Udhayanidhi to open restored Kamaraj memorial in Ranipet

Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin will inaugurate a restored memorial to former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in Ranipet on Monday. It is the house where the Congress stalwart had stayed during the freedom struggle to avoid detention by the British police.

Officials of the Ranipet municipality, which executed the project, said the house was once used to store cattle feed. It is located on the municipal office premises, spread over 8.5 acres. “The memorial has been restored to its original splendour with Mangalore tiled roof, old electrical switches, and hurricane lamps. The memorial will be opened to visitors,” S. Buvaneswaran, Commissioner, Ranipet municipality, told The Hindu.

Municipal officials said the house comprised three small rooms, measuring around 100 sq.ft each. Concrete slabs were stacked one above the other with separate wooden doors to function as cupboards. Over the years, thick vegetation had grown on its pillars. The walls had developed cracks. Most of the roof tiles had collapsed. Minister for Handlooms and Textiles and Ranipet MLA R. Gandhi inspected the dilapidated house in 2022. He directed the municipal officials to restore it into a memorial.

Historians said the entire municipal office complex originally belonged to local leather merchant and freedom fighter Mohammad A.B. Sulaiman Sahib.

After attending the Indian National Congress session in Bombay, where a resolution on the Quit India Movement was adopted in August 1942, Kamaraj was returning to Madras when he was told by Congress workers that he may be detained at the Central Railway Station in Madras. Hence, he got down at Arakkonam and boarded a bus to Ranipet to seek help from his friend and freedom fighter A. Kalyanaraman Iyer. As he was watched by the police, Iyer sought the help of Sulaiman, who gave his storehouse to Kamaraj. Years later, Sulaiman sold the storehouse to the civic body.