C. Rajagopalachari trained as a lawyer before joining Gandhi's independence movement early on, becoming one of Gandhi's closest political confidants and one of the few leaders Gandhi reportedly trusted enough to openly disagree with him on strategy, including opposing certain tactics within the movement when he believed a different approach would work better.
After independence in 1947, he became India's last Governor-General, and the first Indian to hold the post, a largely ceremonial role that had, until his appointment, always been held by a British official — a symbolic milestone marking the final transfer of that particular colonial office into Indian hands.
When India adopted a new constitution in 1950 and transitioned fully to a republic, the ceremonial office of Governor-General was abolished entirely, replaced by an elected President. Rajagopalachari accepted the dissolution of the very office he held without resistance, a notable contrast to leaders elsewhere who have sometimes clung to symbolic positions of authority.
He went on to serve as Chief Minister of Madras state and later founded the Swatantra Party, becoming one of independent India's most prominent critics of excessive government control over the economy, while also writing widely respected simplified retellings of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata that remain popular introductions to those texts today.