Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 – 7 August 2018), popularly known as Kalaignar was an Indian politician, writer and screenwriter who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms between 1969 and 2011 and was the longest-serving chief minister in the state's history. He was the ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for nearly five decades and a leading figure in the Dravidian movement. He was noted for his contributions to Tamil literature, which include plays, novels, poems, and a multi-volume memoir.
Born in Thirukkuvalai in 1924, Karunanidhi was politically active from adolescence, participating in the Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937–40 and founding the Dravidian movement's first student wing. He pursued a parallel career in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter, composing the dialogue for landmark films including M. G. Ramachandran's debut as a lead, Rajakumari, and Sivaji Ganesan's debut, Parasakthi. He used his writing to propagate the rationalist and egalitarian ideals of Periyar and DMK founder C. N. Annadurai, and was himself an avowed atheist and rationalist.
Karunanidhi entered the Madras state legislature in 1957 and succeeded Annadurai as DMK president and Chief Minister following the latter's death in 1969. Over the following four decades, his political career was characterised by shifting alliances with national parties — the Indian National Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the United Front — and by sustained rivalry with the AIADMK, particularly its leader J. Jayalalithaa. His government was dismissed in 1991 over alleged links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and he was controversially arrested in 2001 on Jayalalithaa's orders. He returned to power in 1996 and again in 2006, completing his final term in 2011.
As Chief Minister, Karunanidhi championed increased state autonomy, caste-based affirmative action, and subsidies for the poor, policies that were widely adopted elsewhere in India and cemented his support among lower-caste communities. He was instrumental in securing classical language status for Tamil and in commissioning the 133-foot Thiruvalluvar Statue at Kanyakumari. He was also frequently accused of nepotism and of lending political support to the LTTE. Karunanidhi died on 7 August 2018 at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai after prolonged age-related illnesses.
Early life and family
Karunanidhi was born on 3 June 1924, in the village of Thirukkuvalai in Tanjore district (currently Nagapattinam district), Madras Presidency in the erstwhile British Raj, to Ayyadurai Muthuvel and Anjugam. He had two elder sisters, Periyanayaki and Shanmugasundari. While there was some misconception that his birth name was Dakshinamurthy, later changed to Karunanidhi under the influence of Dravidian and rationalist movements, Karunanidhi himself stated that C.N. Annadurai asked him to keep his birthname "Karunanidhi", since it was already popular among the people. In his own writings Karunanidhi said that his family were of the Isai Vellalar, a community who had traditionally played musical instruments at ceremonial occasions.For claims of Karunanidhi's Telugu ancestry see: * * * Karunanidhi started his education at a local school. Karunanidhi's father was eager to teach him music. His music teachers were from the Isai Vellalar group, and the lessons were conducted in temples where he was not allowed to cover his upper body, wear slippers, or wear a cotton cloth around his hips as a sign of respect for the upper caste people. He couldn't tolerate learning in an environment where he wasn't treated with respect, which made his father agree to stop his music classes. His father also asked the local headmaster to set up special tutoring courses for Karunanidhi and paid a tuition fee of milk every morning and evening.
At the age of 12, he left to Thiruvarur to start his high school. Karunanidhi started to organise school students for the anti-Hindi agitations. The deaths of two anti-Hindi agitators by the police made a profound impact on him. At the age of 13, he wrote his first Tamil historical novel titled Selvachandira.
Entry into politics and early writing career Karunanidhi entered politics at the age of 14, inspired by a speech by Pattukkottai Alagiri of the Justice Party, and participated in Anti-Hindi agitations. As a teenager he was captivated by the political writings of Tamil leaders including Panagal Arasar, Periyar and Pattukkottai Alagiri (after whom Karunanidhi later named one of his sons). Karunanidhi joined the anti-Hindi protests sparked by the provincial government's legislation making Hindi-education mandatory in schools, and in 1938 organised a group of boys to hold demonstrations travelling around Tiruvarur on a cycle rickshaw. The law was rescinded in 1939. The taste for activism however stuck and in the ensuing years, after a brief flirtation with Communism, Karunanidhi started following the work and speeches of leaders of Justice Party, Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. According to Karunanidhi, he joined the Periyar's movement when he saw his father hurriedly rising and tied his towel to his waist from his head as a gesture of servitude when an upper caste landlord walked past him.
At the age of fifteen, Karunanidhi started his own magazine Maanavanesan (). He along with his friends would make fifty copies of the magazine and circulate it and also sometimes mailed them to the leaders of Self-respect movement. A political activist after reading his magazine asked him to lead the forum for peace, liberty equality and justice, he accepted and became its elected secretary. Later, he dissolved the forum after there was a blatant attempt to convert the forum into as a front of the Congress party. He refunded the subscription money many refused to take the refund. Using the rest of ₹75, he started the Tamil Nadu Tamil students association in 1941. In 1942, the association held an annual function attended by Bharathidasan, K. Anbazhagan, and K. A. Mathiazhagan and student leaders from Annamalai University. He couldn't afford to pay for the invitees' and guest speakers' travels and expenditures, so he was forced to steal a gold necklace that his mother had made for him but which he rarely wore, pawned it for ₹50, and paid his invitees.
As his writings were gaining popularity in Thiruvarur, he started Murasoli to widen his publishing platform. Its writer and chief editor was Karunanidhi, and its secretary was his friend Thennavan. It had a large print run, was mailed to many Tamil political organisations, and was in the forefront of the fight against caste, social isolation, sophistry, and supremacy. He wrote a critical piece in Murasoli titled "Varnama, Maanama?" in 1944 when a conference was organised by conservatives in support of varna system. He penned an article named 'Ilamaibali' (Youth Sacrifice) and sent it to C.N Annadurai's Dravida Nadu magazine. It appeared in the next issue. For a week, he wandered the streets of Thiruvarur with a print in hand, persuading many others to read it. He also penned an article that was never published. Within a week, Annadurai arrived in Thiruvarur for a public gathering and asked for Karunanidhi, he was stunned to find Karunanidhi as an 18-year-old school student. He instructed him to cease writing until he completed his education and asked him not to send any more articles. Karunanidhi refused to go back as a school student.
He failed three times in his final exams. During the result day, unable to face his family over his third consecutive failure, he left to Thopputhurai in search of his classmate Asan Abdul Kaathar who consoled him. He then started his passion of writing as a career. In Thiruvarur, he started writing and staging plays. These plays served as a channel for the Dravidian movement's ideology to spread. In Thiruvarur, he presented a play named Palaniappan to raise cash for his student association. The total amount collected was only ₹80, despite the fact that the performance had cost him ₹200 to stage. He had no idea how he was going to repay the debt he owed to the individuals who were now harassing him for it. He travelled with his friend Thennavan for Nagapattinam, keen to take his chances somewhere else and met with R. V Gopal, a local leader of the Dravidar Kazhagam. Gopal sympathised with his situation but was hesitant to lend him the money but Instead bought the play for ₹100. The sale of his first play made his to write more ideological plays.
His parents didn't approve of his writing career. They advised him to look for a job that would pay him at least ₹50 per month. He was determined on not taking a regular job. Karunanidhi then fell in love with a girl. He was certain that the girl was infatuated with him as well. When he and his family met the girl's parents, they demanded that if a wedding was to take place, it must be performed in the presence of Brahmin priests and vedic chanting. Karunanidhi rejected, citing his belief in the Self-Respect Movement as justification.
After marriage, he worked as a playwright through the help of R.V Gopal who help his earlier with his play. Their first camp for the troupe was at Villupuram where he was joined by his friends Thennavan and C.T Murthy. Their plays failed to bring people even after the attendance of Periyar and Annadurai. The failure was due to their comments against the caste prejudices, the troupe was named "Dravida Theatre group", the term "Dravida" was perceived to be a term for Dalits and hence non-Dalits boycotted it. The troupe started to play in Pondicherry which was at the time a hub for social cultural and political change. His plays were an instant success and people started to call him as "Sivaguru", the name of his character. During his stay in Pondicherry, Karunanidhi penned "That Pen!" a criticism of Gandhi and the Congress centred on a pen which was lost from the Sabarmati Ashram, which infuriated the congress workers. He followed up with a piece titled "What If Gandhi Became Viceroy?" Later, members of the congress attacked a public gathering in Pondicherry attended by Periyar, Annadurai, and Pattukottai Azhagirisamy. Karunanidhi was chased down and beaten until he fell unconscious. They dropped his unconscious body into the sewers and departed, thinking he was dead. He was nursed back by an old women and taken to Periyar who applied medicines to him and took him to Erode along with him where he worked as an assistant editor with Periyar's Kudi Arasu magazine in Erode for a year.
Early political career Karunanidhi along with a group of young band of Tamil enthusiasts led by Annadurai dissented from Dravidar Kazhagam and formed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on 17 September 1949.
Kallakudi demonstration
The first major protest that aided Karunanidhi in gaining ground in Tamil politics was his involvement in the Kallakudi demonstration in Kallakudi in 1953 when he was 29. The original name of this industrial town was Kallakudi. Kallakudi was renamed as "Dalmiapuram" by the state administration led by Rajagopalachari to commemorate the North Indian business magnate Ram Krishan Dalmia, who owned a cement factory there. DMK wanted to change the name back to Kallakudi because Ram Krishna Dalmia depicted north Indian hegemonic power and predatory businesses. In the protest Karunanidhi and his companions erased the name Dalmiapuram from the railway station and lay down on the tracks blocking the course of trains. Six people died in the protest and Karunanidhi was arrested and was sent to jail for six months.Ramaswamy 1997, p. 226
MLA and deputy leader of opposition