Dressing up the spartan leader

Iconic Kamaraj’s statue in Kamuthi gets new clothes every other day

The statue of Kamaraj at Kamuthi

It is not uncommon to see temple deities adorned with colourful clothing and garlands, but devout Congressmen in Kamuthi have given demigod status to former Chief Minister K Kamaraj, adorning his lifesize statue with khadi clothing and changing it every time it gets dirty.

No one passing through the busy and narrow Nadar Bazaar Road in Kamuthi can miss the six-foot life size bronze statue installed atop the balcony at the entrance of Kshatriya Nadar Girls Higher Secondary School, dressed in the famous ‘Kamaraj khadi shirt’ and dhoti.

The Kshatriya Nadar Uravinmurai Trust, which was running the school and four other schools, including a matriculation school in the town, installed the statue in the early 1980s. The sartorial embellishment of the statue began when a local tailor, an ardent follower of the late leader, supported by Congressmen stitched the first dress for the statue.

Since then, it has become a ‘ritual’, and the trust has taken over the task of dressing the statue. “We have been doing this for more than three decades and change the dress at least twice a week or when it gets dirt after garlanding,” S.K.C. Ramesh Babu, a former trustee told

The Hindu .

The school gate is opened to Congress leaders or whoever visits the town and wishes to pay floral tributes to the leader. No Congress leader leaves the town without garlanding the statue and paying their respect. The Trust has purchased khadi material in bulk and stitches the dress with the help of local tailors, he said.

Declining to get into the expenditure aspect, he said: “We take pride in honouring the late leader in this fashion.”

This could probably be the only statue in the State dressed on a regular basis. The Trust is also maintaining the ‘Vasagar salai’ (library) for about 120 years.

The library has a good collection of books and subscribes to almost all dailies and magazines.

The centenary celebration was held recently and those who participated owed their successful careers to the library, Mr. Ramesh Babu recalled.