Tamil Actor-Politician Dead : Screen Darkens for Fans of India’s Romantic Sagas

As an actor, he played in 130 movies in which he was always the hero, never the heavy. They were nearly all romantic sagas about brave, honest men fighting against daunting odds for the honor of women, most often, mothers.

As a politician, he was the undisputed leader of a state with a population nearly as great as that of France. Indeed, some of his opponents accused him of tyranny equal to France’s Bourbon kings. He once ordered his ministers to tattoo the flag of his political party on their arms.

Within that state, Tamil Nadu in southern India, the fame of Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran, who died Thursday of apparent heart failure at the age of 70, eclipsed that of all other Indian leaders, including the three Indian prime ministers who were in office during his 11-year dominance of Tamil Nadu.

“The curtain has fallen on one of the most remarkable personalities of modern India,” India’s president, Ramaswami I. Venkataraman, said Thursday.

Upon hearing of Ramachandran’s death, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi immediately traveled to Madras to view the body in state. The Indian government declared Thursday a national day of mourning. All over India shops closed in Ramachandran’s honor.

In Madras, the state capital of 53 million, police opened fire on mobs of grief-stricken supporters who stoned vehicles and shops. The Press Trust of India news agency reported at least two people killed and 16 wounded in incidents in which 100 policemen were also injured.

Two people, grief-stricken over Ramachandran’s death, reportedly tried to commit suicide by hanging in the Thanjavur district, 175 miles south of Madras.

Several million people are expected to gather on Madras’ massive Marina Beach for their leader’s funeral.

Worshiped as a God

Among the poorest classes of the state, heartland of the Dravidian culture and language, Ramachandran was worshiped as a living god. When he became seriously ill three years ago, several of his most devoted followers committed suicide in despair.

A successful heart operation two years ago in a Brooklyn, N.Y., hospital resulted in a celebration of American medicine that was one of the most spectacular displays of pro-American sentiment in recent Indian history. Half a million people met Ramachandran at the airport in Madras on his return, swamping a car carrying the U.S. consul general. American diplomats confided later that, had the Tamil leader died in the United States, they expected terrible anti-American rioting.

Ramachandran, known affectionately by his initials M.G.R. and recognizable by his wrap-around sunglasses and fur cap, also had national influence beyond the borders of his state, mainly because of his cagey political alliances with the national governments in New Delhi, the capital.

Premiers Catered to Him

Indian prime ministers respected Ramachandran’s enormous popularity in the key southern state and feared his potential as an opposition leader. As a result, they carefully catered to his interests.

The one prime minister who did defy Ramachandran was Indira Gandhi, who dismissed his political party, the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (All India Dravidian Progressive Federation) from state leadership in 1981, contending that it had lost popular support. However, Ramachandran was quickly swept back into office in elections, crushing the candidates of Indira Gandhi’s Congress-I party.

After that, Indira Gandhi allowed Tamil separatists from Sri Lanka fighting the government on the nearby island nation to base their headquarters in Tamil Nadu as a concession to Ramachandran, and rejoined him in another political alliance.

Ramachandran has always been key to developments in the Sri Lankan conflict. With his death, the future of Tamil Nadu support for India’s military intervention in the conflict comes into question.

Supported Tamil Cause

For years, Ramachandran supported Tamil separatists, particularly the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization that is now battling about 35,000 Indian peacekeeping troops in Sri Lanka, only 30 miles off the Tamil Nadu coast.

Tamil Tiger leader Sathasivam (Kittu) Krishnakuma on Thursday described Ramachandran’s death as “a great blow to the cause of the Sri Lanka Tamils.”

However, in recent months Ramachandran had been a crucial supporter of the Indian decision to intervene in the conflict. For several months Indian troops have battled the Liberation Tigers on the island, leaving hundreds dead on each side.

Sri Lankan Question

With his death and the lack of any obvious successor, the Sri Lanka question looms as a possibly troubling political issue in the fight for power.

Perhaps this is why nearly every one of the dozens of Indian political leaders who paid tribute to Ramachandran on Thursday described the “void” he leaves in Tamil Nadu, which before his ascension to power threatened to present India with its own Tamil separatist movement.

Thursday morning, the senior minister in Ramachandran’s Cabinet, V. R. Nedunchezhiyan, was sworn in as active chief minister of the state. The Cabinet member considered most powerful, however, is the food minister, S. Ramachandran, who has previously acted as an unofficial regent while his leader was recovering from his strokes and surgery. That recovery was only partial, however, and the late Ramachandran was left with a speech defect.

The Tamil leader was born in Sri Lanka to a very poor Indian Tamil family. He once said he did not attend school after the third grade.

Rapid Success as Actor

Although handsome, with curly black hair and broad shoulders, he was never a good speaker and only a fair dancer. But almost as soon as he became an actor, he was the most popular performer in Tamil-language films. Tamil Nadu film audiences are among the world’s most intense and the state boasts more theater seats per capita than any other state in India or country in the world.

On occasion, his film life spilled over into his public life. In 1967, he was wounded when a man who played the villain in several of his films attacked him with a handgun.

Poor people loved his performances so much that they would sell blood to buy tickets. Even today, his films play in many Tamil Nadu cities. He always played morally upright characters and in none of his films was he ever seen smoking or drinking.

Ramachandran began his political career as a member of the Indian National Congress party of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. As early as 1953, he joined the Dravidian movement of the late Tamil leader C.N. Annadurai.

Followed Populist Course

He formed his own political party in 1972 after breaking with fellow Dravidian leader Muthuvel Karunandhi, who led the state until supplanted by Ramachandran in 1976 and remained his main political foe. Mourning demonstrators attacked statues of Karunandhi on Thursday night.

During his 11 years as leader of the state, Ramachandran followed a basically populist course. His most famous reform was a lunch program for millions of school children, veterans and pensioners. Civil servants described him as a terrible administrator who insisted on reviewing every major decision but whose home was a clutter of unread memorandums.