DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan dies at 97

News Bharati    07-Mar-2020 11:49:58 AM
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Chennai, Mar 7: K.Anabazhagan, who served as General Secretary of the politically powerful Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, passed away at the wee hours on March 7 due to old age. He was 97 and is survived by two daughters and a son.

His death came as a profound loss for the party as he was a close friend of K Karunanidhi, the DMK Supremo. He had served as MLA for nine terms and Lok Sabha member for one term.

Week-Long mourning has been announced by the DMK president M K Stalin.

The late leader who was one of the stalwarts of the Davidian movement was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Chennai on February 24 due to age-related health complaints. He was critical and did not respond to treatment due to his age.

Anbazhagan served as a lecturer of Tamil for 13 years between 1944 and 1957 at Pachaiyappa’s College before he joined the DMK as General Secretary in1977. He remained at the same post till his death. He was also the first secretary of the DMK’s trade union movement.

This was when his predecessor V R Neduchezhian had parted ways to form his own party and later join the AIADMK founded by M G Ramachandran.

Born Ramaiah in Kattur near Mayiladuthurai, he changed his name as Mr. Anbazhagan and studied Tamil in Annamalai University in Chidambaram. His father M. Kalyanasundaram, was a Congressman and even ran a khadi store in Mayiladuthurai but quit the Congress along with Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, founder of the Dravidar Kazhagam. He shifted his base to Chidambaram to facilitate good education for Anbazhagan and his brothers.

“I had read Kudiyarasu run by Periyar and Navasakthi by Thiru.Vi.Ka even when I was 10 years old,” Mr. Anbazhagan had once recalled.

He first met Karunanidhi in 1942 while accompanying C.N. Annadurai, who later founded the DMK, to Tiruvarur.

Mr. Anbazhagan had publicly endorsed the elevation of Karunanidhi’s son M.K. Stalin in the party organization at various stages.

Well-read and delved deep into Tamil literature, he rejected religion, even though he admired Vadalur Vallalar Ramalinga Adigal. “If I need a religion, I have no hesitation in embracing Vallalar,” he once said.

“Unlike the leaders of the Dravidian Movement, who have reservations about Bharathiar, Anbazhagan admired the poet and appreciated his scholarship,” said K. Thirunavukkarasu, the historian of the Dravidian Movement.

Mr. Anbazhagan declared himself as follows: “First I am a human being; secondly, I am Anbazhagan; thirdly a rationalist, fourthly the younger brother of Anna, fifthly the friend of Kalaignar. This will continue forever and only death can destroy the order.”