Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran,popularly known by his initials M.G.R.,was an Indian actor,politician and philanthropist who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987. He was the founder and first general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. On 19 March 1988,Ramachandran was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna,India's highest civilian honour. Ramachandran is regarded as one of the most influential politicians of post-independence India. Apart from politics,as a film personality he won the National Film Award,two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and two Filmfare Award South.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He is popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Artist) and Mutthamizh Arignar for his contributions to Tamil literature. He had the longest intermittent tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu with 6,863 days in office. He was also a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. Karunanidhi has the record of never losing an election to the Tamil Nadu Assembly,having won 13 times since his first victory in 1957. Before entering politics,he worked in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter. He also made contributions to Tamil literature,having written stories,plays,novels,and a multiple-volume memoir. Karunanidhi died on 7 August 2018 at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai after a series of prolonged,age-related illnesses.
D. Jayakanthan,popularly known as JK,was an Indian writer,journalist,orator,filmmaker,critic and activist. Born in Cuddalore,he dropped out of school at the age of 9 and went to Madras,where he joined the Communist Party of India. In a career spanning six decades,he authored around 40 novels,200 short stories,apart from two autobiographies. Outside literature,he made two films. In addition,four of his other novels were adapted into films by others.
Bahuleyan Jeyamohan is an Indian Tamil and Malayalam language writer and literary critic from Nagercoil in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Vaiko,birth name Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy,is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha,the upper house of the Parliament of India from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK),a political party active mainly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha,the lower house of the Parliament of India from Sivakasi,Tamil Nadu.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi,formerly known as the Dalit Panthers of India or the Dalit Panthers Iyyakkam,is an Indian social movement and political party that seeks to combat caste based discrimination,active in the state of Tamil Nadu. The party also has a strong emphasis on Tamil nationalism. Its chairman is Thol. Thirumavalavan,a lawyer from Chennai,and its general secretary is the writer Ravikumar.
Tholkappiyan Thirumavalavan,better known as Thol. Thirumavalavan is a political leader,scholar and activist from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is a Member of Parliament from Chidambaram. Leader and President of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. He rose to prominence in the 1990s as a bahujan leader,and formally entered politics in 1999. His political platform centres on ending caste-based discrimination and consequently the caste system. He has also expressed support for Tamil nationalist movements in Sri Lanka.
Seeman (Simon) (born 8 November 1966) is an Indian Tamil film director,actor and politician. He is the leader and chief-coordinator of the Naam Tamilar Katchi political party in Tamil Nadu. He is a strong advocate for regional autonomy and Tamil nationalism by focusing on the Tamil language,identity,and culture.
P. Jeevanandham also called Jeeva,was a social reformer,political leader,litterateur and one of the pioneers of the Communist and socialist movements in the state of Tamil Nadu,India.
Krishnammal Jagannathan is an Indian social activist from the state of Tamil Nadu. She and her husband,Sankaralingam Jagannathan,protested against social injustice and they are Gandhian activists. Her work includes upliftment of the landless,and the poor;she has sometimes fought against governments as well as big industries. She was earlier involved in the Indian independence movement,along with her husband,and was also a close associate of Vinoba Bhave. In 2008 she received the Right Livelihood Award,which she shared with her husband. She was given the Padma Bhushan;India's third highest civilian award;in 2020.
Diwan Bahadur Rettamalai Srinivasan,commonly known as R. Srinivasan,was a scheduled caste activist and politician from then Madras Presidency of British India. He is a Paraiyar icon and was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and was also an associate of B. R. Ambedkar. He is remembered today as one of the pioneers of the Scheduled caste movement in India. He founded the Adi dravida mahajana sabha in 1893.
D. Selvaraj was an Indian writer who wrote novels,short stories,and plays in the Tamil language. A lawyer by profession,he was involved in various Communist and left-leaning writers' organisations such as the Democratic Writers Association of India and the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Association (TNPWA),of which he was an executive committee member. He received the Tamil Nadu Government's literary award for the best novel of 2011 for his work on tannery workers of Southern Tamil Nadu titled Thol. He did the field work for Thol for a decade before writing it. The novel was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for Tamil in 2012.
A. Vaidyanatha Iyer,also known as Madurai Vaidyanatha Iyer or Ayyar was an Indian activist,politician and freedom-fighter who spearheaded the temple entry movement in Madras Presidency in 1939.
David Pandian was an Indian Tamil politician who served as Member of Parliament elected from Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Lok Sabha as an Indian National Congress–United Communist Party of India (UCPI) candidate from North Chennai constituency in 1989 and 1991 elections. He was the Tamil Nadu State Secretary of the Communist Party of India for three consecutive terms from 2005 to 2015,when he was succeeded by R. Mutharasan.
Ponneelan,born 1940 at Manikatti Pottal,Kanyakumari district) is the pen name of Kandeswara Bhaktavatsalan,a Tamil writer from Tamil Nadu,India. He is a Marxist and was influenced by Tamil Communist leader P. Jeevanandham in his younger days. He became a teacher and retired as the deputy director of school education for Tamil Nadu. He won the 1994 Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil his novel Pudhiya Dharisanangal. He is currently the state president of the Tamil literary organisation Tamil Nadu Kalai Ilakkiya Perumandram. During 2005–2008,he was a member of the Central Board of Film Certification. He also wrote the script for the 2008 film Ayyavazhi.
The Fourteenth Legislative Assembly Election was held on 13 April 2011 to elect members from 234 constituencies in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Results were released on 13 May 2011. Two major parties Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) faced the election as coalitions of multiple political parties:DMK front consisted of 8 parties and the AIADMK of 11 parties. Vijayakanth's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK),which had contested the previous elections independently,allied with the AIADMK coalition. Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam boycotted the election following a disagreement with Jayalalithaa over seat-sharing. The outgoing Karunanidhi government was noted for the construction of new assembly building in Chennai,execution of various developmental projects,and implementation of programmes including free health care for the poor and issuance of a range of freebies such as color television to all. However,these were heavily overshadowed by other major issues such as incessant power cuts in households and industries,excessive sand mining,increasing prices of essential items,2G spectrum case and undue influence of Karunanidhi's extended family in various aspects of Tamil politics and business and even media.
V. Jeevananthan popularly known as Oviyar Jeeva is an Indian painter,film critic,art designer and writer from Tamil Nadu.
S. Venkatesan,also known as Su. Venkatesan,is a Tamil writer from Tamil Nadu,India and Tamil Nadu State Committee member of CPI(M). Venkatesan is a state committee member of the Party and a whole-timer of the Party. He is the state Honorary President of Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association.
Doraisamy Raja is an Indian politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) since July 2019. He was former member of Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu. He was the national secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) from 1994 to 2019.
Harijan Sevak Sangh is a non-profit organisation founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1932 to eradicate untouchability in India,working for Harijan or Dalit people and upliftment of Depressed Class of India. It is headquartered at Kingsway Camp in Delhi,with branches in 26 states across India.
Communist Party of India