C RAJAGOPALACHARI

sree nivas December 10, 2021 GS1 Leave a comment 734 Views

Recently, C. Rajagopalachari is remembered on his 143rd birth anniversary.
He is remembered for his contributions to the freedom struggle, administrative and intellectual prowess.

Important points:

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, was born on December 10th in 1878.
He studied law from the Presidency College in Madras (now Chennai), and began practice in Salem in the year 1900.
In 1916, he formed the Tamil Scientific Terms Society, an organisation that translated scientific terms of chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy and biology into simple Tamil words.
He became the chairperson of the municipality of Salem in 1917 and served there for two years.
In 1955, he was honoured with India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna.
He died on 25th December, 1972.

Political Career:

He joined the Indian National Congress and acted as a legal advisor.
He defended Indian Independence activist, P. Varadarajulu Naidu against charges of sedition in 1917.
He was elected as the first premier of the Madras Presidency in 1937.
In 1939, Rajagopalachari took a step to abolish untouchability and caste prejudice and issued the Madras Temple Entry Authorisation and Indemnity Act.
After the Madras Temple Entry Authorisation Dalits were allowed to enter inside temples.
At the time of Partition, he was appointed as the Governor of West Bengal.
In 1947, during the absence of Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy and independent India’s first Governor General, Rajagopalachari was temporarily chosen to hold the office.
Therefore he was the last governor general of India.

Post-independence:

Rajagopalachari took over as the chief minister of Madras in April 1952.
During his tenure as the chief minister of Madras, he actively participated in reforming the education system and bringing changes in the society.
He also made Hindi a compulsory language in Tamil schools.
His move led to protests against him, following which Rajagopalachari resigned as the CM.
He was a social conservative but advocated a free market economy.
He wanted to reintroduce the Varna system into society.
He believed in the significance of religion for society.
Rajagopalachari was made Home Affairs Minister after the death of Sardar Patel in 1950.
In 1959, he resigned from the Indian National Congress and founded the Swatantra Party.

Role in Freedom Struggle:

Non-Cooperation Movement: He met Mahatma Gandh for the first time in 1919 in Madras (now Chennai) and participated in Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement.
He was also jailed for two years in Vellore in 1920.
After his release, he opened his own ashram to promote Gandhi’s principles of Hindu-Muslim harmony and the abolition of untouchability.
He was also a proponent of khadi.
He was also involved in the Vaikom Satyagraha movement against untouchability
When Gandhi led the Dandi March to break the salt law in 1930, Rajagopalachari carried out a similar march at Vedaranyam in the Madras Presidency.
He also became the editor of Gandhi’s newspaper, Young India.
During the Quit India Movement, Rajagopalachari opposed Gandhi.
He was of the view that the British were going to leave the country eventually, so launching another Satyagraha was not a good decision.

Literary Contributions:

He wrote a Tamil translation of the Ramayana, which was later published as Chakravarthi Thirumagan.
The book won the Sahitya Akademi Award in Tamil language in 1958.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT

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