Content: E. V. Ramasamy, popularly addressed as Periyar or ‘The Great One’, laid the ideological foundations of modern Tamil politics and social life

Veteran INC leader and freedom fighter K Kamaraj was born on 15th July 1903. He was the third Chief Minister of the Madras State (now Tamil Nadu).

Born to Kumarasamy Nadar and Sivagami Ammal in a town called Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu, Kamaraj had only a few years of schooling. From the age of twelve, he started working as a shop assistant to support his family. He was fifteen when the Jallianwala Bagh massacre happened.

That was a turning point in his life. In 1920, aged eighteen, he joined the Indian National Congress to fight foreign rule and liberate the country.

He organized public meetings of the INC at Virudhunagar for the Congress party. He met Mahatma Gandhi for the first time on 21st September 1921 during Gandhi’s public meeting.

Kamaraj became an enthusiastic worker for the Congress Party and became a great organizer.

He took part in the Non-Cooperation Movement, Nagpur Flag Satyagraha and other important events.

He was imprisoned for two years in 1930 for participating in the Salt Satyagraha at Vedaranyam led by C Rajagopalachari.

He was again arrested for a year in 1932. In the 1937 provincial elections, he stood for elections and won from Sattur constituency.

He was arrested again in 1940 and was elected as the Municipal Councillor of Virudhunagar from jail. He later resigned because of his belief in the principle, “One should not accept any post to which one could not do full justice.”

In 1942, he was once again arrested for participating in the Quit India Movement. After India became independent, he was in the Congress Working Committee from 1947 to 1969.

He was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and then a Member of Parliament in 1952.

In 1954, he became the Chief Minister of Madras State (now Tamil Nadu). His administration was considered good and efficient. He introduced the brilliant concept of mid-day meals in schools to provide free meals to school children hailing from economically backward families. His government is credited with increasing the number of schools in Tamil Nadu.

Kamaraj became the CM for two more consecutive terms until 1963. That year, he resigned and asked many top Congress leaders to resign from their ministerial posts because there was a need to remove the lure of power in the minds of Congressmen. This came to be called the Kamaraj Plan.

Kamaraj was elected the President of the INC in 1963.

After Jawaharlal Nehru’s death, he was instrumental in bringing Lal Bahadur Shastri to the post of the country’s Prime Minister. He also played a big part in bringing Indira Gandhi to the same post.

Kamaraj died on 2nd October 1975 aged 72 in Chennai.

He was posthumously honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1976. He is also called ‘Kalvi Thanthai’, a phrase in Tamil which translates to ‘Father of Education’.

Kumaraswami Kamaraj played a leading role in shaping India's destiny after the passing away of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, to the Congress split in 1969.

He was born humble and poor in a backward area of Tamil Nadu on July 15, 1903. He was a Nadar, one of the most depressed castes of Hindu society. His schooling lasted only six years. At the age of twelve, he was already working as a shop assistant. He was barely fifteen when he heard of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre which was the turning point in his life.

Two years later when Kamaraj saw Gandhiji at Madurai, he knew his path was chosen.

He became a member of the Indian National Congress. Kamaraj was content for years to remain a rank and file Congress volunteer, working hard for the cause of the freedom movement, unmindful of his personal comfort or career.

He was eighteen when he responded to the call of Gandhiji for non-cooperation with the British. He carried on propaganda in the villages, raised funds for Congress work and took a leading part in organising meetings. At twenty he was picked up by Satyamurthy, one of the greatest orators and a leading figure of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, who would become Kamaraj's political guru.

In April 1930, Kamaraj joined the Salt Satyagraha Movement at Vedaranyam and was sentenced to two years in jail—the first of his many stints in prison. Jail-going had become a part of his career and in all he went to prison six times and spent more than 3,000 days in British Jails.

Bachelor Kamaraj was forty-four when India became free. Kamaraj was elected President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee in February, 1940. He held that post till 1954. He was in the Working Committee of the AICC from 1947 till the Congress split in 1969, either as a member or as a special invitee.

Kamaraj was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1937, unopposed. He was again elected to it in 1946. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946, and later to Parliament in 1952.

He became Chief Minister of Madras in 1954. He was perhaps the first non-English knowing Chief Minister of India. But it was during the nine years of his administration that Tamilnadu came to be known as one of the best administered States in India.

In 1963 he suggested to Nehru that senior Congress leaders should leave ministerial posts to take up organisational work. This suggestion came to be known as the 'Kamaraj Plan', which was designed primarily to dispel from the minds of Congressmen the lure for power, creating in its place a dedicated attachment to the objectives and policies of the organisation.

The plan was approved by the Congress Working Committee and was implemented within two months. Six Chief Ministers and six Union Ministers resigned under the plan. Kamaraj was later elected President of the Indian National Congress on October 9, 1963.

Twice he played a leading role in choosing the Prime Minister of India. His defeat in Virudhunagar in 1967 considerably undermined his prestige. It was even said that he was a much disillusioned man. But the landslide victory at Nagercoil in 1969, revived his political stature. However, the split in the Congress in 1969 (he remained in the Organisation Congress) and the General Elections of 1971, resulted in another set-back to his political prestige and authority.

Kumaraswami Kamaraj continued to work quietly among the masses until the very end. He was honoured posthumously with India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1976.

‘Kingmaker’ Kamaraj was instrumental in making Lal Bahadur Shastri Prime Minister after Nehru’s death in 1964 and then Indira Gandhi in 1966.

South Indian politics, especially Tamil Nadu politics, has mostly been about leaders with mass following. Players such as M.G. Ramachandran, J. Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi — all emerging from Tamil cinema — were charismatic leaders who had strong political influence in the state.

But, much before this trio, Tamil Nadu had ‘kingmaker’ Kumaraswami Kamaraj, the man who was responsible for anointing Lal Bahadur Shastri Prime Minister of India after the death of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964 and then Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi in 1966.

When he installed Shastri as PM, dashing the hopes of Morarji Desai, every senior Congress leader wanted Kamaraj to accept the post himself.

His reason for refusal: He knew neither English nor Hindi and understood that India’s prime minister had to be proficient in at least one of these languages.

But, while he chose not to accept the top post for himself, it didn’t mean he was ready to let go of the reins, always inclined to play the real power behind the throne.

That he succeeded with Shastri but failed miserably when he tried to control Indira also speaks volumes about Indira’s own political savvy and her ability to outmanoeuvre her opponents — both within and outside the Congress.What is