Doraisamy Raja (born 3 June 1949) is an Indian politician and the General Secretary of the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

(CPI) since July 2019. He was former member of

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. He was the national secretary of the

(CPI) from 1994 to 2019.

Early life and education

Raja was born in Chithathoor, in the

Vellore Vellore (English: ), also spelt as Velur (), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River in the northeastern part of Tamil Nadu and is separa ...

district of Tamil Nadu, to a

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...

family. His father, P. Doraisamy, and mother, Nayagam, were landless agricultural workers. He completed a

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from G.T.M. College in Gudiyattam, and a

B.Ed. A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order for ...

from Government Teachers College in Vellore. He was the first graduate in a predominantly Dalit village. Till he finished primary school, Raja survived on a mid-day meal but in high school he often went hungry because his mother couldn't afford lunch for him and there were no free meals. Raja claimed that he developed his reading habit when he was allowed in the reading rooms during the PT periods because the PT teacher knew he was often on empty stomach. While in college, he became active in student politics.

Personal life

Raja met his wife, Annie Raja, while they were both in the

All India Youth Federation The All India Youth Federation (AIYF) is a nationwide youth organisation of Communist Party of India founded on May 3, 1959. AIYF is affiliated to World Federation of Democratic Youth. And member of general council of WFDY. Formation It was be ...

, and they married on 7 January 1990 in a simple wedding. She is now the general secretary of the

National Federation of Indian Women The National Federation of Indian Women is a women's organisation in India, the women's wing of the Communist Party of India. It was established in 1954 June 4 by several leaders from Mahila Atma Raksha Samiti including Aruna Asaf Ali.Overstree ...

, the women wing of the CPI, and they have a daughter together named Aparajitha Raja. Aparajitha Raja was herself an activist during her student days. During April 2021, Raja was diagnosed with COVID-19 while campaigning for election and had to be admitted to AIIMS.

Political career

During college, he joined the

All India Students Federation The All India Students' Federation (AISF) is the oldest surviving student organisation in India, founded in 1936. Pre-independence AISF was founded on 12 August 1936, with guidance and cooperation from the Indian independence movement. The ...

and became active in student politics. He later became the leader of the

and was the State Secretary of the Tamil Nadu unit from 1975 to 1980, and was then elected general secretary from 1985 to 1990. He became the national secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1994 and served until 2019. On 21 July 2019, the National Council of the CPI elected him as the general secretary of the party. Raja was first elected to Rajya Sabha in July 2007 from Tamil Nadu and was re-elected in 2013. Raja took over as general secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI) on July 21, 2019. Raja was the first Dalit to occupy the position in a mainstream communist party. His name was proposed unanimously by the CPI national secretariat. Writing for the

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

regarding the

Russia-Ukraine war The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revo ...

, he wrote that "If peace is to prevail in the world,

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

should be disbanded."

Bibliography

*''Dalit Question: The Way Forward'' (New Delhi, CPI Publication, 2007) *''Marx and Ambedkar: Continuing the Dialogue'' by D. Raja, N. Muthumohan (New Century Book House, 2018) *''D. Raja in the Parliament'' by Rajeev Suman (The Marginalised Publication, 2021)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raja, D. Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu Communist Party of India politicians from Tamil Nadu People from Vellore district 1949 births Living people Leaders of political parties in India