Memory day of Annadhurai

I drew this drawing of Annadurai some days back.

C.N.Annadurai popularly called Anna (which means elder brother in Tamil language) was the first non Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India. His full name was Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai was born on 15 September, 1909 in the town of Kancheepuram. He later studied at Pachaiyappa's High School in the town before working in the Municipal office as a clerk. He then graduated in 1934 in the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai in B.A. (Hons) and completed his education in the same college in 1934 with M.A. in Economics and Politics. After working as a professor for a short period of time he began involving himself in journalism and politics. Although he had been involved with the Justice Party since his early years, now he found more time to devote to his passion, i.e. politics. He joined the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) in 1934 which was under Periyar's leadership. He soon had a meteoric rise in the party as people thronged to hear and see the charismatic Anna. In the 1940s he led many anti-hindi agitations and sought to eradicate the evils of the society. However disputes arose between Periyar when Anna felt that democratic power would help to alleviate such problems, while his mentor felt otherwise. The rift resulted in a split and in 1949, Anna and his supporters broke away to form the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) with the aim of contesting elections unlike the DK. By 1962, Anna became a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha.

The spiralling inflation following two wars by India against China and Pakistan had taken a toll on congress and in the 1967 elections, Annadurai led his party to a spectacular victory in the state Assembly elections. He immediately became the Chief Minister of the state, thus ousting the 20 year rule of the congress and becoming the first non-congress government to obtain a majority in the state. The actual term of Annadurai in office was amongst the shortest ever in Tamil Nadu. From 1967 until his death in 1969, he was seen as the change that many people needed to improve the worsening condition. However the inflation could not be effectively controlled despite his best efforts. But his work in enhancing and uplifting the lower classes through welfare schemes started to improve the social scene. He also renamed the Madras State to its current name Tamil Nadu. He was able to gain more power for the south from the Centre and sought greater autonomy for the states in the union. His tenure was however cut short by oral cancer as he had the habit of inhaling snuff tobacco. Despite treatments in USA he died on midnight Februar , 1969 just two years after becoming the Chief Minister. His death shocked many in Tamil Nadu who had become fond of Anna and a record 15 million people attended his funeral, the most for anyone in the world. He have started some weekly news papers and wrote some novels.

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