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<header class="entry-header entry-header-01"><h1 class="gmail-g1-giga gmail-g1-giga-1st entry-title">CN Annadurai: How a Schoolteacher Became Tamil Nadu’s First Political Stalwart</h1>
<h2 class="entry-subtitle gmail-g1-gamma gmail-g1-gamma-3rd">The very popular CM famously issued an order for the removal of the posters of gods and religious signs from offices!</h2>
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<a href="https://www.thebetterindia.com/author/rinchen-norbu-wangchuk/" title="Posts by Rinchen Norbu Wangchuk" rel="author">
<strong>Rinchen Norbu Wangchuk</strong>
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<time class="entry-date" datetime="2018-02-03T14:02:35">February 3, 2018, 2:02 pm</time> </span>
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<p><span style="font-size:42px;color:rgb(157,23,23)">I</span>t’s hard to
envision modern Tamil Nadu without talking about Conjeevaram Natarajan
Annadurai. Popularly known as ‘Anna’ (respected elder brother) to both
his party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and the people of Tamil
Nadu, he left an indelible mark not only on Tamil politics and society,
but also national politics. The story of how this man,
five-and-a-quarter feet in height and from humble beginnings (the son of
a weaver and temple servant), would end up as Tamil Nadu’s first chief
minister is remarkable even by the standards of modern Indian political
history.</p>
<p>The protégé of radical social reformer EV Ramasamy (Periyar),
Annadurai forged a career that would take him from an advocate of
‘Dravida Nadu’ (an independent country comprising of southern states) to
one of India’s tallest statesmen. After acquiring a college education
through a backward class scholarship, Anna became a schoolteacher for
some time before leaving it all behind for a life of public service and
social reform.</p>
<p>Drawn to Periyar’s radical notions against the pernicious caste
system, rationalism, social justice and ‘Dravida Nadu’, Anna first cut
his teeth as a gifted orator and prolific writer in Tamil. Through his
dazzling array of plays and movie scripts, he brought Tamil to the
foreground of regional politics and ushered an era of social
introspection and reform. This had a remarkable spillover effect on the
Tamil entertainment industry as well, attracting the likes of poet
Bharatidasan, and movie stars Sivaji Ganesan and MG Ramachandran.</p>
<p>For a whole host of reasons Periyar and Annadurai fell apart, and in
1949, the latter set up the DMK. Although the initial years saw the DMK
following in the footsteps of Periyar, things began to change with the
evolution of national politics and more pertinently, the Indo-China war
of 1962, by which time Anna dropped his demand for Dravida Nadu.</p>
<h2>“When the country is in danger, for us to advocate separatism would
be to give way to the foreigner,” said CN Annadurai at a speech on
Madras’ Marina Beach.</h2>
<figure id="gmail-attachment_129984" style="max-width:800px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-alignnone"><img class="gmail-wp-image-129984 gmail-size-full" src="https://www.thebetterindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/800px-C._N._Annadurai_and_E._V._Ramasami.jpg" alt="CN Annadurai (Left) with his erstwhile mentor Periyar. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)" width="800" height="581"><figcaption class="gmail-wp-caption-text">CN Annadurai (Left) with his erstwhile mentor Periyar. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)</figcaption></figure>
<p>Any telling of Anna’s story would be hollow without talking about his
integral role against the imposition of Hindi and championing the cause
of federalism in India.</p>
<p>Despite the protestations of some leaders, the Constituent Assembly
in 1949 had chosen Hindi as the sole national language. When the
Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950, non-Hindi speaking
states were given a 15-year grace period to use English in consonance
with Hindi as the means of official communication between the Central
government and the States. With the grace period ending in 1965,
Annadurai thought it would be an opportune time to ask both Parliament
and the Centre to reconsider its position since a vast majority of
southern states didn’t speak the language.</p>
<p>He wrote a letter to Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri protesting
against the imposition of Hindi all over India. With New Delhi
unresponsive to the claims of the Tamil people, the Madras State went
into intense and violent protests.</p>
<p>“The hustling of Hindi in haste, they [senior Congress leaders from
the South] said, would imperil the unity of the country,” writes noted
historian <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/mag/2005/01/16/stories/2005011600260300.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ramachandra Guha</a>.</p>
<p>After intense protests and pressure from fellow Congressman in the
South, the Centre gave way and allowed the southern states “to transact
its own business in the language of its own choice, which may be the
regional language or English”.</p>
<p>This fight for the primacy of Tamil carried on into office when he
steadfastly stood against the three-language policy implemented in
schools.</p>
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<h2>Little surprise that in the Assembly elections of 1967, the DMK
swept to power, and it’s a living testimony to the power of federalism
he fostered that national parties like the Congress (and the BJP) never
found a foothold in the state ever again.</h2>
<figure id="gmail-attachment_129985" style="max-width:1024px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-alignnone"><img class="gmail-wp-image-129985 gmail-size-full" src="https://www.thebetterindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Anna-Samadhi.-Promenade-of-Tamil-heroes.-Marina-Beach-Chennai-Flickr-Nagarjun-Kandukuru.jpg" alt="Anna Samadhi at Marina Beach, Chennai. (Flickr/Nagarjun Kandukuru)" width="1024" height="640"><figcaption class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Anna Samadhi at Marina Beach, Chennai. (Flickr/Nagarjun Kandukuru)</figcaption></figure>
<p>“In retrospect, Anna’s Dravida Nadu demand [and struggle against the
imposition of Hindi] might be interpreted as a carefully preserved
negotiating position for regional autonomy leading to a more equitable
distribution of power, wealth, and resources between the Centre and the
States,” says <a href="https://www.thebetterindia.com/129982/cn-annadurai-tamil-nadu-political-stalwart/www.thehindu.com/2005/09/15/stories/2005091502291000.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this editoria</a>l from The Hindu.</p>
<p>During a brief tenure in office before his premature death in 1969,
Anna continued to espouse ideals of social justice, rationalism and
regional autonomy. It was his government that had officially renamed the
erstwhile Madras State to Tamil Nadu.</p>
<p>One of Anna’s greatest attributes was to make the radical ideas of
Periyar more palatable to the general populace. “Periyar’s rustic
atheism became ‘Onre Kulam, Oruvane Devan’ (One God, One Community) in a
skilful appropriation of the venerated medieval Tamil saint Tirumular.
When Periyar went about breaking the idols of Pillaiyar (Ganapati) Anna
famously observed that he would neither break the idol nor the coconut
(in worship),” writes <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090112030229/http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&issueid=48&task=view&id=6878&acc=high" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A.R. Venkatachalapathy</a>, a Tamil historian.</p>
<h2>Unlike radical atheists of his time, Anna understood the power of
spirituality, but at the same time spoke out against unnecessary
ritualism and pernicious superstitions. A classical example of this
attribute was his government’s decision to legalise ‘self-respect
marriages’.</h2>
<figure id="gmail-attachment_129986" style="max-width:467px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-alignnone"><img class="gmail-wp-image-129986 gmail-size-full" src="https://www.thebetterindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/467px-Sakthi_Krishnasamy_Annadurai_Sivaji.jpg" alt="(Source: WIkimedia Commons)" width="467" height="599"><figcaption class="gmail-wp-caption-text">(Source: WIkimedia Commons)</figcaption></figure>
<p>These marriages were devoid of grand rituals and did not require the
services of Brahmin priests. Conventional marriage ceremonies, Anna
believed, were responsible for many families going into debt through the
now-illegal practice of dowry. Moreover, this form of self-respect
marriage, he argued, promoted inter-caste marriages bound by love. When
asked about his spiritual makeup, Anna <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._N._Annadurai#cite_note-38" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described himself</a>
as ‘a Hindu-sans the sacred ash, a Christian minus the holy cross, and a
Muslim without the prayer cap’. He also famously issued an order for
the removal of the posters of gods and religious signs from offices.</p>
<p><strong><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">Read also:</span> <a href="https://www.thebetterindia.com/121504/monk-statesman-remarkable-ladakh/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">From Monk to Statesman: Here Is a Remarkable Indian You May Not Have Heard Of!</a></strong></p>
<p>Another remarkable feature of Anna’s short tenure as chief minister
was the promotion of Tamil culture, especially with the organising of
the World Tamil Conference in 1967 backed by UNESCO.</p>
<p>Finally, one of Anna’s enduring legacy, carried forward by his
successor M Karunanidhi and other leaders in the state, was his economic
populism. One of the planks on which he rode to power in 1967 was the
promise of subsidising rice at one rupee a measure of rice. It’s another
matter that the finances of the State then weren’t capable of handling
this demand. Nonetheless, the promise of subsidising the cost of rice is
something that still persists in Tamil politics.</p>
<p>Move around in Chennai today, and his presence is ubiquitous. The
famous Anna University is named after him. There are roads (Anna Salai),
residential (Anna Nagar) and commercial areas named after one of Tamil
Nadu’s most popular sons. Although some of what he practiced and
preached in public life has fallen by the wayside in Tamil politics
today, his legacy lives on.</p></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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