As I was watching the news channel a breaking news just flashed into the tv screen. M Karunanidhi is hospitalized! Well, It's not a shocking news to many of the people who know about his health and way he is being wheelchaired from few years. but its definitely a heartbreaking news to many of his followers in Tamilnadu.
Mr. M Karunanidhi, popularly known as Kalaignar in the southern state of India, Tamilnadu. He is also one of the longest-serving MLA in India. He has served as MLA for 61 long years that's definitely a record indeed.
Mr. M Karunanidhi, popularly known as Kalaignar in the southern state of India, Tamilnadu. He is also one of the longest-serving MLA in India. He has served as MLA for 61 long years that's definitely a record indeed.
Karunanidhi was born in a small village in what is now eastern Tamil Nadu and was the member of a caste of musicians. He left school early and began working as a screenwriter in the Tamil film industry. There he honed skills for promoting the Dravidian movement against Brahmans (the highest caste in the Hindu social order) that later contributed to his rise as a popular politician.
Karunanidhi began his career as a screenwriter in the Tamil film industry.Through his wit and oratorical skills he rapidly rose as a popular politician. He was famous for writing historical and social (reformist) stories which propagated the socialist and rationalist ideals of the Dravidian movementto which he belonged. He first began using Tamil cinema to propagate his political ideas through the movie Parasakthi.Parasakthiwas a turning point in Tamil cinema, as it espoused the ideologies of the Dravidian movement and also introduced two prominent actors of Tamil filmdom, Sivaji Ganesan and S. S. Rajendran. The movie was initially banned but was eventually released in 1952. It was a huge box office hit, but its release was marred with controversies. The movie was opposed by orthodox Hindus since it contained elements that criticized Brahmanism.Two other movies written by Karunanidhi that contained such messages were Panam and Thangarathnam.These movies contained themes such as widow remarriage, abolition of untouchability, self-respect marriages, abolition of zamindari and abolition of religious hypocrisy.As his movies and plays with strong social messages became popular, they suffered from increased censorship; two of his plays in the 1950s were banned.
Karunanidhi rose to fame as a scriptwriter for the Modern Theatres Studio in Salem about 350 kilometers from Madras or present day Chennai. T R Sundaram, the owner of Modern Theatres Studio at Yercaud foot hills, was instrumental in honouring the talents of Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa and M G Ramachandran.
Karunanidhi became involved in politics in his early teens, beginning with public protests against the use of the Hindi language in the region. He formed organizations for the local youth and students and started a newspaper that eventually became the Murasoli, the DMK’s official newspaper. He became a close associate of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai and first received broader notice in Tamil politics when he led a 1953 protest in a town where its Tamil name had been replaced with one honoring an industrialist from northern India with a Hindi name.
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| Karunanidhi in his early life. |
Karunanidhi, running as an independent candidate, was first elected to the legislative assembly of Madras state (the name for Tamil Nadu until 1968) in 1957. Beginning with the 1962 assembly polls (which included the DMK), he was continually reelected to that body.
He became the party’s treasurer in 1961 and deputy leader of the opposition when the party entered the state assembly the following year. After the DMK won the 1967 assembly elections (with Karunanidhi soundly defeating his Indian National Congress [Congress Party] opponent), the party formed the government, and Annadurai became chief minister. Karunanidhi was named the minister for public works. Annadurai died in early 1969, and Karunanidhi succeeded him as the head of DMK and as chief minister. His first tenure lasted only until January 1971, but another DMK victory in assembly elections later that year returned him to the chief minister’s office.
In 1972, however, a new party, the All India Dravidian Progressive Federation (All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, AIADMK), split from the DMK. Thereafter, the two parties became bitter rivals and traded terms heading the state government.
In 2006, at the age of 82, Karunanidhi became chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time, after a DMK-Congress alliance had secured a majority of seats in assembly elections. The party had won on the promise that it would provide cheap rice to the citizenry and a free television for every household in the state. By 2011, however, such incentives were not enough to overcome allegations of corruption, and the party was thoroughly trounced by the AIADMK in assembly elections. Although Karunanidhi easily retained his seat, only 22 other DMK candidates could win in the polling. He was by then in poor health, but he remained the DMK’s supreme leader and continued to command immense popularity in Tamil Nadu politics.
At this moment let's wish a man of revolution a speedy recovery.
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| Karunanidhi... The kalaingar of Tamilnadu |
