailed the "Dravidian Model" of governance and held that Tamil Nadu women were as literate, employed as many at the workplace (in Tamil Nadu) thanks to state-sponsored advocacy and progressive values. But by this broad generalization, he set out a sharp contrast towards North Indian states.
“In Tamil Nadu, we support our women to get out, to study, to lead.” However, if we look at North India the picture is a different affair. There, women are told to stay at home, work in kitchens, and bear children,” Maran said, speaking, according to the report.
The MP’s remarks were meant to emphasize the effectiveness of Tamil Nadu schools policies but escalated into a public relations controversy with the words he used being derogatory of North Indian culture and social structures.
🚨 DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran insults North Indian women by stereotyping them as 'kitchen-bound child-bearers' while praising Tamil Nadu. Sickening regional divisive politics! If he has the guts, let him speak the same about Muslim women’s rights & education in his 'secular'… pic.twitter.com/EIlM6QtygT
— ಸನಾತನ (𑀲𑀦𑀸𑀢𑀦) (@sanatan_kannada) January 14, 2026
Backlash and Criticism
The comment has not gone down well with social workers and political opponents. There is reason to question whether a leader such as his, in his line of political representation in the Parliament, should apply a broad-brush view in the entirety of the region.
Political Reaction
Critics have labelled the statement as "anti-national" "divisive" - in a word the DMK has pursued time and again a strategy of attempting to draw political differences between North and South.
Social Media outrage
Many cited the growing number of women from North Indian states including Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh who are the leaders in fields including space research, civil services and sports, calling the comment about Maran's 'kitchen and children', the remarks out date, with an apparently faulty fact on factual grounds, a point underlined.
Concerns around stereotyping
Sociologists have noted that, despite regional disparities in education based on geography, like those comments overlook an incredible progress for women in the central Hindi heartlands.
A Pattern of Controversy
Such is not the first time that Dayanidhi Maran has found himself in hot water over regional comparisons. His remarks about the jobs available to North Indian migrants in Tamil Nadu had caused a national outcry in the past. Observers say such repeated remarks make it difficult for the party to connect in national-level alliances and dent the sentiments of the large migrant population in Tamil Nadu.
