Muthuvel Karunanidhi was born into the Isali Vellar caste in Thirukkuvulai on June 3, 1924. He came from a family of musicians who were from a lower caste and used to perform in temples.
He was aware of being born in a lower caste and at the age of 14, he formed a group of students to fight against the imposition of Hindi as India’s national language by the then Indian National Congress government of the Madras Presidency headed by C. Rajagopalachari in 1937-40.
Armed with the confidence he acquired after participating in the anti-Hindi agitation during his schooldays, Karunanidhi also founded the Tamil Mannavar Mandram, the first student wing of the Dravidian movement.
He had time and again said that the fiery speech of Justice Party leader Pattukottai Alagirisamy was the reason for him to launch the student movement. He also founded ‘Murasoli’, the official mouthpiece of the DMK, during his school days.
The maverick politician was influenced by the ideals of the Dravidian ideologue, EVS Ramasami Periyar or Thanthai Periyar who shaped the course of the Dravidian movement across the state of Tamil Nadu that led to the unconquered reign of the Dravidian political parties in the state.
Another senior leader to whom Karunanidhi looked upon other than EVS Ramasami Periyar was C.N. Annadurai, or simply Anna, who was a firebrand orator and a great organiser for the Dravidian cause.
While Karunanidhi was deeply rooted in his cultural and writing pursuits, he had shown an interest in politics from a very tender age as was seen during his school days wherein he formed the student body of the Dravidian movement and even started a news paper that later turned out into the mouthpiece of DMK.
Karunanidhi entered politics in a big way in the year 1957 wherein he was voted to the Madras legislature and later he became the treasurer and Deputy leader of the opposition in the state Legislative Assembly.
With his oratory and writing skills and commitment towards the Dravidian ideology and compassion towards the downtrodden helped Karuanidhi to rise in the ranks of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Annadurai was the first Chief Minister of Dravidian movement of Tamil Nadu and after his passing away in 1969, the mantle fell on Karuanidhi to head the party.
In the 1971 Assembly elections, Karunanidhi and the DMK won the elections with a massive mandate.
Interestingly, the senior leader has the record of winning all the assembly elections after his first election victory in 1957 and he was instrumental in brining up several new welfare schemes for the poor and downtrodden in the state of Tamil Nadu. Many of the measures taken up by the veteran leader was later adopted by several other state governments and he was termed as the champion of the downtrodden and poor.
The veteran leader was a powerful orator and he used to credit these skills to his mentors, Pattukottai Alagirisamy, Panagai Arasar, EVS Ramasamy Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, and his political mentor and guru, Annadurai.
Throughout his life, Karunanidhi was considered as a politician who always stood firmly in his Dravidian ideology and all his political manuveours were based out of the Dravidian ideology.
K.R. Periyasami, a social scientist and senior fellow with Centre for Policy and Development Studies, a think tank based out of Chennai and Salem, told IANS: “Karunanidhi has always been a leader who cared for the masses and the downtrodden. All his policies and programmes were aimed at the welfare of those communities who were not getting their rightful place in the society and he had taken out of turn interest to help such people who were marginalized and out from the mainstream.”
He further said that Karunaidhi had the power, support and ideological clarity of the Dravidian movement and this has helped him wade through several hurdles during his long and tenous political carrier.
It is to be noted that Karunanidhi at one point of time was one of the most powerful leaders of India and had forged political alliances with both BJP and Congress and the DMK became part and parcel of the Union governments led by both the BJP and Congress.
Karunaidhi in his lifetime had time and again stated that it was the ideals of both Thanthai Periyar and Annadurai that shaped his political and ideological moorings.
The late Chief Minister was a champion atheist and rationalist and had shaped the DMK and its ideology on atheist and rationalist lines and had reaped rich political dividends.
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