From Madras to Tamil Nadu, With Arignar Anna

‘Arignar Anna’ was known for his reformist outlook on Tamil Nadu politics, voicing his opinions against caste discrimination and North Indian domination. He died of cancer on February 3, 1969, after working as the CM of Tamil Nadu

Arignar Anna, a proud Dravidian; Source: The official Twitter account of DMK.

Tamil Nadu is the birthplace of the Dravidar Kazhagam movement. South India, over the years since independence, has often expressed its dissent against the limited interest that the Central government pays to Southern Indian politics, including the imposition of Hindi as the national language. The Dravidar Kazhagam movement wanted to change this by demanding an entirely separate state for people who speak Dravidian languages.

A break-off from the Indian National Congress, the Dravidar Kazhagam was leading the field of anti-caste politics in Southern India. It was led by revolutionary reformist Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy.

His protégé, Conjeevuram Natarajan Annadurai, better known as Arignar Anna, joined the party in the year 1935. This marked his entry into politics, a young man filled with enthusiasm against the discrimination of Brahminical elites.

C.N. Annadurai was a brilliant Tamil writer, who expanded his horizons to journalism, and eventually politics as well. He edited some of the most significant journals of the Dravidar Kazhagam movement such as Viduthalai and Kudi Arasu.

However, he grew to have significant differences with his mentor over the Dravidar Kazhagam movement, so he formed his own party called the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in 1949.

In newly independent India, DMK under Annadurai’s leadership was one of the first parties to win elections against the hegemony of the Congress!

Annadurai became the Chief Minister in 1969. It was during his tenure that Madras was divided and renamed – he became the CM of the state of Tamil Nadu.

One of the most revolutionary reforms that he made, was the legalisation of ‘self-respect marriages’. This was originally Ramaswamy’s idea, but Annadurai was strongly in favour of it as well. It encouraged people from the lower end of the caste hierarchy to marry with self-respect, that is, without the need for an upper-caste priest to overlook the ceremony. This practice also encouraged inter-caste and love marriages.

For his work against North Indian domination and eradication of caste-based discrimination, Annadurai was awarded the Chubb Fellowship at Yale University. He was the first non-American to be awarded this fellowship!

After years of pushing for reforms, Annadurai died of cancer on February 3, 1969 leaving behind an indelible mark on the history of Tamil politics in India, as well as Sri Lanka.