Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He was a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party.
CHILDHOOD:
Karunanidhi was born of 3 June 1924, in the village of Thirukuvalai in Nagapattinam.
Karunanidhi said that his family were of Isai Velalar caste. His initial schooling was in thirukuvalai and then in 1936 he shifted to a high school in Tiruvarur. Karunanidhi joined the anti-Hindi protests sparked by the provincial government's legislation making Hindi-education mandatory in schools, and in 1938 organised a group of boys to hold demonstrations traveling around Tiruvarur.Karunanidhi started following the work and speeches of leaders of Justice Party, Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam.
He started his first magazine, at age 15, called Manava Nesan, which was hand-written and distributed. It was soon followed by the establishment of Murasoli . He expanded into writing plays propagating Dravidian ideology, and at age 20 starting writing and performing in plays for the Dravid Nadigar Kazhagam.
MARRIAGE:
Karunanidhi married three times. His first marriage was to Padmavathi in September 1944, and they had a son M.K.Muthu, who was briefly active in Tamil films and politics. Padmavathi died in 1948 soon after childbirth. In September of that year, Karunanidhi's marriage was arranged with Dayalu Ammal, with whom he had three sons, M. K. Alagiri, M. K. Stalin and M. K. Tamilarasu, and a daughter, M. K. Selvi.
With his third wife, Rajathi Ammal, Karunanidhi had a daughter, Kanimozhi, who is seen as his literary heir.
SCREENWRITING:
PARASAKTHI:
Parasakthi is a 1952 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by R. Krishnan and S. Panju. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan in his cinematic acting debut.The screenplay and dialogues for Parasakthi were written by M. Karunanidhi, who would later become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,which is one of the notable movie for him.The movie was initially marred with controversies and faced censorship troubles, but was eventually released in 1952.becoming a huge box office hit. The movie was opposed by orthodox Hindus since it contained elements that criticised Brahmanism.
OTHER MOVIES:
The other movies include Panam (1952),Manohara(1954) which are known for his best dialogues.hese movies contained themes such as widow remarriage, abolition of untouchability, self-respect marriages, abolition of zamindari and abolition of religious hypocrisy.
He was famous for writing historical and social (reformist) stories which propagated the socialist and rationalist ideals of the Dravidian movement to which he belonged.
SCRIPTWRITTER:
As a script writter his first film was Rajakumari(1947) which made him popular.
He then penned for many films and he was active till 2011 with the last historic movie he penned for Ponnar Shankar(2011).
His other films include
- Abimanyu(1948)
- Maruthanattu ilavarasi(1950)
- Manthiri kumari(1950)
- Manamagal(1951)
- Thirumbi Paar(1953)
- Malaikallan(1954)
- Rangoon radha(1956)
- Raja Rani(1956)
- Pudhaiyal(1957)
- PudhumaiPithan(1957)
- Kuravanji(1960)
- Arasilangkumari(1961)
- Thayilla pillai (1961)
- Iruvar ullam(1963)
- Kanchithalaivan(1963)
- Poombuhaar(1964)
- Poomalai(1965)
- Avanpithana(1966)
- Pillaiyo pillai(1972)
- Kaalam badhil sollum(1980)
- Paalaivana rojakal(1985)
- Nethikku thandanai(1987)
- Padada thenikal(1988)
- Pasa paravaigal(1988)
- Nyaya tharasu(1989)
- kavalukuu ketikaran(1990)
- Madurai meenakshi(1993)
- Pudhiya parasakthi(1996)
- Mannin maindhan(2005)
- kannamma(2005)
- Pasa kiligal(2006)
- Uliyil oosai(2006)
- Pen singam(2010)
- Ilaignan(2010)
ART AND ARCHITECTURE:
Karunanidhi is known for his contributions to Tamil literature. His contributions cover a wide range of poems, letters, screenplays, novels, biographies, historical novels, stage-plays, dialogues and movie songs. He has written Kuraloviam for Thirukural, Tholkaappiya Poonga, Poombukar, as well as many poems, essays and books
The books written by Karunanidhi include Sanga Thamizh, Thirukkural Urai, Ponnar Sankar, Romapuri Pandian, Thenpandi Singam, Vellikizhamai, Nenjukku Needhi, Iniyavai Irubathu and Kuraloviam.
He did many stage plays which include Manimagudam, Ore Ratham, Palaniappan, Thooku Medai, Kagithapoo, Naane Arivali, Vellikizhamai, Udhayasooriyan and Silappathikaram.
Karunanidhi has also contributed to the Tamil language through art and architecture. Like the Kuraloviyam, in which he wrote about Thirukkural, through the construction of Valluvar Kottam he gave an architectural presence to Thiruvalluvar, in Chennai. At Kanyakumari,he constructed a 133-foot-high statue of Thiruvalluvar in honour of the scholar.
POLITICAL LIFE:
The first major protest that aided Karunanidhi in gaining ground in Tamil politics was his involvement in the Kallakudi agitation in Kallakudi. Original name of this industrial town was Kallakudi and it was changed to Dalmiapuram after a cement mogul who built a cement plant there. DMK wanted to change the name back to Kallakudi. In the protest Karunanidhi and his companions erased the name Dalmiapuram from the railway station and lay down on the tracks blocking the course of trains. Two people died in the protest and Karunanidhi was arrested.
At the age of 33, Karunanidhi entered the Tamil Nadu assembly by winning the Kulithalai seat in the 1957 election. He became the DMK treasurer in 1961 and deputy leader of opposition in the state assembly in the year 1962 and when the DMK came to power in 1967, he became the Minister for Public Works.
CHIEF MINISTER:
When Annadurai died in 1969, Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the first leader of DMK, since the leader post was customarily left vacant for Periyar during Annadurai time as Annadurai was party general secretary only. He has held various positions in the party and government during his long career in Tamil Nadu political arena.
During the National Emergency during 70's, the DMK was the only ruling party across India that opposed the Emergency, for which his government was summarily dismissed by Indira Gandhi's government and many of his party leaders were arrested and jailed till the Emergency was lifted. Later, the D.M.K teamed up with the Janata Party post-Emergency, but suffered defeat at the assembly elections under accusations of corruption .
His one time friend M. G. Ramachandran, who floated his AIADMK party after being sacked by Karunanidhi from DMK a few years earlier, would come to power in Tamil Nadu. The DMK then suffered multiple electoral defeats against his primary opponent M.G.Ramachandran's AIADMK, until the latter's death in 1987.
1980-2011 :
Karunanidhi had a brief stint as Chief Minister in the late 1980s, during which his government was dismissed by the Central government on accusations of degrading the law and order situation in the state after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.He later again became the CM of Tamil Nadu in 1996 following a sweeping electoral win in the preceding elections. Following a five-year rule, his party again lost at the elections to J. Jayalalithaa's AIADMK in 2001.
He then took over as chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 13 May 2006 after his coalition defeated his main opponent J. Jayalalithaa in the May 2006 elections. DMK lost the majority of seats in the legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu when elections were held in 2011, thereby ceding power again to the AIADMK under J. Jayalalithaa.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
WORLD TAMIL CONFERENCE:
He delivered the special address on the inaugural day of 3rd World Tamil Conference held in Paris in 1970, and also on the inaugural day of 6th World Tamil Conference held in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) in 1987. He penned the song "Semmozhiyaana Tamizh Mozhiyaam", the official theme song for the World Classical Tamil Conference 2010, that was set to tune by A. R. Rahman.
RAM SETHU CONTROVERSY:
In response to the Sethusamudram controversy, Karunanidhi questioned the existence of the Hindu God Rama. He said 'It is said that there was a God thousands of years ago called Ram. Do not touch the bridge built by him. I ask who is this Ram? Which engineering college did he graduate from?" His remarks caused a firestorm of controversy. BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Karunanidhi of religious discrimination when noting "We would like to know from Karunanidhi if he would make a similar statement against religious head of any other religion; chance are he may not."
LTTE CONNECTION:
In April 2009, in an interview, Karunanidhi made a controversial remark stating that "Prabhakaran is my good friend" and also said, "India could not forgive the LTTE for assassinating Rajiv Gandhi".An interim report of Justice Jain Commission, which oversaw the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, had indicted Karunanidhi for abetting Rajiv Gandhi's murderers, who belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam but the final report contained no such allegations.
DEATH:
Karunanidhi was in poor health from October 2016 and minimised his political activities and public appearances, with the last one being on his 94th birthday on 3 June 2018.
On 28 July 2018, Karunanidhi's health deteriorated and became "extremely critical and unstable", and he was admitted at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai for treatment. He died there at 6:10 p.m. on 7 August 2018 due to age-related illness, which led to multiple organ failure.
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