When DMK flexed its muscle during Indira Gandhi's visit to Tamil Nadu in 1977

October turned out to be a month of great significance for the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her assassination at her residence in New Delhi on October 31, 1984, is well known. But, what is less known is the brutal attack on her in Madurai on October 29, 1977. The attack triggered violence elsewhere in Tamil Nadu that day and the following day.

"Indira Gandhi's October 29-30 visit became the first test of will between the two leaders [the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)'s president M. Karunanidhi and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) founder M.G. Ramachandran (MGR)]," according to diplomat-turned-political writer R. Kannan in his The DMK Years.

Years later, commenting on the agitation that his party organised on October 29, 1977, Karunanidhi, in his memoir, Nenjukku Needhi (volume 3), proudly declared it was the day that "not only Indira Gandhi but also the entire country had understood the DMK. On that day, volunteers of the party had proved to the world that they were the heirs of the self-respect movement."

Year of setbacks

As for the former Prime Minister, 1977 was, even otherwise, one of the most crucial years in her long political career.

In March, she earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first incumbent Prime Minister of the country to lose at the hustings. She was handed down a humiliating defeat at the hands of her well-known political detractor, Raj Narain, in the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, considered once a stronghold of her family. In the polls, her party -- the Congress -- was virtually decimated in Hindi-speaking States. The first non-Congress- government took office with Morarji Desai of the Janata Party at the helm of affairs. Desai, who had been cooling his heels for over 10 years, lost in his bid to become Prime Minister to Indira Gandhi in 1966 while in the Congress. Desai's Cabinet had senior political leaders from the north who had an axe to grind, besides having suffered imprisonment during the Emergency (June 1975 - March 1977), when Indira Gandhi ran the country.

No wonder, the new regime, in May, formed a Commission of Inquiry, headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice J.C. Shah, to investigate "excesses committed" during the Emergency and examine the "misuse of government power, preventive detentions, press censorship, and the sterilisation campaign." The loss of power made many colleagues of Indira Gandhi in the Congress such as party president Kasu Brahmananda Reddy and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Y.B. Chavan to begin sidelining Indira Gandhi and chart out their own path. Clearly, the knives were out for her.

Alliance with AIADMK

In Tamil Nadu, during the Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK, the Congress, and the Communist Party of India (CPI) faced the electorate together. The coalition bagged 34 seats out of 39, thrashing the DMK-Janata-CPI (Marxist) combine comprehensively. In June, when the Assembly polls were held, the two Dravidian majors, the Congress, and the Janata were on their own. MGR was sworn in as the Chief Minister on June 30 and Karunanidhi became the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Along with the southern State, eight other States, including seven Hindi-speaking ones and West Bengal, went to polls. The Janata party won hands down in the seven States and the CPI (M))-led Left Front captured power in West Bengal.

Outreach programme

Despite all the setbacks, electorally and politically at the all-India level, the former Prime Minister was not one to keep herself quiet. In July, she set off in a dramatic way to a nondescript village of Bihar -- Belchi -- where 11 persons, mostly Scheduled Castes, were killed, and consoled families of the victims. As the Shah Commission began its hearings, many of her trusted lieutenants showed their true colours, by giving testimonies against her before the panel. Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister paid a visit to her former Lok Sabha constituency and on her way back to New Delhi, the reception that she got from people showed signs of her possible comeback.

On October 3, she was arrested at her residence on charges of corruption and misuse of official positions. Many others including respected industrialist M.V. Arunachalam were also arrested in this regard, according to a report published by The Hindu on October 4. However, Indira Gandhi was released within a day as the magistrate was not convinced of the grounds of her arrest. This development had earned her the much-needed moment of glory.

It was against the circumstances that the former Prime Minister, holding no formal position in the Congress party, decided to visit Madurai, Tiruchi, and Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu on October 29 and 30, as part of her political outreach programme.

DMK's agitation

The DMK, at a meeting of its executive on October 27, decided to stage black flag agitations against her during the visit as it had smarted under the actions of Indira Gandhi in getting the party ousted from power in January 1976 and instituting an inquiry panel against Karunanidhi and several others on the charges of corruption. This was to express the Dravidian major's protest against the "unconstitutional and undemocratic" methods adopted by the former Prime Minister.

In Nenjukku Needhi, Karunanidhi justified his party's agitation on the ground that the Congress set the precedent of displaying black flags in 1976 against him, who was no longer in power. On October 28, the MGR government announced its decision to permit the demonstration and advised the respective District Collectors and Superintendents of Police to ensure the "orderly and peaceful behaviour" of the demonstrators.

The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief, G.K. Moopanar, questioned the timing of the agitation and the DMK's intention was "to please the Janata Party Government," according to this newspaper on October 29. A similar opinion was expressed by K. Mohandas, a police officer who headed the intelligence wing of the State police during 1977-1986.

Indira Gandhi's plan to visit Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple

On the first day of her visit (October 29, 1977), the former Prime Minister proceeded straight to Madurai after landing in Chennai. Her plan was to visit the Meenakshi Amman temple first.

"It must have been in the evening, say 4 pm to 5 pm. Indira Amma was travelling in an open car -- a Plymouth-type car. I was sitting in the front seat, beside the car driver," one of the then general secretaries of the TNCC, N.S.V. Chithan, told this correspondent on Sunday (October 25, 2026). "As the car passed through the South Veli Street junction, about 500 metres from the temple, many DMK men waved black flags," said the 92-year-old Mr. Chithan, who now lives in Thirumangalam of Madurai district. The Hindu, which put the number of agitators at over 5,000, reported on October 30, 1977 that "the demonstrators threw flag masts, stones, and various other missiles at Mrs. Gandhi's open car in which some Congress leaders were also travelling."

Human shield

According to Mr. Chithan, Mr. Nedumaran and he formed a human shield for her, when stones were suddenly thrown at the car. "I stood up on the seat, facing the agitators. Mr. Nedumaran, who was on the seat behind Indira Amma's, did a similar act." recalled the nonagenarian Congress leader, who was elected thrice to both the State Assembly and the Lok Sabha.

This newspaper stated that "even before Mrs. Gandhi arrived at the scene of incident, the demonstrators were shouting slogans such as 'down with Indira' and 'down with the queen of corruption,' and waved black flags tied to big sticks painted black and red (DMK party colours). When the attack Intensified, Congress leaders travelling with Mrs. Gandhi, covered her with a big cloth. The police burst 16 teargas shells and resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd which also threw missiles at the police."

However, the former Prime Minister was not hurt. In addition to Mr. Chithan and Mr. Nedumaran, others in the vehicle were Maragatham Chandrasekhar, R.V. Swaminathan and G.P.V. Raju, "Mr. Chithan, who was injured above the left eye, and Mr. Nedumaran on head, have been admitted in [sic] the hospital," said the newspaper.

Indira Gandhi visited the Government Hospital, now named after former Chief Minister C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), and spent nearly 20 minutes with the injured Congress members. At the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation's bungalow where she stayed briefly, she accepted the 'prasadam' offered by priests of the temple. About a month later, the former Prime Minister sent a message of appreciation to Mr. Chithan, who read out the letter's contents to this journalist over the phone.

Violence in Tiruchi

On the evening of October 29, in Tiruchi, the ban on the agitation triggered stone-throwing by DMK and CPI(M) leaders and workers forcing the police to burst tear-gas shells. Indira Gandhi cancelled her trip to the city. The police had revoked the permission given to the DMK to stage the demonstration in Chennai the next day.

Though the former Prime Minister had called off her planned public events in Tiruchi, she addressed a meeting at Kottampatti, about 55 km from Madurai, before proceeding to Dindigul, where she boarded the Pandiyan Express on her way to the citadel of Cholas.

On reaching the Tiruchi railway junction, she responded to appeals of the Congress leaders, including Moopanar, and addressed the waiting crowd for over 10 minutes. In the report carried by The Hindu on October 31, there was no reference in her speech to the Madurai violence. Instead, she spoke about the attempts of the Janata government in initiating criminal proceedings against her for corruption. "She claimed that neither in her public life nor during her tenure as Prime Minister, she had used or abused power for her personal gains," the daily added.

Two killed

More violence was in store in Chennai, about 300 km north of Tiruchi, on October 30. "Two persons died when police opened fire at two places in Madras as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Dravida Kazhagam volunteers, demonstrating against Mrs. Indira Gandhi, turned violent, attacking Police personnel and burning buses and trains," The Hindu said on October 31. It further stated that "the stretch of Mount Road between Saidapet and Guindy, where the DMK and DK had originally been allowed to stage a black-flag demonstration against Mrs. Gandhi, was the scene of violent incidents."

Kerala's (now Keralam) Education Minister, C.H. Mohammad Koya, who was on his way to the Meenambakkam airport in a government car, with his Personal Assistant and Security Officer, was among those who were injured in the stone-pelting between Saidapet and Guindy. Koya, who was briefly the Chief Minister in his State in 1979, and his PA sustained head injuries and were admitted into the Military Hospital at St. Thomas Mount.

Karunanidhi and his colleagues, who decided to defy the ban on their proposed stir, were taken into custody near the Marmalong bridge (Maraimalai Adigal bridge) in Saidapet as they were going in a car to lead the black-flag demonstration. The DK leader Maniammai was also arrested. The DMK chief's arrest triggered a hartal in Tiruchi; in the neighbouring district of Thanjavur, the authorities imposed a ban order as a precautionary measure and the DMK members paralysed the traffic in Vellore as a mark of protest.

Desai's regret

Prime Minister Desai, expressed regrets for what happened in Tamil Nadu and informed journalists in Mumbai that day of his talk with MGR wherein he had asked the latter to prevent recurrence of such incidents. Tamil Nadu Governor Prabhudas Patwari, who was also in Maharashtra's capital to attend an event along with Desai, told journalists that before leaving Chennai, he had a discussion with the Chief Minister and Inspector-General of Police E.L. Stracey (who became the State's first Director General of Police in 1979) about the visit of the former Prime Minister.

Indira Gandhi could not go to Kancheepuram. But, she met the 68th Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, in Tenampakkam on the outskirts of the town. Before winding up her eventful visit, she addressed a press conference in Chennai and contended that the Janata government at the Centre seemed to be "behaving under an Emergency without Constitutional sanction." On October 31, in New Delhi, participating in a function to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, the former Prime Minister alleged that it had been planned to attack her while she was on a tour of Tamil Nadu. However, Karunanidhi, in his memoirs, put the blame on sections of the Congress members who created mischief.

Poll deal with DMK

In two years, Indira Gandhi and Karunanidhi patched up their differences and struck a deal for the 1980 Lok Sabha elections. The rapprochement between the two was not relished by Mr. Nedumaran, who openly came out against the tie-up. Indira Gandhi, as the chief of the Congress (Indira), had promptly suspended him from the organisation as the dissident leader was the TNCC (I) general secretary.

A trial court, which went into the charges against 118 persons including Karunanidhi, convicted 55 persons and acquitted the rest 10 years later. Among the convicted was V. Gopalasamy (now Vaiko and leader of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) who was then in the DMK. The sentences ranged from three months to five years. However, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court acquitted even the 55 persons on charges of attempting to murder Indira Gandhi, The Hindu reported on March 11, 1994.

When asked whether it was proper, after the Madurai episode, on the part of the former Prime Minister to arrive at an understanding with the DMK leader for the reasons of political expediency, Mr. Chithan told The Hindu that "it's the decision of the party leadership. I have always respected the leadership's line of thinking."