M. Karunanidhi

Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 – 7 August 2018) was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He is popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Artist) and Mutthamizh Arignar (Tamil Scholar) for his contributions to Tamil literature. He had the longest tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu with 6,863 days in office. He was also a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. Karunanidhi has the record of never losing an election to the Tamil Nadu Assembly, having won 13 times since his first victory in 1957. Before entering politics, he worked in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter. He also made contributions to Tamil literature, having written stories, plays, novels, and a multiple-volume memoir. Karunanidhi died on 7 August 2018 at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai after a series of prolonged, age-related illnesses. Karunanidhi was born in the Tamil Nadu village of Thirukkuvalai on 3 June 1924. His parents were from the Isai Vellalar caste, a caste of musicians that perform at temples and other social gatherings. Growing up in a caste-ridden culture, Karunanidhi was learned about the crippling circumstances that arose from being born into a low caste. When he was 14, he formed a student movement against the imposition of Hindi as India's national language during the Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937–40. This served as a forerunner to Karunanidhi's wider anti-Hindi demonstrations in 1965. As a high school student, Karunanidhi created the Tamil Nadu Tamil Manavar Mandram, the Dravidian Movement's first student wing. He also started a news paper during his school days, which grew into the Murasoli, the DMK's official publication. Karunanidhi began participating in theatrical productions at a young age, including composing plays. Later on, he started writing for movies. As a writer, he wrote screenplays, historical novels, screenplays, biographies, poems and novels.

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Related concepts (3)

History of Tamil Nadu

The region of Tamil Nadu in the southeast of modern India, shows evidence of having had continuous human habitation from 15,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE. Throughout its history, spanning the early Upper Paleolithic age to modern times, this region has coexisted with various external cultures. The three ancient Tamil dynasties namely Chera, Chola, and Pandya were of ancient origins. Together they ruled over this land with a unique culture and language, contributing to the growth of some of the oldest extant literature in the world.

Tamil literature

Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from Tamil people from south India, including the land now comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Eelam Tamils from Sri Lanka, as well as the Tamil diaspora. The history of Tamil literature follows the history of Tamil Nadu, closely following the social, economical, political and cultural trends of various periods.

Tamils

The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar (Tamiḻar, t̪amiɻaɾ in the singular or Tamiḻarkaḷ, t̪amiɻaɾɡaɭ in the plural), Tamilians, or simply Tamils (ˈtɑːmɪls), are a Dravidian ethno-linguistic group who natively speak Tamil and trace their ancestry mainly to India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, the union territory of Puducherry, and to Sri Lanka. People who speak Tamil and are born in are considered Tamils. Tamils constitute 5.