Kamrajar’s life story from 15 July 1903 to 2 October1975 had been stranger than fiction for its unbelievable incidents and turn of events. He was almost an illiterate with no formal education and born in a poor toddy tapper’s family in a remote village but rose to great heights of eminence in the political arena.

His life in a nutshell

   Kamarajar joined school in 1907 but his father died in 1909. His mother being a housewife was forced to sustain the family. In 1914, he dropped out of school to support his mother and younger sister. As a young boy, he worked in his uncle’s provision shop.

    During that period, Kamarajar began to attend public meetings and processions of Indian Home Rule Movement. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 was a turning point in his life when he joined the Freedom Movement as a full-time worker. His relatives urged him to get married and settle in life. But he informed....