Here we bring a list of 5 politicians from South Indian who ruled the heart of common people. Their contribution, apart from politics, is immense in the field of education, literature, films, and other creative fields. They themselves wrote several books and at the same time lots have been written about them.
K Kamaraj
Kumaraswamy Kamaraj was a great statesman whose influence was dominant in pre and post-Independent Indian politics. Kamaraj was born on July 15, 1903 at Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu). He was involved in politics since young age. Gradually he was involvement with the then current political changes in India when the Congress was fighting to overrule the British government. Soon after the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919, he joined the Congress actively.
His long struggle and active involvement in politics catapulted him to the highest positions in the Congress party. He became the Chief Minister of the Madras State in 1954. He was elected the President of the Indian National Congress for two terms for four years between 1964–1967.
Kamaraj worked for the welfare of the society at large. His contribution in education is remarkable. He introduced several reform policies in the field of education. He is lovingly known as ‘Kalvi Thanthai’ or Father of Education in Tamil Nadu. He was awarded with India’s most prestigious award Bharat Ratna in 1976 posthumously and Copper Bond Award in 1972.
M G Ramachandran
Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR, was born on January 17, 1917. He was an Indian politician and film actor. He served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for more than 9 years from 1977 to 1987. He was a great philanthropist and worked for the development of the common people. After a long career in the Tamil films, he entered into politics. Earlier he joined the DMK party but later founded his own party named the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). He wields the fame of being the first film actor to become a Chief Minister in India.
In 1988, MGR was honoured with Bharat Ratna posthumously, India’s highest civilian award.
M C Reddy
Dr. Marri Channa Reddy was born on January 13, 1919. Reddy was a great politician who worked in several states, mainly of South India. He was actively involved in the Telangana movement of the Andhra Pradesh in the late 1960s. He became a minister of Andhra Pradesh when he was just 30. This made him one of the youngest ministers during that time.
He became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for two times, once from 1978 to 1980 and then from 1989 to 1990. He also served as the governor of four states such as Uttar Pradesh (1974–1977), Punjab (1982–1983), Rajasthan (1992 –1993), and Tamil Nadu from 1993 until his death on December 2, 1996.
N T Rama Rao
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, lovingly referred as NTR, was born on May 28, 1923 in Nimmakuru, near Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. NTR was an actor, director, film editor, and producer and worked chiefly in the Telugu films. He worked in more than 300 films in his long film career. His contribution to the Telugu cinema is immense, which earned him the title “Greatest Indian Actor of All Time” in a CNN-IBN national poll conducted in 2013 on the occasion of the Centenary of Indian Cinema.
NTR was awarded three National Film Awards for Thodu Dongalu (1954) and Seetharama Kalyanam (1960), which he co-produced and for Varakatnam (1970) which he produced as a director. NTR was honoured with the Rashtrapati Awards for his performances in Raju Peda (1954) and Lava Kusa (1963). He was bestowed upon with the Nandi Award for Best Actor for Kodalu Diddina Kapuram in 1970 and the Inaugural Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu in 1972 for Badi Panthulu.
NTR was a great advocate of the Telugu culture and identity that put the Telugu people different from other South Indian identities.
NTR founded a political party named the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). He became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for three terms (1983–84, 1984–89, and 1994–95). He became a very popular political leader of national level and worked to bring all non-Congress parties together under the National Front. NTR died on January 18, 1996 in Hyderabad.
M Karunanidhi
Muthuvel Karunanidhi (June 3, 1924 – August 7, 2018) was an Indian politician who ruled as a Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five times that spread for twenty years from 1969 to 2011. Karunanidhi was a powerful leader and was known for the Dravidian self-respect movement. He was the President of the DMK (Drawid Munnetra Kazhagam) for ten years.
Before joining politics, he chiefly worked as a screenplay writer in the Tamil film industry. He was a great scholar of Tamil literature and contributed a lot by writing poems, stories, plays, novels, screenplays, film dialogues and songs, and on literature. Some of his popular books include Sanga Thamizh, Thirukkural Urai, Ponnar Sankar, Romapuri Pandian, Thenpandi Singam, Vellikizhamai, Nenjukku Needhi, Iniyavai Irubathu and Kuraloviam, and a good number of prose and poetry anthologies. Because of his contribution to the Tamil language and literature, he earned the title “Mutthamizh Arignar” (Tamil Scholar).
Annamalai University conferred an honorary doctorate on him in 1971. Tamil University bestowed the “Raja Rajan Award” upon on him for his book Thenpandi Singam. Surjit Singh Barnala, the Governor of Tamil Nadu conferred an honorary doctorate on him on December 15, 2006.
