Obituary: Kumari Ananthan — Walked With Kamaraj, Fought Emergency, And Stood Tall in Silence

The year was 1977. It was just after the emergency. The elections were approaching. I was then in the first standard. It was a government aided Tamil medium school. All of us had access to election posters, pamphlets, and badges, which were a kind of currency in make-believe bus and train journeys. The name 'Kumari Ananthan' thus became quite famous among us. He was the candidate for the newly formed Janata Party (or was it coalition?).

Children knew only what the adults talked. And almost all adults I remembered talked about Kumari Ananthan as a great, valorous person. He was considered simple, brave, and honest. He and the symbol farmer with the plough were everywhere.

It was a massive win. Long before Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai became tangible personalities in the memory, Kumari Ananthan was a reality. Kumari Ananthan was a quintessential Congressman of a previous generation — a generation that belonged to K.Kamaraj.

He was highly agitated by the anti-democratic darkness unleashed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi and, following the directions shown by his leader, had joined the Janata revolution.

He was a man of letters. His knowledge of Tamil literature and history was phenomenal. He was also a man of cultural vision. Near Kanyakumari Railway station, he created a permanent exhibition showcasing the richness of local history. This museum can actually be a template for creating similar cost-effective educational museums in many places.

His daughter was Smt. Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan. She joined the BJP. Thiru. Kumari Ananthan initially could not digest this, but a democrat at heart, he accepted the right of his daughter to live the ideology and walk the path of her choice. He should have felt pride in a Tamil woman adorning the posts of the combined Governors of both Pondicherry and Telangana. It was indeed a moment of pride for all Tamil women cutting across party affiliation.

Here, it should be mentioned that Kumari Ananthan belonged to a clan of the Nadar community that made the earliest homecoming to Hindu Dharma after being made to convert to Christianity. Thus, he was from a community tradition with strong roots in Dharma. He was one of the earliest speakers in Tamil in the Indian Parliament.

Kumari Ananthan belonged to those rare and endangered species of politicians who practice integrity and dignity in public life. In this hour of grief for Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan, we share her grief and wish that the sacred memory of her father give her the strength to be an instrument in the hands of Bharat Mata to create a strong and prosperous India as well as Tamil Nadu.