Rajaji

Rajagopalachari was born in a small village called Thorapalli of Salem District. He had his school education at Hosur and college education at Madras and Bangalore. He was married to Alamelu Mangamma when he was young and they had five children. His wife died when he was 37 and he solely took the responsibility of taking care of his children. Rajaji studied law in Banglore and started his practice at Salem. As a lawyer he was very successful. When in Salem, Rajaji showed keen interest in the social and political affairs. He was even elected as the Municipal Chairman of Salem and he held that post for two years. He was affectionately hailed as the "Mango of Salem".

Rajaji started to take part in the politics of the nation at the beginning of the 1900s. At first he was drawn towards Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He had a good relationship with V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, an ardent follower of Tilak. During the Home Rule League days he admired Dr. Annie Besant and he highly revered Salem C. Vijayaraghavachariar, one of the founders of the Congress Party.

In the year 1919 Rajaji chose to follow Gandhiji, who had just returned from South Africa. In the year 1921, Rajaji was selected as the General Secretary of the Congress Party and he came into close contact with Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad, Rajendra Prasad etc. and began to gain stature in the party.

At one time considered Mahatma Gandhi's heir , this brilliant lawyer from Salem, Tamil Nadu was regarded in pre-independence years as one of the top five leaders of the Congress along with Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Rajaji was also connected by marriage to Mahatma Gandhi, as his daughter married Devdas Gandhi. Of the five, Rajaji, Nehru and Patel were christened the "head, heart and hands" of Gandhi, in whose shadows they remained till his death[citation needed]. Ironically, all three of them were to have a tempestuous relationship, bound together only by their common goal and Gandhi's charm. However, they respected each other immensely. Nehru wrote about Rajaji in his autobiography of how Rajaji's "brilliant intellect, selfless character, and penetrating powers of analysis have been a tremendous asset to our cause". Rajaji's intellect and political acumen is often compared with that of Chanakya. He had a very intimate relationship with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel. Infact after his resignation as Governor-General he was called back to join Nehru's Cabinet mainly to work as a bridge between Nehru and Patel, a role in which he very well suited and succeeded after Mahatma Gandhi. Though in later years Rajaji developed differences with Nehru with regards to economic policy, their personal relationship remained unstrained. Both had a high regard and affection on each other. Sardar Patel had always identified Rajaji as one of his close companions, he always shared a cordial relationship with Rajaji. He was so open to Rajaji that he shared his personal views about Nehru, Maulana Azad and their policy with him. Both of Sardar Patel and Rajaji were averse to Socialism and communism. As one of the Top Five Leaders of the Congress, Rajaji had to play a very vital role in policy making of the Congress Party. He was a member in the Working Committee from 1919 to 1942 and then 1950 to 1955.

Rajaji was perhaps the earliest Congress leader in the 1940s to accept the right of Muslims to self-determination. He devised a formula whereby there could be common defence and communications between the two nations. But the Rajaji formula was rejected by Jinnah as well as some Congress leaders. Rajaji was known to be a fierce defender of his political ideals, and did not hesitate to contradict his closest aides and friends in public, whenever he sensed a threat to them.

In the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, "Rajaji represents fundamentally the highest type of mind in India." A close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, "conscience keeper of the Mahatma", was an ardent freedom fighter.

After serving time in British prisons for his work in the independence movement, he became a member of the Governor's Council in 1946 and first held the portfolios of Education and Arts and in Jan,1947 held the portfolio of Industries and Supply and after the resignation of Liaquat Ali Khan from the Interim Government, the portfolio of Finance was also held by him. In 1948, after Indian independence was attained, he replaced Mountbatten to become the only Indian Governor-General of India, in which post he continued till the Republic was declared on January 26, 1950. The office was replaced by that of President, first held by Rajendra Prasad.

Rajaji became a member of Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet, first without portfolio, then, after Patel's death, as Home Minister. He was chief minister of Madras from 152 to 1954.

On leaving government, he was among the first recipients of the Bharat Ratna, the Indian government's highest civilian award.

Rajaji has the unique distinction of being the only Indian Governor-General. Prior to his occupying this great distinguished position he was serving as the Governor of West Bengal. Rajaji had served as Acting Governor-General during November,1947, when Lord Mountbatten was in England to attend his cousin's marriage. Rajaji led a very simple life in the viceregal palace. He even use to wash his clothes on his own. Once when a friend of Rajaji came to see him, was surprised to see Rajaji polishing his shoes on his own. He was astonished to see a Governor-General polishing his shoes, so he put up to him "Rajaji! polishing your shoes?!", to this Rajaji replied, "Yes! Ofcourse, I am polishing my shoes and whose shoes do you polish!". Rajaji as Governor-General, Jawaharlal Nehru, as Prime Minister and Sardar Patel, as Deputy Prime Minister, constituted an impressible triumvirate which ruled the country from 1948 - 1950.

President of India

By the end of the year 1949, Nehru had already made his mind that Rajaji, already Governor-General, should continue as President. But cracks were developing inside the Congress; Congressmen who were opponents of Rajaji used his non-participation in the Quit India Movement as a weapon against him. They promoted Rajendra Prasad for Presidency. They sought the help of Sardar Patel. Rajaji immediately called Rajendra Prasad and he said to him that he did not want the country to witness a conflict between senior leaders so soon after the death of Mahatma Gandhi and said he is withdrawing from the Presidential Contest. And thus Rajendra Prasad became the President.

As Union Home Minister

Rajaji served as the country's Home Minister for nearly 10 months. He at that time warned Nehru about the expansionist designs of China and also expressed regret over the Tibet problem, his views being in par with that of Sardar Patel, his predecessor . He had also expressed concern over the demands made about establishing new states on a linguistic basis, saying that it would generate differences amongst the people. Once in a cabinet meeting regarding Foreign Policy was going on, Rajaji stressed a point and Nehru's view was different to that of Rajaji. The other members in the meeting also supported Nehru. Nehru turned to Rajaji and said "See Rajaji, the majority is with me!". To this Rajaji retorted "Yes, Jawaharlal! The majority is with you, but the logic is with me!". Nehru laughed and supported Rajaji's proposal.

When Rajaji was piloting the Press Bill in the Parliament in the year 1951, Shyama Prasad Mukerjee interupted and said "Rajaji! Please remember that you have ceased to be a lawyer". And to this Rajaji shot back "Yes indeed, I accept that I had ceased to be a lawyer, But I had not ceased to be reasonable!".

Rajaji became the Premier of Madras Presidency in 1937 and he made Hindi a compulsary language in schools.This was immediately opposed and protests were organised by Periyar Ramasami and Sir A. D. Panneerselvam a few people were killed in the Anti-Hindi agitations.He introduced prohibition in 1937 and to compensate the loss of revenue introduced sales tax for the first time in India. He resigned along with other Congress governments in 1939 due to viceroy of India, Lord Linlithgow declaring that India was also at war without consultation and no discussion on the question of immediate independence .[3]

Rajaji again became the Chief minister due to a constitutional impropriety in 1952.In the 1952 elections Congress Party was reduced to a minority in the State Assembly and the Communist Party of India led coalition appeared to be in a better position to form the Government. But Governor Sri Prakasa nominated Rajaji to the Legislative Council without the advice of the council of ministers and the selection of a nominated member as Chief Minister and further majority was obtained by luring opposition MLA to join the party and Nehru was furious and wrote to Rajaji that"the one thing we must avoid giving is the impression that we stick to office and we want to keep others out at all costs" Rajaji refused to contest a bye election and remained a non elected member.

Dr. P.C. Alexander himself a former Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra governor writes that the most conspicuous case of constitutional impropriety was the one by Sri Prakasa when he invited Rajagopalachari to form the government in the Madras state.Potti Sriramulu died in a fast for a separate Andhra and violence followed in the Telugu areas of Madras State .Intially Nehru was opposed giving in warning "This method of fasting to achieve administrative or political changes will put end to democratic government." But later he agreed to the demand of Andhra ,but Nehru refused to include Madras city in Andhra. The State of Andhra was carved out of the Madras State in 1953, Rajaji remained aloof from the Andhra State and related issues . Rajaji introduced a new education policy based on family vocation.As per this policy schools will work in the morning and students had to compulsorily learn the family vocation in the afternoon it was severely opposed as casteist and dubbed Kula Kalvi Thittam(Hereditary Education Policy) and opposition to this came from within the Congress and outside led to his resignation in 1954.[9][10][11]

He was invited to the White House by President Kennedy; perhaps the only civilian, not in power, ever to be accorded formal state reception. The two discussed various matters and it is said that the great Indian statesman tried to impress the young President on the folly of an arms race - even one which the US could win. At the end of the meeting President Kennedy remarked "His meeting had the most civilizing influence on me. Seldom have I heard a case presented with such precision, clarity and elegance of language".

The nonagenarian's public life, spanning nearly eighty years are perhaps best recognized by Mahatma Gandhi's rich tribute to him praising him as: "the keeper of my conscience". Rajaji died in December, 1972 after a short illness.