Indian independence movement in Tamil Nadu
Encyclopedia
The Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

had a long history in the Tamil-speaking districts of the then Madras Presidency
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...

 going back to the 18th century.

The first resistance to the British was offered by the legendary Puli Thevan in 1757. Since then there had been rebellions by polygars such as the Marudu brothers, Veerapandiya Kattabomman
Veerapandiya Kattabomman
Veerapandiya Kattabomman also known as Kattabomman was an 18th century Palayakarrar chieftain from Panchalankurichi of Tamil Nadu, India and the 47th King of Panchalankurichi who fought the British. His ancestors migrated to Tamil Nadu from areas in present day Andhra Pradesh during the...

, Oomathurai and Dheeran Chinnamalai
Dheeran Chinnamalai
Dheeran Chinnamalai was a Kongu chieftain and Palayakkarar from Tamil Nadu who rose up in revolt against the British East India Company in the Kongu Nadu, Southern India...

 and the sepoys of Vellore
Vellore
Vellore It is considered one of the oldest cities in South India and lies on the banks of the Palar river on the site of Vellore Fort. The city lies between Chennai and Bangalore and the Temple towns of Thiruvannamalai and Tirupati...

. Though there were no violent rebellions in the 19th century, still, there were continuous agitations by Indian independence activists such as Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty
Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty
Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty CSI was an Indian merchant, Indian independence activist and political activist who founded the Madras Native Association and the first Indian-owned newspaper, The Crescent....

, John Bruce Norton
John Bruce Norton
John Bruce Norton was a British lawyer and educationist who served as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency. He was the father of lawyer and Indian independence activist Eardley Norton.- Early life :...

, Eardley Norton
Eardley Norton
John Eardley Norton was a Madras barrister, judge and politician of British origin. He was also one of the founders of the Indian National Congress and a participant in the Indian independence movement.- Early life :...

, Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer, P. Rangaiah Naidu
P. Rangaiah Naidu
Palavai Rangaiah Naidu was an Indian lawyer, politician and Indian independence activist. He was an important leader of the Indian National Congress in its early stages.- Early career :...

, G. Subramania Iyer
G. Subramania Iyer
Ganapathy Dikshitar Subramania Iyer was a leading Indian journalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who founded 'The Hindu' newspaper on September 20, 1878...

, Sir S. Subramania Iyer, C. Jambulingam Mudaliar
C. Jambulingam Mudaliar
Rao Bahadur C. Jambulingam Mudaliar CIE was an Indian politician and freedom-fighter who served as a civil court judge and member of the Madras Legislative Council. He was one of the foremost leaders of the Indian National Congress in the 1890s.- Early life :...

, Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar
Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar
Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar was an Indian lawyer, politician and Indian independence activist who campaigned for India's independence.- Early life :...

, M. Veeraraghavachariar
M. Veeraraghavachariar
Mudumbai Veeraraghavachariar was an Indian journalist, freedom-fighter and teacher from the erstwhile Madras Presidency. He was one of the founders of The Hindu newspaper and served as its Managing Director from 1878 to 1905.- Early life :...

 and C. Karunakara Menon
C. Karunakara Menon
Diwan Bahadur Cozhissery Karunakara Menon was an Indian journalist and politician from the erstwhile Madras Presidency. He was the second editor of The Hindu after G. Subramania Iyer and the founder of the Indian Patriot....

. After a brief interlude of militancy in the early 1900s, independence activists from Tamil Nadu adopted the non-violent principles of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

. Some of the important Gandhian leaders of the region were C. Rajagopalachari
C. Rajagopalachari
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari , informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer and statesman. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India...

, K. Kamaraj
K. Kamaraj
Kumarasami Kamaraj better known as K. Kamaraj was an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian politics during the 1960s. He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu during 1954-1963 and a Member of Parliament during 1952-1954 and 1969-1975...

 and S. Sathyamurthy.

Contemporaneous with the Indian nationalist movement, there were also pro-British political parties and movements, the most prominent being the Justice Party
Justice Party (India)
The Justice Party , officially known as South Indian Liberal Federation, was a political party in the Madras Presidency of British India. The party was established in 1917 by T. M. Nair and Theagaroya Chetty as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the presidency...

. Some important pro-British leaders were P. Theagaroya Chetty, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, Raja of Panagal and E. V. Ramasami Naicker.

Early contacts with European powers

European travellers and traders have had contacts with the Tamil country at least since the 1st millennium BC. Roman and Greek traders frequented the ports of Puhar
Puhar
Puhar is a town in the Nagapattinam district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was once a flourishing ancient port city known as Kaveri puhum pattinam, which for a while served as the capital of the early Chola kings in Tamilakkam.It is located near the end point of the Kaveri river,...

 and Musiri
Musiri
Musiri is a panchayat town in Tiruchirappalli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Musiri is located at . It has an average elevation of 82 metres . It is the site of an ancient inland port on the Kaveri River also called Pseudostomus or 'one with false mouths'.-Demographics: India...

 during the Sangam Age. The apostle St. Thomas
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...

 is believed to have preached and died in South India and ports of the Tamil country were mentioned in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea or Periplus of the Red Sea is a Greco-Roman periplus, written in Greek, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Northeast Africa and India...

. Globalization accelerated further under the Chola Empire which traded with South-East Asia, China and the most of the Arab world. Though sea trade declined after the fall of the Pandya kingdom in about 1327, foreign visitors continued to visit cities in the region throughout the Vijayanagar period and its aftermath.

Origin and rise of the British East India Company

Following the negotiations which Sir Thomas Roe
Thomas Roe
Sir Thomas Roe was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Roe was an accomplished scholar and a patron of learning.-Life:...

 had with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir
Jahangir
Jahangir was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1605 until his death. The name Jahangir is from Persian جهانگیر,meaning "Conqueror of the World"...

 on behalf of James VI of England, the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

, founded by a charter in 1600, opened factories or trading posts all over India. The Masulipatnam factory, the first in the south, was opened in the year 1612. Later factories were established at Pulicat and Armagon. In 1639, due to harsh weather conditions, the Masulipatnam factory was moved to a site newly purchased from the Raja of Chandragiri. A planned administrative base, a fort and a few British residences were set up. The city of Madras, which grew from this new settlement, thus became the first British trading settlement to be established in the Tamil country. The agency of Fort St George set up in 1640, was upgraded to a Presidency in 1652 but demoted in 1655 before being upgraded once again in 1684.

In the initial years, the British in South India concentrated mainly on trade and not on territorial expansion and hence, rarely indulged in acts of military aggression. However, the rapid rise of the French influence forced the British at Madras to interfere in local politics and assert themselves in the region through negotiations and alliances or through more forceful means. The French victory over the British and their conquest of Madras in 1746 compelled the British East India Company to set up a regular standing army though Madras was returned to the British three years later. Eventually, the French were defeated in a long series of battles known as the Carnatic Wars
Carnatic Wars
The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century on the Indian subcontinent...

 and their influence in India virtually disappeared with the fall of Pondicherry in 1774. Apart from eliminating the French, the Carnatic Wars also strengthened British prestige and influence in the region as they had set up military alliances with local princes in their bid to outmaneuver the French. One of the princes was the most important and powerful ruler in the Tamil country, the Nawab of the Carnatic
Nawab of the Carnatic
Nawabs of the Carnatic , ruled the Carnatic region of South India between about 1690 and 1801. They initially had their capital at Arcot,vellore city...

, who became a debtor and eventually pensioner of the British East India Company.

The first British possession in the Tamil country, apart from Madras, was Fort St David, near Cuddalore, which was established in 1690. The British acquired taxation rights over Chingleput district in 1763 and South Arcot in 1781. The two districts, along with rest of the Carnatic kingdom, came under complete British control in 1801. The Baramahals comprising Salem, Coimbatore and western Tamil Nadu, were ceded to the British by Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...

 in 1793 following his defeat in the Third Mysore War while Tanjore was acquired from the Thanjavur Maratha ruler Serfoji II
Serfoji II
Serfoji II was the last ruler of the Maratha principality of Tanjore to exercise absolute sovereignty over his dominions. His descendants, however, have managed to thrive as titular Maharajahs of Thanjavur to the present day...

 in 1799.

Resistance to British expansion

The first resistance to British expansion was offered by the legendary Puli Thevan, polygar of Avudyapuram, who, in 1757, led a confederacy of Western polygar chieftains in defiance against the Nawab of Carnatic's right to levy taxes on them on behalf of the British. The British responded by appointing Muhammad Yusuf, the governor of Madurai and Tirunelveli, and entrusting to him the task of putting down the rebellion. Yusuf enlisted the support of the Eastern polygar chieftains and eventually succeeded in reducing the rebels. Later, however, Muhammad Yusuf, himself, rebelled against the British and was captured and executed. During the 1780s and 1790s, Tamil chieftains like Dheeran Chinnamalai
Dheeran Chinnamalai
Dheeran Chinnamalai was a Kongu chieftain and Palayakkarar from Tamil Nadu who rose up in revolt against the British East India Company in the Kongu Nadu, Southern India...

 and the Maruthu Pandiyar
Maruthu Pandiyar
The Marudhu Pandiyar brothers ruled Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu towards the end of the 18th century...

 brothers also fought along with Tipu Sultan against the British. The Marudu brothers defeated a powerful British force at Kollangudi near Sivagangai in April 1789.

In 1799, Kattabomman Nayak
Veerapandiya Kattabomman
Veerapandiya Kattabomman also known as Kattabomman was an 18th century Palayakarrar chieftain from Panchalankurichi of Tamil Nadu, India and the 47th King of Panchalankurichi who fought the British. His ancestors migrated to Tamil Nadu from areas in present day Andhra Pradesh during the...

, the polygar of Panchalankurichi
Panchalankurichi
Panchalankurichi is a small but historic village, 3 km from Ottapidaram and 18 km from Thoothukudi in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, India. Panchalankurichi was once a Palayam and is best known as the birth place of Veerapandiya Kattabomman, a 17th century Palayakarrar , who opposed the British...

, revolted against the British along with his brother Oomadhurai and a few neighbouring polygars. After a few successful skirmishes, Panchalankurichi was eventually besieged by Company troops and Kattabomman was defeated in a long, pitched battle. Kattabomman and most of his allies were captured and hanged and the fort of Panchalankurichi was levelled to the ground. However, the Maruthu Pandiyar brother and some of Kattabomman's allies evaded capture and along with Dheeran Chinnamalai, fought the Second Polygar War against the British. Though the rebels were initially successful and Chinnamalai inflicted a severe defeat on Colonel Makiskan, the rebellion was eventually put down in 1802 and all the leaders captured and hanged. The Maruthu Pandiyar brothers defeated the British troops at Virupatchi and repulsed an attack on Sivagangai but were defeated and captured at Cholapuram. The brothers were hanged in October 1801 along with other prisoners.

Vellore Mutiny

On July 10, 1806, a sepoy mutiny broke out in the town of Vellore
Vellore
Vellore It is considered one of the oldest cities in South India and lies on the banks of the Palar river on the site of Vellore Fort. The city lies between Chennai and Bangalore and the Temple towns of Thiruvannamalai and Tirupati...

, 130 kilometres from Madras. The sepoys of the Vellore garrison were displeased with a recently-introduced law regulating the usage of Hindu caste marks or beards. Full-scale rebellion broke out after midnight on July 10, 1806 and Fateh Hyder, the second son of Tipu Sultan, who was imprisoned in Vellore Fort
Vellore Fort
Vellore Fort is a large 16th-century fort situated in Vellore city near Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The Fort was at one point of time the headquarters of the Vijayanagara Empire...

 was crowned king. However, reinforcements arrived from the nearby town of Arcot within the next fifteen minutes and the rebellion was successfully quelled by Sir Rollo Gillespie
Rollo Gillespie
-Early life:Robert Rollo Gillespie grew up in County Down, in what was then the Kingdom of Ireland, after turning down the opportunity of going to Cambridge university he joined the 3rd Irish Horse as a Cornet. In 1786 he was involved in a duel in which he killed the opposing duellist. Fleeing to...

. Over 100 captured sepoys were executed by blasting them with canister shots. William Bentinck
William Bentinck
William Bentinck may refer to:* William Bentinck, 1st Count Bentinck * William Bentinck , Royal Navy officer* Lord William Bentinck , British statesman...

, the Governor of Madras was recalled and replaced. The laws regulating Hindu religious marks was withdrawn.

Opposition to missionary activities

During the 19th century, the British rulers of India were actively endorsing the activities of Christian missionaries and enacting laws to empower them and favour proselytization. In 1844, a law was introduced amending Hindu law to make it possible for Christian converts to inherit property from their Hindu ancestors. At about the same time, Christian theology was introduced as a compulsory subject in the curriculum of the University of Madras.

Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty
Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty
Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty CSI was an Indian merchant, Indian independence activist and political activist who founded the Madras Native Association and the first Indian-owned newspaper, The Crescent....

, a popular indigo merchant launched a campaign against these measures and presided over a protest meeting in Madras city on October 7, 1846. The protestors even petitioned law makers and social and political activists in United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and enlisted their support. The laws were eventually withdrawn. Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India
Order of the Star of India
The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:# Knight Grand Commander # Knight Commander # Companion...

 and nominated to the Madras Legislative Council
Madras Legislative Council
Tamil Nadu Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was initially created as an advisory body in 1861, by the British...

, the second Indian to be in the council. Chetty was also assisted in his efforts by Madras lawyer and Indophile John Bruce Norton
John Bruce Norton
John Bruce Norton was a British lawyer and educationist who served as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency. He was the father of lawyer and Indian independence activist Eardley Norton.- Early life :...

 whose own participation in the Indian National movement is significant.

The conversion of a Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

 student of the Madras Christian College
Madras Christian College
The Madras Christian College, commonly known as MCC, is a liberal arts and sciences college in Madras , India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. Currently, the college is affiliated to the University of Madras, but functions as an autonomous institution from its campus...

 in April 1888 sparked severe protests from Hindus in the Madras Presidency. The agitators resolved to start national schools to counter evangelistic activities in missionary-run schools and colleges. Most of the leaders were Indian nationalists who had recently founded the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

.

The Hindu and the Madras Mahajana Sabha

Indian nationalists of the 19th century propagated their views and objectives by starting newspapers and forming social and political organisations. The first Indian-run newspaper The Crescent was started by Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty to counter Christian missionary propaganda and alleged British injustice. But the newspaper which played a major part in the history of the Indian independence movement in Tamil Nadu was the English-language The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...

which was started by Indian independence activists G. Subramania Iyer
G. Subramania Iyer
Ganapathy Dikshitar Subramania Iyer was a leading Indian journalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who founded 'The Hindu' newspaper on September 20, 1878...

, M. Veeraraghavachariar
M. Veeraraghavachariar
Mudumbai Veeraraghavachariar was an Indian journalist, freedom-fighter and teacher from the erstwhile Madras Presidency. He was one of the founders of The Hindu newspaper and served as its Managing Director from 1878 to 1905.- Early life :...

 and N. Subba Rao Pantulu
N. Subba Rao Pantulu
Nyapathi Subba Rao Pantulu was an Indian politician and social activist who served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council. between 1893 and 1909. He was also one of the founders of The Hindu.- Early life :...

 in 1878 in support of the candidature of Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer as the first Indian judge of the Madras High Court
Madras High Court
The Madras High Court is a senior court located at Chennai , in India. The court buildings, which are believed to be the second largest judicial complex in the world, are located near the beach, in one of the city's major business districts....

. In the following years, The Hindu launched severe criticisms of economic policies of the government.

The Madras Native Association established by Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty in 1852 was the first Indian political organisation in the Madras Presidency. On May 16, 1884, the Madras Mahajana Sabha
Madras Mahajana Sabha
Madras Mahajana Sabha was an Indian nationalist organisation based in the Madras Presidency. Along with the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Bombay Presidency Association and the Indian Association, it is considered to be a predecessor of the Indian National Congress....

 was founded by prominent Indian leaders of the Presidency such as P. Rangaiah Naidu
P. Rangaiah Naidu
Palavai Rangaiah Naidu was an Indian lawyer, politician and Indian independence activist. He was an important leader of the Indian National Congress in its early stages.- Early career :...

 of Madras, R. Balaji Rao
R. Balaji Rao
R. Balaji Rao was an Indian politician and Indian independence activist who was a founder and first Secretary of the Madras Mahajana Sabha.- Personal life :...

 and S. A. Saminatha Iyer of Tanjore, Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar
Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar
Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar was an Indian lawyer, politician and Indian independence activist who campaigned for India's independence.- Early life :...

 of Salem and M. Veeraraghavachariar
M. Veeraraghavachariar
Mudumbai Veeraraghavachariar was an Indian journalist, freedom-fighter and teacher from the erstwhile Madras Presidency. He was one of the founders of The Hindu newspaper and served as its Managing Director from 1878 to 1905.- Early life :...

 of Chingleput
Chingleput
Chingleput or Chengalpattu or Chengalpet is a city and a municipality in Kanchipuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The name of the city is derived from the old nomenclature 'chenkazhuneer patru'...

. Its first President was Rangaiah Naidu and the first secretary was Balaji Rao. Its founders later played leading roles in the Indian National Congress.

The Indian National Congress was established due to the efforts of Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume was a civil servant, political reformer and amateur ornithologist in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead the Indian independence movement...

 and with the blessings of the then Viceroy of India Lord Ripon
George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon
George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon KG, GCSI, CIE, PC , known as Viscount Goderich from 1833 to 1859 and as the Earl de Grey and Ripon from 1859 to 1871, was a British politician who served in every Liberal cabinet from 1861 until his death forty-eight years later.-Background...

 and held its first meeting at the Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay between December 28 and December 31, 1885. Among the 72 delegates who attended the first session, 22 were from the Madras Presidency.

City/Town Delegate/s Profile
Madras (8) P. Rangaiah Naidu
P. Rangaiah Naidu
Palavai Rangaiah Naidu was an Indian lawyer, politician and Indian independence activist. He was an important leader of the Indian National Congress in its early stages.- Early career :...

 (1828–1904)
lawyer, Madras High Court. President of the Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884). Member of the Madras Legislative Council (1892–99).
S. Subramania Iyer
S. Subramania Iyer
Sir Subbier Subramania Iyer KCIE was an Indian lawyer, jurist and freedom fighter who, along with Annie Besant, founded the Home Rule Movement. He was popularly known as the "Grand Old Man of South India"....

 (1842–1924)
lawyer, Madras High Court. Member of the Madras Legislative Council (1884–87).
G. Subramania Iyer
G. Subramania Iyer
Ganapathy Dikshitar Subramania Iyer was a leading Indian journalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who founded 'The Hindu' newspaper on September 20, 1878...

 (1855–1916)
journalist and social reformer. Founder of English-language The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...

(1878) and Tamil-language Swadesamitran
Swadesamitran
Swadesamitran was the first Tamil language newspaper owned and operated by Indians. It was published from Chennai . It was founded by G Subramania Aiyer who also served as the papers first editor. It was founded as a sister paper of The Hindu which Aiyer had also founded two years earlier in 1879...

(1882).
P. Anandacharlu (1843–1908) lawyer and journalist. Leader of the bar and founder of the Triplicane Literary Society. President of the Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress (1891)
Coimbatore
Coimbatore
Coimbatore , also known as Kovai , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is a major commercial centre in Tamil Nadu and is known as the "Manchester of South India"....

 (1)
S. P. Narasimhalu Naidu (1854–1922) journalist and social reformer. Secretary of the Coimbatore unit of the Madras Mahajana Sabha and editor of The Crescent.
Tanjore (2) S. A. Saminatha Iyer (d. 1899) public prosecutor and landlord. Founder-President of the Tanjore People's Association and corresponding member of the Madras Mahajana Sabha.
Kumbakonam
Kumbakonam
Kumbakonam , also spelt as Coombaconum in the records of British India , is a town and a special grade municipality in the Thanjavur district in the southeast Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located 40 kilometres from Thanjavur and 272 kilometres from Chennai, it is the headquarters of the Kumbakonam...

 (1)
K. Pattabhirama Iyer landlord
Madura
Madura
Madura is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. The island comprises an area of approximately 4,250 km². Madura is administered as part of the East Java province. It is separated from Java by the narrow Strait of Madura.-History:...

 (1)
P. Subramania Iyer landlord
Salem (1) Kristnaswamy Rout
Tinnevely (1) Peter Paul Pillai
Peter Paul Pillai
Peter Paul Pillai was an Indian schoolmaster, landlord, politician and social reformer who represented Tirunelveli at the first session of the Indian National Congress.-Personal life:Peter Paul Pillai was a Roman Catholic schoolmaster and landowner...

headmaster and landlord



Important public personalities of the Presidency like Rangaiah Naidu, S. Subramania Iyer, G. Subramania Iyer and S. A. Saminatha Iyer attended the first session of the Indian National Congress. However, some prominent personalities like Eardley Norton
Eardley Norton
John Eardley Norton was a Madras barrister, judge and politician of British origin. He was also one of the founders of the Indian National Congress and a participant in the Indian independence movement.- Early life :...

, Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar
Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar
Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar was an Indian lawyer, politician and Indian independence activist who campaigned for India's independence.- Early life :...

, C. Jambulingam Mudaliar
C. Jambulingam Mudaliar
Rao Bahadur C. Jambulingam Mudaliar CIE was an Indian politician and freedom-fighter who served as a civil court judge and member of the Madras Legislative Council. He was one of the foremost leaders of the Indian National Congress in the 1890s.- Early life :...

, Sir T. Madhava Rao and R. Raghunatha Rao
R. Raghunatha Rao
Diwan Bahadur Rai Raghunatha Rao CSI was an Indian civil servant, administrator, politician and Indian independence activist who served as the Diwan of Indore from 1875 to 1880 and 1886 to 1888. He was related to Indian statesman Sir T...

 did not participate in the first session. Nevertheless, the Indian National Congress, with its ideals actively propagated by members of the Theosophical Society
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is an organization formed in 1875 to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments has several successors...

 grew by leaps and bounds, that the 1887 session of the Congress held in Madras city and presided over by Sir Madhava Rao was a tremendous success. The visiting dignitaries were welcomed by Lord Connemara
Robert Bourke, 1st Baron Connemara
Robert Bourke, 1st Baron Connemara GCIE, PC was a British Conservative politician and colonial administrator...

, the then Governor of Madras. In 1889, Eardley Norton and Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar led an Indian delegation to the United Kingdom to set up an UK chapter of the Indian National Congress.

From the early 1900s, leadership of the Indian National Congress passed on to a new generation of politicians such as Sir P. S. Sivaswami Iyer, Sic C. Sankaran Nair, Sir M. Krishnan Nair, Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer
Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer
Sachivottama Sir Chetpat Pattabhirama Ramaswami Iyer, KCSI, KCIE , also called "C. P.", was an Indian lawyer, administrator and politician who served as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency from 1920 to 1923, Law member of the Executive council of the Governor of Madras from 1923 to 1928,...

, S. Srinivasa Iyengar and Sir P. Theagaroya Chetty. Enventually, with the passage of time and the influx of revolutionary ideas from the north, the movement turned violent.

Rise of militancy

The split between the moderates and extremists at the Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...

 session of the Indian National Congress in 1906 was also accompanied by a split between the moderate and extremist elements in the Indian independence movement in Tamil Nadu. Among the supporters of the Indian extremist Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...

 were Subrahmanya Bharathy and V. O. Chidambaram Pillai. Subrahmanya Bharathy was a prodigious Tamil poet and writer and is often regarded as the "national poet of Tami Nadu". His virulently anti-British writings in New India and Swadesamitran attracted the attention of the government which issued a warrant for his arrest forcing hm to flee to the French territory of Pondicherry. Chidambaram Pillai founded the first Indian- owned shipping company in British India, the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company to challenge British monopoly over shipping. From the beginning, the company had to deal with the hostility and bias of British administrators and competitors . Eventually, the company was liquidated and Pillai thrown in jail.

V. V. S. Aiyar
V. V. S. Aiyar
Varahaneri Venkatesa Subramaniam Aiyar , also known as V.V.S. Aiyar, was an Indian revolutionary from Tamil Nadu who fought against the British occupation of India. His contemporaries include Subramanya Bharathi and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, who subscribed to the militant form of resistance against...

, an associated of V. D. Savarkar, joined the India House
India House
India House was an informal Indian nationalist organisation based in London between 1905 and 1910. With the patronage of Shyamji Krishna Varma, its home in a student residence in Highgate, North London was launched to promote nationalist views among Indian students in Britain...

 and participated in the Hindu German conspiracy. In 1911, one of Aiyar's associates, Vanchinathan
Vanchinathan
Vanchinathan , popularly known as Vanchi, was an Indian Tamil independence activist.He is best remembered for having shot dead Ashe, the Collector of Thirunelveli and having later committed suicide in order to evade arrest....

 shot dead General Ashe, the District Collector of Trichinopoly. Vanchinathan, later, shot himself to evade arrest.

Extremist activities in Tamil Nadu reached a climax during the First World War. The Irish theosophist Annie Besant
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

 who had been campaigning for social reforms and increased rights and privileges for native Indians, launched the Home Rule League
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...

 in 1915, in order to pressurize the British government to grant self-rule to India. She was put under house-arrest on the orders of the Governor of Madras Lord Pentland
John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland
John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland, GCSI, GCIE was a Scottish Liberal Party politician, soldier, peer, administrator and Privy Councillor who served as the Secretary of Scotland from 1905 to 1912 and the Governor of Madras from 1912 to 1919.Baron Pentland was born John Sinclair to Sir John...

 and was released only after a long protracted legal battle waged by Sir S. Subramania Iyer and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The Rowlatt Act
Rowlatt Act
The Rowlatt Act was a law passed by the British in colonial India in March 1919, indefinitely extending "emergency measures" enacted during the First World War in order to control public unrest and root out conspiracy...

 and subsequent Jallianwalla Bagh massacre provoked outrage in the Tamil-speaking districts of Madras Presidency. S. Subramania Iyer returned his knighthood and S. Srinivasa Iyengar, his CIE
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...

.

The Dyarchy

The Montague-Chelmsford reforms of 1919 introduced a dyarchical system of governance in all the three Presidencies of Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

, Bombay and Madras
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...

. As per the new reforms, elections were held in the Madras Presidency in November 1920. In the absence of any contest from the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 which had decided to boycott the elections, the Justice Party
Justice Party (India)
The Justice Party , officially known as South Indian Liberal Federation, was a political party in the Madras Presidency of British India. The party was established in 1917 by T. M. Nair and Theagaroya Chetty as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the presidency...

, an organization with pro-British leanings, was elected unopposed and formed the government in the province. A. Subbarayalu Reddiar
A. Subbarayalu Reddiar
Diwan Bahadur Agaram Subbarayalu Reddiar was a landlord, Justice Party leader and Chief Minister or Premier of Madras Presidency from December 17, 1920 to July 11, 1921....

 served as Premier for a short term and was succeeded by Sir P. Ramarayaningar. The formulation of a policy of caste-based communal reservations in 1921 appears to be one of the highlights of his tenure. During the 1923 elections, the Justice Party split in to two factions - the Constitutionalists and Ministerialists. In the very same year, the Indian National Congress, itself, split into two with a group of "No-Changers" who claimed the right to use its name in favour of non-participation in the government and another faction called the "Swaraj Party
Swaraj Party
The Swaraj Party, Swarajaya Party or Swarajya Party, established as the Congress-Khilafat Swarajaya Party, was a political party formed in India in 1922 that sought greater self-government and political freedoms for the Indian people from the British Raj. It was inspired by the concept of Swaraj...

" which was in favour of council entry. The Swaraj Party under S. Srinivasa Iyengar emerged as the single-largest party in the 1926 elections. However, the Swaraj Party refused to form the government prompting the governor Lord Goschen to install a regional aristocrat P. Subbarayan
P. Subbarayan
Paramasiva Subbarayan was an Indian politician, freedom fighter and diplomat and was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, India's ambassador to Indonesia and Union Minister of Transport and Communications in Jawaharlal Nehru's government. He is the father of General P. P...

 as the Premier and nominate members of his own choice to the council to support him. However, the government was beset with problems from the very beginning as both the Swaraj Party as well as the Justice Party tried to topple it.

The Simon Commission
Simon Commission
The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been dispatched to India in 1927 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon...

 arrived in India in the year 1928 to make field investigations into the working of the Montague-Chelmsford reforms. The Indian National Congress and the Swaraj Party as well as the Justice Party, in the initial stages, decided to boycott the commission as there was not a single Indian in it. A motion was put forth in both the houses of the Madras legislature boycotting the Commission and was passed with absolute majority. But the Premier P. Subbarayan opposed the motion and prepared to welcome the commission prompting both of his ministers A. Ranganatha Mudaliar
A. Ranganatha Mudaliar
Arcot Ranganatha Mudaliar was an Indian politician and theosophist from Bellary. He served as the Minister of Public Health and Excise for the Madras Presidency from 1926 to 1928.- Early life :...

 and R. N. Arogysamy Mudaliar to resign in protest. The Governor intervened to appoint S. Muthiah Mudaliar
S. Muthiah Mudaliar
S. Muthiah Mudaliar CIE was an Indian politician and legislator of the Justice Party and later, the Swarajya Party and an independent minister in the Madras Presidency. He is largely remembered for introducing the Communal Government Order implementing reservations in the Presidency.Muthiah...

 and M. R. Sethuratnam Iyer
M. R. Sethuratnam Iyer
M. R. Sethuratnam Iyer was an Indian politician who served as the Minister of Development in the Madras Presidency from March 16, 1928 to October 27, 1930.-Early life:...

 as ministers in place of the resigned member sof the cabinet and appointed Sir M. Krishnan Nair, an important leader of the Justice Party, to his executive council, in order to enlist the support of its members. The motion was eventually defeated and the Simon Commission was accorded a warm welcome amidst cries of foulplay by the Swaraj Party.

The Justice Party was voted back to power in the 1930 elections and B. Munuswamy Naidu served as Premier for a short term before being succeeded by the Raja of Bobbili. However, the economic conditions under the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 combined with anti-incumbency
Anti-incumbency
An anti-incumbent vote is one exercised against elected officials currently in power. It allows the voters to register their discontent with sitting government officials, particularly when protesting against certain actions taken by the government or the elected officials in question.-See...

 and rising corruption in the Justice Party ranks resulted in its defeat in the 1934 elections. However, Justice Party was returned to power as the Swaraj Party, the single largest party, refused to form the government. However, by 1937, things had changed and a united and rejuvenated Indian National Congress participating in the elections for the first time held under the Government of India Act 1935
Government of India Act 1935
The Government of India Act 1935 was originally passed in August 1935 , and is said to have been the longest Act of Parliament ever enacted by that time. Because of its length, the Act was retroactively split by the Government of India Act 1935 into two separate Acts:# The Government of India...

 registered a famous win and a near-complete rout for the Justice Party.

See Also

  • Tinnevely Riot of 1908
    Tinnevely Riot of 1908
    The Tinnevely Riot is an outbreak of violence which occurred in the town of Tinnevely in then Madras Presidency of British India on March 17, 1908. The outbreak was in response to the arrest and subsequent conviction of Indian nationalists Subramania Siva and V. O. Chidambaram Pillai.- Events :V. O...

  • 1921 Buckingham and Carnatic Mills Strike
    1921 Buckingham and Carnatic Mills Strike
    The 1921 Buckingham and Carnatic Mills Strike was a strike by the workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India. against the managing company, Binny and Co. The strike, which lasted from June to October 1921, caused severe losses to the Madras economy...

  • 1928 South Indian Railway Strike
    1928 South Indian Railway Strike
    The 1928 South Indian Railway Strike was a general strike by the South Indian Railway Workers Union against plans of the South Indian Railway Company to lay off over 3,100 workers in order to reduce the expenditures of the company. The strike lasted from June 29 to August 2, 1928 and severely...

  • Neil Statue Satyagraha
    Neil Statue Satyagraha
    Neil statue Satyagraha was an agitation that took place in Madras Presidency, British India during the Indian Independence Movement. It took place in 1927 demanding the removal of the statue of Colonel James Neil situated at Mount Road in Madras.James Neil of the Madras Fusileers regiment played a...

  • 1932 Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Strike
    1932 Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Strike
    1932 Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Strike was a general strike launched against the retrenchment policies of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Company...

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