Kamaraj the kind hearted Kingmaker

Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975), popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician.

Kamaraj was born on 15 July 1903 in Virudhupatti, the then Madras Presidency, to Kumaraswami Nadar and Sivakami Ammal. His father Kumaraswami Nadar was a coconut merchant and his parents named him Kamatchi, after their family deity. His parents used to call him as Raja and the portmanteau of both the names became Kamaraj in due course. Kamaraj had a younger sister named Nagammal. At the age of five, Kamaraj was enrolled in the local elementary school and was admitted in the high school later. Kamaraj’s grandfather and father died in quick succession when he was only six years old with his mother forced to support the family. Later, Kamaraj dropped out of school at the age of 12 and joined a cloth shop run by his maternal uncle as a salesman. He learnt Silambam, an ancient martial art which has its roots back to earlier than 400 BCE.    

Freedom movement

Kamaraj was attracted by Annie Besant‘s Home Rule Movement and inspired by the writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Subramania Bharati. Due to his inclination towards politics and not spending time on the business, he was sent to Thiruvananthapuram to work at a timber shop owned by another of his uncles. While in Kerala, he continued to participate in public activities and took part in the Vaikom Satyagraha, which was conducted for getting access to the prohibited public areas of the Vaikom Temple to people of all castes. Kamaraj was called back to his native place and despite attempts by his mother to find him a bride, Kamraj refused to get married.

After the Rowlatt Act of 1919 passed by the British Raj  which indefinitely extended preventive detention and imprisonment of Indians without trial, and the subsequent Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where hundreds of peaceful protesters against the act were shot down, Kamaraj decided to join Indian National Congress at the age of 16.

On 21 September 1921, he met Mahatma Gandhi for the first time during a meeting in Madurai and was influenced by his views on prohibition of alcohol, usage of khadi, non-violence and eradication of untouchability. In 1922, Kamaraj travelled to Chennai to partake in protest against the visit of Prince of Wales as a part of the Non-cooperation movement. He was later elected to be a part of the town committee of the Congress in Virudhunagar. In the next few years, Kamaraj participated in the Flag Satyagraha in Nagpur and the Sword Satyagraha in Madras. He organized regular meetings of the Congress in the Madurai district and started giving public speeches.

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. In 1932, Kamaraj was arrested again on charges of sedition and inciting violence. He was sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment at Tiruchirappalli. He was later transferred to Vellore Central Prison.  On 21 September 1933, a post office and the police station in Virudhunagar were bombed. On 9 November, Kamaraj was implicated in the bombing despite the local police inspector giving statement to the contrary. Indian police officials along with the British officers engaged in coercive tactics and harassment to try and force a confession in the case. Lawyers Varadarajulu Naidu and George Joseph argued on Kamaraj’s behalf in court and the charges were proved to be baseless. By that time Kamaraj had sold most of his ancestral properties apart from the house to fight this legal battle.

Kamaraj was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1937, unopposed. In December 1940, he was arrested under the Defence of India rules for speeches that opposed contributions to the war fund, and sent to Vellore prison. While in jail, he was elected as a municipal councillor and chairman of Virudhunagar municipality on 31 May 1941. He was released from prison on 3 November 1941 and was handed the chairmanship of the council on 16 March 1942. He resigned from the post immediately as he thought he had greater responsibility for the nation. He was active during the Quit India Movement in 1942, because of which he was jailed for three years till 1945. He was again elected to Madras Legislative Assembly in 1946. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946. Overall, Kamaraj was imprisoned six times by the British for his pro-Independence activities, and spent in jail for more than 3,000 days.

Post Independence

Kamaraj served as a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from 1952 to 1954. Kamaraj became the Chief Minister of Madras State in April, 1954.

During his tenure as Chief Minister Kamaraj brought major changes to the education system in Tamil Nadu. The family vocation based Modified Scheme of Elementary education 1953 introduced earlier (during Rajai’s regime) was withdrawn and school education was made free for children up to secondary school level. In order to ensure that students do not walk long distances, the educational policy formulated that schools be opened within every 3 km (1.9 mi) radius. As a result, about 6,000 existing schools were closed and 12,000 new schools were added. When it was found that the enrolment was still low and the children were malnourished, Kamaraj expanded the Midday Meal Scheme to all schools to provide at least one free meal per day. Free uniforms were introduced to weed out distinctions based on caste and class in schools. New institutions of higher education were established including the IIT Madras in 1959. These efforts resulted in significant improvement in school enrolment and growth of literacy rates in the state over the decade (18.33% in 1951 to 36.39% in 1961), which earned him the nickname Kalvi Thanthai (Father of education) and the epithet of Padikkatha Methai (uneducated genius). Thus, Kamaraj built a robust primary education system in Tamil Nadu.

Several dams and irrigation projects were constructed during the Kamarajar’s rule, dams like Lower Bhavani, Mani Muthuar, Cauvery Delta, Aarani River, Vaigai Dam, Amravathi, Sathanur, Krishnagiri, Pullambadi, Parambikulam and Neyaru Dams were constructed in record times. 150 lakh acres of lands were cultivated during Kamaraj’s period.

Several Industries were also started during that period. Neyveli Lignite Scheme, Raw photo film industry at Nilgri, Surgical instruments factory at Guindy, Sugar factories, Bi-Carbonates factories, Cement factories, Railway coach factory at Avadi, Mettur paper industry, were started in the period of Kamaraj.

Tamil Nadu was the best administered state back then and was the first state to provide electricity to all the villages. Kamaraj laid a strong foundation for education sector, irrigation and industry in Tamil Nadu.

In 1963, when the Congress lost three important byelections, Kamaraj, along with some other chief ministers — Sanjiva Reddy, S. Nijalingappa and Biju Patnaik — suggested to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that senior leaders in both the Centre and states must give up ministerial posts and take up organisational work. The suggestion was accepted by Nehru and six Union ministers, including Morarji Desai, Lal Bahadur Shastri and six chief ministers, amongst them Partap Singh Kairon (Punjab) and Biju Patnaik (Odisha), along with Kamaraj resigned from their posts. Overall Kamaraj remained Chief Minister for three consecutive terms, winning elections in 1954, 1957 and 1962 and remained in the power for 9 years.

Kind hearted Kingmaker

Kamaraj was elected the President of Indian National Congress on 9 October 1963. He was instrumental in bringing to power two Prime Ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964 and Indira Gandhi in 1966. For this role, he was widely acclaimed as the “kingmaker” during the 1960s. Though Kamaraj had a chance to become the Prime Minister on both the occasions, he refused to stake a claim and instead chose to be the Kingmaker rather then becoming the King.

Ever since the appointment of Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister, indifference arose between her and the top leaders of the Congress, termed as the “Syndicate”, led by Kamaraj. After the Congress victory in the 1967 Indian general election, the rift began to widen and Indira Gandhi was expelled from the party for anti-party activities in 1969. This resulted in the split of the Congress party with Kamaraj heading the INC (O) faction. Indira Gandhi stayed as the Prime Minister with the support of smaller regional parties and dissolved the Lok Sabha to call for fresh elections in 1970. In the 1971 Indian general election, INC (O) performed very poorly, winning just 16 seats compared to the 352 won by the Indira led faction. The party again fared poorly in the 1971 Indian general election. Kamaraj remained as part of INC(O) until his death in 1975.

He followed Gandhian principles, wore a simple Khadi shirt and dhoti and was often referred to as Black Gandhi by the people. He even did not entertain his mother in staying with him in his official residence and gave her just Rs. 120 for her monthly expenses from his salary. Kamaraj did not own any property and had a mere Rs.130 of money, two pairs of sandals, four pair of shirts and dhotis apart from a few books in his possession when he died.

Former Vice-president of the United States Hubert Humphrey, referred to Kamaraj as one of the greatest political leaders in all the countries. In 1976, Kamaraj was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour. In 2004, Government of India issued special commemorative coins of Rs. 100 and Rs. 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him.

No wonder, the people of Tamil Nadu consider Kamaraj’s period as Golden Era in the post-independence.