C.N. Annadurai — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

The Assembly resolution came in July 1967. The new name took effect in January 1969.

The answer is K. N. Natarajan. He became the long-serving editor most closely associated with the Indian Social Reformer, a key voice for social reform in colonial India.

The Justice Party (South Indian Liberal Federation, 1916) opposed the Congress non-cooperation call and contested the 1920 elections, winning the Madras Presidency ministry – so it did NOT support the Congress boycott of the 1920 elections. Statements (a)-(c) match its record: it demanded separate communal representation for Non-Brahmins, drew support from wealthy landowning and urban middle-class Non-Brahmins, and is credited with securing reserved seats for Non-Brahmins during the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms era.

Guinness World Records lists 1.5 crore (15 million) mourners, though some commentators have questioned the figure, since it exceeds a third of Tamil Nadu’s population at the time.

V.R. Nedunchezhiyan served as caretaker Chief Minister from 3 to 10 February 1969, before M. Karunanidhi was elected DMK legislature leader and sworn in.

The reform, passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly in November 1967 and effective from January 1968, let couples marry without a priest presiding over the ceremony.

The DMK-led front won 138 of 234 seats, reducing Congress to 51 — the first time since independence a regional party had unseated Congress in a state government.

Annadurai founded the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on 17 September 1949, breaking away from Periyar E.V. Ramasamy’s Dravidar Kazhagam.

Anna University, established in 1978, along with Chennai’s Anna Salai road, are both named in his honour.

His funeral drew an estimated 15 million mourners, once recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu on 14 January 1969, just three weeks before Annadurai’s death.

Annadurai was the first Dravidian and first non-Congress leader to become Chief Minister of the state, after the DMK-led United Front swept the 1967 election.

C. N. Annadurai headed the government when Madras State became Tamil Nadu on 14 January 1969. The other leaders served in different periods. The state’s renaming did not move its capital.