C. Rajagopalachari

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji, the Scholar Emeritus), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence activist. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, serving until the abolition of that office upon India becoming a republic in 1950. He was the only Indian-born Governor-General or Viceroy of India; all previous holders of these posts had been British nationals. He was an accomplished writer and one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. He was close to both Gandhi and Nehru. He vehemently opposed the use of nuclear weapons, and was a proponent of world peace and disarmament, until his death at the age of 94 in 1972.

Rajagopalachari also served—at different times—as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal (he was serving in this post when appointed by the King to take over from Lord Mountbatten), a member of the national cabinet as Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union, and as Chief Minister of Madras State. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party in 1959.

Rajagopalachari was born in the Thorapalli village of Hosur taluk in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. He was a sickly child, and his parents constantly feared that he might not live long. He was educated at Central College, Bengaluru, and Presidency College, Madras. In the 1900s he started legal practice at the Salem court. On entering politics, he became a member and later Chairperson of the Salem municipality. One of Mahatma Gandhi's earliest political lieutenants, he joined the Indian National Congress and participated in the agitations against the Rowlatt Act, joining the non-cooperation movement, the Vaikom Satyagraha, and the Civil Disobedience movement. In 1930, Rajagopalachari risked imprisonment when he led the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha in response to the Dandi March. In 1937, Rajagopalachari was elected Prime minister of the Madras Presidency

Early life

Rajagopalachari was born to Chakravarti Venkatarya Achari (Iyengar) and his wife Singaramma on 10 December 1878 in Thorapalli village on the outskirts of Hosur, in hosur taluk, Krishnagiri district, Madras Presidency, British Raj. His father was the munsiff of Thorapalli. He hailed from a Hindu Brahmin family belonging to the Sri Vaishnava sect. The couple already had two sons, Narasimhachari and Srinivasa.

A weak and sickly child, Rajagopalachari was a constant worry to his parents who feared that he might not live long.

Rajagopalachari married Alamelu Mangalamma in 1897 and she gave birth to her son a day after her thirteenth birthday. The couple had five children, three sons: C. R. Narasimhan, C. R. Krishnaswamy, and C. R. Ramaswami, and two daughters: Lakshmi Gandhi (née Rajagopalachari) and Namagiri Ammal. Mangamma died in 1916 whereupon Rajagopalachari took sole responsibility for the care of his children. He later wrote a biography of his father. Rajagopalachari's daughter Lakshmi married Devdas Gandhi, son of Mahatma Gandhi Rajagopalachari's great-grandson, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari Kesavan, is a spokesperson of the Congress Party and Trustee of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.

Indian Independence Movement

Rajagopalachari's interest in public affairs and politics began when he commenced his legal practice in Salem in 1900. At the age of 28, he joined the Indian National Congress and participated as a delegate in the 1906 Calcutta session. he later became a member of the Salem municipality in 1911. In 1917, he was elected chairman of the municipality and served from 1917 to 1919 during which time he was responsible for the election of the first Dalit member of the Salem municipality. In 1917, he defended Indian independence activist P. Varadarajulu Naidu against charges of sedition and two years later participated in the agitations against the Rowlatt Act. Rajagopalachari was a close friend of the founder of Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company V. O. Chidambaram Pillai as well as greatly admired by Indian independence activists Annie Besant, Subramania Bharati and C. Vijayaraghavachariar.

After Mahatma Gandhi joined the Indian independence movement in 1919, Rajagopalachari became one of his followers. While Gandhi was in prison, Rajagopalachari led the group of "No-Changers", individuals against contesting elections for the Imperial Legislative Council and other provincial legislative councils, in opposition to the "Pro-changers" who advocated council entry. When the motion was put to the vote, the "No-changers" won by 1,748 to 890 votes resulting in the resignation of important Congress leaders including Pandit Motilal Nehru and C. R. Das, the President of the Indian National Congress. When the Indian National Congress split in 1923, Rajagopalachari was a member of the Civil Disobedience Enquiry Committee.

In the early 1930s, Rajagopalachari emerged as one of the major leaders of the Tamil Nadu Congress. When Gandhi organised the Dandi march in 1930, Rajagopalachari broke the salt laws at Vedaranyam, near Nagapattinam, along with Indian independence activist Sardar Vedaratnam. He was subsequently elected President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. At the age of 59, Rajagopalachari won the Madras University seat and entered the Assembly as the first Premier of the Madras Presidency from the Congress party.

In 1938, when Dalit members of the Madras Legislative Council proposed a Temple Entry Bill, Congress Prime Minister Rajagopalachari asked them to withdraw it. In the same year, the Meenakshi temple at Madurai was also opened to the Dalits and Shanars. In March 1938, Rajagopalachari introduced the Agricultural Debt Relief Act, to ease the burden of debt on the province's peasant population. along with a sales tax to compensate for the loss of government revenue that resulted from the ban on alcohol. The Provincial Government shut down hundreds of government-run primary schools, citing lack of funds. His opponents said that this deprived many low-caste and Dalit students of their education. His opponents also attributed casteist motives to his government's implementation of Gandhi's Nai Talim scheme into the education system. This measure sparked off widespread anti-Hindi protests, which led to violence in some places and the jailing of over 1,200 men, women and children who took part in the unrest. Two protesters, Thalamuthu Nadar and Natarasan, were killed during the protests.

Second World War

thumb|250px|Chakravarti with [[Mahatma Gandhi during the Gandhi-Jinnah talks, 1944. Gandhi described Chakravarti as his "keeper of my conscience"]]

Some months after the outbreak of the Second World War, Rajagopalachari resigned as premier along with other members of his cabinet in protest at the declaration of war by the Viceroy of India. Rajagopalachari was arrested in December 1940, in accordance with the Defence of India rules, and sentenced to one year in prison. He reasoned that passivity and neutrality would be harmful to India's interests at a time when the country was threatened with invasion. triggering a huge controversy among nationalists.

Disliked by the Bengali political class for his criticism of Subhas Chandra Bose during the 1939 Tripuri Congress session, Rajagopalachari's appointment as Governor of West Bengal was protested by Bose's brother Sarat Chandra Bose. Rajagopalachari led a very simple life in the viceregal palace, washing his own clothes and polishing his own shoes. Impressed with his abilities, Mountbatten made Rajagopalachari his second choice to succeed him after Vallabhbhai Patel, when he was to leave India in June 1948. Rajagopalachari was eventually chosen as the governor-general when Nehru disagreed with Mountbatten's first choice, as did Patel himself. Backed by Nehru, Rajagopalachari wanted to stand for the presidential election but later withdrew, due to the opposition of a section of the Indian National Congress mostly made up of North Indians who were concerned about Rajagopalachari's non-participation during the Quit India Movement.

thumb|Rajagopalachari as Governor-General of India proclaims the Republic of India on 26 January 1950

Role in Constituent Assembly

He was elected to the Constituent Assembly of India from Madras. He was a part of Advisory Committee and Sub-Committee on Minorities. He debated on issues relating to rights of religious denominations.

In Nehru's Cabinet

At Nehru's invitation, in 1950, Rajagopalachari joined the Union Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio He also adamantly opposed Nehru's decision to commute the death sentences passed on those involved in the Telangana uprising and his strong pro-Soviet leanings. Tired of being persistently over-ruled by Nehru concerning critical decisions,

Madras State 1952–1954

thumb|C. Rajagopalachari's Statue in Salem.

In the 1952 Madras elections, the Indian National Congress was reduced to a minority in the state assembly with a coalition led by the Communist Party of India winning most of the seats. The Congress did not want the Communists taking power or to impose Governor's rule in the state. It brought Rajagopalachari out of retirement to form the government as a consensus candidate. On 31 March 1952, Kamaraj presented a resolution, proposing the election of Rajagopalachari as the leader of the Madras Legislature Congress party. The resolution was approved by the party and Kamaraj revealed that Rajagopalachari had been reluctant to accept the responsibility as Chief Minister and the leader of the Madras Legislature Congress party as his health was fragile and added that by acceding to the request of the party, Rajagopalachari had put country before self. Rajagopalachari did not contest the by-election and on 10 April 1952, Madras Governor Sri Prakasa appointed him as Chief Minister by nomination as MLC without consulting either the Prime Minister Nehru or the ministers in the Madras state cabinet. It was the first time when the governor office was accused of acting inappropriately after independence. P. C. Alexander, a former governor of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra wrote about the appointment of Rajagopalachari as "The most conspicuous case of constitutional impropriety by the Governor in the exercise of discretion to choose the Chief Minister..." 19 members of the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party led by S. S. Ramasami Padayachi, 5 members of the Madras State Muslim League and 6 members of Commonweal Party also provided their support to Rajagopalachari to prevent the Communists from gaining power. Nehru was furious and wrote to Rajagopalachari saying "the one thing we must avoid giving is the impression that we stick to office and we want to keep others out at all costs." Rajagopalachari, however, refused to contest a by-election and remained as a nominated member of the Legislative Council. On 19 October 1952, an Indian independence activist and social worker from Madras named Potti Sriramulu embarked on a hunger strike reiterating the demands of the separatists and calling for the inclusion of Madras city within the proposed state. Rajagopalachari remained unmoved by Sriramulu's action and refused to intervene. After fasting for days, Sriramulu eventually died on 15 December 1952, triggering riots in Madras city and the Telugu-speaking districts of the state. However, the boundaries of the new state were determined by a commission which decided against the inclusion of Madras city. Though the commission's report suggested the option of having Madras as the temporary capital of Andhra State to allow smooth partitioning of the assets and the secretariat, Rajagopalachari refused to allow Andhra State to have Madras even for a day.

On 7 June 1952, Rajagopalachari ended the procurement policy and food rationing in the state, abolishing all price and quota controls. His decision was a rejection of a planned economy in favour of a free market economy. He also introduced measures to regulate the running of universities in the state.

In 1953, he introduced a new education scheme known as the "Modified Scheme of Elementary education 1953", which reduced schooling for elementary school students from five hours to three hours per day and suggested that boys to learn the family crafts from their father and girls housekeeping from their mothers. The scheme came in for sharp criticism and evoked strong protests from the Dravidian parties. Two amendments were proposed against the scheme at the Madras State legislative assembly. One advocated for a study by an expert group, while another advocated for the scheme's abolition. Both sides launched publicity campaigns in June 1953. At the Adyar riverside, Rajaji made a speech to the washermen. He stated kuladharma, or each clan's or caste's social obligation. He delivered talks and made radio broadcasts to clarify his views. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam dubbed the scheme Kula Kalvi Thittam or Hereditary Education Policy which was put forward with the intention of perpetuating the caste system. Rajagopalachari argued, <blockquote>It is a mistake to imagine that the school is within the walls. The whole village is a school. The village polytechnic is there, every branch of it, the dhobi, the wheelwright, the cobbler.</blockquote>

The Scheme was stayed by the house and the Parulekar Committee was commissioned to review the scheme. The committee found the scheme to be sound and endorsed the Government's position. India's President Rajendra Prasad and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru also offered their support to the scheme.

Rajagopalachari closed down 6000 schools, citing financial constraints. Kamaraj opposed this policy and eventually opened 12,000 schools in his tenure. The rising unpopularity of his government forced Rajagopalachari to resign on 26 March 1954, as the President of the Madras Congress Legislature Party (CLP) thereby precipitating new elections. Kamaraj's name was proposed by P. Varadarajalu Naidu for the post of CLP leader. M. Bakthavatsalam, another senior Congress leader, fielded C. Subramaniam. On 30 March 1954, the election took place, Subramaniam could garner only 41 votes to Kamaraj's 93 and lost the elections. Rajagopalachari eventually resigned as Chief Minister on 13 April 1954, attributing the decision to poor health.

Split from Congress – parting of ways

Following his resignation as Chief Minister, Rajagopalachari took a temporary break from active politics and instead devoted his time to literary pursuits. He wrote a Tamil re-telling of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana which appeared as a serial in the Tamil magazine Kalki from 23 May 1954 to 6 November 1955. The episodes were later collected and published as Chakravarti Thirumagan, a book which won Rajagopalachari the 1958 Sahitya Academy award in Tamil language.

Rajagopalachari tendered his official resignation from the Indian National Congress and along with a number of other dissidents organised the Congress Reform Committee (CRC) in January 1957. K. S. Venkatakrishna Reddiar was elected president and the party fielded candidates in 55 constituencies in the 1957 state assembly elections, to emerge as the second largest party in Madras state with 13 seats in the legislative assembly. The Congress Reform Committee also contested 12 Lok Sabha seats during the 1957 Indian elections. The committee became a fully-fledged political party and was renamed the Indian National Democratic Congress at a state conference held in Madurai on September 28–29, 1957. and Minoo Masani, a classical liberal and critic of socialist Nehru, announced the formation of the new Swatantra Party at a meeting in Madras. Conceived by disgruntled heads of former princely states such as the Raja of Ramgarh, the Maharaja of Kalahandi and the Maharajadhiraja of Darbhanga, the party was conservative in character. Later, N. G. Ranga, K. M. Munshi, Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa and the Maharaja of Patiala joined the effort.

In his short essay "Our Democracy", Rajagopalachari explained the necessity for a right-wing alternative to the Congress by saying:

<blockquote>since... the Congress Party has swung to the Left, what is wanted is not an ultra or outer-Left [viz. the CPI or the Praja Socialist Party, PSP], but a strong and articulate Right The party stood for equality and opposed government control over the private sector. Rajagopalachari sharply criticised the bureaucracy and coined the term "licence-permit Raj" to describe Nehru's elaborate system of permissions and licences required for an individual to set up a private enterprise. Rajagopalachari's personality became a rallying point for the party.

Rajagopalachari's efforts to build an anti-Congress front led to a patch up with his former adversary C. N. Annadurai of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Annadurai grew close to Rajagopalachari and sought an alliance with the Swatantra Party for the 1962 Madras legislative assembly elections. Although there were occasional electoral pacts between the Swatantra Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Rajagopalachari remained non-committal on a formal tie-up with the DMK due to its existing alliance with Communists whom he dreaded. The Swatantra Party contested 94 seats in the Madras state assembly elections and won six as well as won 18 parliamentary seats in the 1962 Lok Sabha elections.

1965 Anti-Hindi agitations in Madras

alt=Photo taken at a private function.|thumb|DMK leaders [[K. A. Mathiazhagan, V.P. Raman, C.N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi with Swatantra Party founder C. Rajagopalachari.]]

On 26 January 1950, the Government of India adopted Hindi as the official language of the country, but because of objections in non-Hindi-speaking areas, it introduced a provision tentatively making English the second official language on a par with Hindi for a stipulated fifteen-year period to facilitate a switch to Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states. From 26 January 1965 onwards, Hindi was to become the sole official language of the Indian Union and people in non-Hindi speaking regions were compelled to learn Hindi. This led to vehement opposition and just before Republic Day, severe anti-Hindi protests broke out in Madras State. Rajagopalachari had earlier been sharply critical of the recommendations made by the Official Languages Commission in 1957. On 28 January 1956, Rajagopalachari signed a resolution along with Annadurai and Periyar endorsing the continuation of English as the official language. At an All-India Language Conference held on 8 March 1958, he declared: "Hindi is as much foreign to non-Hindi speaking people as English [is] to the protagonists of Hindi". When the Anti-Hindi agitations broke out in 1965, Rajagopalachari completely reversed his 1938 support for the introduction of Hindi and took a strongly anti-Hindi stand in support of the protests, coining the slogan 'English Ever, Hindi Never'. On 17 January 1965, he convened the Madras state Anti-Hindi conference in Tiruchirapalli. angrily declaring that Part XVII of the Constitution of India which declared that Hindi was the official language should "be heaved and thrown into the Arabian Sea." At the age of 88, Rajagopalachari worked to forge a united opposition to the Indian National Congress through a tripartite alliance between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Swatantra Party and the Forward Bloc. The Congress party was defeated in Madras for the first time in 30 years and the coalition led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam came to power. C. N. Annadurai served as Chief Minister from 6 March 1967 until his death on 3 February 1969. Rajagopalachari delivered a moving eulogy to Annadurai at his funeral. Rajagopalachari pleaded with him not to repeal prohibition but to no avail and as a result, the Swatantra Party withdrew its support for the state government and instead allied with the Congress (O), a breakaway faction of the Indian National Congress led by Kamaraj.

In January 1971, a three-party anti-Congress coalition was established by the Congress (O), Jan Sangh and the Samyukta Socialist Party then on 8 January, the national executive of the Swatantra Party took the unanimous decision to join the coalition. However, the alliance fared badly. The Swatantra Party's tally was reduced to 8 seats from 23 in the 1967 elections. The decline of the Swatantra Party was also visible in the 1971 Tamil Nadu Legislative assembly elections in which it won just 19 seats down from 27 in the 1967 elections.

By November 1972, Rajagopalachari's health had begun to decline and on 17 December the same year, a week after his 94th birthday, he was admitted to the Government Hospital, Madras suffering from uraemia, dehydration and a urinary infection. His son, C. R. Narasimhan, was at his bedside at the time of his death reading him verses from a Hindu holy book.

On his death, condolences poured in from all corners of the country. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India commented:

Contributions to literature and music

An accomplished writer both in his mother tongue Tamil as well as English, In 1922, he published Siraiyil Tavam (Meditation in jail), a day-to-day account of his first imprisonment by the colonial government from 21 December 1921 to 20 March 1922.

Rajagopalachari started the Tamil Scientific Terms Society in 1916, followed by one of the Ramayana in 1957. In 1965, he translated the Thirukkural into English and also wrote books on the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads in English as well as works on Socrates and Marcus Aurelius in Tamil. Rajagopalachari often regarded his literary works as the best service he had rendered to the people. In 1959, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan published his book: "Hinduism: Doctrine and Way of Life".

Apart from his literary works, Rajagopalachari also composed a devotional song "Kurai Onrum Illai" devoted to Lord Venkateswara, a song set to music and a regular at Carnatic concerts. Rajagopalachari composed a benediction hymn sung by M. S. Subbulakshmi at the United Nations General Assembly in 1967.

Awards and honours

National honours

:
50px Bharat Ratna (1954)

Literary awards

Sahitya Akademi Award (1958)
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (1969)

Legacy

thumb|Rajagopalachari with Defence Minister [[Baldev Singh and the chiefs of Staffs of Indian Armed Forces in 1948.]]

thumb|A portrait of C. Rajagopalachari at the Parliament House in New Delhi. Then PM [[Manmohan Singh, the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar, the chairman, BJP Parliamentary Party, Lal Krishna Advani and other dignitaries paid homage at the portrait of Rajagopalachari, on his Birth Anniversary on 10 December 2011.]]

In 1954, during US Vice-president Richard Nixon's nineteen country Asian tour, he was lectured by Rajagopalachari on the consuming emotional quality of nuclear weapons. The pair discussed spiritual life, particularly reincarnation and predestination. Rajagopalachari warned Kennedy of the dangers of embarking on an arms race, even one which the US could win. On 1 May 1955, Rajagopalachari appealed to the Government of India to cancel receipt of aid from America if the country continued with its nuclear tests. India's use of military force against Portugal to capture the Portuguese enclave of Goa was criticised by Rajagopalachari who said of the operation and subsequent acts of international diplomacy, "India has totally lost the moral power to raise her voice against the use of military power." Of Rajagopalachari, Periyar, one of his foremost political rivals remarked "he was a leader unique and unequaled, who lived and worked for high ideals". Rajagopalachari issued temple entry proclamations in the Madras Presidency and worked towards the upliftment of Dalits. He played a pivotal role in the conclusion of the Poona Pact between B. R. Ambedkar and the Indian National Congress and spearheaded the Mahabal Temple Entry program in 1938. Rajagopalachari was also an active member of the All India Spinners Association.

He is also remembered for his literary contributions, some of which are considered modern-day classics. He frequently wrote articles for Kalki and his own journal Swarajya, of which Philip Spratt was editor.

Richard Casey, Governor of Bengal from 1944 to 1946, regarded Rajagopalachari as the wisest man in India.

On 21 August 1978, a portrait of Rajagopalachari was put in the Central Hall of Parliament House. The portrait of Rajagopalachari, painted by N. S. Subbakrishna, was unveiled by the then President of India, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. On 23 February 2026, a bust of Rajagopalachari was installed at the Grand Open Staircase near Ashok Mandap of Rashtrapati Bhavan, and unveiled by President, Droupadi Murmu. This was accompanied by the first-ever 'Rajaji Utsav' celebration at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre.

Reception

Critics opine that he failed to gauge the thoughts and feelings of the masses in provincial and then state administrations. His introduction of Hindi

Although his popularity at the regional level fluctuated greatly, Rajagopalachari was able to exercise his stranglehold over provincial politics mainly because he was favored by national leaders such as Gandhi, Patel and Nehru. As a governor-general, Rajaji stated, <blockquote>The food is grown, the cloth is woven, the sheep are shorn, the shoes are stitched, the scavenging is done, the cartwheels and the ploughs are built and repaired because, thank God, the respective castes are still there and the homes are trade schools as well and the parents are masters as well, to whom the children are automatically apprenticed.</blockquote>

Notes

References

Vasanthi Srinivasan, Gandhi's Conscience Keeper: C Rajagopalachari and Indian Politics (Permanent Black 2009)