First Indian Governor General of India C. Rajagopalachari, affectionately called Rajaji, was born in Thorappalli village near Hosur in Krishnagiri district.
A small tiled house, where he was born and brought up, was taken over by the state government on December 10, 1978 on his birth centenary. It is now being maintained by the Department of Information and Public Relations.
The village is 10 km from Hosur and 2.5 km from the Bangalore-Chennai National Highway. A bronze bust of Rajaji was commissioned by the government at a cost of Rs. 2 lakh and was unveiled by Minister for Information and Public Relations Parithi Ilamvazhuthi on December 24, 2009.
“Though the government of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has been honouring the leaders of the yesteryear and Tamil scholars by creating Mani Mandapams and memorials, it has kept the Rajaji Illam under lock for more than a month,'' said a tourist from Karnataka.
During lean season 100 to 150 tourists visit the place. In December, summer and on holidays the tourist inflow is more.
As it is close to Bangalore people cross over to Hosur to have a glimpse of the Rajaji memorial. The memorial does not have a guide and a watchman. In July 2007 a guide was appointed but in August 2008 he was deputed to work in Thamizh Thaatha U.V. Saminatha Iyer memorial in Uthamadanapuram in Tiruvarur district. Two months later C. Venkatesan, a guide from Virudhunagar, was posted to the Rajaji Illam. However, he too was shifted to Adhyamankottam in Dharmapuri district in March 2010.
The memorial was locked in the second week of March this year.
Though the previous AIADMK Government has allocated funds for the construction of a Mani Mandapam for Rajaji at Moranapalli near Thorappalli, the project has been kept in abeyance because of rivalry between two major political parties. The district administration has allotted an acre of land for this purpose.
