M. Bhaktavatsalam
Minjur Bhakthavatsalam (9 October 1897 – 13 February 1987) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the chief minister of Madras State from 2 October 1963 to 6 March 1967. He was the last Congress chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the last to have taken part in the Indian independence movement.
M. Bhakthavatsalam
R. Nagana Goud
9 October 1897
Madras Presidency, British India
(present-day Tamil Nadu, India)
13 February 1987 (aged 89)
Madras, Tamil Nadu, India
(present-day Chennai)
Periyavar Bhakthavatsalam Ninaividam
Gnanasundarambal
Bhaktavatsalam was born on 9 October 1897 in the Madras Presidency. He studied law and practised as an advocate in the Madras High Court. He involved himself in politics and the freedom movement right from an early age and was imprisoned during the Salt Satyagraha and the Quit India Movement. He was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1937 and served as Parliamentary Secretary in the Rajaji government and as a minister in the O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar government. He led the Indian National Congress during the 1950s and served as the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from 1963 to 1967. Following the defeat of the Indian National Congress in the 1967 elections, Bhaktavatsalam partially retired from politics. He died on 13 February 1987 at the age of 89.
Early life[edit]
Bhaktavatsalam was born to C. N. Kanakasabhapathi Mudaliar and his wife Mallika[1] in a Saiva Vellalar family of Nazarethpet or Nazareth village, Madras Presidency.[2] His father died when he was five and Bhaktavatsalam was brought up by his uncles C. N. Muthuranga Mudaliar and C. N. Evalappa Mudaliar.[1] He completed his schooling in Madras and enrolled at Madras Law College. On graduation in 1923, Bhaktavatsalam commenced practice as a lawyer of the Madras High Court.
Indian independence and the Kamaraj era[edit]
Bhaktavatsalam stood in the Madras Assembly elections held in 1946 and was re-elected.[2] He served as the Minister of Public Works and Information in the O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar cabinet.[3] In the 1952 Assembly elections, the first in independent India, Bhaktavatsalam lost.[2] In 1957, he won the Sriperumbudur seat and entered the Assembly. He was appointed the Home Minister in the Kamaraj' cabinet and leader of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly House.
Family[edit]
Bhaktavatsalam was related by marriage to some noted political families of Tamil Nadu. The Indian National Congress politician and Union Minister O. V. Alagesan and former Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, P. T. Rajan were brothers-in-law of Bhaktavatsalam.[15] Bhaktavatsalam's daughter Sarojini Varadappan is a social activist while his granddaughter Jayanthi Natarajan was a politician of the Indian National Congress, Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister.[8][15]
Commemorative stamp
Inside Bhaktavatsalam memorial
A bust of Bhaktavatsalam
An inscription for Bhaktavatsalam
