Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai, popularly known as the Scholar Anna (Arignar Anna), is well known for his knowledge, English speaking skill, and politics. He is the first non-congress Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. Born into a middle-class family, he worked hard to complete his schooling and then complete his bachelor's and master's degrees. Thus Anna showed the world that an ordinary layman can complete a master's degree.
After MG Ramachandran, the Chief Minister of poor people, Anna became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and impressed the people of Tamil Nadu. He defeated Kamaraj in the election who was the pinnacle of honesty and became the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. In this post, we will look at the biography of the scholar Anna who has achieved so much.
Early Life
Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai was born on 15 September 1909 in Conjeevaram(present-day kanchipuram) to Nadarasan and Bangaru Ammal. Anna's mother gave her son to her sister Rajamani. He was raised fully by her stepmother Rajamani. After the age of five, Anna started her schooling at Pachaiyappan School.
Bachelor's Degree - He joined Pachaiyappan College in Chennai for his degree. Although Pachaiyappan College is notorious today, it is noteworthy that many scholars like scholar Anna at that time studied in this college. Although Annadurai was interested in his studies, poverty was a significant obstacle for him. Still, at that time his friends and professors in college, like God, extended a helping hand to him.
Writing And Speaking - Annadurai completed his bachelor's degree with many helping hands Annadurai was more interested in writing and speaking while studying for his bachelor's degree. Wrote many articles and stories during my college days.
Marriage - After graduating, Annadurai married. Following his bachelor's degree, he also completed his master's degree at the same Pachaiyappan College. After graduation, he joined George Town Govindappan School in Chennai as a Tamil teacher.
Political Life
The Starting Point of Political Life - After graduation, Anna jumped into his aspiring political career. In Anna's time, there were two major parties in Tamil Nadu, the Congress, and the Justice Party. The Justice Party was much stronger at that time than the Congress Party. It is noteworthy that Periyar was in the Justice Party. Balasubramaniam of the Justice Party, who discovered Anna's speech and writing ability, added Anna to the Justice Party.
Anna in Justice Party - Anna joined the justice party in 1917 which has created without any brahmin members. Anna then demonstrated his worth to the Justice Party by addressing all-party meetings to the extent of captivating the masses. In a short time, he became the best speaker of the Justice Party. He wrote trashy articles for newspapers about the Justice Party.
Annadurai's first election - Anna contested his first election as the Nayakanpet candidate in the Chennai Municipal Corporation election. "Defeat is the first step to success" As the saying goes, Anna lost the first election. Anna's love for elections and politics did not diminish despite the defeat.
Meet With Periyar - After the defeat, Annadurai went to Tirupur to address the forthcoming Youth Conference. There he had the opportunity to meet Periyar. After a little conversation with Periyar, he became a big fan of Periyar. Understanding Annadurai's interest and talent, Periyar hired him as an assistant editor of the magazine Republic and Liberation.
Hindi Stuffing - During the tenure of Rajaji as the Chief Minister, the dumping of Hindi in Tamil Nadu took place in full force. Annadurai waged a strike against this in speech and writing. He attracted many young people through speech and writing and gave them a sense of spirit and made them join the strike against Hindi dumping. He acts as Periyar's chief commander in this strike.
Annadurai's First Imprisonment - Realizing that Anna's speech had caused a great revolution in Tamil Nadu, the Rajaji government arrested and imprisoned him. He was arrested and sentenced to four months for inciting people against the regime.
Dravida Nadu Press - While working as a sub-editor of Vimithya magazine, he used to write many articles on his favorite fields like denial of God and abolition of caste. Later resigned as assistant editor and started Dravida Nadu magazine. But starting a magazine requires a lot of money. To earn money, he wrote stories for many plays and the success of those stories brought money. Reading Anna's articles, Periyar, Karunanidhi, and MGR become anna's fans.
Justice Party - Dravidian Party
Periyar embarked on a project to improve the Justice Party and the first step was to change the name from the Justice Party to the Dravida Kazhagam. Along with this everyone in the Dravidian party burned away the titles and prizes given by the British and removed the caste name behind the name and came to a policy of not contesting any election.
A Rift Between Leader and Secretary - Shortly after its transformation into the Dravida Party, differences of opinion began between leader Periyar and secretary Anna, the first stage of which was the black shirt team formation. Anna, who did not like this, opposed Periyar's formation of a black shirt team. After this, Anna and Periyar's differing views on India's independence led to a major rift.
M R Radha and Karunanithi's Opinions - Many newspapers also wrote about the rift between the chairman and the secretary. There was a lot of talk throughout Tamil Nadu, but no direct action was taken to confirm this until the Thoothukudi conference. Yes, only Periyar went to the Thoothukudi conference and Anna did not come. Regarding this, MR Radha, who is said to be Periyar's champion, opined that it was a big mistake that the leaders did not come to the conference. In response to this, Anna's brother Karunanidhi opposed the opinion.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
The minor rift between Anna and Periyar eased slightly during the Hindi imposition struggle. Together they fought against the imposition of Hindi. Periyar appointed Anna as the leader of the campaign. While the situation at the party improved, Periyar come up with a big shock.
Periyar Getting Married - Periyar realized that he was getting old and that after him the Dravidian Party assets would go to someone else. He believed that the assets should come to his wife and thus the assets would be protected. For this Periyar marries Mariyammai the woman who worked as his nurse.
Anna Opposed - Periyar's decision was strongly opposed by Anna and Anna's followers and Anna said that if this decision was implemented, I and my volunteers would be removed from the party. But Periyar remained strong in his decision regardless of all this. Due to this Anna and Anna's supporters left the party and on that day Dravida Kazhagam separated into two.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Commencement
After quitting the party, Anna said that he was going to start a new party. As mentioned, on September 17, 1949, Anna founded a new party called the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Yes, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is still the largest party in the history of Tamil Nadu, was formed on that day. Despite leaving the party, Anna left the post of party president to Periyar due to his respect and esteem for Periyar and accepted the post of general secretary.
First Impression - Everyone knows Anna's eloquence. He impressed the youth and people of Tamil Nadu with his speech. He impressed the people by explaining the policies and paths of the party very clearly. Along with this one sculptor, sculptors like Karunanidhi Nedunjezhiyan Anbazagan also brought the party to the people through their eloquence.
First Election - Anna was not a big believer in elections and mostly he did not take part in the elections when he was in Justice Party. Likewise, he did not participate in the first election after DMK started. Instead, He said that they will support those who accept DMK's policy and path as their policy and path. DMK supported whoever accepted this in this election.
Rebellion Against Hindi Stuffing - After the first election, Anna started the rebellion against the imposition of Hindi. In the 1950s, Tamil Nadu railway stations were heavily marked with Hindi characters.
Rebellion Against Tribe Education - In the 1950s, Rajaji, the chief minister, announced a new education scheme. The curriculum consisted of half a day of schooling and the remaining half a day of learning their clan trade. All opposition parties strongly condemned this scheme.
Mummunai(Three-pronged) Rebellion - The three-pronged struggle was a turning point in Anna's political career. 1st one is against tribe education, the second one is against Nehru and the third one is to change the name of Dalmiapuram to Kallakudi. It was because of this rebellion that Anna first time went to jail. However, the protest caught everyone's attention. The Congress party itself was opposed to the tribe education scheme. Due to this, Rajaji had to resign. Then Kamaraja took the post and the tribe education scheme was abolished.
1957 Assembly Elections - Anna, who did not participate in the first assembly election after the party started, took part in the election. Just before this election, he gave up his post of General Secretary to Nedunjehian and this took surprise by everyone. He took the decision to participate in this election by calling the party conference and polling the party workers. With respect to the decision of the party members, the DMK party participated in the elections by making election promises. Anna contested in his hometown Kanchipuram.
DMK won 15 seats in this election. Anna, Karunanidhi, Anbazagan, and Sathyavani won their seats and entered the Legislative Assembly with 11 others.
Opposition Politics - Anna, despite losing her opposition status by an inch, continued to do his work without giving up. He supported good projects in the legislature and strongly opposed bad projects. Outside the Legislative Assembly, he raised the grievances of the people and led various policy protests. Also, he continued to protest against the imposition of Hindi by the central government.
Crack in The Party - As happens in all parties, there was a small rift in the DMK party. E V K Sampath and Karunanidhi had problems with the post of General Secretary. Eventually, the issue turned into a rift in the party. As a solution, Anna himself avoided the problem by taking the post of General Secretary. But this did not bring happiness to Sampath and in 1960 the problem between the two became serious and Sampath left the DMK.
1961 Assembly Election - Soon after Sampath left the party, the assembly elections came. However, DMK worked hard in this election. Anna, MGR, and Karunanidhi were acting as DMK's propaganda cannon. They campaigned on every street pointing out the mistakes of the Congress party and the plans of the DMK. DMK's hard work has paid off. At the end of the election, DMK won 50 seats which is 3 times more than last time.
Anna's defeat - Despite a huge victory for the DMK, Anna lost to the Congress candidate Natesha Mudaliar in the Kanchipuram constituency where he contested. Due to this DMK members had to go to the assembly without a leader. Even though he was unable to enter the assembly, the DMK party elected Anna as a Member of Parliament and sent him to Parliament.
Anti-Secession Act - Anna's speech in Parliament took everyone by surprise. The claims that I am a Dravidian and that I am from a Dravidian country and that the Dravidian nation is a separate nation were the spark that led the Indian government to enact the Anti-Secession Act. As a result, Anna and the party abandoned the policy of a separate Dravidian nation. But they supported state autonomy.
Official Language of India - On 26 January 1965, the Government of India declared Hindi as the official language of India and English as the second language. Expressing strong condemnation against this, Anna also announced a protest. The protest broke out all over Tamil Nadu. A huge protest was held by the youth, students, and volunteers. Many youths committed suicide and ended their lives for this. Congress resorted to violence to quell this massive protest. The situation escalated to the point of firing. Thus, Anna told the students not to participate in the protest.
1967 Assembly Election
Anna adopted new electoral strategies to end the Congress's brutality and language mania. Anna united many small parties and went to the battlefield as a single united army. Although the Congress party had the features of the ruling party, huge popularity, and Kamaraj, they could not win against Anna and his army.
MGR vs Radha - As they had campaigned in the last election, this time also highlighted the grievances of the Congress and their solutions to everyone. And MGR, popular among the people of Tamil Nadu, was the main speaker of DMK. MGR was the greatest strength of DMK.
This is when the problem between MGR and Radha reached its peak. Radha shot MGR. This plant spread wildly across the people of Tamil Nadu. The act created a wave of sympathy. Karunanidhi wrote about this incident in the newspapers, sparks flying with his pen and ink.
The DMK won the election and became the ruling party by defeating Congress. On January 14, 1965, Anna took office as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
Laws and welfare schemes - Anna passed the renaming of Madras State as Tamil Nadu and recognition of self-respect marriages as soon as he took office. Although the trilingual policy was followed throughout India, in Tamil Nadu only the bilingual policy of Tamil and English was followed. Even though the central government protested strongly and threatened to dissolve the Tamil Nadu government, Anna threatened to topple the central government if the Tamil Nadu government is dissolved. Holiday on Labor Day, one step of rice per rupee, and welfare schemes for agriculture are also passed by the CM of Tamilnadu.
Unfortunate Tamil Nadu and Tamil People
Anna's health began to deteriorate from the day he become CM. He went to America for treatment but it did not yield any results. Anna passed away on February 3, 1969, due to ill health. It is the misfortune of Tamil Nadu that such a great leader ruled Tamil Nadu for only two years. If you ask the people of Tamil Nadu who is the best Chief Minister, they will say Kamaraj, but for me, Anna is the best Chief Minister, if he had ruled for more years, Tamil Nadu would have progressed further.
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