Chakravarti Rajagopalachari

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari also known as Rajaji was an Indian politician, independence activist and lawyer. He was the last Governor-General of India and first Indian Governor-General of India. He was the second Minister of Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras State. He founded the Swatantra Party. He was also the first recipients of the Bharat Ratna along with Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman. He acquired the nickname of “Mango of Salem”.

 

•    Rajaji was born on 10th December, 1878 in Thorapalli, Salem district, Madras Presidency.

•    His parents were Chakravarti Venkataryan, a munsiff of Thorapalli village and Chakravarti Singaramma.

•    He graduated with arts in Central College, Bangalore in 1894 and graduated with law from Presidency College, Madras in 1897.

•    He married Alamelu Mangalamma in 1897 and had five children.

•    Later, his daughter Lakshmi married Devdas Gandhi, son of Mahatma Gandhi.

•    He started his legal career in Salem, Tamil Nadu in 1900 where he got interested in politics and society.

 

•    Rajaji joined the Indian National Congress in 1906 and participated in the 1906 Calcutta session.

•    He became a member of Salem Municipality in 1911 after getting inspired by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

•    He was elected as Chairman of Municipality from 1917 – 1919.

•    During his term, first Dalit Member of Salem Municipality was elected.

•    He defended Independence activist P.V.Naidu against charges of sedition in 1917.

•    He also participated in the Rowlatt Act Agitation.

•    He became one of the early followers of Mahatma Gandhi after Gandhi joined Indian Independence Movement.

•    He gave up his law practice during Non-Cooperation Movement.

•    In 1921, he became the party’s General Secretary.

•    He led the group of NO-CHANGERS i.e. individuals against contesting elections for the Imperial Legislative Council and other Provincial Councils against PRO-CHANGERS.

•    NO-CHANGERS  won the motion in the Indian National Congress against PRO-CHANGERS which led to the resignation of Pandit Motilal Nehru and C.R.Das.

•    He was involved in the Vaikom Satyagraha Movement against untouchability during 1924-25.

•    During Salt Satyagraha, Rajaji broke the Salt Laws at Vedaranyam near Nagapattinam after which he was imprisoned by British Government.

•    He became the President of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee in 1937.

•    He was instrumental in convincing the Indian National Congress to participate in the 1937 general elections.

 

•    Indian National Congress came to power in Madras Presidency in 1937 and Rajaji became the first Premier of Madras Presidency with winning the Madras University seat of Assembly.

•    He issued the Temple Entry Authorization and Indemnity Act 1939 which removed restrictions on Dalits and Shanars entering Hindu Temples after which Meenakshi Temple of Madurai was opened to Dalits.

•    In march 1938, he introduced the Agricultural Debt Relief Act, to ease the burden of debt on the province’s peasants.

•    He also introduced the provision of Hindi language as compulsory in educational institutions due to which he was criticised a lot by Non-Hindi speakers.

•    There was a widespread Anti-Hindi protest all over the Madras Presidency in which thousands were jailed and two people were killed too.

•    After the outbreak of Second World War, Rajaji resigned along with the Cabinet in protest against the declaration of War by Viceroy of India.

•    In December 1940, he was arrested under Defence of India rules and sentenced to one-year prison.

•    He opposed Quit India Movement and advocated for dialogue with British as he considered Germany invasion a bigger threat than British.

•    When Muslim League was demanding a separate nation and there was a deadlock between Indian National Congress and Muslim League, then C.Rajagopalachari proposed a set of plans called the C.R. Formula or Rajaji Formula.

•    This was the first acknowledgement by a Congress Member about the inevitability of Partition and tacit acceptance of Pakistan.

 

•    He was the Minister of Industry, Supply, Education and Finance in Jawaharlal Nehru’s interim government from 1946 to 1947.

•    He was also the Member of Constituent Assembly where he was the part of Advisory Committee and Sub-Committee on Minorities.

•    He debated on Religious Denominations issues.

•    He was the first Governor of West Bengal after the partition of India in 1947.

•    He also acted as the Acting Governor-General of India in the absence of Lord Mountbatten in November 1947.

•    He became the first Indian Governor-General of India and the last Governor-General of India when he served between June 1948- 26 January 1950.

•    He joined the Union Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio after enactment of Indian Constitution.

•    He mostly acted as the buffer between Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru and also acted as the Mediator between them whenever needed as both were not on good terms.

•    He served as Home Affairs Minister for 10 months after Sardar Patel’s death.

•    Sardar Patel and Rajaji both warned Nehru about the expansionist policy of China and he expressed regrets over Tibet problem.

•    He was against Linguistic States as he considered they would act against the Unity of India.

•    During his tenure Andhra Pradesh, a telugu speaking state was created after division from Madras Presidency in 1953.

•    His government became more unpopular when he introduced the controversial Modified System of Elementary Education and later he resigned as CM in 1954.

•    In 1957 he resigned from the Congress Party and in 1956 founded the Swatantra Party along with Murari Vaidya and Minoo Masani. 

•    He was against the Soviet Socialism and also coined the term ‘License-Permit Raj’.

•    In 1967, Swatantra Party in an alliance with the DMK and the Forward Bloc won the Madras Assembly Elections and ousted the Congress in Madras for the first time in 30 years. 

•    Swatantra Party also became the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha in 1967 elections.

•    He passed away on 25 December 1972 aged 94.

•    He was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1955.

•    He was referred to as ‘my conscience keeper’ by Gandhi.

 

•    Rajaji was also a good writer and has written various books in Tamil and English. 

•    He abridged English versions of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, still read by children.

•    He has written several pieces on Hinduism.

•    He also translated THIRUKKURAL into English.

•    He wrote about Socrates in Tamil.

•    He was awarded Sahity Akademi Award in 1958.