Early life

Kamaraj was born on 15 July 1903 to Kumarasamy Nadar and Sivagami Ammal at Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu.

His father Kumarasamy was a merchant. In 1907, four years after the birth of Kamaraj, his sister Nagammal was born.

In 1909, his parents  admitted Kamaraj in Virudupatti High School. His father died when he was six years old. Circumstances forced his mother to support the family. In 1914 Kamaraj dropped out of school to support his mother.

Politics

As a young boy Kamaraj worked in his uncle’s provision shop, during this time he began to attend public meetings and processions about the Indian Home Rule Movement.

Kamaraj developed an interest in prevailing political conditions by reading newspapers daily. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was the decisive turning point in his life, he decided to fight for national freedom and to bring an end to foreign rule.

In 1920, when he was 18, he became active in politics. He joined Congress as a full-time political worker.

In 1921 Kamaraj organised public meetings at Virudhunagar for Congress leaders.

He was eager to meet Gandhi, and when Gandhi visited Madurai on 21 September 1921 Kamaraj attended the public meeting and met Gandhi for the first time. He visited villages carrying Congress propaganda.

Kamaraj went to jail for two years in June 1930 for participating in the “Salt Satyagraha”. led by Rajagopalachari at Vedaranyam; he was released before he served the two year sentence as a result of 1931 Gandhi-Irwin Pact.

At the age of 34, Kamaraj entered the Assembly winning the Sattur seat in the 1937 election.

In 1942, Kamaraj attended the All-India Congress Committee in Bombay and returned to spread propaganda material for the Quit India Movement.

Police arrested him in August 1942. Police held him under detention for three years but released him on June 1945.

This was his last prison term. Kamaraj was imprisoned six times by the British for his pro-Independence activities, that added up to more than 3,000 days in jail.

Chief Minister

On 13 April 1954, Kamaraj became the Chief Minister of Madras Province.

As Chief Minister, he removed the family vocation based Hereditary Education Policy. The State made immense strides in education and trade.

He opened new schools, so that poor rural students had to walk no more than three kilometers to their nearest school.

He introduced the Midday Meal Scheme to provide at least one meal per day to the lakhs of poor school children.

During the British regime the education rate was only 7%. But after Kamaraj’s reforms it reached 37%.

Major irrigation schemes were planned in Kamaraj’s period and 150 lakhs of acres of lands were brought under cultivation.

Industries such as paper, sugar, chemicals and cement took off during the period.

He remained Chief Minister for three consecutive terms, winning elections in 1957 and 1962.

Kamaraj Plan

Kamaraj noticed that the Congress party was slowly losing its vigour.

He proposed that all senior Congress leaders should resign from their posts and devote all their energy to the re-vitalization of the Congress.

This suggestion came to be known as the Kamaraj Plan, which was designed primarily to dispel from the minds of Congressmen the lure of power.

creating in its place a dedicated attachment to the objectives and policies of the organisation.

Six Union Ministers and six Chief Ministers followed suit and resigned from their posts.

Impressed by Kamaraj’s achievements and acumen, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru felt that his services were needed more at the national level.

In a swift move he brought Kamaraj to Delhi as the President of the Indian National Congress on 9 October 1963.

National politics

After Nehru’s death in 1964, he successfully navigated the party through turbulent times.

As president of the INC, he refused to become the next prime minister himself and was instrumental in bringing to power two Prime Ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964 and Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi in 1966.

For this role, media widely acclaimed him as the “kingmaker” during the 1960s.

When the Congress split in 1969, he became the leader of the Indian National Congress (Organisation) (INC(O)) in Tamil Nadu.

The party failed poorly in the 1971 elections amid allegations of fraud by the opposition parties. He remained as the leader of INC(O) until his death in 1975.

Personal life

After being the chief minister of the state, when the municipality of Virudhunagar provided a direct water connection to his house in the town.

He ordered it to be immediately disconnected as he did not want any special privileges.

Kamaraj refused to use the Z-level security that was provided to him as the CM of Tamil Nadu and traveled always with only one police patrol vehicle. He did not marry, did not own any property.

Death & Legacy

He died at his home, on Gandhi Jayanti day (2 October 1975), which also the 12th anniversary of his resignation. He died in his sleep at a age of 72.

When he died, he left behind 130 rupees, 2 pairs of sandals, 4 shirts, 4 dhotis and a few books.

Government of India awarded Kamaraj India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously in 1976. People widely acknowledged him as “Kalvi Thanthai” (Father of Education) in Tamil Nadu.