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.
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 is 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. 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.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.
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 (transl. friends of students). 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.