C. N. Annadurai

Picture of C. N. Annadurai

Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai was an Indian politician. He was Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, South India from 1967 to 1969. He was the first member of a Dravidian Party to hold that chief minister post.

Annadurai was famous for his oration skills, dramas and literary works in Tamil. He was the first politician from the Dravidian parties to use Tamil cinema for political propaganda. Annadurai was born in a middle-class family. He first worked as a school teacher, then moved into the political field of the Madras Presidency as a journalist. He became a member of the Dravidar Kazhagam and a big follower of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. But later Annadurai formed a new party named Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam due to differences between ideologies.

Various protests against the ruling Congress government took him to prison on several occasions; the last of which was during the Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965. The agitation itself helped Annadurai to gain popular support for his party. His party won a landslide victory in the 1967 state elections. He legalised Self-Respect marriages, enforced a two language policy and renamed Madras State to Tamil Nadu. However, he died of cancer just two years into office. His funeral had the highest attendance web