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Adiel Brumfield
Karunanidhi started his political career in 1957, when he was voted to the Madras state legislature. When the DMK first entered the state legislature the following year, he was named treasurer and deputy leader of the opposition. Karunanidhi ascended quickly through the ranks. After the death of C.N. Annadurai in 1969, he became the DMK's leader and Chief minister of Tamil Nadu[10] and led the party to a landslide win in the 1971 Assembly elections.[17] He was influenced by the rationalist and egalitarian ideology of Periyar and DMK founder C N Annadurai.[18] Karunanidhi was among those who fought Indira Gandhi's Emergency in 1975 which led to governments getting dismissed in 1976.[19] In the 1976 Assembly elections, he gave the Congress 50 per cent of the seats, but the partnership fell apart, and MGR prevailed. After MGR's death in 1989, he led the party to power.[17] His administration was dismissed in 1991 for its alleged links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).[19] He came to power in the state in 1996 after forming a partnership with the Tamil Maanila Congress and joined the United Front led by Deve Gowda in the center. His party allied with the BJP in 1999.[17] He was arrested from his house in 2001 by the police on the orders of Jayalalitha as an act of vendetta over alleged losses in construction of fly-overs.[20] In the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, he teamed up with the Congress and won by a landslide.[17] He became a chief minister again in 2006.[19] In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he contested alone and lost. In 2016, he made the DMK become the Tamil Nadu Assembly's biggest opposition party.[17]
During his political career, Karunanidhi advocated for increased state autonomy and affirmative action to favour lower castes.[12] He implemented a caste-based quota system for government employment and government school students, as well as subsidies to the poor. His initiatives were quickly adopted in other Indian states. His initiatives earned him popularity among the lower castes.[9] He was frequently confronted with accusations of nepotism.[13] He has also stirred controversies by publicly supporting the LTTE and other separatist groups in Sri Lanka.[21] During his different tenures, he implemented a number of initiatives aimed at promoting the expansion of industry in the state.[11] He was also instrumental in erecting a 133-foot monument of Thiruvalluvar in Kanyakumari[11] and ensuring classical language status to Tamil language.[22]
Karunanidhi was born on 3 June 1924, in the village of Thirukkuvalai in Tanjore district (currently Nagapattinam district), Madras Presidency, to Ayyadurai (Grand father) Muthuvel and Anjugam. He had two elder sisters, Periyanayaki and Shanmugasundari.[23][page needed] There was some misconception that his birth name was Dakshinamurthy,[24] later changed to Karunanidhi as influenced by Dravidian and rationalist movements,[25][26] Karunanidhi himself stated that C.N. Annadurai asked him to keep his birthname "Karunanidhi", since it is already popular among the people.[27][additional citation(s) needed] 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;[23][24] however his political rival M. G. Ramachandran and some observers contested that and said that he was of Telugu ancestry.[28] 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.[29][30]
My music lessons were actually my first political studies. I learnt about the oppression of humans based on their caste. I saw the delight with which certain individuals could humiliate others, and the self-righteousness of others in carrying out their customs without realising that they were mistreating a large majority of the people.[30]
At the age of 12, he left to Thiruvarur to start his high school.[31] Karunanidhi started to organise school students for the Anti-Hindi agitations.[32] The deaths of two anti-Hindi agitators by the police made a profound impact on him.[33] At the age of 13, he wrote his first Tamil historical novel titled Selvachandira.[20]
Karunanidhi entered politics at the age of 14, inspired by a speech by Alagirisamy of the Justice Party, and participated in Anti-Hindi agitations.[34] As a teenager he was captivated by the political writings of Tamil leaders including Panagal Arasar, Periyar and Pattukottai Azhagirisamy (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.[23] 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.[35]
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.[38] He wrote a critical piece in Murasoli titled "Varnama, Maanama?" in 1944 when a conference was organised by conservatives in support of varna system.[39][38] 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.[40][41] Karunanidhi refused to go back as a school student.[40]
After marriage, he worked as a playwright through the help of R.V Gopal who help his earlier with his play.[44] 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.[45] 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.[45] 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.[46][47][48][49]
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.[51] 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.[52][53]
At the age of 33, Karunanidhi entered the Tamil Nadu assembly by winning the Kulithalai seat in Tiruchirapalli during the 1957 election among the 15 DMK legislators elected and were elected as the Chief Whip.[54] During the 1959 elections of the Madras Municipal Corporation, he was managing the party campaigns, the party won 45 out of the 90 contested.[20] He was elected as DMK treasurer on 25 September 1960.[20] Karunanidhi was elected to the state assembly for the second time on 21 February 1962, from the Thanjavur constituency. He defeated Congress candidate A.Y.S. Parisutha Nadar.[20] In the same year, he became the deputy leader of opposition in the state assembly.[13]
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