With the passing away of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) patriarch Muthuvel Karunanidhi, popularly called ‘Kalaignar’, the last surviving veteran protagonist of over a century old Dravidian movement is gone. Karunanidhi was just not a politician- but a multifaceted personality revered by supporters and opponents alike who held him in awe. He started his political career at a tender age of 14 as far back as 1938 leading small protest marches against Hindi when it was imposed on the Madras presidency as an official language by the elected Congress government led by C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). Inspired by the teachings of Dravida movement founder EV Ramaswami Naicker and later under the tutelage of CN Annadurai, Karunanidhi pioneered the Dravida movement (anti-Barhmin, anti-Hindi, anti-caste and anti-religion) through his writings, poems, dramas and scripts for movies. 

His movies were the antithesis of the Hollywood-Bollywood movies.  Breaking away from the beaten track, scripts written by Karunanidhi for the Tamil movies were propaganda material for the Dravida movement casting aside the mundane and the stereotyped. Almost all these films were great box-office hits. It was the cause of social justice that was closest to his heart. His oratorical skills which used to mesmerize the audiences catapulted him to the top echelons of DMK then led by Annadurai. Although rhetoric was prolific in his written and spoken word, Kalaignar was a pragmatic and effective politician. 

Under him Tamil Nadu perfected the Dravidian economic model of consumer socialism. By all accounts, the iconic Tamil leader was a workaholic. He scaled heights in politics, literature, and cinema. His oratory was unmatched; his writing will be unrivalled. However, it is his political feat of winning all 13 legislative assembly elections spanning 60 years will probably never be eclipsed. As chief minister of 20 years, he pioneered many projects for the uplift of the poor and downtrodden. During his final term as the chief minister, he oversaw the setting up of a welfare board for transgenders six years before the landmark Supreme Court judgment.  Similarly, the state government’s insurance scheme for life-saving treatments predated Modicare by eight years. Tamil Nadu was, thus, always ahead of the social policy curve. His death has left a huge political vacuum in the Tamil as well as national politics.