His letters, addressed to his thambis (younger brothers), were not mere correspondence — they were lifelines, rallying points and educational tools that bound together an entire movement.
Published Sep 21, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 21, 2025 | 9:00 AM
CN Annadurai’s 'Thambikku Kadithangal'.
Synopsis: The letters by former Tamil Nadu chief minister CN Annadurai to his followers made him “Anna” — the elder brother, a figure of warmth and intimacy who transformed political organisation into kinship. His writing allowed him to engage daily with his cadres, and later with a mass readership. For Anna, words were weapons, sharper than swords.
In most of our lives, letters from loved ones carry a weight words can barely capture. A parent’s note, a sibling’s message, or a loved one’s letter can console, guide and inspire us.
However, imagine what happens when a leader writes letters not to individuals, but to an entire movement? — shaping politics itself as though it were a family. That was the genius of CN Annadurai, the first chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
To his cadres, he was never just a leader; he was “Anna” — the elder brother, a figure of warmth and intimacy who transformed political organisation into kinship. The identity which carried an emotional resonance.
As Anna himself famously explained, “Brothers, I am not your leader. I am your brother. The eldest son of your family. We were born separately because one mother could not carry us.”
With this sentiment, Anna permanently altered the emotional texture of Tamil politics. His letters, addressed to his thambis (younger brothers), were not mere correspondence — they were lifelines, rallying points and educational tools that bound together an entire movement.
Anna’s intellect and charisma made him a rare, multidimensional force. He was simultaneously a powerful orator, prolific dramatist, poet of simple expression, sharp essayist, honest administrator, humanitarian, and an inspiring political leader.
During the early 20th century, when the Congress movement, socialism, and the Justice Party’s landlord politics dominated, Anna carved a new path. As a student, inspired by reformist ideas and his deep love for the Tamil language, he joined the Justice Party.
Then, as general secretary of the Dravidar Kazhagam and trusted lieutenant of Periyar, Anna displayed oratorical brilliance, literary elegance, and an unpretentious manner that drew people to him.
He entered politics as “Annadurai,” to emerge as “Anna,” then “Arignar Anna” (scholar Anna), and finally “Perarignar Anna” (great scholar Anna). Each name reflected the growing esteem with which people embraced him.
Anna recognised early that public speaking alone was insufficient to disseminate his vast and complex ideas.
Travelling town to town, addressing meetings, could never fully reach the scale of his ambition. He therefore turned to print. Even during times of financial difficulty, he wrote tirelessly for Periyar’s republican paper, drawing in readers like bees to a flower.
His writing allowed him to engage daily with his cadres, and later with a mass readership. For Anna, words were weapons, sharper than swords.
In his hands, a six- or twelve-paisa newspaper became a vehicle for social transformation. The poor, for whom such a sum was valuable, willingly spent their coins to read his essays and letters.
Even today, we can still meet people who proudly say, “I was one of those who waited in many towns just to buy the newspapers carrying Anna’s letters and read them.”
This literary endeavour eventually culminated in one of his most enduring contributions: the series “தம்பிக்கு கடிதங்கள்” (Thambikku Kadithangal/Letters to younger brother).
Written between the late 1950s and early 1960s, these letters collapsed the hierarchy between leader and cadre.
Addressing his followers as Thambi, Anna built a fraternity of equals. The parental name “Annadurai” naturally fused with this form of address, strengthening his bond with the people. Each letter carried a touch of personal affection, often beginning with “I think of you as my thambi.”
In these letters, Anna dissected the turbulence of Tamil Nadu’s political landscape: the reorganisation of states along linguistic lines, Delhi’s centralisation of power, the neglect of Tamil Nadu, entrenched caste hierarchies, the call for Dravida Nadu, and the entry of the Dravidian movement into electoral politics.
With wit, sharp reasoning, and simple metaphors, Anna translated complex theories of federalism, social justice, and self-respect into everyday idioms.
Anna was not merely writing letters. Thambikku Kadithangal was part manifesto, part philosophy, and part historical record. His literary artistry made abstract ideas palpable.
“Whichever language becomes the language of politics will be the language of the people,” he argued, and thus Tamil became the vehicle of the Dravidian movement.
Moreover, Anna’s mastery of metaphor remains legendary. To stress the value of reformers alongside traditions, he wrote: “The jasmines in the gardener’s bed also have fragrance.” When Periyar described him as “teardrops”, Anna reimagined it as “teardrops, the jewels of the organisation.”
Responding to a statement by former Madras chief minister K Kamaraj, he piled metaphor upon metaphor: “Asking me to eliminate you would be like taking a chisel to cut a moth-eaten betel leaf; like using a carving knife to slice butter” — offering nearly 18 such comparisons.
Even in debates with Jawaharlal Nehru, Anna’s wit shone: “You are a built-up tower; I am a fallen brick.” His language was accessible, vivid, and unforgettable.
These flourishes earned him praise as a “bank of metaphors”. Critics may have called them ornamentations, but they became part of Tamil Nadu’s political memory.
Anna’s epistolary skills place him in the company of the world’s greatest political letter-writers and thinkers. Just as Cicero and Socrates used letters to frame philosophy, and similar to Gandhi and Nehru employing prison writings to inspire movements, Anna’s Thambikku Kadithangal merged politics with literature,development and power.
Similar to former US president Abraham Lincoln, whose speeches are studied for their simplicity and depth, Anna could condense profound ideas into a single metaphor. And like former British prime minister Winston Churchill, Anna was both orator and man of letters, shaping the spirit of his people through carefully chosen words.
Yet Anna’s genius was unique: He wrote not in the alienated form of language or elite idioms, but in Tamil — the people’s tongue. In doing so, he made political communication democratic in a way unmatched elsewhere.
The preserved writings of Anna are estimated at around 16,000 pages, not counting the thousands of pages his speeches would add.
His controversial work Aariyamaayai (1941) was published in three editions before being banned in 1943; he was arrested, imprisoned, and fined.
Also, Anna laid the foundation for sweeping changes in the world of drama and cinema. At a time when the stage was dominated by stories like Harichandra, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, Valli Thirumanam, and Pavala Kodi, he infused them with ideas of social reform and brought about a complete transformation.
Actor Sivaji Ganesan recalled the joy of stacking Anna’s late-night writings into neat piles, marvelling at his discipline and productivity.
Anna’s letter-writing extended across platforms: 171 weekly letters between 1955 and 1964, additional series in Dravida Nadu and Kanchi, and even English journals like Home Land and Home Rule.
In total, his letters amount to some 3,000 pages, spanning from 1943 until the 1969 Pongal magazine. His letters embraced every genre — essays, day notes, novellas, fables, plays — blending politics, society, literature, arts, and philosophy.
Anna believed power must be seized to transform society. By supporting anti-Congress parties in 1952 and contesting directly in 1957, Anna guided the DMK into electoral politics. The party’s 15 seats in the state legislature and two in Parliament announced its arrival as a formidable political force.
The letters explained this ideological turn, preparing cadres for the realities of democratic contest. The political wisdom, social concern, creativity, Dravidian ideals and combative spirit of Anna are all vividly reflected in his letters, making them uniquely significant in the history of epistolary literature.
A fitting example of this legacy can be seen in the letters of Kalaignar, who followed in Anna’s footsteps and, in every respect, carried forward and fulfilled Anna’s vision.
Anna’s letters often began with commentary on world events, linking them to Indian politics and Tamil Nadu’s local issues.
They then moved seamlessly into personal reflections and cultural observations. His serialised themes — “Duty, Dignity, Discipline,” “Purity, Simplicity, Honesty,” “Clarity, Courage, Compassion” — shaped the ethical tone of the movement.
The letters were filled with affection, clarity, and urgency, written in a conversational style that made each reader feel addressed personally.
Notably, these letters carried references to Shakespeare, Socrates, the Russian Revolution, and global struggles for justice. As a result, people across Tamil Nadu, even in remote villages, could converse about world history and philosophy. Anna ensured that knowledge reached the masses in their language.
For Anna, a letter was not just correspondence but political education.
He connected reform with daily life, speaking of religious rites, wedding customs, and social conventions, only to challenge or reinterpret them. They bridged the local and the global, the political and the cultural, the personal and the collective.
Anna’s letters created a new genre of political literature in Tamil — one that remains unparalleled. They are not merely archives of a leader’s thought but active interventions in society, rallying people toward justice, equality, and dignity.
Anna’s legacy lies not only in the DMK he led or the government he later headed but in the intellectual and cultural renaissance he inspired.
He blurred the lines between literature and politics, creating a politics rooted in Tamil identity, democratic values, and social reform. His writings made complex political ideas comprehensible to the common person, and his letters nurtured a movement that has outlived him.
Even today, the collection Thambikku Kadithangal stands as an essential text for understanding Tamil Nadu politics, Dravidian thought, and the power of literature as a tool of social transformation.
As Dr K Vivekanandan notes, Anna used his letters to share not just programmes but moral foundations, nurturing communal feeling and struggle.
His epistolary practice sits within a global tradition yet remains distinct in its Tamil grounding.
Revisiting Anna’s Thambikku Kadithangal is not just an act of remembrance. It is to revisit the intellectual and moral foundations of Dravidian politics. Anna’s words turned into movement; his letters became the pulse of a political renaissance.
They were simultaneously personal and political, emotional and rational, poetic and practical. They reveal Anna not merely as a leader but as a creator who understood that in a world divided between rulers and the ruled, a writer’s duty was to stand with the oppressed.
If today’s generations wish to learn simplicity, tireless study, democratic practice, and unwavering love for the poor, Anna’s letters remain the guide.
They document not only his life but his times, recording the soul of Tamil Nadu and its people.
For anyone seeking to understand how literature can become politics, and how politics can be made humane through literature, Thambikku Kadithangal remains a luminous testament.
(Views are personal. Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
