Tamil Nadu Timeline

PoliticsRise of Dravidian rule

Death of C. Rajagopalachari

· Chennai

Death of C. Rajagopalachari
India Post, Government of India, GODL-India · Wikimedia Commons

C. Rajagopalachari, once Governor-General, Chief Minister of Madras and founder of the Swatantra Party, died in Madras at 94.

Rajaji, as C. Rajagopalachari was widely called, died at the age of 94 in Madras on 25 December 1972 and was given a state funeral. His offices had included Premier of Madras Presidency, last Governor-General of India and, from 1952 to 1954, Chief Minister of Madras State. Late in life he set up the Swatantra Party and helped assemble the anti-Congress coalition that carried the DMK to power in 1967. He also wrote prolifically in both English and Tamil.

Related events

  1. 1964

    1. 21 Apr 1964ChennaiLiterature

      Death of poet Bharathidasan

      Bharathidasan, the rationalist Tamil poet influenced by Subramania Bharati and Periyar, died in Madras.

  2. 1971

    1. Mar 1971ChennaiPolitics

      DMK wins 184 seats in the 1971 election

      The DMK, allied with Indira Gandhi's Congress, won a landslide in the first Assembly election held under the name Tamil Nadu.

  3. 1975

    1. 2 Oct 1975ChennaiPolitics

      Death of K. Kamaraj

      K. Kamaraj, former Chief Minister and Congress president, died in Madras and was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1976.

    2. 1975ChennaiLiterature

      Akilan becomes the first Tamil writer to win the Jnanpith

      Novelist Akilan received the Jnanpith Award for his novel Chithirappavai, the first for a Tamil writer.

  4. 1976

    1. 1976ChennaiPolitics

      Kamaraj awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously

      Former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj, who died in October 1975, was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna.

  5. 2016

    1. 5 Dec 2016ChennaiPolitics

      Death of J. Jayalalithaa

      Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa died at Apollo Hospital, Chennai, after a 75-day hospitalisation; O. Panneerselvam was sworn in the same night.

Open in the timeline explorer