Anna

Title: Anna – The Life and Times of C N Annadurai

Author: R Kannan

Publisher: Penguin Viking, 2010 (First)

ISBN: 9780670083282

Pages: 423

The state of Tamil Nadu exhibited a deviant streak of local nationalism right from the days of the independent struggle. Emancipation of the non-Brahmin castes took place early in this state, which in turn manifested itself in violent anti-Brahminism and opposition to the Congress party which led the freedom agitation from the forefront but was a monopoly of the Brahmins. The anti-Congress front was managed by E V Ramaswamy Naicker who attracted the cream of non-Brahmin Tamil youth. Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai (1909 – 1969) was the most prominent among them. Breaking up from his guru on ideological niceties, Annadurai (popularly known as Anna, elder brother in Tamil) enlarged his Dravida movement by relentless propaganda through plays, movies and speeches. Eventually, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK, Dravida Advancement Party) won power in Tamil Nadu in 1967 and Anna became its chief minister. He died of cancer two years later and his funeral was attended by the largest crowd in the world in recorded history. This was because of his exemplary qualities as an honest and perfect gentleman in politics and the image of an elder brother of the masses. Born in an intermediate caste of weavers, he always displayed the humility inherent in an ordinary man. He was also a wizard of letters. Anna’s speeches dazzled listeners for their kaleidoscopic alliterations, metaphors and unorthodox syntaxes as also for their content. Such was his appeal that on occasion tickets were sold for his speeches. This book is the biography of Annadurai as told by R Kannan, who is an eminent scholar of law. He has also served in various capacities with the UN, including as head of civil affairs in Cyprus.

This book presents the background for the rise of non-Brahmin ideology in Tamil Nadu. Christian missionaries had harped on the Dravidian identity and deftly manipulated it to widen the caste-fissures in Hindu society. Justice party was born from non-Brahmin association and it supported the British, even in 1919 when the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place. However, this shameless allegiance brought it indelible shame and dishonor. In the 1940s, when it became evident that the British would eventually leave India, the Justice party started criticizing them. EVR Naicker transformed the Justice party into an apolitical Dravidar Kazhagam (DK). But when Naicker decided to marry his maid who was so young to be his granddaughter and to make her his heir to the Kazhagam, Anna and others split and formed the DMK. This was a political organization that fought and won elections.

The unmistakably racist bend of Dravida politics provide a chillingly prescient comparison to the Nazis of Germany. Even the gentle Anna declared that ‘Tamils should have art that instills the Tamil code, Tamil ways, morality, bravery, chastity and love; not one that lauds another race (italics mine) and grants it dominance and makes Tamils feel inferior about their race. Such stories should be consigned to the fire’ (p.64). This was in reference to the Ramayana and other Hindu epics. EVR planned to constitute a volunteer corps in 1945 to serve at party meetings. Taking motivation from the Nazi paramilitary wing, he wanted to christen it the Blackshirts. And this was so soon after Hitler’s defeat in the World War.

Another crucial aspect of the Dravida movement that is given prime focus is the anti-national mentality of most of its leaders. EVR’s Dravidar Kazhagam termed India’s first independence day on 15 August 1947 as ‘a day of mourning’ (p.114). The book includes correspondence between EVR and Muhammal Ali Jinnah asking help from the latter to voice the demand for a separate Dravidastan, but Jinnah, sensing lack of popular support for the idea, tried to dissociate from it. EVR described political freedom from the British in 1947 as a ‘British-Bania-Brahmin contract’. Even though Anna himself craved for Dravida Nadu, he characterized the Independence Day as a ‘day of joy’. But when the Republic Day arrived on 26 January 1950, he found it ‘a day of dissatisfaction, bitterness and condemnation’. However, the DMK slackened when it became abundantly clear that the Indian republic wound not countenance separatism. EVR then compared Dravida Nadu to an onion amounting to nothing when peeled right down to the core. After the 1956 states reorganization, the DMK was convinced of the total absence of support from the other south Indian states and the demand died out. Anna had insisted for the grant of Dravida Nadu in the Rajya Sabha, but the Nehru government proscribed any secessionist advocacy in 1963 by a constitutional amendment. DMK meekly gave in to this and chose to be content with renaming the state from Madras to Tamil Nadu. Thoughtless policies of the Congress which mandated the use of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states resulted in a wave of violent protest across Tamil Nadu many times and the self-restraint still exhibited by northern politicians on this issue was largely due to the agitation by the DMK.

Kannan brings out the personal qualities of Anna. He rose from a humble background and led a simple life till the end. The party workers venerated him as an elder brother. His literary skills helped the party strike roots in Tamil Nadu. The author claims that he probably thought in English which when transformed into Tamil were refreshingly new and captivating. His formulations were limpid, diction new, style evocative and delivery smooth. However, the party depended too much on movies. Anna’s movie scripts contained radical, social reformist messages. Before him, Tamil cinema was in thrall of a formula which depended largely on epics, legends and myths, leaving little room for social consciousness or creativity (p.128). As time went on, other leaders found the prominence of movie stars a cause for concern. This caused much heartburn among career politicians. Even gifted speakers had to yield to the stars in public meetings. Anna encouraged it and didn’t wish to tinker with what had become a successful formula. Even after half a century later, matinee idols still control politics in the state.

The author also sheds light on the deep factionalism of the overzealous acolytes of Anna such as Kalaignar Karunanidhi who wanted to get hold of the party after Anna. In fact, the machinations had started even as the great leader lay dying in the hospital. During his life time too, complacence among the party workers had led to Anna’s defeat in the 1962 assembly elections. The man who defeated him was the owner of a bus company who would not speak even once in the assembly.

The book is easy to read, but is having an awful structure. It is fundamentally a history of the Dravida movement paraphrased with brief episodes from Anna’s life. An incident during the last days of Anna is worth mentioning here. Anna was admitted in a critical condition in a Chennai hospital and a doctor had arrived from abroad to perform a surgery which was considered very risky. Anna asked the doctor whether he was going to operate on him the next day. The doctor said yes but Anna implored him to do it on the day after. The doctor asked in surprise whether he was looking for an auspicious day as Anna was well known to be a committed rationalist. Anna vehemently denied it and said that he was midway through a book which will be completed only on the next day and that it did not matter what happened thereafter. It is difficult to come across such gem of a bibliophile among India’s politicians.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star