Justice Party (India)
Encyclopedia
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. Communal division between Brahmin
s and non-Brahmins began in the presidency during the late 19th and early 20th century, mainly due to caste
prejudices and disproportionate representation of Brahmins in government jobs. The party's foundation marked the culmination of a series of failed efforts to establish an organisation to represent the non-Brahmins n the presidency. During its early years, the party was involved in petitioning the imperial administrative bodies and British politicians demanding more representation for non-Brahmins in administration and in the government.
When a diarchial
system of administration was established due to the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms
, the Justice party took part in presidential governance. In 1920, it won the first direct elections
in the presidency and formed the government. During 1920-37, it formed four out of the five ministries and was in power for thirteen out of the seventeen years. It was the main political alternative to the nationalist Indian National Congress
in the presidency. It was defeated in the 1937 election
and never recovered from the defeat. It came under the leadership of Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy and his Self-Respect Movement
. In 1944, Periyar transformed the party into a social organisation called Dravidar Kazhagam
and withdrew it from electoral politics. A rebel faction that called itself the original Justice party, survived to contest one final election, in 1952.
The party was isolated in contemporary Indian politics by its many controversial activities. It opposed Brahmins in civil service and politics and its attitude towards Brahmins shaped many of its ideas and policies. It opposed Annie Besant
and her Home rule movement, because it believed home rule would benefit the Brahmins. The party also campaigned against the non-cooperation movement
in the presidency. It was at odds with Gandhi, primarily due to his praise for Brahminism. Its mistrust of the Brahmin–dominated Indian National Congress led it to adopt a hostile stance toward the Indian Independence Movement
. Despite professing to represent the interests of all non-Brahmans, the party eventually lost the support of Muslim
s and Dalits, who accused it of serving the interests of only a few non-Brahmin castes like Vellalar
s (Mudaliar
s and Pillais
), Balija Naidus, Beri Chetti
s, Kapu
s and Kamma
s.
The Justice party's period in power is remembered for the introduction of caste based reservations
(affirmative action
) and educational & religious reforms. In opposition it is remembered for its participation in the anti-Hindi agitations of 1937-40
. The party was responsible for creating Andhra
& Annamalai
universities and for developing the area around present day Theagaroya Nagar in Madras city
. The Justice party and the Dravidar Kazhagam
are the ideological and political predecessors of the present day Dravidian parties
like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which have ruled Tamil Nadu
(one of the successor states to Madras Presidency) uninterrupted since 1967.
s in Telugu
, Tamil
–speaking and Malabar
areas of the Madras Presidency
enjoyed a higher position in India's social hierarchy than North Indian Brahmins. By the 1850s, Telugu
and Tamil Brahmins comprising only 3.2% of the population began to increase their political power by filling most of the jobs which were open to Indian men at that time. They dominated the administrative services and the newly created urban professions in the 19th and early 20th century. The higher literacy and English language proficiency among Brahmins were instrumental in this ascendancy. The political, social, and economical divide between Brahmins and non-Brahmins became more apparent in the beginning of the 20th century. This breach was further exaggerated by Annie Besant
and her Home Rule for India movement. The following table shows the distribution of selected jobs among different caste groups in 1912 in Madras presidency.
The dominance of Brahmins was also evident in the membership of the Madras Legislative Council
. During 1910-20, eight out of the nine official members (appointed by the Governor of Madras) were Brahmins. Apart from the appointed members, Brahmins also formed the majority of the members elected to the council from the district boards and municipalities. During this period the Madras Province Congress Committee (regional branch of the Indian National Congress
) was also dominated by Brahmins. Of the 11 major newspaper
s and magazines in the presidency, two (The Madras Mail
and Madras Times) were run by Europeans sympathetic to the crown, three were evangelical non–political periodicals, four (The Hindu
, Indian Review, Swadesamithran and Andhra Pathrika) were published by Brahmins while New India, run by Annie Besant
was sympathetic to the Brahmins. This dominance was denounced by the non-Brahmin leaders in the form of pamphlets and open letters written to the Madras Governor. The earliest examples of such pamphlets are the ones authored by the pseudonymous author calling himself "fair play" in 1895. By the second decade of the 20th century, the Brahmins of the presidency were themselves divided into three factions. These were the Mylapore
faction comprising Chetpet
Iyer
s and Vembakkam
Iyengars, the Egmore
faction led by the editor of The Hindu
, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar and the Salem nationalists led by C. Rajagopalachari
. A fourth non-Brahmin faction rose to compete with them and became the Justice party.
argues that although England played a role, the Dravidian movement had a bigger influence in South India. Eugene F. Irschick (in Political and Social Conflict in South India; The non-Brahmin movement and Tamil Separatism, 1916-1929) holds the view that British officials sought to instigate the growth of non-Brahminism, but does not characterize it as simply a product of that policy. David. A. Washbrook disagrees with Irschick in The Emergence of Provincial Politics: The Madras Presidency 1870-1920, and states "Non-Brahminism became for a time synonymous with anti-nationalism—a fact which surely indicates its origins as a product of government policy." Washbrook's portrayal has been contested by P. Rajaraman (in The Justice Party: a historical perspective, 1916-37), who argues that the movement was an inevitable result of longstanding "social cleavage" between Brahmins and non-Brahmins.
The British role in the development of the non-Brahmin movement is broadly accepted by some historians. The statistics used by non-Brahmin leaders in their 1916 manifesto were prepared by senior Indian Civil Service officers for submission to the public services commission. The Mylapore Brahmin faction rose to prominence in the early 20th century. England, while acknowledging its usefulness was wary and supported non-Brahmins for several Government posts. They sought to weaken the Mylaporean Brahmins by incorporating non-Brahmins in several Government posts. An early example is the appointement of C. Sankaran Nair
to a High court bench job in 1903 by Lord Ampthill solely because Nair was a non-Brahmin. The job fell vacant after Bashyam Iyengar left. V. Krishnaswami Iyer was expected to succeed him. was a vocal opponent of the Mylapore Brahmins and advocated the induction of non-Brahmin members in the government. In 1912, under the influence of Sir Alexander Cardew
, the Madras Secretariat, for the first time used Brahmin/non-Brahmin as a criterion for job appointments. By 1918, it was maintaining a list of Brahmins and non-Brahmins, preferring the latter.
as Secretary. The league restricted itself to social activities and distanced itself from contemporary politics. On 1 October 1912, the league was reorganised and renamed as the "Madras Dravidian Association". The association opened many branches in Madras city. Its main achievement was to establish a hostel for non-Brahmin students. It also organised annual "At-home" functions for non-Brahmin graduates and published books presenting their demands.
lost to Brahmin candidates with Home Rule League support in local council elections. These defeats increased animosity and the formation of a political organisation to represent non-Brahmin interests. On 20 November 1916, about thirty prominent non-Brahmin leaders met in Victoria Public Hall
under Chetty and T. M. Nair
. They established the South Indian People's Association (SIPA) to publish English, Tamil
and Telugu
newspapers to publicise grievances of non-Brahmins. Chetty became the secretary. Chetty and Nair had been political rivals in the Madras Corporation council, but Natesa Mudaliar was able to reconcile their differences. The meeting also formed the "South Indian Liberal Federation" (SILF) as a political association. Later, the association came to be popularly called the "Justice Party", after the English daily Justice published by it. In December 1916, the association published "The Non Brahmin Manifesto", affirmed its loyalty and faith in the British Raj
, but decried Brahminic bureaucratic dominance and urged for non-Brahmins to "press their claims as against the virtual domination of the Brahmin Caste". The manifesto was harshly criticized by the nationalist newspaper The Hindu (on 20 December 1916):
The periodical Hindu Nesan, questioned the timing of the new association. The New Age (Home Rule Movement's newspaper) dismissed it and predicted its premature death. By February 1917, the SIPA joint stock company had raised money by selling 640 shares of one hundred rupees each. The money purchased a printing press and the group hired C. Karunakara Menon
to edit a newspaper which was to be called Justice. However, negotiations with Menon broke down and Nair himself took over as honorary editor with P. N. Raman Pillai and M. S. Purnalingam Pillai
as sub–editors. The first issue came out on 26 February 1917. A Tamil newspaper called Dravidan, edited by Bhaktavatsalam Pillai, was started in June 1917. The party also purchased the Telugu newspaper Andhra Prakasika (edited by A. C. Parthasarathi Naidu). Later in 1919, both were converted to weeklies due to financial constraints.
On 19 August 1917, the first non-Brahmin conference was convened at Coimbatore
under the presidency of Ramarayaningar. In the following months, several non-Brahmin conferences were organised. On 18 October, the party published its objectives (as formed by T. M. Nair) in The Hindu:
Between August and December 1917 (when the first confederation of the party was held), conferences were organised all over the Madras Presidency—at Coimbatore, Bikkavole, Pulivendla, Bezwada, Salem and Tirunelveli
. These conferences and other meetings symbolised the arrival of the SILF as a non-Brahmin political organisation.
, the leader of the Theosophical Society
became involved in the Indian Independence Movement
and founded the Home Rule League. She based her activities in Madras and many of her political associates were Tamil Brahmins. She viewed India as a single homogeneous entity bound by similar religious, philosophical, cultural characteristics and a Indian caste system. Many of the ideas she articulated about Indian culture were based on puranas, manusmriti and vedas
, whose values educated non-Brahmins had begun to question. Even before the League's founding, Besant and Nair had clashed over an article in Nair's medical journal Antiseptic, questioning the sexual practices of the theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater
. In 1913, Besant lost a defamation suit against Nair over the article.
Besant's association with Brahmins and her vision of a homogeneous India based on brahminical values brought her into direct conflict with Justice. The December 1916 "Non-Brahmin Manifesto" voiced its opposition to the Home Rule Movement. The manifesto was criticised by the Home rule periodical New India. Justice opposed the Home Rule Movement and the party newspapers derisively nicknamed Besant as the "Irish Brahmini". Dravidan, the Tamil language mouthpiece of the party, ran headlines such as Home rule is Brahmin's rule. All three of the party's newspapers ran articles and opinions pieces critical of the home rule movement and the league on a daily basis. Some of these Justice articles were later published in book form as The Evolution of Annie Besant. Nair described the home rule movement as an agitation carried on "by a white woman particularly immune from the risks of government action" whose rewards would be reaped by the Brahmins.
, proposed political reforms to increase representation of Indians in the government and to develop self-governing institutions. This announcement increased the division among the non-Brahmin political leaders of the Presidency. Justice organised a series of conferences in late August to support its claims. Theagaraya Chetty, cabled Montagu asking for communal representation in the provincial legislature for non-Brahmins. He demanded a system similar to the one granted to Muslim
s by the Minto-Morley reforms of 1909—separate electorates and reserved seats. The non-Brahmin members from Congress formed the Madras Presidency Association (MPA) to compete with Justice. Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy, Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar, P. Varadarajulu Naidu
and Kesava Pillai
were among the non-Brahmin leaders involved in creating MPA. MPA was supported by the Brahmin nationalist newspaper The Hindu. Justice denounced MPA as a Brahmin creation intended to weaken their cause.
On 14 December 1917, Montagu arrived at Madras to listen to comments on the proposed reforms. O. Kandaswami Chetty (Justice) and Kesava Pillai (MPA) and 2 other non-Brahmin delegations presented to Montagu. Justice and MPA both requested communal reservation for Balija Naidus, Pillai
s and Mudaliar
s (Vellalas), Chettis and the Panchamas—along with four Brahmin groups. Pillai convinced the Madras Province Congress Committee to support the MPA/Justice position. British authorities, including Governor Baron Pentland
and theMadras Mail supported communal representation. But Montagu was not inclined to extend communal representation to subgroups. The Montagu-Chelmsford Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, issued on 2 July 1918, denied the request.
At a meeting held in Tanjore, the party dispatched T. M. Nair to London to lobby for extending communal representation. Dr. Nair arrived in June 1918 and worked into December, attended various meetings, addressed Members of Parliament (MPs), and wrote articles and pamphlets. However, the party refused to cooperate with the Southborogh committee that was appointed to draw up the franchise framework for the proposed reforms, because Brahmins V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and Surendranath Banerjee were committee members. Justice secured the support of many Indian and non–Indian members of Indian Civil Service for communal representation.
The Joint Select Committee held hearings during 1919-20 to finalize the Government of India Bill, which would implement the reforms. A Justice delegation composed of Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar
, Kurma Venkata Reddi Naidu, Koka Appa Rao Naidu and L. K. Tulasiram, attended the hearings. Ramarayaningar also represented the All India Landholder association and the Madras Zamindar association. Reddi Naidu, Mudaliar and Ramarayaningar toured major cities, addressed meetings, met with MPs, and wrote letters to the local newspapers to advance their position. Nair died on 17 July 1919 before he could appear. After Nair's death, Reddi Naidu became the spokesman. He testified on 22 August. The deputation won the backing of both Liberal
and Labour
members. The Committee's report, issued on 17 November 1919, recommended communal representation in the Madras Presidency. The number of reserved seats was to be decided by the local parties and the Madras Government. After prolonged negotiations between Justice, Congress, MPA and the British Government, a compromise (called "Meston
's Award") was reached in March 1920. 28 (3 urban and 25 rural) of the 63 general seats in plural member constituencies were reserved for non-Brahmins.
and the March 1919 Rowlatt Act
, Mahatma Gandhi
launched his non-cooperation movement
in 1919. He called for a boycott
of the legislatures, courts, schools and social functions. Non-cooperation did not appeal to Justice, which sought to leverage continued British presence by participating in the new political system. Justice considered Gandhi to be an anarchist threatening social order. The party newspapers Justice, Dravidan and Andhra Prakasika persistently attacked non-cooperation. Party member Mariadas Ratnaswami wrote critically of Gandhi and his campaign against industrialisation in a pamphlet named The political philosohpy of Mahatma Gandhi in 1920. K. V. Reddi Naidu also fought non-cooperation.
This stance isolated the party—most political and social organisations supported the movement. Justice party's believed that he associated mostly with Brahmins, though he was not a Brahmin himself. It also favored industrialization. When Gandhi visited Madras in April 1921, he spoke about the virtues of Brahminism and Brahmin contributions to Indian culture. Justice responded:
Kandaswamy Chetty sent a letter to the editor
of Gandhi's journal Young India, advising him to stay away from Brahmin/non-Brahmin issues. Gandhi responded by highlighting his appreciation of Brahmin contribution to Hinduism and said, "I warn the correspondents against separating the Dravidian south from Aryan
north. The India today is a blend not only of two, but of many other cultures." The party's relentless campaign against Gandhi, supported by the Madras Mail made him less popular and effective in South India
, particularly in southern Tamil
districts. Even when Gandhi suspended the movement after the Chauri Chaura
incident, party newspapers expressed suspicion of him. The party softened on Gandhi only after his arrest, expressing appreciation for his "moral worth and intellectual capacity".
implemented the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, instituting a Diarchy in Madras Presidency
. The diarchial
period extended from 1920 to 1937, encompassing five elections. Justice party was in power for 13 of 17 years, save for an interlude during 1926-30.
boycotted the November 1920 elections
. Justice won 63 of the 98 seats. A. Subbarayalu Reddiar
became the first Chief Minister, soon resigning due to declining health. Ramarayaningar (Raja of Panagal), the Minister of Local Self-Government and Public Health replaced him.
The party was far from happy with the diarchial system. In his 1924 deposition to the Muddiman committee, Cabinet Minister Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu expressed the party's displeasure:
Internal dissent emerged over the autocratic leadership style of Theogaraya Chetty and the preference of Telugu over Tamils for cabinet positions. The party split in late 1923, when C. R. Reddy
resigned and formed a splinter group and allied with Swarajists who were in opposition. The party won the second council elections
in 1923 (though with a reduced majority). On the first day (27 November 1923) of the new session, a no-confidence motion was defeated 65–44 and Ramarayaningar remained in power until November 1926. The party lost in 1926
to Swaraj. The Swaraj party refused to form the government, leading the Governor to set up an independent government under P. Subbarayan
.
. Chief Minister B. Munuswamy Naidu's tenure was beset with controversies. The Great Depression
was at its height and the economy was crumbling. Floods inundated the southern districts. The government increased the land tax to compensate for the fall in revenues. The Zamindars (landowners) faction was disgruntled because two prominent landlords—the Raja of Bobbili
and the Kumara Raja of Venkatagiri— were excluded from the cabinet. In 1930, P. T. Rajan
and Naidu squabbled over the presidency. To keep his party post, Naidu did not hold the annual party confederation for three years. Under M. A. Muthiah Chettiar, the Zamindars organized a rebel "ginger group" in November 1930. In the twelfth annual confederation of the party held on 10–11 October 1932, the rebel group deposed Naidu and replaced him with the Raja of Bobbili. Fearing that the Bobbili faction would move a no-confidence motion against him in the council, Naidu resigned in November 1932 and the Rao became Chief Minister. After his removal from power, Munuswamy Naidu formed a separate party with his supporters. It was called Justice Democratic Party and had the support of 20 opposition members in the legislative council. His supporters rejoined the Justice party after his death in 1935. During this time, party Leader L. Sriramulu Naidu
served as Mayor of Madras.
Increasing nationalist feelings, coupled with Rao's corrupt and incompetent governance, destroyed Justice's popularity. Factional infighting caused the party to shrink steadily from the early 1930s. Many leaders left to join Congress. Rao as inaccessible to his own party members and tried to curtail the powers of district leaders who had been instrumental in the party's previous successes. The party was seen as collaborators, supporting the British government's harsh measures. Its economic policies were also very unpopular. Its refusal to decrease land taxation in non-Zamindari areas by 12.5% provoked peasant protests led by Congress. Rao, a Zamindar, cracked down on protests, fueling popular rage. The party lost the 1934 elections
, but managed to retain power as a minority government because Swaraj (the political arm of the Congress) refused to participate.
In its last years in power, the party's decline continued. The Justice ministers drew a large monthly salary (Rs. 4,333.60, compared to the Rs. 2,250 in the Central Provinces
) at the height of the Great Depression. They were sharply criticized by the Madras press. Even the Madras Mail, a traditional backer of the party, attacked its ineptitude and patronage. The extent of the discontent against the Justice government is reflected in an article of Zamin Ryot:
Lord Erskine
, the governor of Madras, reported in February 1937 to then Secretary of State Zetland
that among the peasants, "every sin of omission or commission of the past fifteen years is put down to them [Bobbili's administration]". Faced with a resurgent Congress, the party was trounced in the 1937 council
and assembly
elections. After 1937 it ceased to be a political power.
Justice's final defeat has been ascribed variously to its collaboration with the British Government; the elitist nature of the Justice party members, loss of Dalit and Muslim support and flight of the social radicals to the Self-Respect Movement
or in sum, "...internal dissension, ineffective organisation, inertia and lack of proper leadership".
in 1944.
, Swaraj emerged as the largest party, but refused to form the government because of its opposition to dyarchy. Justice declined power because it did not have enough seats and due to clashes with governor Viscount Goschen
over issues of power and patronage. Goschen turned to the nationalist independent members. Unaffiliated, P. Subbarayan
was appointed Chief Minister. Goschen nominated 34 members to the Council to support the new ministry. Initially Justice joined Swaraj in opposing "government by proxy". In 1927, they moved a no confidence motion against Subbarayan that was defeated with the help of the Governor–nominated members. Halfway through the ministry's term, Goschen convinced Justice to support the ministry. This change came during the Simon Commission
's visit to assess the political reforms. After the death of Ramarayaningar in December 1928, Justice broke into two factions: the Constitutionalists and the Ministerialists. The Ministerialists were led by N. G. Ranga and favored allowing Brahmins to join the party. A compromise was reached at the eleventh annual confederation of the party and B. Munuswamy Naidu was elected as the president.
introduced compulsory Hindi instruction. Under A. T. Panneerselvam (one of the few Justice leaders to have escaped defeat in the 1937 elections) Justice joined Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
's Self-Respect Movement
(SRM) to oppose the government's move. The resulting anti-Hindi agitation
, brought the party effectively under Periyar's control. When Rao's term ended, Periyar became president on 29 December 1938. Periyar, a former Congressman, had a previous history of cooperation with the party. He had left Congress in 1925 after accusing the party of Brahminism. SRM cooperated closely with Justice in opposing Congress and Swaraj. Periyar had even campaigned for Justice candidates in 1926 and 1930. For a few years in the early 1930s, he switched from Justice to the communists
. After the Communist party was banned in July 1934, he returned to supporting Justice. The anti-Hindi agitations revived Justice's sagging fortunes. On 29 October 1939, Rajagopalachari's Congress government resigned, protesting India's involvement in World War II
. Madras provincial government was placed under governor's rule. On 21 February 1940 Governor Erskine canceled compulsory Hindi instruction.
Under Periyar's leadership, the party embraced the secession
of Dravidistan
(or Dravida Nadu). At the 14th annual confederation (held in December 1938), Periyar became party leader and a resolution passed pressing Tamil people
's right to a sovereign state, under the direct control of the Secretary of State for India. In 1939, Periyar organized the Dravida Nadu Conference for the advocacy of a "separate, sovereign and federal republic of Dravida Nadu". Speaking on 17 December 1939, he raised the slogan "Dravida Nadu for Dravidians" replacing the "Tamil Nadu for Tamils" that had been used earlier (since 1938). The demand for "Dravidistan" was repeated at the 15th annual confederation in August 1940. On 10 August 1941, Periyar stopped the agitation for Dravida Nadu to help the government in its war efforts. When the Cripps Mission visited India, a Justice delegation, comprising Periyar, W. P. A. Soundarapandian Nadar
, N. R. Samiappa Mudaliar and Muthiah Chettiar, met the mission on 30 March 1942 and demanded a separate Dravidian nation. Cripps responded that secession would be possible only through a legislative resolution or through a general referendum. During this period, Periyar declined efforts in 1940 and in 1942 to bring Justice to power with Congress' support.
, caused a break with Saivite Tamil scholars, who had joined the anti-Hindi agitations. Justice had never possessed much popularity among students, but started making inroads with C. N. Annadurai
's help. A group of leaders became uncomfortable with Periyar's leadership and policies and formed a rebel group that attempted to dethrone Periyar. This group included P. Balasubramanian (editor of The Sunday Observer), R. K. Shanmugam Chettiar, P. T. Rajan and A. P. Patro
, C. L. Narasimha Mudaliar, Damodaran Naidu and K. C. Subramania Chettiar. A power struggle developed between the pro and anti-Periyar factions. On 27 December 1943, the rebel group convened the party's executive committee and criticised Periyar for not holding an annual meeting after 1940. To silence his critics Periyar decided to convene the confederation.
On 27 August 1944, Justice's sixteenth annual confederation took place in Salem where the pro-Periyar faction won control. The confederation passed resolutions compelling party members to: renounce British honours and awards such as Rao Bahadur
and Diwan Bahadur, drop caste suffixes from their names, resign nominated and appointed posts. The party also took the name Dravidar Kazhagam
(DK). Annadurai, who had played an important role in passing the resolutions, became the general secretary of the transformed organisation. Most members joined the Dravidar Kazhagam. A few dissidents like P. T. Rajan, Manapparai Thirumalaisami and P. Balasubramanian did not accept the new changes. Led at first by B. Ramachandra Reddi and later by P. T. Rajan, they formed a party claiming to be the original Justice party. This party contested nine seats in the 1952 Assembly elections. P. T. Rajan was the sole successful candidate. This new Justice party did not contest elections after 1952. In 1968, the party celebrated its Golden Jubilee
at Madras.
The party began writing a constitution in 1920, adopting it on 19 December 1925 during its ninth confederation. An 18 October 1917 notice in The Hindu, outlining the party's policies and goals was the nearest it had to a constitution in its early years.
Madras City was the centre of the party's activities. It functioned from its office at Mount Road
, where party meetings were held. Apart from the head office, several branch offices operated in the city. By 1917, the party had established offices at all the district headquarters in the presidency, periodically visited by the Madras–based leaders. The party had a 25–member executive committee, a president, four vice-presidents, a general secretary and a treasurer. After the 1920 elections, some attempts were made to mimic European political parties. A chief whip was appointed and Council members formed committees.
Article 6 of the constitution made the party president the undisputed leader of all non-Brahmin affiliated associations and party members in the legislative council. Article 14 defined the membership and role of the executive committee and tasked the general secretary with implementing executive committee decisions. Article 21 specified that a "provincial confederation" of the party be organised annually, although as of 1944, 16 confederations had been organised in 27 years.
The following is the list of Presidents of the Justice Party and their terms:
, which have since become standard.
The Madras Hindu Religious Endowment Act, introduced on 18 December 1922 and passed in 1925, brought many Hindu Temples under the direct control of the state government. This Act set the precedent for later Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR & CE) Acts and the current policy of Tamil Nadu
.
The Government of India Act of 1919 prohibited women from becoming legislators. The first Justice Government reversed this policy on 1 April 1921. Voter qualifications were made gender neutral. This resolution cleared the way for Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi
's nomination to the council in 1926, when she became the first woman to become a member of any legislature in India. In 1922, during the first Justice ministry (before relationships with Dalit
s soured), the Council officially replaced the terms "Panchamar" or "Paraiyar
" (which were deemed derogatory) with "Adi Dravida
r" to denote the Dalits of the presidency.
The Madras Elementary Education Act of 1920 introduced compulsory education for boys and girls and increased elementary education funding. It was amended in 1934 and 1935. The act penalized parents for withdrawing their children from schools. The Madras University Act of 1923 expanded the administrative body of the University of Madras
and made it more representative. In 1920 the Madras Corporation introduced the Mid-day Meal Scheme with the approval of the legislative council. It was a breakfast scheme in a corporation school at Thousand Lights, Madras
. Later it expanded to four more schools. This was the precursor to the free noon meal schemes introduced by K. Kamaraj
in the 1960s and expanded by M. G. Ramachandran
in the 1980s.
The State Aid to Industries Act, passed in 1922 and amended in 1935, advanced loans for the establishment of industries. The Malabar Tenancy Act of 1931 (first introduced in September 1926), controversially strengthened the legal rights of agricultural tenants and gave them the "right to occupy (land) in some cases".
members of Justice party led to the establishment of two universities. The rivalry had existed since the party's inception and was aggravated during the first justice ministry because Tamil members were excluded from the cabinet. When the proposal to set up Andhra University
(long demanded by leaders like Konda Venkatapayya and Pattabi Sitaramaya) was first raised in 1921, it was opposed by Tamil members including C. Natesa Mudaliar
. The Tamils argued that it was hard to define Andhras or the Andhra University. To appease the disgruntled Tamil members like J. N. Ramanathan and Raja of Ramnad
, Theagaraya Chetty inducted a Tamil member T. N. Sivagnanam Pillai
in the second Justice ministry in 1923. This cleared the way for the passage of Andhra University Bill on 6 November 1925, with Tamil support. The institution opened in 1926 with C. R. Reddy as its first vice-chancellor. This led to calls for the establishment of a separate, Tamil, University, because the Brahmin–dominated Madras University did not welcome non-Brahmins. On 22 March 1926, a Tamil University Committee chaired by Sivagnanam Pillai began to study feasibility and in 1929 Annamalai University
opened. It was named for Annamalai Chettiar who provided a large endowment.
- particularly the development of the village of Theagaroya Nagar
. His administration implemented the Madras Town Planning Act of 7 September 1920, creating residential colonies to cope with the city'srapid population growth.
The Long Tank, a 5 km (3.1 mi) long and 2 km (1.2 mi) wide water body, formed an arc along the city's western frontier from Nungambakkam
to Saidapet
and was drained in 1923. Development west of the Long Tank had been initiated by the British government in 1911 with the construction of a railway station at the village of Marmalan/Mambalam
. Ramarayaningar created a residential colony adjoining this village. The colony was named "Theagaroya Nagar" or T. Nagar after just–deceased Theagaroya Chetty. T. Nagar centered around a park named Panagal Park
after Ramarayaningar, the Raja of Panagal. The streets and other features in this new neighbourhood were named after prominent officials and party members, including Mohammad Usman
, Muhammad Habibullah
, O. Thanikachalam Chetti
ar, Natesa Mudaliar and W. P. A. Soundarapandian Nadar
). Justice governments also initiated slum
clearance schemes and built housing colonies and public bathing houses in the congested areas. They also established the Indian School of Medicine in 1924 to research and promote Ayurveda
, Siddha
and Unani
schools of traditional medicine
.
were the political forerunners of the present day Dravidian parties
such as Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which have ruled Tamil Nadu
(a successor state Madras Presidency) without interruption since 1967.
At a tripartite conference between Justice, Ministerialists and Constitutionalists in 1929, a resolution was adopted recommending the removal of restrictions on Brahmins joining the organization. In October 1929, the executive committee placed a resolution to this effect for approval before the party's eleventh annual confederation at Nellore. Supporting the resolution, Munuswamy Naidu spoke as follows:
Former education minister A. P. Patro
supported Naidu's view. However this resolution was vehemently opposed by Periyar and R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
and failed. Speaking against letting Brahmins into the party, Periyar explained:
The party began to accept Brahmin members only in October 1934.
The pressure to compete with the Justice party forced the Congress party to let more non-Brahmins into the party power structure. The party's policies disrupted the established social hierarchy and increased the animosity between the Brahmin and non-Brahmin communities.
, the national parliamentary body. During 1916-20, it focused on obtaining communal representation and participating in the political process. During the non-cooperation period, it joined with the Madras Mail in opposing and denouncing Gandhi and the nationalists. However, by the mid 1920s, the party adopted more nationalist policies. It discarded its earlier disdain of spinning thread by hand and Swadeshi economics. In 1925, the party's annual confederation passed a resolution supporting "indigenous industries" and "swadeshi enterprise". This shift enabled Justice to better compete against Swaraj to whom Justice was slowly losing ground. The term "Swaraj" (or self rule) itself was included in the constitution. Madras branch President C. R. Reddy led this change. To Justicites, Swaraj meant partial self-government under British rule, not independence. The constitution stated: ".. to obtain Swaraj for India as a component of the British Empire at as early a date as possible by all peaceful and legitimate and constitutional means.."
The historical record does not clearly indicate whether Justice condemned the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
. The party's shift toward nationalist policies was reversed in the 1930s, during the terms of Munusamy Naidu and Raja of Bobbili. During the civil disobedience campaign
, the Justice governments did not protest the polices' harsh measures. However with nationalism growing in the country and a string of Congress victories in local elections in 1934, the party reversed course again towards nationalism. Justice turned to Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy as its champion. Ramaswamy had drifted away in the early 1930s. In exchange for their support in campaigning and propaganda, the Justicites included the Self-Respect movement's socialist "Erode" program in their election manifesto. The new program had much in common with Congress' nationalist policies such as Prohibition
.
During the first Justice ministry, Muslim council members supported the government, but withdrew in a disagreement over appointments. Explaining the Muslim disillusionment with the Justice party, Abbas Ali Khan, a Muslim member said in late 1923:
Justice never regained Muslim support, because it failed to convince the group that high-caste Hindus had not received a disproportionate allocation of jobs opened up by communal reservation.
The fracture with Dalits came during the same time period. After T. M. Nair's death, Dalits were slowly pushed out of the party. The "Pulianthope incidents" (also called as the "B&C Mill strike") soured the relationship of non-Brahmin upper castes like Vellalas
, Beri Chettis
, Balija Naidus
, Kammas
and Kapus
with Dalit
s. On 11 May 1921, both Dalits and caste Hindus went on strike in the Carnatic textile mill. On 20 June, workers in Buckingham Mill followed. The Dalits were quickly persuaded to end the strike, but the caste Hindus continued to strike. This created animosity between the two groups. In an ensuing clash between the police and caste Hindus, several were killed. Justice leaders accused the Government of creating problems by pampering the Dalits. The party paper Justice claimed:
O. Thanikachala Chetty raised this issue in Madras Legislative Council on 12 October, which led to an acrimonious debate between Justice members and S. Srinivasa Iyengar, a Brahmin law member of the Governor's executive council and Lionel Davidson, the Home member. Davidson blamed Justice, saying, "it is no longer merely a labour dispute confined to strikers and non-strikers, but a faction fight inflamed by caste prejudices." M. C. Rajah
, the main representative of Dalits in the Council agreed with Davidson. A Dalit reader of the Madras Mail condemned Justice in the same way that T. M. Nair had once condemned the Brahmins. Soon after the Pulianthope incidents, Rajah and Dalits left the party.
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...
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. Communal division between Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
s and non-Brahmins began in the presidency during the late 19th and early 20th century, mainly due to caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
prejudices and disproportionate representation of Brahmins in government jobs. The party's foundation marked the culmination of a series of failed efforts to establish an organisation to represent the non-Brahmins n the presidency. During its early years, the party was involved in petitioning the imperial administrative bodies and British politicians demanding more representation for non-Brahmins in administration and in the government.
When a diarchial
Diarchy in Madras Presidency
Diarchy was established in Madras Presidency based on the recommendations of the Montague-Chelmsford report. Five elections were held during the period diarchy was in effect and Justice Party occupied power most of the time...
system of administration was established due to the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were reforms introduced by the British Government in India to introduce self-governing institutions gradually to India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India during the latter parts of World War I and Lord Chelmsford,...
, the Justice party took part in presidential governance. In 1920, it won the first direct elections
Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1920
The first legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919, was held in November 1920. Indian National Congress boycotted the election due to its participation in the Non-cooperation movement...
in the presidency and formed the government. During 1920-37, it formed four out of the five ministries and was in power for thirteen out of the seventeen years. It was the main political alternative to the nationalist 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...
in the presidency. It was defeated in the 1937 election
Madras Presidency legislative assembly election, 1937
The First legislative assembly election for the Madras Presidency was held in February 1937. The Indian National Congress obtained a majority by winning 159 of 215 seats in the Legislative Assembly. This was the first electoral victory for the Congress in the presidency since elections were first...
and never recovered from the defeat. It came under the leadership of Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy and his Self-Respect Movement
Self-Respect Movement
The Self-Respect Movement was founded in 1925 by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu, India. The movement has the aim of achieving a society where backward castes have equal human rights, and encouraging backward castes to have self-respect in the context of a caste based society that...
. In 1944, Periyar transformed the party into a social organisation called Dravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam or Dravida Kazhagam was the first fully Dravidian party in India. It was a radical party formed by E. V. Ramaswamy, also called Thanthai Periyar of erstwhile Madras Presidency...
and withdrew it from electoral politics. A rebel faction that called itself the original Justice party, survived to contest one final election, in 1952.
The party was isolated in contemporary Indian politics by its many controversial activities. It opposed Brahmins in civil service and politics and its attitude towards Brahmins shaped many of its ideas and policies. It opposed 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 ...
and her Home rule movement, because it believed home rule would benefit the Brahmins. The party also campaigned against the non-cooperation movement
Non-cooperation movement
The non-cooperation movement was a significant phase of the Indian struggle for freedom from British rule which lasted for years. This movement, which lasted from September 1920 to February 1922 and was led by Mohandas Gandhi, and supported by the Indian National Congress. It aimed to resist...
in the presidency. It was at odds with Gandhi, primarily due to his praise for Brahminism. Its mistrust of the Brahmin–dominated Indian National Congress led it to adopt a hostile stance toward 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...
. Despite professing to represent the interests of all non-Brahmans, the party eventually lost the support of Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s and Dalits, who accused it of serving the interests of only a few non-Brahmin castes like Vellalar
Vellalar
Vellalars were, originally, an elite caste of Tamil agricultural landlords in Tamil Nadu, Kerala states in India and in neighbouring Sri Lanka; they were the nobility, aristocracy of the ancient Tamil order and had close relations with the different royal dynasties...
s (Mudaliar
Mudaliar
Mudaliar also Mudali, Moodley is a title used in Tamil diaspora. It is derived from the honorary title Mudali meaning a person of first rank in the Tamil language which was bestowed upon top-ranking bureaucratic officials and army commanders in medieval South India...
s and Pillais
Pillai (community)
Pillai is a Tamil speaking community from the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They are a landowning upper caste, feudal community.-Origin of Vellalar:...
), Balija Naidus, Beri Chetti
Chettiar
Chettiar , also spelled Chetty, is a title used by various castes in South India especially in Tamil Nadu. In Kannada, it appears as Setty, Shettar and Shettigar, who are Padmashalis in Andhra Pradesh....
s, Kapu
Kapu (caste)
Kapu refers to a social grouping of the sub-castes Telaga, Balija found primarily in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The etymology of the name is variously given as "to protect",, "agricultor" , "watchman", or "watching"...
s and Kamma
Kamma (caste)
Kamma or the Kammavaru is a social group that are classed as Upper Shudras is found largely in the Southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka. The Kamma population was 795,732 in the year 1881. According to 1921 census they constituted about 4.8% of Andhra Pradesh...
s.
The Justice party's period in power is remembered for the introduction of caste based reservations
Reservation in India
Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well being of socially backward and underrepresented communities of citizens in India. There are laws in place, wherein a certain percentage of total available slots in Jobs and Education are set aside for people from...
(affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
) and educational & religious reforms. In opposition it is remembered for its participation in the anti-Hindi agitations of 1937-40
Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937-40
The Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937–40 is a series of protests that happened in Madras Presidency of the British Raj during 1937-40. It was launched in 1937 in opposition to the introduction of compulsory teaching of Hindi in the schools of the presidency by the Indian National Congress government led...
. The party was responsible for creating Andhra
Andhra University
Andhra University or Andhra Viswa Kala Parishad , located in Visakhapatnam, north east coastal Andhra Pradesh, is one of the older premier universities in India with a broad focus...
& Annamalai
Annamalai University
Annamalai University is a Public University located in Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The university offers courses of higher education in arts, sciences and engineering.The university also provides around 380 courses under distance mode...
universities and for developing the area around present day Theagaroya Nagar in Madras city
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
. The Justice party and the Dravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam or Dravida Kazhagam was the first fully Dravidian party in India. It was a radical party formed by E. V. Ramaswamy, also called Thanthai Periyar of erstwhile Madras Presidency...
are the ideological and political predecessors of the present day Dravidian parties
Dravidian parties
Dravidian parties include an array of regional political parties in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, which trace their origins and ideologies either directly or indirectly to the Dravidian movement of Periyar E. V...
like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...
and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which have ruled Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
(one of the successor states to Madras Presidency) uninterrupted since 1967.
Brahmin/non-Brahmin divide
The BrahminBrahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
s in Telugu
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
, Tamil
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
–speaking and Malabar
Malabar District
Malabar District was an administrative district of Madras Presidency in British India and independent India's Madras State. The British district included the present-day districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad , and Chavakad Taluk of Thrissur District in the northern part of...
areas of the 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...
enjoyed a higher position in India's social hierarchy than North Indian Brahmins. By the 1850s, Telugu
Telugu Brahmins
Telugu Brahmin is a sub-caste of the greater Brahmin community whose native language is Telugu. They hail from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.However...
and Tamil Brahmins comprising only 3.2% of the population began to increase their political power by filling most of the jobs which were open to Indian men at that time. They dominated the administrative services and the newly created urban professions in the 19th and early 20th century. The higher literacy and English language proficiency among Brahmins were instrumental in this ascendancy. The political, social, and economical divide between Brahmins and non-Brahmins became more apparent in the beginning of the 20th century. This breach was further exaggerated by 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 ...
and her Home Rule for India movement. The following table shows the distribution of selected jobs among different caste groups in 1912 in Madras presidency.
| Caste group | Deputy collectors | Sub judges | District Munsifs | % of total male population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brahmins | 77 | 15 | 93 | 3.2 |
| non-Brahmin Hindus | 30 | 3 | 25 | 85.6 |
| Muslims | 15 | nil | 2 | 6.6 |
| Indian Christians | 7 | nil | 5 | 2.7 |
| Europeans and Eurasians | 11 | nil | 3 | .1 |
The dominance of Brahmins was also evident in the membership of 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...
. During 1910-20, eight out of the nine official members (appointed by the Governor of Madras) were Brahmins. Apart from the appointed members, Brahmins also formed the majority of the members elected to the council from the district boards and municipalities. During this period the Madras Province Congress Committee (regional branch of 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...
) was also dominated by Brahmins. Of the 11 major newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s and magazines in the presidency, two (The Madras Mail
The Madras Mail
The Mail, known as The Madras Mail till 1928, was an English-language daily evening newspaper published in the Madras Presidency from 1868 to 1981.- History :...
and Madras Times) were run by Europeans sympathetic to the crown, three were evangelical non–political periodicals, four (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...
, Indian Review, Swadesamithran and Andhra Pathrika) were published by Brahmins while New India, run by 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 ...
was sympathetic to the Brahmins. This dominance was denounced by the non-Brahmin leaders in the form of pamphlets and open letters written to the Madras Governor. The earliest examples of such pamphlets are the ones authored by the pseudonymous author calling himself "fair play" in 1895. By the second decade of the 20th century, the Brahmins of the presidency were themselves divided into three factions. These were the Mylapore
Mylapore
Mylapore is a cultural hub and neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. Earlier, Mylapore used to be called Vedapuri....
faction comprising Chetpet
Chetpet
This page is about Chetpet village in Thiruvannamalai. See Chetput for the Chennai suburb.Chetpet is a panchayat town in Thiruvanaamalai district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.-Demographics:...
Iyer
Iyer
Iyer is the title given to the caste of Hindu Brahmin communities of Tamil origin. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara...
s and Vembakkam
Vembakkam
Vembakkam is a village situated in the Thiruvannamalai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located about 20 kilometres from the town of Kanchipuram.It contains a BDO office for many villages around it...
Iyengars, the Egmore
Egmore
-Main places:* Chennai Egmore railway station.* Office of the commissioner of Greater Chennai Police department.* Government Museum, Chennai.* Connemara Public Library, one of the biggest libraries in India.* National Art Gallery...
faction led by the editor of 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...
, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar and the Salem nationalists led by 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...
. A fourth non-Brahmin faction rose to compete with them and became the Justice party.
British policies - seeds of communal division
Historians differ about the extent of British influence in the evolution of the non-Brahmin movement. Kathleen GoughKathleen Gough
Eleanor Kathleen Gough Aberle was a British anthropologist who was known for her work in South Asia and South-East Asia. As a part of her doctorate work, she did field research in Malabar district from 1947 to 1949. She did further research in Tanjore district from 1950 to 1953 and again in 1976,...
argues that although England played a role, the Dravidian movement had a bigger influence in South India. Eugene F. Irschick (in Political and Social Conflict in South India; The non-Brahmin movement and Tamil Separatism, 1916-1929) holds the view that British officials sought to instigate the growth of non-Brahminism, but does not characterize it as simply a product of that policy. David. A. Washbrook disagrees with Irschick in The Emergence of Provincial Politics: The Madras Presidency 1870-1920, and states "Non-Brahminism became for a time synonymous with anti-nationalism—a fact which surely indicates its origins as a product of government policy." Washbrook's portrayal has been contested by P. Rajaraman (in The Justice Party: a historical perspective, 1916-37), who argues that the movement was an inevitable result of longstanding "social cleavage" between Brahmins and non-Brahmins.
The British role in the development of the non-Brahmin movement is broadly accepted by some historians. The statistics used by non-Brahmin leaders in their 1916 manifesto were prepared by senior Indian Civil Service officers for submission to the public services commission. The Mylapore Brahmin faction rose to prominence in the early 20th century. England, while acknowledging its usefulness was wary and supported non-Brahmins for several Government posts. They sought to weaken the Mylaporean Brahmins by incorporating non-Brahmins in several Government posts. An early example is the appointement of C. Sankaran Nair
C. Sankaran Nair
Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair KCIE was the President of the Indian National Congress in 1897 held at Amraoti. Until present he is the only Keralite to hold the post.-Early life and education:...
to a High court bench job in 1903 by Lord Ampthill solely because Nair was a non-Brahmin. The job fell vacant after Bashyam Iyengar left. V. Krishnaswami Iyer was expected to succeed him. was a vocal opponent of the Mylapore Brahmins and advocated the induction of non-Brahmin members in the government. In 1912, under the influence of Sir Alexander Cardew
Alexander Cardew
Sir Alexander Gordon Cardew KCSI was an Indian civil servant of British origin who served as the acting Governor of Madras from 29 March 1919 to 10 April 1919.-Early life:...
, the Madras Secretariat, for the first time used Brahmin/non-Brahmin as a criterion for job appointments. By 1918, it was maintaining a list of Brahmins and non-Brahmins, preferring the latter.
Early non-Brahmin associations
Identity politics among linguistic groups was common in British India. In every area, some groups considered the British less threatening than a Congress–led independent government. In 1909, two lawyers, P. Subrahmanyam and M. Purushotham Naidu, announced plans to establish an organization named "The Madras Non-Brahmin Association" and recruit a thousand non-Brahmin members before October 1909. They elicited no response from the non-Brahmin populace and the organization never saw the light of the day. Later in 1912, disaffected non-Brahmin members of the bureaucracy like Saravana Pillai, G. Veerasamy Naidu, Doraiswami Naidu and S. Narayanaswamy Naidu established the "Madras United League" with C. Natesa MudaliarC. Natesa Mudaliar
C. Natesa Mudaliar , also known as Natesan, was a politician and activist of the Dravidian Movement from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was one of the founders of the Justice Party along with Theagaroya Chetty and Dr. T. M. Nair....
as Secretary. The league restricted itself to social activities and distanced itself from contemporary politics. On 1 October 1912, the league was reorganised and renamed as the "Madras Dravidian Association". The association opened many branches in Madras city. Its main achievement was to establish a hostel for non-Brahmin students. It also organised annual "At-home" functions for non-Brahmin graduates and published books presenting their demands.
Formation of Justice party
In the 1916 elections to the Imperial Legislative Council, the non-Brahmin candidates T. M. Nair (from southern districts constituency) and P. Ramarayaningar (from landlords constituency) were defeated by the Brahmin candidates V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and K. V. Rangaswamy Iyengar. The same year Thyagaraya Chetty and Kurma Venkata Reddy NaiduKurma Venkata Reddy Naidu
Rao Bahadur Sir Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu KCSI was an Indian lawyer, professor, politician and Justice Party leader who served as the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from April 1, 1937 to July 14, 1937...
lost to Brahmin candidates with Home Rule League support in local council elections. These defeats increased animosity and the formation of a political organisation to represent non-Brahmin interests. On 20 November 1916, about thirty prominent non-Brahmin leaders met in Victoria Public Hall
Victoria Public Hall
Victoria Public Hall, or the Town Hall, is a historical building in Chennai, named after Queen Victoria. It is one of the finest examples of British architecture in Chennai and was built to commemorate the golden jubilee of the British Empress Queen Victoria. It served as a theatre and public...
under Chetty and T. M. Nair
T. M. Nair
Taravath Madhavan Nair was an Indian politician and political activist of the Self-Respect Movement from the Madras Presidency. He founded the Justice Party along with Theagaroya Chetty and C. Natesa Mudaliar.- Early life :...
. They established the South Indian People's Association (SIPA) to publish English, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
and Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
newspapers to publicise grievances of non-Brahmins. Chetty became the secretary. Chetty and Nair had been political rivals in the Madras Corporation council, but Natesa Mudaliar was able to reconcile their differences. The meeting also formed the "South Indian Liberal Federation" (SILF) as a political association. Later, the association came to be popularly called the "Justice Party", after the English daily Justice published by it. In December 1916, the association published "The Non Brahmin Manifesto", affirmed its loyalty and faith in the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
, but decried Brahminic bureaucratic dominance and urged for non-Brahmins to "press their claims as against the virtual domination of the Brahmin Caste". The manifesto was harshly criticized by the nationalist newspaper The Hindu (on 20 December 1916):
It is with much pain and surprise that we have perused this document. It gives a manifestly unfair and distorted representation of many of the matters to which it makes reference. It can serve no purpose but it is bound to create bad blood between persons belonging to the Great Indian Community.
The periodical Hindu Nesan, questioned the timing of the new association. The New Age (Home Rule Movement's newspaper) dismissed it and predicted its premature death. By February 1917, the SIPA joint stock company had raised money by selling 640 shares of one hundred rupees each. The money purchased a printing press and the group hired 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....
to edit a newspaper which was to be called Justice. However, negotiations with Menon broke down and Nair himself took over as honorary editor with P. N. Raman Pillai and M. S. Purnalingam Pillai
M. S. Purnalingam Pillai
Munnirpallam S. Purnalingam Pillai was a Tamil writer, scholar, historian and Dravidologist.- Early life :...
as sub–editors. The first issue came out on 26 February 1917. A Tamil newspaper called Dravidan, edited by Bhaktavatsalam Pillai, was started in June 1917. The party also purchased the Telugu newspaper Andhra Prakasika (edited by A. C. Parthasarathi Naidu). Later in 1919, both were converted to weeklies due to financial constraints.
On 19 August 1917, the first non-Brahmin conference was convened at 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"....
under the presidency of Ramarayaningar. In the following months, several non-Brahmin conferences were organised. On 18 October, the party published its objectives (as formed by T. M. Nair) in The Hindu:
1) to create and promote the education, social, economic, political, material and moral progress of all communities in Southern India other than Brahmins 2)to discuss public questions and make a true and timely representation to Government of the views and interests of the people of Southern India with the object of safeguarding and promoting the interests of all communities other than Brahmins and 3) to disseminate by public lectures, by distribution of literature and by other means sound and liberal views in regard to public opinion.
Between August and December 1917 (when the first confederation of the party was held), conferences were organised all over the Madras Presidency—at Coimbatore, Bikkavole, Pulivendla, Bezwada, Salem and Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...
. These conferences and other meetings symbolised the arrival of the SILF as a non-Brahmin political organisation.
Early history (1916 - 1920)
During 1916-20, the Justice party struggled against the Egmore and Mylapore factions to convince the British government and public to support communal representation for non-Brahmins in the presidency. Rajagopalachari's followers advocated non-cooperation with the British.Conflict with Home Rule Movement
In 1916, Annie BesantAnnie 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 ...
, the leader 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...
became involved in 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...
and founded the Home Rule League. She based her activities in Madras and many of her political associates were Tamil Brahmins. She viewed India as a single homogeneous entity bound by similar religious, philosophical, cultural characteristics and a Indian caste system. Many of the ideas she articulated about Indian culture were based on puranas, manusmriti and vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
, whose values educated non-Brahmins had begun to question. Even before the League's founding, Besant and Nair had clashed over an article in Nair's medical journal Antiseptic, questioning the sexual practices of the theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Charles Webster Leadbeater was an influential member of the Theosophical Society, author on occult subjects and co-initiator with J. I. Wedgwood of the Liberal Catholic Church...
. In 1913, Besant lost a defamation suit against Nair over the article.
Besant's association with Brahmins and her vision of a homogeneous India based on brahminical values brought her into direct conflict with Justice. The December 1916 "Non-Brahmin Manifesto" voiced its opposition to the Home Rule Movement. The manifesto was criticised by the Home rule periodical New India. Justice opposed the Home Rule Movement and the party newspapers derisively nicknamed Besant as the "Irish Brahmini". Dravidan, the Tamil language mouthpiece of the party, ran headlines such as Home rule is Brahmin's rule. All three of the party's newspapers ran articles and opinions pieces critical of the home rule movement and the league on a daily basis. Some of these Justice articles were later published in book form as The Evolution of Annie Besant. Nair described the home rule movement as an agitation carried on "by a white woman particularly immune from the risks of government action" whose rewards would be reaped by the Brahmins.
Demand for communal representation
On 20 August 1917, Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State for IndiaSecretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
, proposed political reforms to increase representation of Indians in the government and to develop self-governing institutions. This announcement increased the division among the non-Brahmin political leaders of the Presidency. Justice organised a series of conferences in late August to support its claims. Theagaraya Chetty, cabled Montagu asking for communal representation in the provincial legislature for non-Brahmins. He demanded a system similar to the one granted to Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s by the Minto-Morley reforms of 1909—separate electorates and reserved seats. The non-Brahmin members from Congress formed the Madras Presidency Association (MPA) to compete with Justice. Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy, Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar, P. Varadarajulu Naidu
P. Varadarajulu Naidu
Perumal Varadarajulu Naidu was an Indian physician, politician, journalist and Indian independence activist.- Early life :...
and Kesava Pillai
Gooty Kesava Pillai
Diwan Bahadur Pattu Kesava Pillai was an Indian journalist, politician and activist of the Indian Independence movement.- Early life :...
were among the non-Brahmin leaders involved in creating MPA. MPA was supported by the Brahmin nationalist newspaper The Hindu. Justice denounced MPA as a Brahmin creation intended to weaken their cause.
On 14 December 1917, Montagu arrived at Madras to listen to comments on the proposed reforms. O. Kandaswami Chetty (Justice) and Kesava Pillai (MPA) and 2 other non-Brahmin delegations presented to Montagu. Justice and MPA both requested communal reservation for Balija Naidus, Pillai
Pillai (community)
Pillai is a Tamil speaking community from the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They are a landowning upper caste, feudal community.-Origin of Vellalar:...
s and Mudaliar
Mudaliar
Mudaliar also Mudali, Moodley is a title used in Tamil diaspora. It is derived from the honorary title Mudali meaning a person of first rank in the Tamil language which was bestowed upon top-ranking bureaucratic officials and army commanders in medieval South India...
s (Vellalas), Chettis and the Panchamas—along with four Brahmin groups. Pillai convinced the Madras Province Congress Committee to support the MPA/Justice position. British authorities, including Governor Baron 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 theMadras Mail supported communal representation. But Montagu was not inclined to extend communal representation to subgroups. The Montagu-Chelmsford Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, issued on 2 July 1918, denied the request.
At a meeting held in Tanjore, the party dispatched T. M. Nair to London to lobby for extending communal representation. Dr. Nair arrived in June 1918 and worked into December, attended various meetings, addressed Members of Parliament (MPs), and wrote articles and pamphlets. However, the party refused to cooperate with the Southborogh committee that was appointed to draw up the franchise framework for the proposed reforms, because Brahmins V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and Surendranath Banerjee were committee members. Justice secured the support of many Indian and non–Indian members of Indian Civil Service for communal representation.
The Joint Select Committee held hearings during 1919-20 to finalize the Government of India Bill, which would implement the reforms. A Justice delegation composed of Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar
Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar
Diwan Bahadur Sir Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar, KCSI was an Indian lawyer, politician and statesman who served as a senior leader of the Justice Party and in various administrative and bureaucratic posts in pre-independence and independent India.Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar was born on October 14, 1887 in...
, Kurma Venkata Reddi Naidu, Koka Appa Rao Naidu and L. K. Tulasiram, attended the hearings. Ramarayaningar also represented the All India Landholder association and the Madras Zamindar association. Reddi Naidu, Mudaliar and Ramarayaningar toured major cities, addressed meetings, met with MPs, and wrote letters to the local newspapers to advance their position. Nair died on 17 July 1919 before he could appear. After Nair's death, Reddi Naidu became the spokesman. He testified on 22 August. The deputation won the backing of both Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
and Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
members. The Committee's report, issued on 17 November 1919, recommended communal representation in the Madras Presidency. The number of reserved seats was to be decided by the local parties and the Madras Government. After prolonged negotiations between Justice, Congress, MPA and the British Government, a compromise (called "Meston
James Meston, 1st Baron Meston
James Scorgie Meston, 1st Baron Meston KCSI, VD , was a prominent British civil servant, financial expert and businessman. He served as Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1912 to 1918....
's Award") was reached in March 1920. 28 (3 urban and 25 rural) of the 63 general seats in plural member constituencies were reserved for non-Brahmins.
Opposition to non-cooperation movement
Unsatisfied with the Montagu-Chelmsford reformsMontagu-Chelmsford Reforms
The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were reforms introduced by the British Government in India to introduce self-governing institutions gradually to India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India during the latter parts of World War I and Lord Chelmsford,...
and the March 1919 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...
, 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...
launched his non-cooperation movement
Non-cooperation movement
The non-cooperation movement was a significant phase of the Indian struggle for freedom from British rule which lasted for years. This movement, which lasted from September 1920 to February 1922 and was led by Mohandas Gandhi, and supported by the Indian National Congress. It aimed to resist...
in 1919. He called for a boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of the legislatures, courts, schools and social functions. Non-cooperation did not appeal to Justice, which sought to leverage continued British presence by participating in the new political system. Justice considered Gandhi to be an anarchist threatening social order. The party newspapers Justice, Dravidan and Andhra Prakasika persistently attacked non-cooperation. Party member Mariadas Ratnaswami wrote critically of Gandhi and his campaign against industrialisation in a pamphlet named The political philosohpy of Mahatma Gandhi in 1920. K. V. Reddi Naidu also fought non-cooperation.
This stance isolated the party—most political and social organisations supported the movement. Justice party's believed that he associated mostly with Brahmins, though he was not a Brahmin himself. It also favored industrialization. When Gandhi visited Madras in April 1921, he spoke about the virtues of Brahminism and Brahmin contributions to Indian culture. Justice responded:
The meeting was presided over by local Brahmin politicians of Gandhi persuasion, and Mr. Gandhi himself was surrounded by Brahmins of both sexes. A band of them came to the meeting singing hymns. They broke coconutCoconutThe coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
in front of Gandhi, burnt camphorCamphorCamphor is a waxy, white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the camphor laurel , a large evergreen tree found in Asia and also of Dryobalanops aromatica, a giant of the Bornean forests...
and presented him with holy water in silver basin. There were other marks of deification and, naturally, the vanity of the man was flattered beyond measure. He held forth on the glories of Brahminism and Brahminical culture. Not even knowing even the elements of Dravidian culture, Dravidian philosophy, Dravidian literature, Dravidian languages, and Dravidian history, this GujaratiGujarati peopleGujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
gentleman extolled the Brahmins to the skies at the expense of non-Brahmins; and the Brahmins present must have been supremely pleased and elated.
Kandaswamy Chetty sent a letter to the editor
Letter to the editor
A letter to the editor is a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. Usually, letters are intended for publication...
of Gandhi's journal Young India, advising him to stay away from Brahmin/non-Brahmin issues. Gandhi responded by highlighting his appreciation of Brahmin contribution to Hinduism and said, "I warn the correspondents against separating the Dravidian south from Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
north. The India today is a blend not only of two, but of many other cultures." The party's relentless campaign against Gandhi, supported by the Madras Mail made him less popular and effective in South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
, particularly in southern Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
districts. Even when Gandhi suspended the movement after the Chauri Chaura
Chauri Chaura
Chauri Chaura is a town near Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. The town is known most for an event in February 1922 during the British Raj when a police chowki was set on fire by a mob of angry citizens, killing 23 policemen inside.-Background:In the early 1920s, Indians, led by Mahatma Gandhi,...
incident, party newspapers expressed suspicion of him. The party softened on Gandhi only after his arrest, expressing appreciation for his "moral worth and intellectual capacity".
In office
The Government of India Act 1919Government of India Act 1919
-See also:*British India*British Raj*History of Bangladesh*History of India*History of Pakistan*Governor-General of India*Government of India Act*India Office*Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms*Secretary of State for India...
implemented the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, instituting a Diarchy in Madras Presidency
Diarchy in Madras Presidency
Diarchy was established in Madras Presidency based on the recommendations of the Montague-Chelmsford report. Five elections were held during the period diarchy was in effect and Justice Party occupied power most of the time...
. The diarchial
Diarchy
Diarchy , from the Greek δι- "twice" and αρχια, "rule", is a form of government in which two individuals, the diarchs, are the heads of state. In most diarchies, the diarchs hold their position for life and pass the responsibilities and power of the position to their children or family when they...
period extended from 1920 to 1937, encompassing five elections. Justice party was in power for 13 of 17 years, save for an interlude during 1926-30.
1920–26
During the non-cooperation campaign, the Indian National CongressIndian 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...
boycotted the November 1920 elections
Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1920
The first legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919, was held in November 1920. Indian National Congress boycotted the election due to its participation in the Non-cooperation movement...
. Justice won 63 of the 98 seats. 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....
became the first Chief Minister, soon resigning due to declining health. Ramarayaningar (Raja of Panagal), the Minister of Local Self-Government and Public Health replaced him.
The party was far from happy with the diarchial system. In his 1924 deposition to the Muddiman committee, Cabinet Minister Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu expressed the party's displeasure:
I was a Minister of Development without the forests. I was a Minister of Agriculture minus Irrigation. As a Minister of Agriculture I had nothing to do with the Madras Agriculturists Loan Act or the Madras Land Improvement Loans Act... The efficacy and efficiency of a Minister of Agriculture without having anything to do with irrigation, agricultural loans, land improvement loans and famine relief, may better be imagined than described. Then again, I was Minister of Industries without factories, boilers, electricity and water power, mines or labor, all of which are reserved subjects.
Internal dissent emerged over the autocratic leadership style of Theogaraya Chetty and the preference of Telugu over Tamils for cabinet positions. The party split in late 1923, when C. R. Reddy
Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy
Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy OM , also popularly known as Sir C.R. Reddy, was an educationist and political thinker, essayist and economist, and poet and literary critic...
resigned and formed a splinter group and allied with Swarajists who were in opposition. The party won the second council elections
Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1923
The second legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919 was held in 1923. Voter turnout was higher than the previous election. Swarajists, a breakaway group from Indian National Congress...
in 1923 (though with a reduced majority). On the first day (27 November 1923) of the new session, a no-confidence motion was defeated 65–44 and Ramarayaningar remained in power until November 1926. The party lost in 1926
Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1926
The third legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919, was held in November 1926. Justice party lost the election to Swaraj Party. However, as the Swaraja Party refused to form the Government, the...
to Swaraj. The Swaraj party refused to form the government, leading the Governor to set up an independent government under 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...
.
1930–37
After four years in opposition, Justice returned to powerMadras Presidency legislative council election, 1930
The fourth legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919 in September 1930. Justice party won the election and P. Munuswamy Naidu became the first Chief Minister...
. Chief Minister B. Munuswamy Naidu's tenure was beset with controversies. 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...
was at its height and the economy was crumbling. Floods inundated the southern districts. The government increased the land tax to compensate for the fall in revenues. The Zamindars (landowners) faction was disgruntled because two prominent landlords—the Raja of Bobbili
Ramakrishna Ranga Rao
Raja Sri Ravu Svetachalupati Sir Ramakrishna Ranga Rao KCIE was an Indian politician and zamindar who served as the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from November 5, 1932 to April 4, 1936 and August 24, 1936 to April 1, 1937.Ramakrishna Ranga Rao was born in the royal family of Bobbili...
and the Kumara Raja of Venkatagiri— were excluded from the cabinet. In 1930, P. T. Rajan
P. T. Rajan
Sir Ponnambala Thiaga Rajan was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from April 4, 1936 to August 24, 1936. He was also the last President of the Justice Party....
and Naidu squabbled over the presidency. To keep his party post, Naidu did not hold the annual party confederation for three years. Under M. A. Muthiah Chettiar, the Zamindars organized a rebel "ginger group" in November 1930. In the twelfth annual confederation of the party held on 10–11 October 1932, the rebel group deposed Naidu and replaced him with the Raja of Bobbili. Fearing that the Bobbili faction would move a no-confidence motion against him in the council, Naidu resigned in November 1932 and the Rao became Chief Minister. After his removal from power, Munuswamy Naidu formed a separate party with his supporters. It was called Justice Democratic Party and had the support of 20 opposition members in the legislative council. His supporters rejoined the Justice party after his death in 1935. During this time, party Leader L. Sriramulu Naidu
L. Sriramulu Naidu
K. Sriramulu Naidu was a leader in the Justice Party, close friend of Periyar and the first Mayor of Madras in the 1930s and 40s, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His father was the chief translator of the Madras Presidency for the British and was knighted the Rao Bahadur by King...
served as Mayor of Madras.
Increasing nationalist feelings, coupled with Rao's corrupt and incompetent governance, destroyed Justice's popularity. Factional infighting caused the party to shrink steadily from the early 1930s. Many leaders left to join Congress. Rao as inaccessible to his own party members and tried to curtail the powers of district leaders who had been instrumental in the party's previous successes. The party was seen as collaborators, supporting the British government's harsh measures. Its economic policies were also very unpopular. Its refusal to decrease land taxation in non-Zamindari areas by 12.5% provoked peasant protests led by Congress. Rao, a Zamindar, cracked down on protests, fueling popular rage. The party lost the 1934 elections
Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1934
The fifth legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919. The ruling Justice party lost the election and the opposition Swaraj Party emerged as the single largest party. However it refused to form...
, but managed to retain power as a minority government because Swaraj (the political arm of the Congress) refused to participate.
In its last years in power, the party's decline continued. The Justice ministers drew a large monthly salary (Rs. 4,333.60, compared to the Rs. 2,250 in the Central Provinces
Central Provinces
The Central Provinces was a province of British India. It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Its capital was Nagpur....
) at the height of the Great Depression. They were sharply criticized by the Madras press. Even the Madras Mail, a traditional backer of the party, attacked its ineptitude and patronage. The extent of the discontent against the Justice government is reflected in an article of Zamin Ryot:
The Justice Party has disgusted the people of this presidency like plague and engendered permanent hatred in their hearts. Everybody, therefore, is anxiously awaiting the fall of the Justice regime which they consider tyrannical and inauguration of the Congress administration...Even old women in villages ask as to how long the ministry of the Raja of Bobbili would continue.
Lord Erskine
John Erskine, Lord Erskine
John Francis Ashley Erskine, Lord Erskine GCSI, GCIE was a British soldier, Conservative Party politician and administrator who served as Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare and Brighton...
, the governor of Madras, reported in February 1937 to then Secretary of State Zetland
Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland
Laurence John Lumley Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC, DL, JP , styled Lord Dundas until 1892 and Earl of Ronaldshay between 1892 and 1929, was a British Conservative politician...
that among the peasants, "every sin of omission or commission of the past fifteen years is put down to them [Bobbili's administration]". Faced with a resurgent Congress, the party was trounced in the 1937 council
Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1937
The first legislative council election for the Madras Presidency after the establishment of a bicameral legislature by the Government of India Act of 1935 was held in February 1937. The Indian National Congress obtained an majority by winning 27 out of 46 seats in the Legislative Council for which...
and assembly
Madras Presidency legislative assembly election, 1937
The First legislative assembly election for the Madras Presidency was held in February 1937. The Indian National Congress obtained a majority by winning 159 of 215 seats in the Legislative Assembly. This was the first electoral victory for the Congress in the presidency since elections were first...
elections. After 1937 it ceased to be a political power.
Justice's final defeat has been ascribed variously to its collaboration with the British Government; the elitist nature of the Justice party members, loss of Dalit and Muslim support and flight of the social radicals to the Self-Respect Movement
Self-Respect Movement
The Self-Respect Movement was founded in 1925 by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu, India. The movement has the aim of achieving a society where backward castes have equal human rights, and encouraging backward castes to have self-respect in the context of a caste based society that...
or in sum, "...internal dissension, ineffective organisation, inertia and lack of proper leadership".
In opposition
Justice was in opposition from 1926–30 and again from 1937 until it transformed itself to Dravidar KazhagamDravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam or Dravida Kazhagam was the first fully Dravidian party in India. It was a radical party formed by E. V. Ramaswamy, also called Thanthai Periyar of erstwhile Madras Presidency...
in 1944.
1926-30
In the 1926 electionsMadras Presidency legislative council election, 1926
The third legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919, was held in November 1926. Justice party lost the election to Swaraj Party. However, as the Swaraja Party refused to form the Government, the...
, Swaraj emerged as the largest party, but refused to form the government because of its opposition to dyarchy. Justice declined power because it did not have enough seats and due to clashes with governor Viscount Goschen
George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen
George Joachim Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen GCSI GCIE CBE VD PC was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament for East Grinstead from 1895 to 1906 and as Governor of Madras from 1924 to 1929....
over issues of power and patronage. Goschen turned to the nationalist independent members. Unaffiliated, 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...
was appointed Chief Minister. Goschen nominated 34 members to the Council to support the new ministry. Initially Justice joined Swaraj in opposing "government by proxy". In 1927, they moved a no confidence motion against Subbarayan that was defeated with the help of the Governor–nominated members. Halfway through the ministry's term, Goschen convinced Justice to support the ministry. This change came during 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...
's visit to assess the political reforms. After the death of Ramarayaningar in December 1928, Justice broke into two factions: the Constitutionalists and the Ministerialists. The Ministerialists were led by N. G. Ranga and favored allowing Brahmins to join the party. A compromise was reached at the eleventh annual confederation of the party and B. Munuswamy Naidu was elected as the president.
1936-44
After its crushing defeat at the hands in 1937, Justice lost political influence. The Raja of Bobbili temporarily retired to tour Europe. The new Congress government under C. RajagopalachariC. 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...
introduced compulsory Hindi instruction. Under A. T. Panneerselvam (one of the few Justice leaders to have escaped defeat in the 1937 elections) Justice joined Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
Erode Venkata Ramasamy , affectionately called by his followers as Periyar , Thanthai Periyar or E. V...
's Self-Respect Movement
Self-Respect Movement
The Self-Respect Movement was founded in 1925 by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu, India. The movement has the aim of achieving a society where backward castes have equal human rights, and encouraging backward castes to have self-respect in the context of a caste based society that...
(SRM) to oppose the government's move. The resulting anti-Hindi agitation
Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937-40
The Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937–40 is a series of protests that happened in Madras Presidency of the British Raj during 1937-40. It was launched in 1937 in opposition to the introduction of compulsory teaching of Hindi in the schools of the presidency by the Indian National Congress government led...
, brought the party effectively under Periyar's control. When Rao's term ended, Periyar became president on 29 December 1938. Periyar, a former Congressman, had a previous history of cooperation with the party. He had left Congress in 1925 after accusing the party of Brahminism. SRM cooperated closely with Justice in opposing Congress and Swaraj. Periyar had even campaigned for Justice candidates in 1926 and 1930. For a few years in the early 1930s, he switched from Justice to the communists
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
. After the Communist party was banned in July 1934, he returned to supporting Justice. The anti-Hindi agitations revived Justice's sagging fortunes. On 29 October 1939, Rajagopalachari's Congress government resigned, protesting India's involvement in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Madras provincial government was placed under governor's rule. On 21 February 1940 Governor Erskine canceled compulsory Hindi instruction.
Under Periyar's leadership, the party embraced the secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
of Dravidistan
Dravidistan
Dravida Nadu , also known as Dravidistan or Dravidasthan, was the name of a proposed sovereign state for all speakers of Dravidian languages in South Asia. The major political parties backing the demand were the Justice Party led by E. V. Ramasamy and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by C. N...
(or Dravida Nadu). At the 14th annual confederation (held in December 1938), Periyar became party leader and a resolution passed pressing Tamil people
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
's right to a sovereign state, under the direct control of the Secretary of State for India. In 1939, Periyar organized the Dravida Nadu Conference for the advocacy of a "separate, sovereign and federal republic of Dravida Nadu". Speaking on 17 December 1939, he raised the slogan "Dravida Nadu for Dravidians" replacing the "Tamil Nadu for Tamils" that had been used earlier (since 1938). The demand for "Dravidistan" was repeated at the 15th annual confederation in August 1940. On 10 August 1941, Periyar stopped the agitation for Dravida Nadu to help the government in its war efforts. When the Cripps Mission visited India, a Justice delegation, comprising Periyar, W. P. A. Soundarapandian Nadar
W. P. A. Soundarapandian Nadar
W. Pattiveeranpatti Ayya Soundarapandian Nadar was a leading figure in Nadar Mahajana Sangam and became the first Nadar member of the Madras Legislative Council upon a recommendation by P.T. Rajan in 1920. He is known for his effort to associate the Nadar community with the Self-Respect Movement...
, N. R. Samiappa Mudaliar and Muthiah Chettiar, met the mission on 30 March 1942 and demanded a separate Dravidian nation. Cripps responded that secession would be possible only through a legislative resolution or through a general referendum. During this period, Periyar declined efforts in 1940 and in 1942 to bring Justice to power with Congress' support.
Transformation into Dravidar Kazhagam
Periyar withdrew the party from electoral politics and converted it into a social reform organisation. He explained, "If we obtain social self-respect, political self-respect is bound to follow". Periyar's influence pushed Justice into anti-Brahmin, anti-Hindu and atheistic stances. During 1942-44, Periyar's opposition to the Tamil devotional literary works Kamba Ramayanam and Periya PuranamPeriya Puranam
Periya Puranam , that is, the great purana or epic, sometimes also called Tiruttontarpuranam is a Tamil poetic account depicting the legendary lives of the sixty-three Nayanars, the canonical poets of Tamil Shaivism. It was compiled during the 12th century by Sekkizhar...
, caused a break with Saivite Tamil scholars, who had joined the anti-Hindi agitations. Justice had never possessed much popularity among students, but started making inroads with C. N. Annadurai
C. N. Annadurai
Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai , popularly called Anna , or Arignar Anna was a former Chief Minister of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu...
's help. A group of leaders became uncomfortable with Periyar's leadership and policies and formed a rebel group that attempted to dethrone Periyar. This group included P. Balasubramanian (editor of The Sunday Observer), R. K. Shanmugam Chettiar, P. T. Rajan and A. P. Patro
A. P. Patro
Rao Bahadur Sir Annepu Parasuramdas Patro KCIE was an Oriya politician, zamindar and education minister in the erstwhile Madras Presidency....
, C. L. Narasimha Mudaliar, Damodaran Naidu and K. C. Subramania Chettiar. A power struggle developed between the pro and anti-Periyar factions. On 27 December 1943, the rebel group convened the party's executive committee and criticised Periyar for not holding an annual meeting after 1940. To silence his critics Periyar decided to convene the confederation.
On 27 August 1944, Justice's sixteenth annual confederation took place in Salem where the pro-Periyar faction won control. The confederation passed resolutions compelling party members to: renounce British honours and awards such as Rao Bahadur
Rao Bahadur
Rao Bahadur was a title of honour issued in British India to individuals who had performed great service to the nation....
and Diwan Bahadur, drop caste suffixes from their names, resign nominated and appointed posts. The party also took the name Dravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam or Dravida Kazhagam was the first fully Dravidian party in India. It was a radical party formed by E. V. Ramaswamy, also called Thanthai Periyar of erstwhile Madras Presidency...
(DK). Annadurai, who had played an important role in passing the resolutions, became the general secretary of the transformed organisation. Most members joined the Dravidar Kazhagam. A few dissidents like P. T. Rajan, Manapparai Thirumalaisami and P. Balasubramanian did not accept the new changes. Led at first by B. Ramachandra Reddi and later by P. T. Rajan, they formed a party claiming to be the original Justice party. This party contested nine seats in the 1952 Assembly elections. P. T. Rajan was the sole successful candidate. This new Justice party did not contest elections after 1952. In 1968, the party celebrated its Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee
A Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In Thailand :King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 9 June 1996.- In the Commonwealth Realms :...
at Madras.
Electoral performance
| Elections | Total seats up for election | Seats won | Total seats available for nomination | Members nominated | Result | Party President |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1920 The first legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919, was held in November 1920. Indian National Congress boycotted the election due to its participation in the Non-cooperation movement... |
98 | 63 | 29 | 18 | Won | Theagaroya Chetty |
| 1923 Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1923 The second legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919 was held in 1923. Voter turnout was higher than the previous election. Swarajists, a breakaway group from Indian National Congress... |
98 | 44 | 29 | 17 | Won | Theagaroya Chetty |
| 1926 Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1926 The third legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919, was held in November 1926. Justice party lost the election to Swaraj Party. However, as the Swaraja Party refused to form the Government, the... |
98 | 21 | 34 | 0 | Lost | Raja of Panagal |
| 1930 Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1930 The fourth legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919 in September 1930. Justice party won the election and P. Munuswamy Naidu became the first Chief Minister... |
98 | 35 | 34 | Won | P. Munuswamy Naidu P. Munuswamy Naidu Bollini Munuswamy Naidu was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from October 27, 1930 to November 4, 1932. He was conferred 'Diwan Bahadur' by British Government.... |
|
| 1934 Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1934 The fifth legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919. The ruling Justice party lost the election and the opposition Swaraj Party emerged as the single largest party. However it refused to form... |
98 | 34 | Lost | Raja of Bobbili | ||
| 1937 Madras Presidency legislative assembly election, 1937 The First legislative assembly election for the Madras Presidency was held in February 1937. The Indian National Congress obtained a majority by winning 159 of 215 seats in the Legislative Assembly. This was the first electoral victory for the Congress in the presidency since elections were first... |
215 | 18 | 46 | 7 | Lost | Raja of Bobbili |
| 1939–1946 | No elections held | E. V. Ramasamy | ||||
| 1946 Madras Presidency legislative assembly election, 1946 The second legislative assembly election for the Madras Presidency after the establishment of a bicameral legislature by the Government of India Act of 1935 was held in 1946. The election was held after 6 years of Governor's rule starting from 1939, when the Indian National Congress government of... |
215 | 0 | 46 | 0 | Did not participate | P. T. Rajan P. T. Rajan Sir Ponnambala Thiaga Rajan was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from April 4, 1936 to August 24, 1936. He was also the last President of the Justice Party.... |
| 1952 | 375 | 1 | NA | NA | Lost | P. T. Rajan |
Organisation
The Justice party's first officeholders were elected in October 1917. Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar was the paraty's first general secretary.The party began writing a constitution in 1920, adopting it on 19 December 1925 during its ninth confederation. An 18 October 1917 notice in The Hindu, outlining the party's policies and goals was the nearest it had to a constitution in its early years.
Madras City was the centre of the party's activities. It functioned from its office at Mount Road
Anna Salai
Anna Salai , formerly known as Mount Road, an abbreviated form of St. Thomas Mount Road, is an arterial road in Chennai, India. It starts at the Cooum Creek, south of Fort St George and ends at the Kathipara Junction in Guindy...
, where party meetings were held. Apart from the head office, several branch offices operated in the city. By 1917, the party had established offices at all the district headquarters in the presidency, periodically visited by the Madras–based leaders. The party had a 25–member executive committee, a president, four vice-presidents, a general secretary and a treasurer. After the 1920 elections, some attempts were made to mimic European political parties. A chief whip was appointed and Council members formed committees.
Article 6 of the constitution made the party president the undisputed leader of all non-Brahmin affiliated associations and party members in the legislative council. Article 14 defined the membership and role of the executive committee and tasked the general secretary with implementing executive committee decisions. Article 21 specified that a "provincial confederation" of the party be organised annually, although as of 1944, 16 confederations had been organised in 27 years.
The following is the list of Presidents of the Justice Party and their terms:
| President of Justice Party | Term start (year) | Term End (year) |
|---|---|---|
| Sir P. Theagaroya Chetty Theagaroya Chetty Sir Pitti Theagaraya Chetty KCSI was an eminent lawyer, industrialist and a prominent political leader from the erstwhile Madras province. He was one of the founders of the Justice Party in 1916 along with C. Natesa Mudaliar, Dr. T. M. Nair... |
1917 | 23 June 1925 |
| Raja of Panagal | 1925 | 16 December 1928 |
| P. Munuswamy Naidu P. Munuswamy Naidu Bollini Munuswamy Naidu was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from October 27, 1930 to November 4, 1932. He was conferred 'Diwan Bahadur' by British Government.... |
6 August 1929 | 11 October 1932 |
| Raja of Bobbili Ramakrishna Ranga Rao Raja Sri Ravu Svetachalupati Sir Ramakrishna Ranga Rao KCIE was an Indian politician and zamindar who served as the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from November 5, 1932 to April 4, 1936 and August 24, 1936 to April 1, 1937.Ramakrishna Ranga Rao was born in the royal family of Bobbili... |
11 October 1932 | 29 December 1938 |
| E. V. Ramaswami Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Erode Venkata Ramasamy , affectionately called by his followers as Periyar , Thanthai Periyar or E. V... |
29 December 1938 | 27 August 1944 |
| B. Ramachandra Reddi | 1944 | 1945 |
| P. T. Rajan P. T. Rajan Sir Ponnambala Thiaga Rajan was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from April 4, 1936 to August 24, 1936. He was also the last President of the Justice Party.... |
1945 | 1957 |
Legislative initiatives
During its years in power, Justice passed a number of laws with lasting impact. Some of its legislative initiatives were still in practice as of 2009. On 16 September 1921, the first Justice government passed the first communal government order (G. O. # 613), thereby becoming the first elected body in the Indian legislative history to legislate reservationsReservation in India
Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well being of socially backward and underrepresented communities of citizens in India. There are laws in place, wherein a certain percentage of total available slots in Jobs and Education are set aside for people from...
, which have since become standard.
The Madras Hindu Religious Endowment Act, introduced on 18 December 1922 and passed in 1925, brought many Hindu Temples under the direct control of the state government. This Act set the precedent for later Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR & CE) Acts and the current policy of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
.
The Government of India Act of 1919 prohibited women from becoming legislators. The first Justice Government reversed this policy on 1 April 1921. Voter qualifications were made gender neutral. This resolution cleared the way for Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi
Muthulakshmi Reddi
Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi was an eminent medical practitioner, social reformer and Padma Bhushan awardee in India. She was the first women legislator in India....
's nomination to the council in 1926, when she became the first woman to become a member of any legislature in India. In 1922, during the first Justice ministry (before relationships with Dalit
Dalit
Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as Untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous castes from all over South Asia; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions...
s soured), the Council officially replaced the terms "Panchamar" or "Paraiyar
Paraiyar
Paraiyar, Parayar, and Sambavar, anglicised by Europeans as Pariah are a social group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and in Sri Lanka . In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, though they have been enumerated under three different caste names, they have generally been referred to as...
" (which were deemed derogatory) with "Adi Dravida
Adi Dravida
Adi Dravidar is term used by the state of Tamil Nadu in India to denote Dalits. It means Original natives or indigenous people of Dravida land . The term was coined by Tamil social activist Periyar Ramasami who worked against casteism and division among the people based on castes...
r" to denote the Dalits of the presidency.
The Madras Elementary Education Act of 1920 introduced compulsory education for boys and girls and increased elementary education funding. It was amended in 1934 and 1935. The act penalized parents for withdrawing their children from schools. The Madras University Act of 1923 expanded the administrative body of the University of Madras
University of Madras
The University of Madras is a public research university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the three oldest universities in India...
and made it more representative. In 1920 the Madras Corporation introduced the Mid-day Meal Scheme with the approval of the legislative council. It was a breakfast scheme in a corporation school at Thousand Lights, Madras
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
. Later it expanded to four more schools. This was the precursor to the free noon meal schemes introduced by 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...
in the 1960s and expanded by M. G. Ramachandran
M. G. Ramachandran
Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran , popularly known by his initials , was an Indian film actor, director, producer and politician....
in the 1980s.
The State Aid to Industries Act, passed in 1922 and amended in 1935, advanced loans for the establishment of industries. The Malabar Tenancy Act of 1931 (first introduced in September 1926), controversially strengthened the legal rights of agricultural tenants and gave them the "right to occupy (land) in some cases".
Universities
Rivalry between the Tamil and TeluguTelugu people
The Telugu people or Telugu Prajalu are an ethnic group of India. They are the native speakers of the Telugu language, the most commonly spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali...
members of Justice party led to the establishment of two universities. The rivalry had existed since the party's inception and was aggravated during the first justice ministry because Tamil members were excluded from the cabinet. When the proposal to set up Andhra University
Andhra University
Andhra University or Andhra Viswa Kala Parishad , located in Visakhapatnam, north east coastal Andhra Pradesh, is one of the older premier universities in India with a broad focus...
(long demanded by leaders like Konda Venkatapayya and Pattabi Sitaramaya) was first raised in 1921, it was opposed by Tamil members including C. Natesa Mudaliar
C. Natesa Mudaliar
C. Natesa Mudaliar , also known as Natesan, was a politician and activist of the Dravidian Movement from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was one of the founders of the Justice Party along with Theagaroya Chetty and Dr. T. M. Nair....
. The Tamils argued that it was hard to define Andhras or the Andhra University. To appease the disgruntled Tamil members like J. N. Ramanathan and Raja of Ramnad
Raja Rajeswara Sethupathi
Raja Rajeswara Sethupathi was the Raja of Ramnad from 1903 to 1929. He was the son of the legendary philanthropist Bhaskara Sethupathy and father of politician Shanmugha Rajeswara Sethupathi....
, Theagaraya Chetty inducted a Tamil member T. N. Sivagnanam Pillai
T. N. Sivagnanam Pillai
Diwan Bahadur Sir Tinnevely Nelliappa Sivagnanam Pillai was an Indian lawyer, civil servant and politician from the Madras Presidency. He belonged to the Justice Party...
in the second Justice ministry in 1923. This cleared the way for the passage of Andhra University Bill on 6 November 1925, with Tamil support. The institution opened in 1926 with C. R. Reddy as its first vice-chancellor. This led to calls for the establishment of a separate, Tamil, University, because the Brahmin–dominated Madras University did not welcome non-Brahmins. On 22 March 1926, a Tamil University Committee chaired by Sivagnanam Pillai began to study feasibility and in 1929 Annamalai University
Annamalai University
Annamalai University is a Public University located in Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The university offers courses of higher education in arts, sciences and engineering.The university also provides around 380 courses under distance mode...
opened. It was named for Annamalai Chettiar who provided a large endowment.
Infrastructure
The second Justice Chief Minister, Ramarayaningar's years in power saw improvements to the infrastructure of the city of MadrasChennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
- particularly the development of the village of Theagaroya Nagar
T. Nagar
Theagaraya Nagar , popularly known by its abbreviated form T. Nagar, is a neighbourhood in the city of Chennai, India. Though originally conceived as a residential locality, it is presently one of the principal shopping districts of the city....
. His administration implemented the Madras Town Planning Act of 7 September 1920, creating residential colonies to cope with the city'srapid population growth.
The Long Tank, a 5 km (3.1 mi) long and 2 km (1.2 mi) wide water body, formed an arc along the city's western frontier from Nungambakkam
Nungambakkam
Nungambakkam is one of the wealthiest localities in the heart of Chennai, India's fourth largest metropolitan city. The neighborhood is abound with multi-national commercial establishments, important government offices, foreign consulates, sprawling educational institutions, shopping malls,...
to Saidapet
Saidapet
Saidapet is an important neighbourhood in Chennai , India. The Saidapet Court, the only other court of judicature in Chennai city apart from the Madras High Court and the Saidapet bus depot are located here...
and was drained in 1923. Development west of the Long Tank had been initiated by the British government in 1911 with the construction of a railway station at the village of Marmalan/Mambalam
Mambalam
Mambalam is a working class residential and commercial area in the heart of Chennai , India. It is best known for its shops, bazaars and Hindu temples. It is bounded by Kodambakkam to the north and Saidapet to the south. T. Nagar and Nandanam stretch all along its eastern frontiers while K. K....
. Ramarayaningar created a residential colony adjoining this village. The colony was named "Theagaroya Nagar" or T. Nagar after just–deceased Theagaroya Chetty. T. Nagar centered around a park named Panagal Park
Panagal Park
Panagal Park is a park and a locality in T Nagar, Chennai. The park is named after the Raja of Panagal, the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency who created the park. It is an important junction and is the commercial centre of T Nagar....
after Ramarayaningar, the Raja of Panagal. The streets and other features in this new neighbourhood were named after prominent officials and party members, including Mohammad Usman
Mohammad Usman of Madras
Khan Bahadur Sir Mohammad Usman, KCSI, KCIE, Kt was an Indian politician, hakim and socialite who served as the Minister of Home for the Madras Presidency in the Justice Party government of the Raja of Bobbili and as the acting Governor of Madras from May 16, 1934 to August 16, 1934...
, Muhammad Habibullah
Muhammad Habibullah
Nawab Khan Bahadur Sir Muhammad Habibullah KCSI KCIE was an Indian politician and administrator who served as the Dewan of Travancore from 1934 to 1936.- Early life :...
, O. Thanikachalam Chetti
O. Thanikachalam Chetti
O. Thanikachalam Chetti was an Indian lawyer and politician who is considered to be one of the pioneers of the Dravidian Movement.- Early life :...
ar, Natesa Mudaliar and W. P. A. Soundarapandian Nadar
W. P. A. Soundarapandian Nadar
W. Pattiveeranpatti Ayya Soundarapandian Nadar was a leading figure in Nadar Mahajana Sangam and became the first Nadar member of the Madras Legislative Council upon a recommendation by P.T. Rajan in 1920. He is known for his effort to associate the Nadar community with the Self-Respect Movement...
). Justice governments also initiated slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
clearance schemes and built housing colonies and public bathing houses in the congested areas. They also established the Indian School of Medicine in 1924 to research and promote Ayurveda
Ayurveda
Ayurveda or ayurvedic medicine is a system of traditional medicine native to India and a form of alternative medicine. In Sanskrit, words , meaning "longevity", and , meaning "knowledge" or "science". The earliest literature on Indian medical practice appeared during the Vedic period in India,...
, Siddha
Siddha
A Siddha सिद्ध in Sanskrit means "one who is accomplished" and refers to perfected masters who, according to Hindu belief, have transcended the ahamkara , have subdued their minds to be subservient to their Awareness, and have transformed their bodies into a different kind of body dominated by...
and Unani
Unani
Unani-tibb or Unani Medicine also spelled Yunani Medicine means "Greek Medicine", and is a form of traditional medicine widely practiced in South Asia...
schools of traditional medicine
Traditional medicine
Traditional medicine comprises unscientific knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine...
.
Political legacy
The Justice party served as a non-Brahmin political organisation. Though non-Brahmin movements had been in existence since the late 19th century, Justice was the first such political organisation. The party's participation in the governing process under dyarchy taught the value of parliamentary democracy to Madras' educated elite. Justice and Dravidar KazhagamDravidar Kazhagam
Dravidar Kazhagam or Dravida Kazhagam was the first fully Dravidian party in India. It was a radical party formed by E. V. Ramaswamy, also called Thanthai Periyar of erstwhile Madras Presidency...
were the political forerunners of the present day Dravidian parties
Dravidian parties
Dravidian parties include an array of regional political parties in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, which trace their origins and ideologies either directly or indirectly to the Dravidian movement of Periyar E. V...
such as Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...
and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which have ruled Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
(a successor state Madras Presidency) without interruption since 1967.
Attitude towards Brahmins
The Justice party began as a political organisation to represent the interests of non-Brahmins. Initially it did not accept Brahmins as party members. However, along with other groups including Europeans, they were allowed to attend meetings as observers. After the defeat in 1926, calls were made to make the party more inclusive and more nationalist in character. Opponents, especially Periyar E. V. Ramasamy's self-respect faction protected the original policy.At a tripartite conference between Justice, Ministerialists and Constitutionalists in 1929, a resolution was adopted recommending the removal of restrictions on Brahmins joining the organization. In October 1929, the executive committee placed a resolution to this effect for approval before the party's eleventh annual confederation at Nellore. Supporting the resolution, Munuswamy Naidu spoke as follows:
So long as we exclude one community, we cannot as a political speak on behalf of or claim to represent all the people of our presidency. If, as we hope, provincial autonomy is given to the provinces as a result of the reforms that may be granted, it should be essential that our Federation should be in a position to claim to be a truly representative body of all communities. What objection can there be to admit such Brahmins as are willing to subscribe to the aims and objects of our Federation? It may be that the Brahmins may not join even if the ban is removed. But surely our Federation will not thereafter be open to objection on the ground that it is an exclusive organization.
Former education minister A. P. Patro
A. P. Patro
Rao Bahadur Sir Annepu Parasuramdas Patro KCIE was an Oriya politician, zamindar and education minister in the erstwhile Madras Presidency....
supported Naidu's view. However this resolution was vehemently opposed by Periyar and R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
Sir Ramasamy Chetty Kandasamy Shanmukham Chetty KCIE was an Indian lawyer, economist and politician who served as independent India's first finance minister from 1947 to 1949...
and failed. Speaking against letting Brahmins into the party, Periyar explained:
At a time when non-Brahmins in other parties were gradually coming over to the Justice Party, being fed up with the Brahmin's methods and ways of dealing with political questions, it was nothing short of folly to think of admitting him into the ranks of the Justice Party.
The party began to accept Brahmin members only in October 1934.
The pressure to compete with the Justice party forced the Congress party to let more non-Brahmins into the party power structure. The party's policies disrupted the established social hierarchy and increased the animosity between the Brahmin and non-Brahmin communities.
Nationalism
The Justice party was loyal to the British empire. During its early years, Justice opposed the Home rule movement. And it did not send representatives to the Central Legislative AssemblyCentral Legislative Assembly
The Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature for India created by the Government of India Act 1919 from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms...
, the national parliamentary body. During 1916-20, it focused on obtaining communal representation and participating in the political process. During the non-cooperation period, it joined with the Madras Mail in opposing and denouncing Gandhi and the nationalists. However, by the mid 1920s, the party adopted more nationalist policies. It discarded its earlier disdain of spinning thread by hand and Swadeshi economics. In 1925, the party's annual confederation passed a resolution supporting "indigenous industries" and "swadeshi enterprise". This shift enabled Justice to better compete against Swaraj to whom Justice was slowly losing ground. The term "Swaraj" (or self rule) itself was included in the constitution. Madras branch President C. R. Reddy led this change. To Justicites, Swaraj meant partial self-government under British rule, not independence. The constitution stated: ".. to obtain Swaraj for India as a component of the British Empire at as early a date as possible by all peaceful and legitimate and constitutional means.."
The historical record does not clearly indicate whether Justice condemned the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
Jallianwala Bagh massacre
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre , also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place in the Jallianwala Bagh public garden in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, and was ordered by Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer...
. The party's shift toward nationalist policies was reversed in the 1930s, during the terms of Munusamy Naidu and Raja of Bobbili. During the civil disobedience campaign
Salt Satyagraha
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagrahah began with the Dandi March on March 12, 1930, and was an important part of the Indian independence movement. It was a campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India, and triggered the wider...
, the Justice governments did not protest the polices' harsh measures. However with nationalism growing in the country and a string of Congress victories in local elections in 1934, the party reversed course again towards nationalism. Justice turned to Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy as its champion. Ramaswamy had drifted away in the early 1930s. In exchange for their support in campaigning and propaganda, the Justicites included the Self-Respect movement's socialist "Erode" program in their election manifesto. The new program had much in common with Congress' nationalist policies such as Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
.
Alienation of Dalits and Muslims
Justice party, which had captured power in 1920, claiming to represent all non-Brahmins in the presidency gradually lost the support of many communities. Under Theagaroya Chetty and later Ramarayaningar, the party came to represent a few non-Brahmin upper castes, alienating Dalits and Muslims.During the first Justice ministry, Muslim council members supported the government, but withdrew in a disagreement over appointments. Explaining the Muslim disillusionment with the Justice party, Abbas Ali Khan, a Muslim member said in late 1923:
I have found out from actual experience that whenever the question of experience came in, they always preferred a MudaliarMudaliarMudaliar also Mudali, Moodley is a title used in Tamil diaspora. It is derived from the honorary title Mudali meaning a person of first rank in the Tamil language which was bestowed upon top-ranking bureaucratic officials and army commanders in medieval South India...
, a NayuduNaiduNaidu is a title used by various social groups of the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states of India. It is also used in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa and Chattisgarh...
, a ChettiarChettiarChettiar , also spelled Chetty, is a title used by various castes in South India especially in Tamil Nadu. In Kannada, it appears as Setty, Shettar and Shettigar, who are Padmashalis in Andhra Pradesh....
, or a PillaiPillai (community)Pillai is a Tamil speaking community from the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They are a landowning upper caste, feudal community.-Origin of Vellalar:...
but not a Muhamaddan
Justice never regained Muslim support, because it failed to convince the group that high-caste Hindus had not received a disproportionate allocation of jobs opened up by communal reservation.
The fracture with Dalits came during the same time period. After T. M. Nair's death, Dalits were slowly pushed out of the party. The "Pulianthope incidents" (also called as the "B&C Mill strike") soured the relationship of non-Brahmin upper castes like Vellalas
Vellalar
Vellalars were, originally, an elite caste of Tamil agricultural landlords in Tamil Nadu, Kerala states in India and in neighbouring Sri Lanka; they were the nobility, aristocracy of the ancient Tamil order and had close relations with the different royal dynasties...
, Beri Chettis
Chettiar
Chettiar , also spelled Chetty, is a title used by various castes in South India especially in Tamil Nadu. In Kannada, it appears as Setty, Shettar and Shettigar, who are Padmashalis in Andhra Pradesh....
, Balija Naidus
Balija
Balija is a social group spread across the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh , Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala...
, Kammas
Kamma (caste)
Kamma or the Kammavaru is a social group that are classed as Upper Shudras is found largely in the Southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka. The Kamma population was 795,732 in the year 1881. According to 1921 census they constituted about 4.8% of Andhra Pradesh...
and Kapus
Kapu (caste)
Kapu refers to a social grouping of the sub-castes Telaga, Balija found primarily in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The etymology of the name is variously given as "to protect",, "agricultor" , "watchman", or "watching"...
with Dalit
Dalit
Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as Untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous castes from all over South Asia; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions...
s. On 11 May 1921, both Dalits and caste Hindus went on strike in the Carnatic textile mill. On 20 June, workers in Buckingham Mill followed. The Dalits were quickly persuaded to end the strike, but the caste Hindus continued to strike. This created animosity between the two groups. In an ensuing clash between the police and caste Hindus, several were killed. Justice leaders accused the Government of creating problems by pampering the Dalits. The party paper Justice claimed:
Public opinion...holds the present deplorable state of affairs has been brought about partly at all events by the undue pampering of the Adi-Dravidas [Dalits] by the officials of the Labour department, and partly by the, perhaps, unconscious encouragement given to them by some police officers.
O. Thanikachala Chetty raised this issue in Madras Legislative Council on 12 October, which led to an acrimonious debate between Justice members and S. Srinivasa Iyengar, a Brahmin law member of the Governor's executive council and Lionel Davidson, the Home member. Davidson blamed Justice, saying, "it is no longer merely a labour dispute confined to strikers and non-strikers, but a faction fight inflamed by caste prejudices." M. C. Rajah
M. C. Rajah
Rao Bahadur Mylai Chinna Thambi Pillai Rajah was a Dalit politician, social and political activist from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu....
, the main representative of Dalits in the Council agreed with Davidson. A Dalit reader of the Madras Mail condemned Justice in the same way that T. M. Nair had once condemned the Brahmins. Soon after the Pulianthope incidents, Rajah and Dalits left the party.