EMINENT PERSONALITIES

Early Life

K. Kamaraj was born on July 15, 1903, in Virudupatti (present-day Virudhunagar), Tamil Nadu.
His parents were Kumarasamy and Sivakami Ammal.
He was given the birth name ‘Kamatchi’ after the family deity.

Role in the Freedom Struggle

He joined the Indian National Congress in 1919.
He participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement held in 1920.
He became a member of the Virudhunagar Municipality in 1922.
During this period, he met S. Satyamurti, who would later become his political mentor.
He participated in the Vaikom Satyagraha (1924) and the Suchindram Temple Entry Movement.
He became a member of the Madras Provincial Congress Committee in 1925.
In 1927, he joined the ‘Sword Satyagraha,’ a protest against the British ban on Indians possessing weapons such as swords and spears.
When the Simon Commission visited Madurai in 1928, he participated in the protest against it alongside George Joseph.
He was arrested for participating in the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha in 1930. He was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in Alipore Jail; this was his first term of imprisonment.
He was released following the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact on March 5, 1931.
In 1936, S. Satyamurti became the President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee; Kamaraj was elected as its secretary.
In the 1937 Madras Presidency elections, he was elected unopposed from the Sattur constituency.

President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee

In 1940, Kamaraj became the President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.
While traveling to Wardha to meet Mahatma Gandhi regarding the Individual Satyagraha movement, he was arrested in Karur and imprisoned in Vellore Jail.
In 1941, while still in prison, he was elected Chairman of the Virudhunagar Municipality but later resigned from the post. Following the launch of the ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942, he was arrested again and imprisoned in Vellore Jail for three years.

In 1946, he became a member of the Constituent Assembly.
He also won the Sattur constituency seat in the 1946 Madras Presidency Legislative Assembly elections.
After India gained independence in 1947, he visited S. Satyamurti’s residence and hoisted the national flag.
That same year, he became a member of the All India Congress Committee.

Role in the First Constitutional Amendment

In the Champakam Dorairajan case (1950), the Madras High Court struck down the Government Order (1928) regarding communal reservation, ruling that reservation violated the right to equality.
As the Tamil Nadu Congress President, Kamaraj explained the importance of reservation in Tamil Nadu to Jawaharlal Nehru.
Based on these discussions, Nehru introduced the First Constitutional Amendment in 1951; this amendment safeguarded reservation policies.
In 1953, Chief Minister C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) introduced a modified scheme for elementary education; this was widely known as the ‘Kula Kalvi Thittam’ (Hereditary Education Scheme).
Both Congress members and the general public strongly opposed this scheme.
Consequently, Rajaji resigned from the post of Chief Minister on March 25, 1954.

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

Kamaraj became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on April 13, 1954.
After assuming office, he resigned from his position as a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha).
He retained Rajaji’s ministers without making any major changes.
On May 18, 1954, he officially abolished the Hereditary Education Scheme.
Later, he won the Gudiyatham by-election and became a Member of the Legislative Assembly.
In 1955, he successfully organized the Indian National Congress session at Avadi, near Chennai.

Educational Revolution

In 1954, he constituted an Elementary Education Reform Committee headed by R.M. Alagappa Chettiar.
He ensured that there was an elementary school in every village with a population of 300 people.
To reduce school dropouts caused by poverty, he introduced the ‘Mid-day Meal Scheme’ with public support.
Under his guidance, N.D. Sundaravadivelu, the Director of Public Instruction, expanded this scheme into a people’s movement.
The Mid-day Meal Scheme was first launched in 1956 at Ettayapuram, the birthplace of Subramania Bharati. This was the first time such a scheme was introduced in independent India.

The scheme had two main objectives:

Increasing student enrollment in schools.
Reducing the dropout rate among students.
In 1957, he ordered a state-wide survey of schools.
He introduced a ‘triple benefit scheme’ for teachers; this scheme provided pension, provident fund, and insurance.
In 1958, he constituted the ‘Madras State Education Advisory Committee’ under the leadership of C. Subramaniam.
C.N. Annadurai was one of the members of this committee.
He increased the number of school working days from 180 to 200.
He introduced the school uniform system to reduce social disparities among students.
He introduced a compulsory education system in 1960; it was fully implemented across the state by 1962.
During his tenure, Tamil Nadu’s literacy rate rose from approximately 7% to 37%.

Progressive Laws and Reforms

In 1955, his government enacted the ‘Madras Cultivating Tenants Protection Act’ to safeguard the rights of farmers.
In 1958, the ‘Madras State Panchayat Act’ was enacted; this paved the way for the creation of:

During his administration, the ‘Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Act, 1961’ was enacted.
This Act prohibited a family of five members from holding more than 30 acres of land.

K-Plan

After India’s defeat in the 1962 Sino-Indian War, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru realized the need to strengthen the Congress party. Nehru and Kamaraj formulated the ‘K-Plan’ in Hyderabad.
Under this plan, senior Congress leaders were required to relinquish government posts and engage in tasks to strengthen the party organization. • Accepting this plan, Kamaraj resigned from the post of Chief Minister in October 1963.

Final Years

In 1969, the Indian National Congress split into two factions due to internal differences.
That same year, Kamaraj won the by-election for the Nagercoil Lok Sabha constituency.
He passed away on October 2, 1975.
In 1976, he was posthumously awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’, India’s highest civilian honour.

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