Karumuttu T Kannan (1953 – 2023) — A True Dharmic Soul

Karumuttu Kannan was a multi-faceted man, and excelled in every domain he was involved. 

He was the chairman of Thiagaraja Mills, chairperson of Thiagaraja educational institutions, chief trustee of  Madurai Arulmigu Meenkashi Sundereswarar Temple, an ex-Planning Commission member of Tamil Nadu and a savvy investor. 

A Personal Account:

It is my fortune that I was a student of his college “Thiagarajar College of Engineering “ and his kindness to keep track of his students and offering  opportunities made me have a meaningful association with him.

He was a modernist, kept looking West for all technology upgradations, new investment areas and collaboration for education. However his life was rooted in Tamil literature especially Thirukural and Tamil saivaite philosophy.

In a state which is notorious for its  bitter political animosity between the two Dravidian parties, he served uninterruptedly as the Chief trustee of the Meenakshi Temple for close to two decades.

When asked how he managed this, he quoted a Thirukural couplet in his inimitable style:

அகலாது அணுகாது தீக்காய்வார் போல்க
இகல்வேந்தர்ச் சேர்ந்தொழுகு வார்

meaning  “people  who work with the power should, like those who warm themselves at the fire, be neither (too) far, nor (too) near”.

He narrated his personal experience of how he had to deal with the invite for Kumbhabishekam in 2009 for the temple when DMK was in power though he was appointed as the Chief Trustee of the temple in the AIADMK tenure.

He had invited the then chief minister M Karunanidhi and he felt it is his duty to also invite J Jayalalitha. He waited for a day for the appointment from Poes Garden and then gate crashed the next day, waited for an hour in his car outside her house before he could meet up.

She received the invite and quipped “Mr Kannan, you are a brave man”. Indeed his mental strength was unmatched and the way he handled his brief illness is testimony to it.

There was a time when he had requested me to make some small petty cash payment in Chennai as he was on overseas travel. I had forgot about this.

Subsequently, when I was meeting him for a request for a college admission for a relative couple of weeks later, he handed over the money with few hundred rupees more and said “That’s the liquid fund return extra on your money” and quoted the couplet

Meaning  “As thriving trader is the trader known,
Who guards another's interests as his own”.

I was lost for words. He has given me back few hundred rupees while I was placing a request for an admission in his prestigious institution. He said with pride “providing education is my dharma and it has nothing to do with commercial relationship”.

True to his words, Thiagarajar institutions never took a rupee extra either as capitation fees or as additional fees.

Equally he resisted any influence on appointment of teachers and sat through all the faculty interviews in spite of his pressing time commitments from multiple avatars.

He believed any mistake in selection of teachers could impact a generation of students and felt it is his dharma to resist any influence as his colleges were old style govt aided institutions requiring the stamp of approval from them.

It is no wonder the Thiagarajar educational institutions are top rated in the country continuously.

His business profits were ploughed back in educational institutions to maintain the philanthropic nature of them, may be one of the few Dharmic institutions left. His demise made me think what Tamil literature poem would have inspired him for a such a magnanimous and philanthropic life.

The closest I could quote from is from another Maduraite few thousand years back from Purananooru by Nakeeranar

புறநானூறு
பாடல் எண் 189

மதுரை கணக்காயனார் மகனார் நக்கீரனார் 

“உண்பது நாழி யுடுப்பவை யிரண்டே
பிறவு மெல்லா மோரொக் கும்மே
செல்வத்துப் பயனே யீதல்"

Meaning: “whether you are a king or commoner, 

Food serving size is one, clothes are but two;
everything else is equal too;
purpose of wealth is to give back;
if savored alone, much is lost.”

He gave back generously in money, efforts, leadership and above all adherence to Dharma. In his untimely demise, the civilisational city of Madurai has lost its Dharmic role model. Indeed Bharat too.