Murasoli, The Brainchild Of Karunanidhi And The Voice Of DMK

Murasoli, the official organ of DMK, started by M. Karunanidhi in 1942 was published as a pamphlet initially. Murasoli was first printed in Tiruvarur Krishna press owned by Narayanasamy Pillai who was a Congressman. In the initial days, Karunanidhi along with his friends raised funds and printed around 1000 copies of Murasoli. Murasoli gained prominence in Thanjavur district apart from Tiruvarur.

In the Murasoli publications, Karunanidhi has written many articles including the controversial one about Chidambaram Dikshitars (an exclusive group of Brahmins) for which he was banned from entering Chidambaram. Through his inspiring and revolutionary articles in Murasoli publications, Karunanidhi has made a name for himself at a very young age.

DMK founder Annadurai owned a magazine 'Dravida Nadu' as the policy proxy of the party to further the demand for a separate nation. However, in the light of war threat from China, he abandoned the demand for a Dravidian nation realising the necessity to protect the territorial integrity of our country from foreign powers which is not possible when there are internal problems. To explain this Anna said, "Roof can be changed only if there is a house".

The policy shift and demand drop rendered the Dravida Nadu publication useless. After Dravida Nadu, Anna announced 'Nam Nadu' as the official magazine of DMK. Ira. Nedunchezhiyan, Ira. Chezhiyan, C.P. Chitrarasu became the face of the magazine after Annadurai. Anna served as the editor of many magazines including 'Malai Mani', started by M. Parthasarathy for conveying his ideas to people.

In 1956, Annadurai started and edited the 'Nam Nadu' magazine for DMK and in 1963 founded and edited the Kanchi weekly magazine. He also started and edited the 'Home Land' English magazine in 1957. DMK needed the help of Murasoli to fill the void in the press field created by the death of Anna. When Murasoli was started as a pamphlet in 1942, Karunanidhi was only a student and wrote under the pen name Cheran, the reason being the non completion of his school exams properly.

Running Murasoli served as a tedious task for Karunanidhi because of financial constraints, World War II, shortage of paper etc. Despite the multi-faceted constraints, Karunanidhi had unshakeable determination to run the magazine, so he decided to write explanations of policies as play. He did not want to get a job to resolve his financial problems because his interest laid in the political field.

Karunanidhi got a place in a theatre group run by R.V. Gopal. Karunanidhi wrote dialogues as well as acted in the plays which helped him to gain popularity and good income. Some of his best works include Shantha, Palaniappan plays etc.

Periyar came to Pondicherry to preside over one of Karunanidhi's plays but the play was disrupted by a turmoil in which Karunanidhi was attacked. After the incident, Periyar took Karunanidhi to work in his 'Kudi Arasu' magazine where he got Rs.40 as salary. When he was working in Kudi Arasu, Karunanidhi got an opportunity to work in films which he pursued to support his party work and journalism work with the money he earned from films. His debut film as a dialogue writer was 'Rajakumari'.

After independence, Karunanidhi planned to revive the stalled Murasoli publication by pawning his wife's jewellery. This is the period when Anna and Periyar had a difference of opinion regarding the celebration of independence. From 14.01.1948, Murasoli gained prominence swiftly. Karunanidhi introduced the Periyar calendar system instead of the Gregorian calendar. On the sidelines, Karunanidhi wrote the famous movie Parasakthi which was released in 1952.

25 issues of Murasoli were published having Tiruvarur as head office. From 1954, Murasoli was published as a weekly magazine from Chennai till 1960. The head office of Murasoli was in various places and finally it was shifted to Mount Road in Chennai. Murasoli was well received by the public within 7 months of becoming a weekly magazine. According to poet Suratha, awards were given for works published in Murasoli.

Karunanidhi wrote many articles in the form of letters in Murasoli during which he started using the word 'Udanpirappe' (my sibling). After 17.09.1960 Murasoli became a daily magazine which stood bravely against the decision of the then PM Indira Gandhi to declare emergency. Murasoli criticised the Emergency declaration to protect press freedom. Such a magazine, Murasoli, the first child of Karunanidhi, completed 80 years since its inception.