J Jayalalithaa: 1948-2016 - Idhayakkani to Amma

From being infamously pushed away from a gun-carriage that held her political mentor MG Ramachandran's mortal remains to making a state wail as she breathes her last before being taken away in full state honours, Jayalalithaa's life story was scripted by her grit.

But that is just one part of her life story that flashes as an undying spirit departs. Born to a lower middle class family in Mandya, Karnataka, and after losing her father while she was just two, it was Jayalalithaa's mother Sandhya who brought her up.

Sandhya made a living by appearing in small roles in Kannada and Tamil films and supported Jayalalithaa with very good basic education after they moved to Chennai.


After she turned 15, Jayalalithaa followed her mother to films. The initial struggles in the film industry shaped and strengthened her to explore much greater heights in times to come. It was her tremendous success in the film industry that led her to meet the then most popular actor of Tamil cinema, MGR.

MGR, who in 1972 broke away from M Karunanidhi-led DMK, to form his own party, later became Jayalalithaa's political mentor. However, as MGR turned into a mass leader and one of the most successful chief ministers of Tamil Nadu to win two consecutive terms, he refused to name Jayalalithaa or anyone else in the party as his successor.

Immediately after his death in 1987, a power struggle to fill the void left behind by MGR ensued and Jayalalithaa was in the race too along with MGR's wife Janaki Ramachandran.

Soon after MGR's death, a 38-year-old J Jayalalithaa, propaganda secretary of AIADMK, said in an interview, “At Rajaji Hall I stood by my leader's side for 13 hours the first day and eight hours the second day.“

Grieving by her dead leader's side for almost an entire day while national and regional leaders bee-lined to pay their last respects turned out to be a political masterstroke. But it clearly wasn't something that others around her wanted, as she points in an interview in January 1988.


“There was no physical strain. I suppose it was my will power. But there was mental and physical torture. Seven or eight ladies, I wouldn't name them, landed up on the morning of the second day (after MGR's death), stood by me, and started stamping on my feet, driving their nails into my skin, pinching me, and so on. Except for my face which was spared because it was visible, they attacked me everywhere else,“ Jayalalithaa had said.

She had gone on to elaborate other physical attacks on her soon after MGR's death in several interviews thereon. It was from such a hostile situation that Jayalalithaa the politician emerged and later went on to break the same mentor's record of being voted to power in Tamil Nadu for a second consecutive term.

Her early life experiences as an actor as a junior politician and her close association with MGR had given her a good sense of how to handle a party like ADMK and how to deal with state administration. Shades of her extravagance, arrogance, strong will, vindictiveness, uncompromising attitude and her ultimate fighting spirit surfaced in varying degrees right from her first term as Chief Minister in 1991.

Over three decades into public life her actions in recent times indicated an inherent desire to elevate her position from a mere political leader to a legend.

An urge to focus almost completely on welfare issues displayed a deviation from her interests in indulgence, her display of exemplary fiscal prudence and political will to take stern actions that were at times even deemed unpopular like in her 2001-2006 term as CM.

And as the people of Tamil Nadu re warded AIADMK a second consecutive term in May 2016, breaking a 25-year old run of alternative governance between DMK and AIADMK, Amma looks set to gain a place on par with the legendary leaders Kamaraj, Periyar, Anna and MGR.