V. R. Nedunchezhiyan (11 July 1920 – 12 January 2000) was an Indian politician and writer. He served thrice as the

acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad r ...

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

of the state of

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 ...

, India. He was also finance minister under the governments of

C. N. Annadurai Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai (15 September 1909 – 3 February 1969), popularly known as Anna also known as Arignar Anna or Perarignar Anna (''Anna, the scholar'' or ''Elder Brother''), was an Indian Tamil politician who served as the fo ...

, M. Karunanidhi,

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

and

J. Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

. For his literary contributions, he was also known as "Navalar" or the eloquent.

Life and career

Nedunchezhiyan was born at

Thirukannapuram Thirukannapuram is a village in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Nagapattinam District. A popular Perumal temple (Neelmegha Perumal) is there. During the tamil month of Masi (mid of February to March) magam festivel conducted greatly. Temple ...

on 11 July 1920. He was graduated with a master's degree and a doctorate in

Tamil literature Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from T ...

from

Annamalai University , logo = CampusmapofAU.jpg , image = Annamalai University logo.png , image_size = 225px , motto = "With Courage and Faith" , established = , type ...

. He became involved in politics while at the university and joined the

Dravidar Kazhagam Dravidar Kazhagam is a social movement founded by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, also called Thanthai Periyar. Its original goals were to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including untouchability and on a grander scale to obtain a " ...

party in 1944. In 1949, he and

formed the

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

(DMK), with the latter as leader and Nedunchezhiyan acting as deputy general secretary until 1955. He was general secretary between 1955 and 1960 and then chairman of the party's general council until 1969. Nedunchezhiyan was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members of whom are democratically elected using the First-past-the-post system. The presiding officer of the Assembl ...

in 1962, succeeding K. S. G. Haja Shareef, who moved to a different constituency. In 1967, he became the Minister of Education when the

took power. He was briefly acting Chief Minister for the state following

's death in 1969, taking the role until M. Karunanidhi was appointed. He then continued as a cabinet minister in the Karunanidhi cabinet until the DMK lost power in 1976. Together with

K. Rajaram K. Rajaram (26 August 1926 – 8 February 2008) was an Indian politician of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and later, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He served as the ...

, Nedunchezhiyan left the DMK to form a new political party called the ''

Makkal Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ''Makkal'' is a 1975 Indian Malayalam film, directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan and produced by M. O. Joseph. The film stars Jayabharathi, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Adoor Bhasi and Jose Prakash in the lead roles. The film has musical score by G. Devarajan. ...

'' but this did not last long. The party merged with the

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

(AIADMK), which was by then in government, in 1978 and from 1980 Nedunchezhiyan was again a cabinet minister, this time as a Minister of Finance under the leadership of AIADMK's

, until 1987. Nedunchezhiyan acting as deputy general secretary as 1977 and 1989. He was general secretary as 1977 and 1989. He became acting Chief Minister in 1988 when Ramachandran died. Nedunchezhiyan briefly aligned himself with the

-led group within the AIADMK but was expelled from the party in 1988 after disputes with its leaders. He stood in the 1989 state elections and later that year returned to the party fold after Jayalalithaa had successfully reunified it. He served as Minister of Finance again between 1991 and 1996.He was served General Council Leader Of AIADMK From 1996 to his death.

Legislative election history

Personal life

He married his wife, Visalakshi (AIADMK Spokesperson), in 1950, and they had one son. Indian tennis player

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (born 20 October 1988) is an Indian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of No. 64 achieved on 18 March 2019. He won the doubles title with Rohan Bopanna at the 2017 Chennai Open, in a historic final ...

is his grandson.

Death

He died on

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

Apollo Hospital Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited is an Indian multinational healthcare group headquartered in Chennai. Along with the eponymous hospital chain, the company also operates pharmacies, primary care and diagnostic centres, telehealth clinics, ...

on 12 January 2000.At that time, Jayalalithaa sent a letter to Karunanidhi, who was the Chief Minister, asking for a place to bury Nedunchezhiyan next to Anna.But the then DMK government rejected that demand. After this, Nedunchezhiyan's body was cremated in Besant Nagar cemetery.

In popular culture

The character Madhivanan, played by

Rajesh Rajesh is a given name of Indian and Nepali origin. Given name * Rajesh (actor), South Indian actor * Rajesh (Kannada actor), Kannada actor * Rajesh Bishnoi, Indian cricketer * Rajesh Chauhan, Indian cricketer * Rajesh Gangwar, Indian social ...

, in the 1997 film ''

Iruvar ''Iruvar'' () is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language epic political drama film co-written, produced and directed by Mani Ratnam. The film, inspired by the lives of M. Karunanidhi, M. G. Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa is set against the backdrop of ...

'' is loosely based on Nedunchezhiyan.

Books published

Name of the book with year of publication. # Decimal Research (1943) # The Late Dravidian (1948) # Language Struggle (1948) # Repository (1948) # Tears and Red Water Development Corporation (1951) # Rise Murasu # New Path # Veera tamilgam # Ancient Greek (1953) # Giordano Bruno (1953) # Charles Bradley (1953) # Religion and Superstition (1955) #Purananooru Treasure (1961) # DMK (1961) #Brotherhood with Anna (1961) #Heart great pleasure (1982) # Thought Flowers (1982) # Learning love scenes # Narrinai katcigal (1982) # Telling Taste (Short Views) (1985) # Culture Honor (1985) # Novel Announcements to the Novel Country (1988) #Vadakkalathur Raja Gopalanar Biography (1991) # Thirukkural - Novel Clarification (1991) Biography of #RevolutionaryBharatidasan (1994) # War of Social Justice (1996) # History of the Dravidian Movement (Part I) (1996) # Jain Commission Report - A Study (1997) # What I Saw and Heard in Life (2000) After His- # Thirukkural Novel Text (Portable Edition) (2001) # The parable of the sower (2004)

Notes

References

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nedunchezhiyan, V. R 1920 births 2000 deaths Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu Leaders of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu Chief ministers from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Chief ministers from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam People from Nagapattinam district Tirukkural commentators Recipients of the Thiruvalluvar Award Madras MLAs 1962–1967 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1967–1972 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1977–1980 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1980–1984 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1991–1996 Indian politicians convicted of corruption