After the Indian Independence, Kamaraj served as a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from 1952 to 1954 before becoming the Chief Minister of Madras State in April 1954.

During his almost decade long tenure as the chief minister, he played a major role in developing the infrastructure of the state and improving the quality of life of the needy and the disadvantaged.

[3][4][9] He dropped out of school at the age of 12 and joined to work in the cloth shop run by his maternal uncle Karuppaih Nadar.

While working in his uncle's shop, he began to attend panchayats and other political meetings addressed by activists such as P. Varadarajulu Naidu and George Joseph.

[9][12] Kamaraj was attracted by Annie Besant's Home Rule Movement and inspired by the writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Subramania Bharati.

[13] Due to his inclination towards politics and not spending time on the business, he was sent to Thiruvananthapuram to work at a timber shop owned by another of his relatives.

[13][14] Kamaraj was called back to his native and despite attempts by his mother to find him a bride, Kamraj refused to get married.

[14][15] After the Rowlatt Act of 1919 which indefinitely extended preventive detention and imprisonment of Indians without trial, was passed by the British Raj and the subsequent Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where hundreds of peaceful protesters against the act were shot down, Kamaraj decided to join Indian National Congress at the age of 16.

[13][15][16][17] On 21 September 1921, he met Mahatma Gandhi for the first time during a meeting in Madurai and was influenced by his views on prohibition of alcohol, usage of khadi, non violence and eradication of untouchability.

As a part of the role, he collected donations to finance the printing of speeches of Gandhi and distributed them to the people to induce them to join the Indian independence movement.

He was later transferred to Vellore Central Prison, where he developed an association with revolutionaries like Jaidev Kapoor and Kamal Nath Tewari.

Indian police officials along with the British officers engaged in coercive tactics and harassment to try and force a confession in the case.

In December 1940, he was arrested under the Defence of India rules for speeches that opposed contributions to the war fund, and sent to Vellore prison.

[30][31] In August 1942, Kamaraj attended the All-India Congress Committee in Bombay and returned to spread propaganda material for the Quit India Movement.

[34] After his release from the jail, Kamaraj found that the Congress has weakened significantly as Rajaji had resigned from the party and Satyamurti had died.

[35][36] In the 1946 Madras Presidency legislative assembly election, Kamaraj won from Sattur-Aruppukottai with Congress emerging as the largest party.

Tanguturi Prakasam was made as Chief Minister but was replaced by O. P. Ramaswamy within a year due to his differences with Kamaraj.

But the central committee was keen on Congress to form a government and it was decided that Rajaji who had gone into a sabbatical after serving as the Governor General of India was the right person to lead.

[42] In 1953, Andhra state was partitioned from Madras and the Modified Scheme of Elementary Education was construed as perpetuating the caste hierarchy.

In order to ensure that students do not walk long distances, the educational policy formulated that schools be opened within every 3 km (1.9 mi) radius.

Schemes were introduced wherein public help and contributions were sought to finance and improve educational infrastructure in the respective communities.

[27] The efforts resulted in significant improvement in school enrollment and growth of literacy rates in the state over the decade (18.33% in 1951 to 36.39% in 1961), which earned him the moniker Kalvi Thanthai (Father of education).

Small and medium-sized enterprises were encouraged to increase the utilization of local resources and electrification support was provided by the Government.

He suggested to then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru that senior Congress leaders should leave ministerial posts to take up organizational work.

This suggestion came to be known as the Kamaraj Plan, which was designed to alleviate the notion that congressmen are lured by power and to create a dedication to values and objectives of the party.

[67] Ever since the appointment of Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister, indifference arose between her and the top leaders of the Congress, termed as the "Syndicate", led by Kamaraj.

After the Congress victory in the 1967 Indian general election, the rift began to widen and Indira Gandhi was expelled from the party for anti-party activities in 1969.

Indira Gandhi stayed as the Prime Minister with the support of smaller regional parties and dissolved the Lok Sabha to call for fresh elections in 1970.

In the 1971 Indian general election, INC (O) performed very poorly, winning just 16 seats compared to the 352 won by the Indira led faction.

[91] Though he lacked a formal higher education, he showed good intelligence, intuitiveness and understanding of human nature, which led to him being called by the epithet of Padikkatha Methai (uneducated genius).