As we remember CN Annadurai (Anna) and EV Ramasamy ‘Periyar’s’ (EVR) birthdays on September 15 and September 17 respectively, we cannot but help think of their guru-disciple relationship and their parting of ways.
One also remembers EVR’s unsuccessful attempt to cut Anna’s political feet by backing Congress leader K Kamaraj, the first non-Brahmin Tamil Chief Minister, although he had earlier threatened to cut off the separatist, anti-Congress and Brahmin-bashing Periyar’s thumb for his writings. Certifying Kamaraj as ‘Pachai Thamizhan’ or genuine Tamil, EVR used him as a Trojan horse against Anna, his former protégé and his once ‘leader’ turned ideological nemesis, Rajaji. For Kamaraj, EVR’s backing was political manna. If the substantial but wooden Kamaraj was blindsided by the DMK’s identity politics, both Kamaraj and EVR considered Rajaji as consequential at least till 1962.
This essay looks at the EVR-Anna fallout, Anna’s hurt, EVR’s support for Kamaraj, the evolution and culmination of the Rajaji-Anna relationship and a grateful Anna returning to Periyar.
EVR’s wedding to Gandhimathi rechristened Arasiyal Mani and later Maniammai on 9 July 1949, saw Dravidar Kazhagam’s notables travelling to Kanchipuram to prod a reclusive Anna to action. Writer ‘Kalki’ Krishnamurthy sent emissaries and openly exhorted Anna to join the Socialist Party. Anna lent his ears to everyone but said nothing. His quiescence led to murmurs and protests prompting an anxious Rama Arangannal to rue that inaction could chase away those who had come to them. Anna responded:
"There is reason for my procrastination on a decision, Arangannal. If a decision is made hastily we cannot figure out anyone. One should not conclude that this overflow of [the pot] while it boils is permanent. Only when it cools down can we ascertain what stays and would be steady. My ‘procrastination’ would [help] calculate how many who had affixed signatures [against Periyar] remain. More than haste. patience is always imperative in politics!"
Nine weeks later, the DMK was born. At the public launch on 17 September 1949, Anna spoke of the ‘disgrace’ that EVR had brought upon the Kazhagam:
"When she heard of Periyar’s marriage, an 18-20-year-old Sulochana (Periyar’s nephew and DK leader EVK Sampath’s wife) left on her own with her one-and-a-half-year-old-child to Erode. Maniammai entered. Daughter-in-law exits. Is this necessary? His family and relatives have been humiliated by Periyar’s marriage. All the Dravidar Kazhagam folks sobbed. The insult could not be borne… [Kalki] went to the extent of a cartoon showing the Dravidar Kazhagam self-destructing. It is because we did not want this situation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has embarked seriously on Periyar’s path [but] separately. Till now the fondness and affection between him and me has not gone… I ask. Colleagues! What is important for us? Ideal? Periyar? We have decided ideal and not Periyar…"
EVR had discovered Anna in 1935 in a conference at Tirupur. From then on EVR became Anna’s ‘political father’ and he his ‘political son’. In the thrall of his mentor, Anna did his bidding, echoing his atheistic views and Brahmin hate. In 1944, he would seminally help change the moribund Justice Party to Dravidar Kazhagam.
But there were limits to what even a disciple could do if the guru was ultra-radical. The first major test was in 1945-46 when Periyar dictated black shirts for the Kazhagam. Anna demurred. He feared the optics, warning that they would be painted as fascists. Independence became the next flash point. Anxious of history’s judgment Anna differed with Periyar that it was ‘a day of mourning’. He also kept away from the May 1948 Tuticorin Dravidar Kazhagam conference but joined hands with EVR in July 1948 to fight Hindi. That autumn, an effusive Periyar famously declared in Erode that he would pass on the baton to Anna. But he instead chose Maniammai, his newly-wed wife, to be the leader. As a shrewd Anna painted the act as ‘inappropriate marriage’ to decamp, Periyar launched a vicious campaign against the ‘disingenuous’, ‘ingrates’ and ‘power seekers’. Anna’s Dravida Nadu weekly now began to publish the names of those who lamented Periyar’s action as ‘Tear Drops’. Periyar promptly seized on the phrase and ‘Tear Drops’ became his shorthand for the DMK.
For 14 years the father-son duo had crisscrossed the state and had pooled their energies to create an awakening among the Tamils of their hoary past and how to reclaim it. The 14-year ‘spring’ had to give in to a harsh summer of bitterness and abuse from Periyar. ‘Tears drops’ was the mildest and most civilized of Periyar’s attacks on Anna and his associates, who chose the trajectory of power over Periyar. Some of the criticism, therefore, showed the older leader’s deep sense of having been let down. But the feelings were mutual. Anna had famously asked for ‘a heart that could endure anything’ (from Byron’s, ‘A heart for every fate’).
VP Raman’s father AV Raman and Rajaji were friends. VP Raman was with the DMK till the late 1950s. He later became Advocate General. Matinee idol MGR was the senior Raman’s tenant. Anna met Rajaji at VP Raman’s suggestion. The meeting lasted for 15 minutes. They met again at the condolence meeting for AV Raman in February 1958.
Meanwhile, even from 1956, Rajaji’s about-turn on Hindi as the sole official language had created a new beginning between the ‘wily Brahmin’ or kulluga bhattar (a misunderstanding of ulluga patta or owl’s son) and the DMK. Anna, now designated Rajaji ‘mootharignar’ or scholar emeritus. The irrepressible EVR now cried foul, alleging that the DMK was on the payroll of Brahmins. He needn’t have feared. Rajaji’s Brahmin heritage remained a greatly inhibiting factor for the Anna-led DMK to get any closer and it would, take another 11 years for a formal political alliance to be hatched in 1967 between Rajaji’s Swatantra Party and the DMK.
In the 1957 elections, EVR campaigned for the Congress. Calling the DMK ‘wastrels with no plan’, he said, “Let us defeat the tear drops Pancha Pandavas! Lets go!” Nonetheless, 15 ‘tear drops’ made it to the Assembly and ironically, Anna would be seen defending Periyar while the Kamaraj administration would be forced to throw him behind bars for his protest to burn the Constitution. Periyar himself, however, justified Kamaraj’s actions saying he was beholden to Delhi. Quoting a hymn in which a devotee sings to the Lord, “Whether you strike or embrace [me], am your worshipper,” Anna said and despite throwing him behind bars, Periyar justified Kamaraj’s every unjustifiable act.
In the 1962 elections, Anna tried to enlist both Rajaji and the Communists to fight the mighty Congress. In the 16-17 December 1961 Coimbatore election conference, he spelled out his logic on seeking help from ideologically diverse forces:
"If a thief enters my house suddenly, I would use any stick to beat to chase him away. I won’t be analysing if the stick is Swantatra [Rajaji’s party] or Communist. Whichever, I will try and use it…
I am not saying that we should have an ideological truck with our friendly parties and contest elections. All that I am saying is that we should have seat adjustments. Our intent is that the opposition votes should not be dispersed."
The parties, were however, not yet ready for ‘seat adjustments’, which would have entailed a certain degree of compromise on the ideological front. As the alliance plans fell through, Rajaji rightly pointed out the development as a ‘new year gift’ to the Congress. Congress’ C Subramaniam said the alliance did not come about as it was ‘abhorred by God’. Ideology meant something in those days. Despite this, on 28 January 1962 ,Rajaji magnanimously urged his party workers in Kanchipuram to work for Anna, and on 22 February 1962, addressed a joint meeting in Kanchipuram with him. As he sensed the DMK’s emerging strength, EVR began advocating a ban on the party. He said that replacing the do-gooder Kamaraj with a Brahmin suppliant clique (DMK) would be disastrous for Tamil Nadu.
At the 22 February 1962 meeting, Anna poured his heart out summing up what he thought of his former guru and his new patron:
"Rajagopalachiar is a genius. It is only because Annadurai had not gotten close to him, he has not learnt anything about him. For years, [Rajaji] …himself suggested that I get to know him well. Only recently the opportunity to get to know him well arose. Even now we don’t have a friendship where he would get to know me fully. For that matter considering his age and my age the word friendship cannot be used to describe it. You are much aware that he is at an age where he would pass on to me that which he has learnt and which he wishes to announce to the nation and I am at an age where I listen to him.
They criticize it as undesirable friendship. I wish to tell Rajagopalachiar: Rajaji avargalae, I had given my very best to a leader. I had even lost my heart to him. I had been a true follower to him. But the good wishes I failed to receive from him, the goodwill that he did not show me, I get from you – [you,] whom I have all along opposed. I consider this indeed a very strange thing in the whole world. Therefore, you are involved in this endeavour where there is no gain [for you]. If I refer to Gita, do not look surprised wondering if I know Gita as well. I wish to say clearly, categorically that this nishtakama karma (path of right action) that you are engaged in will not be in vain."
Later that year the DMK would drop Dravida Nadu, the albatross around its neck. Rajaji’s influence over an ‘indecisive’ Anna waiting for an organic moment to shrug it off could be inferred.
In the 1965 Hindi agitation even as Rajaji and Anna stood on one side, EVR would reiterate his call for banning the DMK as well as the Swantantra party. By 1967, the opposition’s urge to defeat the common political foe Congress would get the better of them and see Rajaji and the CPM as part of the Rajaji-Anna stitched alliance. “I shall beat the Congress with the DMK shoe,” the venerable Rajaji declared. Hadn’t Anna called the Swantatra a ‘stick’ five years earlier!
Rajaji’s formal recognition of the DMK greatly helped mute the party’s image as a die-hard Tamil nationalist party with an anti-Brahmin antecedent. “A DMK victory will not result in ‘cutting the tuft of the head; if someone did that they will send them to jail. Even Brahma can’t destroy Brahmins. Therefore, no one needs to fear. Vote for the DMK men,” Rajaji assured his constituents.
In the wake of the DMK victory, a grateful Anna first called on Rajaji, the strategist behind the epochal event. However, days later in an exemplary gesture, Anna repaired to Trichy with Navalar Nedunchezhian, Kalaignar Karunanidhi and Anbil Dharmalingam to call on EVR. Someone pointed out that Rajaji could take offence. A grateful Anna brushed aside the suggestion saying, “He was the one who introduced me to this country. If after becoming Chief Minister, I don’t call on him it would not be human.”
On 28 February 1967, Anna’s entourage reached Periyar’s abode at 6 p.m., where a supplicant Anna said to his guru for life: “We are your products. We have obtained people’s affection, support, trust and respect and are to assume the responsibility of governance. Our success, honour and fame today are entirely because of you. We need your blessings, affection, support and embrace always. You have to guide us.”
A contrite 87-year-old Periyar was stricken with shame. He recollected the emotional meet thus: “Anna walked in like the groom. I had my head down like the bride out of embarrassment,” who went on to add, “I was in a situation where I would have had to sacrifice my dignity. Graciously, Anna did not put me in that situation and acted most magnanimously.” The wheel had come a full circle.
R Kannan is the senior political officer with the UN in Darfur, Sudan. He is also the biographer of Anna.