Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878–1972,) informally known by the diminutive “Rajaji,” was an Indian freedom fighter, statesman, politician, and writer. He served as free India’s first head of state and founded the Swatantra Party. He also wrote popular versions of the Mahabharata, the Rāmāyaṇa, and other Hindu classics.
Born in Thorapalli village, Madras Presidency, in British India, Rajaji was the son of a landowner and Sanskrit scholar. Rajaji was educated at Central College, Bangalore, and Presidency and Law Colleges, Madras, called to the Bar in 1900, and became a successful lawyer in Salem.
In 1919, Rajaji gave up legal practice and joined Mahatma Gandhi’s noncooperation and Satyagraha movements and was jailed five times by the British. He became general secretary of the Indian National Congress (INC) 1921–22.
Rajaji became one of Gandhi’s most trusted associates, and Gandhi called Rajaji “the keeper of my conscience.” They became in-laws when, in 1933, Rajaji’s daughter Lakshmi married Gandhi’s son Devdas.
For 25 years a member of INC’s working committee, Rajaji was prime minister of Madras 1937–47, a member of India’s interim government 1946–47, governor of West Bengal 1947–48, and governor-general of India 1948–50. He later became the chief minister of Madras 1952–54, but parted company with Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s first prime minister and Gandhi’s chosen political successor,) and founded the oppositional Swatantra party in 1959. In 1971, Rajaji also organized a right-wing coalition against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter, but it was decisively crushed.
An vegetarian and a teetotaler, Rajaji was celebrated for his opposition to luxury and self-indulgence. In the early 1950s, Rajaji became known as one of the world’s leading challengers of the thermonuclear weaponry. He traveled to meet U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Pope John XXIII to appeal for the abandonment of thermonuclear testing.
Rajaji was a prolific author in his vernacular Tamiḻ and in English. He wrote stories for children and about religion, philosophy, history, and world events. His principal works are his serialized prose renderings of the Hindu epics Rāmāyaṇa and Mahabharata, and their popular translations into English. Rajaji wrote Vedānta, the Basic Culture of India (1949,) Hinduism, Doctrine and Way of Life (1959,) and discourses about the Bhagavad Gītā, the Upaniṣads, and Ādi Śaṅkarācārya’s Bhaja Govindam. He also wrote Tamiḻ books on Socrates and Marcus Aurelius.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari
The way of devotion is not different from the way of knowledge, or Jnana. When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the mind it becomes wisdom. When wisdom is integrated with life and becomes action it becomes Bhakti. Knowledge when it becomes fully mature is Bhakti. To believe that Jnana and Bhakti, knowledge and devotion, are different from each other is ignorance.
—Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari
We must learn two things. One is to see ourselves as others see us. We apply one yardstick when we wish to appraise other people. Secondly, we cannot succeed in anything if we act in fear of other people’s opinions.
—Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari
As long as there is suffering in the world, as long as there is the great curiosity to unravel truth, as long as men and women have some intense desire to be fulfilled, as long as there is wisdom in this world, the future of religion is assured.
—Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari
Do not demand love. Begin to love. You will be loved. It is the law and no statute can alter it.
—Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari
Mythology is an integral part of religion. It is as necessary for religion and national culture as the skin and the skeleton that preserve a fruit with its juice and its taste. Form is no less essential than substance. Mythology and holy figures are necessary for any great culture to rest on its stable spiritual foundation and function as a life-giving inspiration and guide.
—Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari
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