Spread Karunanidhi’s ideas of egalitarian, progressive society: T.N. CM Stalin

Seminars organised on the literary works of late DMK leader and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi should not only praise his works but should also help in spreading his ideas for egalitarian and progressive society, said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday (June 27, 2025).

Inaugurating the two-day seminar organised by the Sahitya Akademi along with the Special Centre for Tamil Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at Kalaivanar Arangam in Chennai, Mr. Stalin said that the literary contributions of the late leader should be taken to the next generation.

Listing out various measures undertaken by his government, including allotment of houses for Tamil scholars and nationalising of their works, Mr. Stalin said that steps were underway to install a statue of late Tamil saint-poet Tiruvalluvar in JNU campus in New Delhi.

JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulapudi Pandit underlined the late leader’s love for the Tamil language. She said that the leader’s birth centenary was not merely a moment to recall the political timelines but to understand how an individual was a bigger influence on the society that allowed him to shape language, literature and cinema and thereby the collective consciousness.

Recalling Karunanidhi’s early engagement in the anti-Hindi agitations, Ms. Pandit termed it his “first ideological battlefield”. He had founded the body for students from the State that was focused on protecting the Tamil linguistic heritage, “indicating his early realisation of the cultural States involved in politics.” Calling upon the audience to watch the Tamil movie Parasakthi (for which late Karunanidhi penned the dialogues), she said “it changed Tamil cinema forever.”

Ms. Pandit further said that beyond being a scriptwriter, Karunanidhi became the “voice of the people”. The late leader made the Tamil language more colloquial and inclusive and removed caste markers in his dialogues. “His writings had checked the hero archetype from divine saviours to rational, justice-seeking individuals – a stark contrast from the then prevalent narratives.”

The late leader used film not as an entertainment but as a cultural pedagogy introducing ideas of inter-caste marriage, temple reform, atheism, egalitarianism into Tamil films, she said. For him, Tamil language was not an inherited artefact but it was a living text – a daily source of communication, assertion and cultural dignity, she said.

Recalling from her personal experience, Ms. Pandit said she was a school student when the Emergency was imposed and pointed out that Karunanidhi was the only Chief Minister who opposed the Emergency. “He was also the great symbol of freedom protecting the Indian Constitution.”

Sahitya Akademi secretary K. Sreenivasarao said that former CMs and late leaders C. Rajagopalachari, C.N. Annadurai M. Karunanidhi raised the bar so high that one may find it difficult to find a State with such a series of erudite Chief Ministers.

Karunanidhi was not only a highly respected politician and statesman but also a prolific writer and his literary contributions covered a wide range of works – poems, novels, stories, plays, songs and lyrics, biographies, historical fiction, epistles, commentaries, dialogues and much more.

The remarkable thing about late Karunanidhi’s literary prowess was that he used literature for the promotion of social justice, Mr. Sreeenivasarao said. “Of course, before him, Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and C.N. Annadurai did it with success. But it was Karunanidhi-ji, who took this to every nook and corner of Tamil Nadu.”

“If C.N. Annadurai possessed unique ability to cover a vast range of subjects in each of his writings, Karunanidhi had the ability to make masses understand easily the great works of Tamil culture and how those works can impact their lives,” Mr. Sreenivasarao said.

Though late Karunanidhi could have chosen to be a lofty poet or a lyricist or playwright or a film director, but “it was his acceptance of the reality around him and his inner conviction that the social reality can be changed for the betterment of the people of the State that propelled him into a full-time political career,” he said.

Minister of Information and Publicity M.P. Saminathan was also present.