Tamil writer Vaasanthi
writes about the life and times of five-time Chief Minister MK Karunanidhi
Pics: The cover; Author Vaasanthi
By Shevlin
Sebastian
Karunanidhi’s father
Muthuvelar was playing the instrument called the nadaswaram. The ten-year-old listened
as the raga Sankarabharnam filled the room of their home in Tamil Nadu.
A few minutes later,
there was a knock on the door. When Muthuvelar opened the door, a man said,
“Pannaiyar (landowner) wants you to come and see him.”
As Muthuvelar set out,
Karunanidhi also followed. When his father approached the landlord who was
sitting on a swing, Muthuvelar bent his torso and spoke in a deferential
tone.
After a brief
conversation, they returned. But it upset Karunanidhi that his father had to be
deferential. Muthuvelar was a farmer who could read and write in Tamil and
Sanskrit, and a poet who could recite the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
This incident sparked an
aversion in the boy towards the caste hierarchy. “Karunanidhi felt that there
was too much of discrimination,” says Tamil writer Vaasanthi, who has just
penned the book, ‘Karunanidhi: The Definitive Biography’, which has been
published by Juggernaut. “It left a deep mark on Karunanidhi and it lasted till
his death in 2018 at 94. It shaped his policies. He felt he had to be just to
the underprivileged.”
The idea to write the
book came at the suggestion of Kannan Sundaram, the editor of Tamil literary
magazine Kalachuvadu. Vaasanthi had written a biography of Jayalalithaa
earlier, and the first edition became a best-seller. So, she agreed to write on
Karunanidhi. When Juggernaut Publishing came to know that she was writing on
Karunanidhi they asked her whether she would do an English version. And
Vaasanthi concurred.
Another reason why she
wanted to write the book was that Karunanidhi was a multi-faceted individual:
apart from politics, he was a talented scriptwriter, editor, writer and orator.
“People outside Tamil Nadu knew little about Karunanidhi as compared to
Jayalalithaa,” she says.
Jayalalithaa was a
Brahmin who belonged to an affluent family. She had an English education.
Later, she became a film star and a close friend of superstar MG Ramachandran
(MGR), the founder of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, who became
the Chief Minister. “MGR made her the propaganda secretary of the party, so she
had an easy entry into politics,” says Vaasanthi. As for Karunanidhi, he
belonged to the backward community.
As to how Karunanidhi could
reach the top in a caste-conscious society, Vaasanthi says that when he was
growing up, it was a time of great ferment. The freedom movement was taking
place. At the same time, Tamil pride was resurgent.
British missionary
Reverend Robert Caldwell said that Tamil was an independent language and had no
links to Sanskrit, unlike other languages. That had a big impact on the Tamil
psyche. In the 1930s, E.V Ramasamy Naicker, who later came to be known as
Periyar (The Elder), came up with his anti-Brahmin stance and caused a stir.
“This appealed to the young Karunanidhi, as he remembered the humiliation of
his father,” says Vaasanthi. “So he was in the right place at the right time.
Karunanidhi was also intelligent, hard-working and ambitious.”
For
her research, Vaasanthi met up with politicians belonging to different parties.
K S Radhakrishnan, a member of Karunanidhi’s party, the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK), gave her access to a vast library at his home. “It was
astounding,” says Vaasanthi. “There were articles, photographs, history of the
Dravidian movement, the journals of the founder Periyar, film scripts and
copies of the daily letters that Karunanidhi wrote to the workers in
‘Murasoli’, the party organ.” These were neatly bound in several volumes. The
entire first floor has been dedicated to this archive.
As
the editor of the Tamil edition of India Today for ten years during the 1990s,
Vaasanthi gained a deep knowledge of the leaders of the two Dravidian parties
and their functioning, and that helped in writing the book. She did not read
any biography on Karunanidhi written in Tamil or English before writing the
book. However, during her research she came across Sandhya Ravishankar’s book
on Karunanidhi in English.
As
a journalist, Vaasanthi had interacted with Karunanidhi’s children, MK Stalin,
MK Alagiri and Kanimozhi, but did not speak to them specifically when she was
writing the book. She did, however, speak to Shanmuganathan, Karunanidhi’s
long-standing personal assistant, and Durai Murugan, a prominent leader of the DMK
and a close friend of Karunanidhi.
Apart
from that, Vaasanthi had many personal interactions with Karunanidhi and
developed a close rapport.
She
also read the six-volume autobiography titled ‘Nenjukku Needhi’ (Justice of the
Heart). “There was sparse information about the childhood of Karunanidhi,” she
says. “So the first volume was invaluable for me.”
Vaasanthi knew that the
five-time Chief Minister had the state of Tamil Nadu foremost in his heart.
“The North, for a long time, believed he was a secessionist, but Karunanidhi
always stressed on the concept of federalism,” she says. “He strived for
greater autonomy for the states within a strong, federal structure at the
Centre.”
However,
if Karunanidhi had been alive now, he would have been upset at the way the
Centre is squeezing the states’ decision-making abilities and financial
freedom. “The Centre is doing this because it has an absolute majority in
Parliament,” says Vaasanthi. “The Opposition is weak. But he would have never
shirked from raising his voice. Instead, he would have galvanised the
opposition.”
But Karunanidhi had his
flaws, too. He misjudged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri
Lanka. “It shocked him when the LTTE carried out the assassination of [Indian
Prime Minister] Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 at Sriperumbudur,” says Vaasanthi. “He had
wanted to help his fellow Tamils across the Palk Strait. But the problem was
that Karunanidhi did not understand the mindset of LTTE supremo V. Prabhakaran.”
On
being asked whether she learned anything new about Jayalalithaa and
Karunanidhi, Vaasanthi says, “Even though both were powerful leaders, with a
mass base, they were very vulnerable. They could be fooled into thinking
somebody is honest or a loyal friend. And because of the isolation that supreme
power brings, both were very lonely.”
But as an administrator,
Vaasanathi had no doubts that Karunanidhi was far better.
“He
would have efficiently handled the current pandemic,” says Vaasanthi. “His
advantage was that the bureaucrats revered him and implemented all his orders
at once.”
The
quality that Vasaanthi admired the most about Karunanidhi was his power of
conviction. “You have to believe in what you do or say,” says Vaasanthi. “He
was such a powerful Dravidian leader. He played his cards very well about being
secular and protecting the rights of the states.”
But like most human
beings, there was a marked decline at the end. His health broke down and it
pained him that his beloved daughter Kanimozhi had to spend six months at Tihar
Jail in 2011 because she was an accused in the 2G telecom scam.
“By then he became silent
because doctors had inserted a tracheostomy tube in his throat to help him
breathe,” says Vaasanthi.
All
these details and many more are crammed into the 259-page narrative. The book
is an enjoyable read. Vaasanthi is a seasoned writer. She has published 40
novels and six short story collections. So, she knows how to write in a
gripping style. There is an intensity of tone that seems to ensure a reader
will follow her to the very end, despite the never-ending distractions of
Whatsapp and social media.
(Published in HuffPost India)
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