
Chakravarti Rajagopalachariar (10 December 1878-25 December 1972) was Governor-General of India from 21 June 1948 to 26 January 1950, succeeding Louis Mountbatten. He was the last Governor-General, and Rajendra Prasad became India's first president.
Biography[]
Chakravarti Rajagopalachariar was born in Thorapalli, British India in 1878, and he was admitted to the bar in 1900 and became a successful lawyer. He became a loyal follower of Mahatma Gandhi, whose defiant campaigns of non-cooperation he supported. Known as "rajaji", he was general secretary of the Indian National Congress from 1921 to 1922, and ran the Congress disobedience campaigns in southern India. He was chief minister of Madras from 1937 to 1939, but resigned as part of Congress' protest against the British declaration of war against Germany on India's behalf. More than Jawaharlal Nehru, he appreciated the Muslim League's demands for minority safeguards for Muslims, and took part in the independence negotiations. Chosen by Nehru as first and last governor-general of India before it became a republic, he fell out with him during the 1950s and became one of the principal founders of the oppositional Swatantra Party.