Rajagopalachari was an accomplished writer who made lasting contributions to Indian English literature and is also credited with the composition of the song Kurai Onrum Illai set to Carnatic music.

Rajagopalachari was born to Chakravarti Venkatarya Achari (Iyengar) and his wife Singaramma on 10 December 1878[8] in Thorapalli village on the outskirts of Hosur, in Dharmapuri taluk, Salem district, Madras Presidency, British Raj.

[25][27] Rajagopalachari was a close friend of the founder of Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company V. O. Chidambaram Pillai as well as greatly admired by Indian independence activists Annie Besant, Subramania Bharati and C.

When Gandhi organised the Dandi march in 1930, Rajagopalachari broke the salt laws at Vedaranyam, near Nagapattinam, along with Indian independence activist Sardar Vedaratnam.

[citation needed] In 1938, when Dalit members of the Madras Legislative Council proposed a Temple Entry Bill, Congress Prime Minister Rajagopalachari asked them to withdraw it.

[39] Rajagopalachari's tenure as Prime Minister of Madras is largely remembered for the compulsory introduction of Hindi in educational institutions, which made him highly unpopular.

The opposition to Rajagopalachari grew because he continued to openly criticize the Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937–40 in the most elitist terms and casually ignored the death of a young protester in 1938 when he was asked about it.

During the last years of the war, Kamaraj was requested by Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to make Rajagopalachari the Premier of Madras Presidency.

Kamaraj, President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, was forced to make Tanguturi Prakasam as Prime Ministerial candidate, by the elected members, to prevent Rajagopalachari from winning.

[25] In the same year, he proposed an "absolute majority" threshold of 55 per cent when deciding whether a district should become part of India or Pakistan,[48] triggering a huge controversy among nationalists.

[51] He declared his commitment to neutrality and justice at a meeting of Muslim businessmen: "Whatever may be my defects or lapses, let me assure you that I shall never disfigure my life with any deliberate acts of injustice to any community whatsoever.

"[51] Despite the general attitude of the Bengali political class, Rajagopalachari was highly regarded and respected by Chief Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and his ministry.

[63][64] Tired of being persistently over-ruled by Nehru concerning critical decisions,[49] Rajagopalachari submitted his resignation on the "grounds of ill-health" and returned to Madras.

[65] In the 1952 Madras elections, the Indian National Congress was reduced to a minority in the state assembly with a coalition led by the Communist Party of India winning most of the seats.

[93] The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam dubbed the scheme Kula Kalvi Thittam or Hereditary Education Policy[94] which was put forward with the intention of perpetuating the caste system.

[95] Despite his government's efforts to postpone the Modified Scheme of Elementary Education 1953, public resistance grew, particularly in response to initiatives that sought to establish Hindi as the national language.

[102] The rising unpopularity of his government forced Rajagopalachari to resign on 26 March 1954, as the President of the Madras Congress Legislature Party (CLP) thereby precipitating new elections.

[111] On 4 June 1959, shortly after the Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress, Rajagopalachari, along with Murari Vaidya of the newly established Forum of Free Enterprise (FFE)[114] and Minoo Masani, a classical liberal and critic of socialist Nehru, announced the formation of the new Swatantra Party at a meeting in Madras.

[120][121] Rajagopalachari sharply criticised the bureaucracy and coined the term "licence-permit Raj" to describe Nehru's elaborate system of permissions and licences required for an individual to set up a private enterprise.

[133] At the age of 88, Rajagopalachari worked to forge a united opposition to the Indian National Congress through a tripartite alliance between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Swatantra Party and the Forward Bloc.

The principal opposition party in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, it also formed a coalition government in Odisha and had a significant presence in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar.

[146] By November 1972, Rajagopalachari's health had begun to decline[147] and on 17 December the same year, a week after his 94th birthday, he was admitted to the Government Hospital, Madras suffering from uraemia, dehydration and a urinary infection.

His analysis, his anticipation, his administrative acumen and his courage to steer an unpopular course if he felt the need, marked him as a statesman and made an impact on the national history at several crucial junctures.

"[159] While on a tour to the United States as a member of the Gandhi Peace Foundation delegation, in September 1962, Rajagopalachari visited American President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

He played a pivotal role in the conclusion of the Poona Pact between B. R. Ambedkar and the Indian National Congress and spearheaded the Mahabal Temple Entry program in 1938.

[14][27] Referring to Rajagopalachari, Sarojini Naidu, who was never on good terms with him, remarked that 'the Madras fox was a dry logical Adi Shankaracharya while Nehru was the noble, compassionate Buddha'.

[171] Although his popularity at the regional level fluctuated greatly, Rajagopalachari was able to exercise his stranglehold over provincial politics mainly because he was favored by national leaders such as Gandhi, Patel and Nehru.

[14] The President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, K. Kamaraj, and a majority of the provincial leaders opposed him in the 1940s, Rajagopalachari clung on to a position of influence in regional politics through support from his colleagues at the center.

Christophe Jaffrelot argued that Rajagopalachari and other political leaders including Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel praised the caste system both indirectly and directly as a glue that binds the social structure together.

[172][35] As a governor-general, Rajaji stated, The food is grown, the cloth is woven, the sheep are shorn, the shoes are stitched, the scavenging is done, the cartwheels and the ploughs are built and repaired because, thank God, the respective castes are still there and the homes are trade schools as well and the parents are masters as well, to whom the children are automatically apprenticed.