C. Rajagopalachari

C. Rajagopalachari Biography

C. Rajagopalachari was born on 10^th December 1878 at Thorapalli village in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. His father was Chakravarthi Venkatarya Iyengar, Munsiff of Thorapalli village. He was married to Alamelu Mangamma in 1897. They had 3 sons and 2 daughters. He was called by people as Rajaji. He was a great leader, politician, freedom fighter, writer and poet. He studied at Hosur Government School and graduated in arts from Central College, Bangalore. Then he finished law at the Presidency College, Madras. He came out as first ranker in law College. He started his career as an advocate in Salem

He was much interested in public affairs and politics when he was practicing as an advocate. He was inspired by the great freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. During the time of Indian Independence struggle, he was much attracted by Gandhiji’s principles of non-violence and non-cooperation to British rule. He joined the Indian National Congress and took part in Indian freedom struggle. He became one of the major leaders of the Tamil Nadu Congress. In 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi organized the Dandi march, he took part in Salt Satyagraha at Vedaranyam and Nagapattinam together with Sardar Vedaratnam and was imprisoned by the British government.

In 1937 election, The Indian National Congress first came to power in the Madras Presidency which was also called as Madras Province by the British. He became the first Premier of Madras Presidency from the Congress party. During the time of Second World War, Rajaji along with his cabinets protested the declaration of war by the Viceroy of India and he was arrested in December 1940 due to this and sentenced to one year imprisonment.

After the Indian Independence on 15^th August 1947, he was appointed as a Governor of West Bengal by Jawaharlal Nehru. He served as the Acting Governor General of India instead of the Governor General Lord Mountbatten during the period from 10^th November 1947 to 24^th November 1947. In 1950, he joined the Union Cabinet and served as Home Affairs Minister. He was appointed as the Chief Minister of Madras Legislative Council in 1952. Due to his poor health condition, he himself resigned his post on 13^th April 1954. After that he took a temporary break from politics and started to write many stories, poems etc. He died on 25^th December 1972 at the age of 94.

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Updated: October 01, 2017