Rajagopalachari, Chakravarti
(1870–1972), Indian political leader. Known to the Indian people as "Rajaji," Chakravarti Rajagopalachari was a prominent freedom fighter and leading politician from 1919 to the late 1960s. He was born a Brahman in Salem, Tamil Nadu, in 1870 and later practiced law there. He first met Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) in Madras in 1919 and then joined his noncooperation campaign in 1920. Later on, Gandhi's son Devdas married Rajaji's daughter. The bond between Rajaji and Gandhi always remained strong, even when they differed on certain political issues. Rajaji was twice chief minister of the erstwhile Madras Presidency: 1937–1939 and 1952–1954. After independence, he had first been governor of West Bengal (1947–1950) and then the first Indian governor-general (1950–1952) of independent India. He was critical of Jawaharlal Nehru's (1889–1964) policies, particularly after the Congress Party adopted a more radical leftist program in 1955.
Rajagopalachari in c. 1948. (BETTMANN/CORBIS)Rajaji then became a cofounder of the Swatantra Party in 1959, which scored good results in the elections of 1962 and thus forced Nehru to desist from this program. Once Nehru's Congress Party gave up its leftist agenda, the Swatantra Party was made superfluous and faded away before Rajaji's death in 1972.
Further Reading
Felton, Monica. (1962) I Met Rajaji. London: Macmillan.
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