Praja Socialist P.S.Chinnadurai was the Managing Editor of ' Samudhayam ' for a number of years. He was a person who did much for the proletariat. Chinnadurai was imprisoned twice during the freedom struggle - once for organizing a trade union rally and another for setting fire to the airport besides setting fire to a train laden with explosives. Gandhiji and his principle of Ahimsa had attracted the young Chinnadurai. He had modelled his life after Gandhiji until the Quit India movement. Gandhiji's arrest had made people like him emotional. Chinnadurai was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He was released due to the efforts of T.Prakasam , the first Prime Minister of the undivided Madras Presidency. P.S.Chinnadurai was associated with N.G.Ramaswamy, the noted trade union leader. He had been a special appointee of Gandhi and was meant to lead the youth of India. N.G.Ramaswamy passed away and P.S.Chinnadurai took over as the President of the National Textile Workers Union. It had not been a smooth road. Chinnadurai felt that the Congress had drifted far away from the ideologies envisaged by its founders. Therefore he joined the Praja Socialist Party founded by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan.
Praja Socialist P.S.Chinnadurai was the Managing Editor of ' Samudhayam ' for a number of years. He was a person who did much for the proletariat. Chinnadurai was imprisoned twice during the freedom struggle - once for organizing a trade union rally and another for setting fire to the airport besides setting fire to a train laden with explosives. Gandhiji and his principle of Ahimsa had attracted the young Chinnadurai. He had modelled his life after Gandhiji until the Quit India movement. Gandhiji's arrest had made people like him emotional. Chinnadurai was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He was released due to the efforts of T.Prakasam , the first Prime Minister of the undivided Madras Presidency. P.S.Chinnadurai was associated with N.G.Ramaswamy, the noted trade union leader. He had been a special appointee of Gandhi and was meant to lead the youth of India. N.G.Ramaswamy passed away and P.S.Chinnadurai took over as the President of the National Textile Workers Union. It had not been a smooth road. Chinnadurai felt that the Congress had drifted far away from the ideologies envisaged by its founders. Therefore he joined the Praja Socialist Party founded by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan.
P.S.Chinnadurai's innings at the Praja Socialist Party created a big political circle for him. His friends included Ram Manohar Lohia, Aruna Asaf Ali, Ashok Patwardhan and many other note worthies. The socialist got elected to the Legislature in 1957. He did much in the interest of his people. Chinnadurai pioneered the cause of Tamil and he requested the Government of the day to rename the state as Tamilnadu. This became a reality during the governance period of C.N.Annadurai. Its interesting to take a look at his traits and the words of C.Govindan ( Editor of Samudhayam ) throw a lot of light in this regard. We get to understand that Chinnadurai had a sharp mind and was an excellent writer all his life. He believed in negotiations and succeeded due to the same thereafter. His personal stamp would always be visible in his letters to people and submissions in the court. He never got caught up because of protests or ideologies or slogans.
The socialist used to evaluate the results of a protest or strike like a businessman. He used to literally do a cost benefit analysis for the mill workers. The gains were to be seen and existing positions should not be lost was his dictum. Chinnadurai had a great love for Tamil and he preferred Hindi to be the link language in the place of English. He felt that more people spoke Hindi than English. We get to understand that the period 1946 to 1964 was the best for the workers in the Coimbatore textile sector. They got the best deal and earned the highest in India. This had been possible because of the skills of leaders like P.S.Chinnadurai and the understanding of the mill owners and their collective - SIMA ( Southern India Mills Association ). The salaries had been Rs.40 and went on to become Rs.600 during his times. It was honour to work in a mill for it was the best time for both - the mill owner and the mill worker.
P.S.Chinnadurai was born to Subbaraya Chettiar and Subbammal in Palladam. The ancestors had hailed from Andhra. His parents were jointly in business ( cotton ). The family was also cultivating land. Chinnadurai was an avid newspaper reader and he followed national events from his early teen years. He was influenced on seeing Gandhi during his visit to Palladam in 1934. Thereafter he took active interest in the affairs of the Congress Party and worked for the victory of T.S.Avinashilingam Chettiar during the provincial elections. His age came in the way of getting an official posting. Young Chinnadurai conducted night classes for Dalits through the Subhash Youth League ( Subhash Valibar Sangham ). He taught them the value of hygiene by distributing soap and shikkakai during the classes. Once Chinnadurai's speech got him a 8 month imprisonment. The year 1942 witnessed the resurgence of nationalism and he got associated with Thiruvengadam and K.V.Ramaswamy. At the Alipuram jail in Bellary, P.S.Chinnadurai became a model prisoner. He was totally self disciplined in the Gandhian tradition. The poor standard of the prison did not affect him for he was already used to food prepared from ragi and maize from his childhood. He used the jail term to read books in Tamil, Hindi and English. But he was drawn more closely to Ramayanam, Mahabharatam, Bhagwad Gita and Tirukkural. He felt grateful to his captors for it gave him the time to read 14,000 page books like the Mahabharatam. Chinnadurai may have got incarcerated in the Andamans but it was under Japanese occupation those days.
Circa 1948, Chinnadurai was elected to the working committee of Hind Mazdoor Sabha. Jayaprakash Narayan came out of the Congress Party and launched the Socialist Movement. Chinnadurai joined him and was elected as the head of the party in Tamilnadu. Having been influenced by Gandhian Socialism, Chinnadurai started a weekly paper ' Samudhayam ' in order to espouse the philosophy. He went to Burma along with Jayaprakash Narayan in order to attend the first Asian Socialist Conference that was inaugurated by Clement Atlee. It was presided over by the then Burmese ( Myanmarese ) Prime Minister U Nu. In 1956, on the invitation of the Chinese Federation of Labour, a delegation of labour leaders from India went on a month long tour of 11 states in China and P.S.Chinnadurai was part of the delegation. Later in 1957, Chinnadurai became one of the four legislators belonging to the Praja Socialist Party.
In 1958, he became the Vice President of the All India Hind Mazdoor Sabha. He represented India in the first Asian Textile Workers Federation in Tokyo ( Japan ) and in the sixth conference held in 1962. The socialist visited Russia and West Germany as a representative of the Sabha. It was through the leadership exchange programme that P.S.Chinnadurai visited USA to study the labour movement in the new world. He visited Australia on his way back to India.
P.S.Chinnadurai devoted much of his time in the interest of labourers. In 1974, he was re elected as the President of the Socialist Party in Tamilnadu and continued until it was merged in the Janata Party in 1977. P.S.Chinnadurai relinquished his active political work in 1979 after completing 60 years of age. He had a short stint as the President of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha for the second time in 1981. Otherwise he declined to accept any party post and just confined himself to social reconstruction work. Chinnadurai was married to Rajalakshmi and was blessed with a large family. The speeches of Chinnadurai in the Tamilnadu Legislature are worth remembering. He spoke about the need to register marriages in our country. While doing so, the socialist also stated that all marriages were equal , whether they were marriages that took place according to culture and tradition or the self respect marriages. He calls marriages as sacred and went on state that the traditional marriages were cheaper when compared to the self respect marriages. Whether conducted in Tamil or Sanskrit , the traditional marriages had been simple affairs. Whereas the self respect marriages involved publicity and a high cost. A leader was invited, his travel expenses had to be paid, separate food arrangements had to be made for the visiting leader. He tells the other legislators that even the ones making a comment on people falling in the feet of the priest end up blessing the newly married couple ! He also spoke about Tamil marriages as found in literary works in the Assembly.
Eashwarchandran , the son of P.S.Chinnadurai added a few snippets, " I was named after Eshwar Chandra Vidyasagar. My father had only done up to seventh standard but he learned a lot in jail. He gave away the lands given as a reward... for participating in the freedom struggle to the Bhoodhan Movement started by Acharya Vinobha. Father met Chairman Mao during his visit to China. Veteran Socialist and national leader Jayaprakash Narayan stayed at our house in V.C.K. Layout for a number of days during the Emergency. Father was also pushing for the formation of NTC ( National Textile Corporation ) in order to ensure that the mill workers did not lose their jobs due to losses and closure. I am happy to share these snippets during the centenary year of my father, " Eashwarchandran and his wife Umamaheswari stay with their son Sabari ( cinematographer ) and daughter Abhinaya in Coimbatore.
Praja Socialist P.S.Chinnadurai had done his job as a trade union leader during his times. Coimbatore has been a hub for textiles for a long time. The role of all the stake holders including trade union leaders like P.S.Chinnadurai added to the wealth and flavour of the region.
Rajesh Govindarajulu