U. Muthuramalingam Thevar
Encyclopedia
Ukkirapandi MuthuramalingaThevar (October 30, 1908 – October 30, 1963), also known as Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar, was an India
n politician. He hailed from the Maravar
community, the dominant warrior caste
group in his home district in southern Tamil Nadu
. Thevar became the leader of the All India Forward Bloc
in Tamil Nadu, and was national deputy chairman of the party from 1952 onwards. He was elected thrice to parliament
.
His mother died before his first birthday and his stepmother the next year. From 1910 onwards he was in the custody of his maternal grandmother Parvathiammal in the neighbouring village of Kallupatti. Parvathiammal was furious on Thevar's father for having taken two new wives shortly after the death of his second wife.
During his youth, Thevar was aided by Kuzhanthaisami Pillai. Pillai was a close family friend of Thevar's father. Pillai took responsibility for arranging Thevar's schooling. First he was given private tuition and in June 1917 he began attending classes at an elementary school run by American missionaries in Kamuthi. Later he joined the Pasumalai High School(near Thirupparankundaram) and then he shifted to the Union Christian High School in Madurai
.
Thevar would however, not complete his studies. In 1924 he missed his final examinations due to an outbreak of a plague
epidemic. The following year he also missed his chance to attend the final examinations, as he returned to Pasumpon to fight a legal battle over issues of inheritance of family property. The case would linger and was not settled until 1927, when the court ruling in Muthuramalingam Thevar's favour.
Thevar's father, Ukkirapandi Thevar, died on June 6, 1939.
had been enacted by the government of the Madras Presidency
and began to be implemented in the Madurai, Ramnad and Tirunelveli
districts. After his entry into politics, Thevar began to mobilize resistance to the CTA. He toured villages in the affected areas and led protest rallies for the rights of the individuals registered under the CTA. In 1929 the Maravars of 19 villages in Appanad were forced to registered under the CTA. Thevar led a massive campaign in the villages, urging the people to defy the CTA. The authorities partially withdrew, and reduced the number of CTA registrations in the concerned areas from around 2000 to just 341.
In 1934 Thevar organised a convention at Abhiram, which urged the authorities to repeal the CTA. A committee consisting of Thevar, Dr. P. Varadarajulu Naidu
, Perumal Thevar, Sasivarna Thevar and Navaneethakrishna Thevar was appointed by the convention to carry on the efforts to persuade the government to revoke the Act.
The CTA was, however, not revoked. On the contrary, its implementation was widened. Thevar again led agitations and awareness-raising campaigns against the Act. At the time the Justice Party
was governing the Madras presidency, and their refusal to revoke the law created a strong animosity on Thevar's behalf towards the Justicites.
After the election Thevar made a bid to be elected the president of the District Board. So did P.S. Kumarasamy, the Raja
of Rajapalyam. Conflict erupted within the local Congress organisation over the issue. S. Satyamurthi, on behalf of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, intervened to preserve the unity of the Congress. Thevar was convinced to withdraw his candidature for president, and presented a motion nominating Kumarasamy as president.
When the Congress Socialist Party
began to mobilize in the Madras Presidency in 1936, Thevar joined their ranks.
In February 1937 Thevar contested the assembly election himself, as a candidate in the Ramathapuram constituency. He had a powerful opponent, the Raja
of Ramnad. However, Thevar won a landslide victory with 11 942 votes against 6 057 for the Raja.
Following the election the Congress formed a government in the Presidency. Thevar had high hopes that the new Congress ministry would revoke the Criminal Tribes Act. But the new Chief minister, C. Rajagopalachari
, did not fulfil those hopes.
In 1945, he would become the founding president of the TVS Thozhaili Sangam.
However, due to the manoeuvrings of the Gandhi-led clique in the Congress Working Committee, Bose found himself forced to resign from the Congress Presidency. He then launched the Forward Bloc on June 22, calling for the unification of all leftwing elements into a united organisation within the Congress. Thevar, who was disillusioned by the official Congress leadership which had not revoked the CTA, joined the Forward Bloc. When Bose visited Madurai on September 6, Thevar organised a massive rally as his reception.
. His capture sparked wide condemnation in Tamil Nadu.
Soon after his release he was arrested again under the Defense of India Rules. He was released from prison on September 5, 1945.
Elections to the assembly of the Madras Presidency were again held in March 1946. Thevar contested from the Mudukulathur constituency, and was elected unopposed. Soon thereafter, the CTA was repealed.
In February 1948 the Congress expelled all dissenting fractions, including the Forward Bloc. The Forward Bloc became an independent opposition party, and Thevar became its president of its Tamil Nadu state unit (a position he would hold for the rest of his life).
On January 23, 1949, in connection with birthday anniversary celebrations of Subhas Chandra Bose, Thevar publicly announced that Bose was alive and that he had met him. Soon thereafter Thevar disappeared without any explanation. He returned to public life in October 1950. Rumours claimed that he had travelled to Korea
and China
during this period.
On the national level the Forward Bloc had been suffering from internal ideological divisions. In 1948 two separate Forward Blocs had emerged, a 'Forward Bloc (Marxist)' (out of which the Forward Bloc of today emerged) and a 'Forward Bloc (Ruiker)' (led by R.S. Ruiker
). On June 23, 1951, the two parties reunified at a meeting in Calcutta. A central committee was announced for the united party, which included Thevar as one of its members.
as well as to the legislative assemblies of the states
. Thevar contested the Aruppukottai constituency in the Lok Sabha election and the Mudukulathur constituency in the assembly election. He won in both cases. After the election, he decided to vacate his Lok Sabha seat and concentrate his efforts to the Madras legislative assembly.
After the election, Congress lacked a majority of its own in the Madras legislative assembly. Thevar cooperated with the communists
in trying to form a non-Congress governing coalition. However, the governor intervened and made C. Rajagopalachari of the Congress the Chief Minister.
and Sheel Bandra Yagee, now argued that the time had come for the Forward Bloc to merge with the Congress. This proposal did however not win much support in other sections of the party leadership. Singh-Yagee unilaterally declared the party merged into the Congress.
An extraordinary central committee meeting was convened in Nagpur
May 11–15, 1955. Singh, Yagee and their followers were expelled from the party. Hemanth Kumar Bose was elected chairman of the party, Haldulkar the general secretary and Thevar the deputy chairman of the party. Thevar would hold that post until his death.
A new dynamic in the efforts to build a non-Congress front had emerged in the Madras State(which had been reorganised in 1956). The Congress had been divided and C. Rajagopalachari had formed a new party, the Congress Reform Committee (CRC). Thevar now made peace with his former enemy C. Rajagopalachari, and the Forward Bloc and the CRC worked together to defeat Kamaraj and the Congress rule in the state.
In the election Thevar again contested both the Aruppukottai constituency in the Lok Sabha election and the Mudukulathur constituency in the assembly election. He won both seats, but this time he decided to vacate the assembly seat.
had spread throughout the entire district. Several persons were killed and thousands of houses were torched.
Thevar himself travelled to Delhi
on July 17 to attend the session of the Lok Sabha. He returned on September 9. On September 10 he took part in a 'Peace Conference' together with T. V. Sasivarna Thevar
and Velu (a Dalit legislative assembly member of the Forward Bloc). From the Congress side six devendrars took part. There was also a delegate from the Nadar caste
. The conference concluded that the three castes should live in harmony.
Emmanuel sekaran Devendrar, the leader of the Congress Dalits at the Peace Conference was killed the following day. On September 28, a few days after the clashes had ceased, Thevar was arrested by the police under the Preventive Detention Act. Thevar's was apprehended directly after holding a speech at the conference of the Indian National Democratic Congress (the new name taken by the Congress Reform Committee). Thevar was taken to the Jail. Pudukkottai court was hearing that case. He was later accused of having masterminded the murder of Emmanuel sekaran Devendrar.
The Forward Bloc and its allies condemned Thevar's arrest as a political vendetta, engineered by the Congress. A 'Thevar Committee' was step up by the INDC. Thevar was acquitted of all charges and released in January 1959.
, Indian National Democratic Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
was formed. The alliance won the elections, and for the first time Congress lost its hold over the city administration.
Following the election, Thevar's health deteriorated and he largely withdrew from public life. He was nominated for the 1962 Lok Sabha election. However he only attended a single campaign meeting, which also was attended by C. Rajagopalachari (who now had merged with his INDC with the Swatantra Party
). Thevar was reelected, but due to health reasons he was unable to travel to the parliament in Delhi. U. Muthuralingam Thevar died on October 30, 1963, on his 55th birthday. A bye-election for the Aruppukottai Lok Sabha constituency seat vacated by his death was held in 1964, in which the Forward Bloc was defeated for the first time.
The pillars of Thevar's political thought were spiritualism
, nationalism
, anti-communism
, anti-imperialism
and non-Congressism (wanting to create a non-Congress political alternative). Although committed to the construction of a federal socialist India, Thevar rejected Marxism-Leninism
as a foreign concept and he opposed the trade policy of the Soviet Union
as discriminatory towards countries like India. But first and foremost, his animosity towards the communists was due to the rejection of the Indian communists of Subhas Chandra Bose (who they had called a 'quisling
'). His relationship to Marxism was further complicated by his spiritualistic orientation.
As an Indian nationalist, Thevar condemned the Dravidar Kazhagam
its successor DMK for stimulating separatism
and parochialism
. Moreover he distrusted the Atheist element of the Dravidian political discourse.
After his death, the Forward Bloc entered into a period of decline in Tamil Nadu. The party leadership was overtaken by Thevar's disciple P.K. Mookiah Thevar
. The party organisation became ridden by splits and disputes. In this situation, the major chunk of the Maravar vote-bank of the Forward Bloc was overtaken by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
.
Several official honours have been given to Thevar. In 1968 the Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar College was founded in Usilampatti by the then DMK-led state government. His biography was included in the high school textbooks in Tamil Nadu. In 1971 his cemetery in Pasumpon was converted into an official memorial. A life-size portrait of Thevar was installed in the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1980. In 1984, after the bifurcation of the Ramnad District the 'Pasumpon Muthuramalingam District' was created.
Greenways Road and Chamiers Road, two important arterial roads in Chennai
, were renamed after Thevar,and currently there is a statue of Thevar where his eponymous road intersects with Anna Salai
. And the one in Mumbai city which connects both western express and eastern express highways to the Mumbai airport the road earlier known as Sion-Mahim link road is renamed after Thevar.
U.Muthuramalingam Thevar is revered as a hero of the Thevar/Maravar community. Thevar was become an icon in the political life in southern Tamil Nadu. Many political parties seeking the support from that community at the time of elections will make pay their respect to him. But at the same time his legacy is not entirely uncontroversial. At times violence between Thevars and Dalits flare up in the area, and desecrations of monuments of Thevar have taken place.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n politician. He hailed from the Maravar
Maravar
Maravar are a Tamil community of the state of Tamil Nadu, southern India, and are one of the three branches of the Mukkulathor confederacy.Maravars are found predominantly in the Southern districts of Tamilnadu viz., Madurai, Theni, Sivagangai, Ramanathapuram, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Thirunelveli,...
community, the dominant warrior 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...
group in his home district in southern 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...
. Thevar became the leader of the All India Forward Bloc
All India Forward Bloc
The All India Forward Bloc is a leftwing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party after the independence of India...
in Tamil Nadu, and was national deputy chairman of the party from 1952 onwards. He was elected thrice to parliament
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
.
Childhood and family life
Thevar was born in the village of Pasumpon, Ramnad district. He hailed from a wealthy landlord family. Thevar was the only son of Ukkirapandi Thevar and Indiraniammal. He had one sister, Janaki.His mother died before his first birthday and his stepmother the next year. From 1910 onwards he was in the custody of his maternal grandmother Parvathiammal in the neighbouring village of Kallupatti. Parvathiammal was furious on Thevar's father for having taken two new wives shortly after the death of his second wife.
During his youth, Thevar was aided by Kuzhanthaisami Pillai. Pillai was a close family friend of Thevar's father. Pillai took responsibility for arranging Thevar's schooling. First he was given private tuition and in June 1917 he began attending classes at an elementary school run by American missionaries in Kamuthi. Later he joined the Pasumalai High School(near Thirupparankundaram) and then he shifted to the Union Christian High School in Madurai
Madurai
Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...
.
Thevar would however, not complete his studies. In 1924 he missed his final examinations due to an outbreak of a plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
epidemic. The following year he also missed his chance to attend the final examinations, as he returned to Pasumpon to fight a legal battle over issues of inheritance of family property. The case would linger and was not settled until 1927, when the court ruling in Muthuramalingam Thevar's favour.
Thevar's father, Ukkirapandi Thevar, died on June 6, 1939.
Anti-CTA struggle
One particular issue would have a special impact on Thevar's political career. Since 1920 the Criminal Tribes ActCriminal Tribes Act
The term Criminal Tribes Act applies to various successive pieces of legislation enforced in India during British rule; the first enacted in 1871 as applied mostly in North India The Act was extended to Bengal Presidency and other areas in 1876, and finally with the Criminal Tribes Act 1911, it...
had been enacted by the government 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...
and began to be implemented in the Madurai, Ramnad 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...
districts. After his entry into politics, Thevar began to mobilize resistance to the CTA. He toured villages in the affected areas and led protest rallies for the rights of the individuals registered under the CTA. In 1929 the Maravars of 19 villages in Appanad were forced to registered under the CTA. Thevar led a massive campaign in the villages, urging the people to defy the CTA. The authorities partially withdrew, and reduced the number of CTA registrations in the concerned areas from around 2000 to just 341.
In 1934 Thevar organised a convention at Abhiram, which urged the authorities to repeal the CTA. A committee consisting of Thevar, Dr. P. Varadarajulu Naidu
P. Varadarajulu Naidu
Perumal Varadarajulu Naidu was an Indian physician, politician, journalist and Indian independence activist.- Early life :...
, Perumal Thevar, Sasivarna Thevar and Navaneethakrishna Thevar was appointed by the convention to carry on the efforts to persuade the government to revoke the Act.
The CTA was, however, not revoked. On the contrary, its implementation was widened. Thevar again led agitations and awareness-raising campaigns against the Act. At the time the Justice Party
Justice Party (India)
The Justice Party , officially known as South Indian Liberal Federation, was a political party in the Madras Presidency of British India. The party was established in 1917 by T. M. Nair and Theagaroya Chetty as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the presidency...
was governing the Madras presidency, and their refusal to revoke the law created a strong animosity on Thevar's behalf towards the Justicites.
1936 District Board election
Infuriated over the attitude of the Justice Party government towards the CTA, Thevar came to the conclusion that the communities affected by the Act had to be mobilized by the Congress. After returning from a trip to Burma in 1936, he began to work to strengthen the Congress in the southern areas of the Presidency. He contested the election to the Ramnad District Board from the Muthukulathur constituency, defeating his Justice Party opponent. This was Thevar's first experience of being a candidate in an election.After the election Thevar made a bid to be elected the president of the District Board. So did P.S. Kumarasamy, the Raja
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
of Rajapalyam. Conflict erupted within the local Congress organisation over the issue. S. Satyamurthi, on behalf of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, intervened to preserve the unity of the Congress. Thevar was convinced to withdraw his candidature for president, and presented a motion nominating Kumarasamy as president.
When the Congress Socialist Party
Congress Socialist Party
The Congress Socialist Party was founded in 1934 as a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. Its members rejected what they saw as the anti-rational mysticism of Mohandas Gandhi as well as the sectarian attitude of the Communist Party of India towards the Congress Party...
began to mobilize in the Madras Presidency in 1936, Thevar joined their ranks.
1937 provincial election
Ahead of the 1937 elections to the assembly of the Madras Presidency, Thevar enlisted youths from the Mukkulathor communities to work for the Congress. His activities created worries for the Justice Party government, which forbade him to travel outside of the Ramnad district and to make speeches in public.In February 1937 Thevar contested the assembly election himself, as a candidate in the Ramathapuram constituency. He had a powerful opponent, the Raja
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
of Ramnad. However, Thevar won a landslide victory with 11 942 votes against 6 057 for the Raja.
Following the election the Congress formed a government in the Presidency. Thevar had high hopes that the new Congress ministry would revoke the Criminal Tribes Act. But the new Chief minister, 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...
, did not fulfil those hopes.
As a trade unionist
During the late 1930s, Thevar got increasingly involved in labour activities. He formed and led the Pasumalai Mahalaskshmi Mill Workers' Union, the Meenakshi Mill Workers' Union and the Madura Knitting Company Labour Union. During a prolonged strike of the Pasumalai Mahalaskshmi Mill Workers' Union, demanding the reinstatement of a section of fired trade unionists, Thevar was jailed for seven months from October 15, 1938. In the end, the management of the Mahalakshmi Mills accepted the demands of the union. In the same period a strike was led by Thevar at the Madura Knitting Company.In 1945, he would become the founding president of the TVS Thozhaili Sangam.
Tripuri session of the Congress and formation of the Forward Bloc
Thevar attended the 52nd annual session of the Indian National Congress, held in Tripuri in March 1939. At this meeting the presidency of Subhas Chandra Bose was challenged by Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Sitaramayya had the active support of Gandhi. Bose was re-elected as the Congress President. Thevar strongly supported Bose in the intra-Congress dispute.Thevar mobilised all south India votes for Bose.However, due to the manoeuvrings of the Gandhi-led clique in the Congress Working Committee, Bose found himself forced to resign from the Congress Presidency. He then launched the Forward Bloc on June 22, calling for the unification of all leftwing elements into a united organisation within the Congress. Thevar, who was disillusioned by the official Congress leadership which had not revoked the CTA, joined the Forward Bloc. When Bose visited Madurai on September 6, Thevar organised a massive rally as his reception.
In jail
The growing popularity in Thevar as a leader of elements opposing the official Congress leadership in Tamil Nadu troubled the Congress-led government. Thevar was also increasingly associated with labour militancy. A criminal case, the so-called Madura Security Case, was proceeded against him. He was banned from leaving Madurai. When travelling to his birthplace, Pasumpon, in September 1940 he was apprehended and jailed for 18 months at the Central Jail in TiruchirapalliTiruchirapalli
Tiruchirappalli ) , also called Tiruchi or Trichy , is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli District. It is the fourth largest municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu and also the fourth largest urban agglomeration in the state...
. His capture sparked wide condemnation in Tamil Nadu.
Soon after his release he was arrested again under the Defense of India Rules. He was released from prison on September 5, 1945.
After release from jail
In 1945 C. Rajagopalachari tried to make a comeback within the Congress organisation in Tamil Nadu. He had the support of Gandhi and Sardar Patel, but the majority of in the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee opposed him. A conference was held in Tirupparankundram, in which the leadership should be elected. Chaos broke about during the conference, as warring factions confronted each other. Thevar interrupted the disputes and passed a motion reelecting Kamaraj as the TNCC President.Elections to the assembly of the Madras Presidency were again held in March 1946. Thevar contested from the Mudukulathur constituency, and was elected unopposed. Soon thereafter, the CTA was repealed.
In February 1948 the Congress expelled all dissenting fractions, including the Forward Bloc. The Forward Bloc became an independent opposition party, and Thevar became its president of its Tamil Nadu state unit (a position he would hold for the rest of his life).
On January 23, 1949, in connection with birthday anniversary celebrations of Subhas Chandra Bose, Thevar publicly announced that Bose was alive and that he had met him. Soon thereafter Thevar disappeared without any explanation. He returned to public life in October 1950. Rumours claimed that he had travelled to Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
during this period.
On the national level the Forward Bloc had been suffering from internal ideological divisions. In 1948 two separate Forward Blocs had emerged, a 'Forward Bloc (Marxist)' (out of which the Forward Bloc of today emerged) and a 'Forward Bloc (Ruiker)' (led by R.S. Ruiker
Ramchandra Sakharam Ruikar
Ramchandra Sakharam Ruikar was a pioneer of the Indian labor movement. He was born on January 8, 1895 in Rui, Kolhapur, Maharashtra. He went graduated from college from Pune and Nagpur with a masters in history and economics. He created a legal service in Nagpur, where he founded the Nagpur Textile...
). On June 23, 1951, the two parties reunified at a meeting in Calcutta. A central committee was announced for the united party, which included Thevar as one of its members.
1952 general election
In January 1952 the first general elections in independent India were held. The Forward Bloc contested with the aim of forming non-Congress governments at the Centre as well as in the states. Election were held simultaneously to the Lok SabhaLok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
as well as to the legislative assemblies of the states
Vidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the provincial legislature in the different states of India. The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the union territories, Delhi and Pondicherry...
. Thevar contested the Aruppukottai constituency in the Lok Sabha election and the Mudukulathur constituency in the assembly election. He won in both cases. After the election, he decided to vacate his Lok Sabha seat and concentrate his efforts to the Madras legislative assembly.
After the election, Congress lacked a majority of its own in the Madras legislative assembly. Thevar cooperated with 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...
in trying to form a non-Congress governing coalition. However, the governor intervened and made C. Rajagopalachari of the Congress the Chief Minister.
Split in the Forward Bloc
In 1955 , internal divisions reappeared with the Forward Bloc. The Indian National Congress had adopted Socialism as its guiding principle at a session in Madras. Some leaders within the Forward Bloc, like the chairman Mohan SinghMohan Singh
Mohan Singh is an Indian politician from the Samajwadi Party. He was elected three times to the Lok Sabha from Deoria in Uttar Pradesh. He is currently the General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party.-Political career:...
and Sheel Bandra Yagee, now argued that the time had come for the Forward Bloc to merge with the Congress. This proposal did however not win much support in other sections of the party leadership. Singh-Yagee unilaterally declared the party merged into the Congress.
An extraordinary central committee meeting was convened in Nagpur
Nagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...
May 11–15, 1955. Singh, Yagee and their followers were expelled from the party. Hemanth Kumar Bose was elected chairman of the party, Haldulkar the general secretary and Thevar the deputy chairman of the party. Thevar would hold that post until his death.
1957 general election
In December 1955 Thevar travelled to Burma for the second time, during which he took part in political and religious activities organised by the All Burma Tamil Nadu Association. He returned on February 18, 1956 and began to prepare for the coming general election.A new dynamic in the efforts to build a non-Congress front had emerged in the Madras State(which had been reorganised in 1956). The Congress had been divided and C. Rajagopalachari had formed a new party, the Congress Reform Committee (CRC). Thevar now made peace with his former enemy C. Rajagopalachari, and the Forward Bloc and the CRC worked together to defeat Kamaraj and the Congress rule in the state.
In the election Thevar again contested both the Aruppukottai constituency in the Lok Sabha election and the Mudukulathur constituency in the assembly election. He won both seats, but this time he decided to vacate the assembly seat.
Ramnad riots
A by-election was held in the Mudukulathur assembly constituency on July 1, 1957, as Thevar had resigned from his assembly seat. The election was won by D.V. Sasivarna Thevar of the Forward Bloc. The situation in the area was tense on the day that the results were released, and there was a sizeable presence of police forces in place. Clashes between Maravars, who largely supported the Forward Bloc, and pro-Congress Devendrars began in a few villages soon after the election result was acknowledged. Gradually the violence spread to more and more villages, and by August the riots1957 Ramnad riots
The Ramnad riots were a series of politically motivated violent clashes that occurred between July and September 1957 in the Ramnad district and in southern Tamil Nadu, India. Congress Reform Committee was formed just one month before the 1957 elections to the Lok Sabha and the Madras state...
had spread throughout the entire district. Several persons were killed and thousands of houses were torched.
Thevar himself travelled to Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
on July 17 to attend the session of the Lok Sabha. He returned on September 9. On September 10 he took part in a 'Peace Conference' together with T. V. Sasivarna Thevar
T. V. Sasivarna Thevar
T.L. Sasivarna Thevar was an Indian politician. He was a protege of U. Muthuramalinga Thevar and a leader of the Forward Bloc....
and Velu (a Dalit legislative assembly member of the Forward Bloc). From the Congress side six devendrars took part. There was also a delegate from the Nadar caste
Nadar (caste)
Nadar is one of the prominent castes of Tamil Nadu, South India. The term, Nadar, in Tamil literally means one who rules the land. The Nadars are also commonly called as Annachi . Nadars are an entrepreneurial south Indian caste and constitute 12% of Tamil Nadu's population...
. The conference concluded that the three castes should live in harmony.
Emmanuel sekaran Devendrar, the leader of the Congress Dalits at the Peace Conference was killed the following day. On September 28, a few days after the clashes had ceased, Thevar was arrested by the police under the Preventive Detention Act. Thevar's was apprehended directly after holding a speech at the conference of the Indian National Democratic Congress (the new name taken by the Congress Reform Committee). Thevar was taken to the Jail. Pudukkottai court was hearing that case. He was later accused of having masterminded the murder of Emmanuel sekaran Devendrar.
The Forward Bloc and its allies condemned Thevar's arrest as a political vendetta, engineered by the Congress. A 'Thevar Committee' was step up by the INDC. Thevar was acquitted of all charges and released in January 1959.
Final years
After being released from prison Thevar began mobilising for the Madurai municipal elections, held in March 1959. An alliance of the Forward Bloc, Communist Party of IndiaCommunist 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...
, Indian National Democratic Congress and 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...
was formed. The alliance won the elections, and for the first time Congress lost its hold over the city administration.
Following the election, Thevar's health deteriorated and he largely withdrew from public life. He was nominated for the 1962 Lok Sabha election. However he only attended a single campaign meeting, which also was attended by C. Rajagopalachari (who now had merged with his INDC with the Swatantra Party
Swatantra Party
The Swatantra Party was a classical liberal political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga in August 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialist outlook of the Congress Party by advocating free enterprise and free trade, and opposing the licence-permit Raj...
). Thevar was reelected, but due to health reasons he was unable to travel to the parliament in Delhi. U. Muthuralingam Thevar died on October 30, 1963, on his 55th birthday. A bye-election for the Aruppukottai Lok Sabha constituency seat vacated by his death was held in 1964, in which the Forward Bloc was defeated for the first time.
Legacy
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
and non-Congressism (wanting to create a non-Congress political alternative). Although committed to the construction of a federal socialist India, Thevar rejected Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
as a foreign concept and he opposed the trade policy of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as discriminatory towards countries like India. But first and foremost, his animosity towards the communists was due to the rejection of the Indian communists of Subhas Chandra Bose (who they had called a 'quisling
Quisling
Quisling is a term used in reference to fascist and collaborationist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators.- Etymology :The term was coined by...
'). His relationship to Marxism was further complicated by his spiritualistic orientation.
As an Indian nationalist, Thevar condemned 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...
its successor DMK for stimulating separatism
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
and parochialism
Parochialism
Parochialism means being provincial, being narrow in scope, or considering only small sections of an issue. It may, particularly when used pejoratively, be contrasted to universalism....
. Moreover he distrusted the Atheist element of the Dravidian political discourse.
After his death, the Forward Bloc entered into a period of decline in Tamil Nadu. The party leadership was overtaken by Thevar's disciple P.K. Mookiah Thevar
P.K. Mookiah Thevar
- Early life :He was born to Kattamuthu ocha thevar and Sevenamal on 4 April 1923 in Pappapatti village, near Usilampatti, Madurai district, India. He had participated in many social activities as a student leader...
. The party organisation became ridden by splits and disputes. In this situation, the major chunk of the Maravar vote-bank of the Forward Bloc was overtaken by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. The party was founded by M. G. Ramachandran and is now headed by J. Jayalalithaa. The party headquarters is in Royapettah, Chennai, and was gifted to the party in 1986 by its...
.
Several official honours have been given to Thevar. In 1968 the Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar College was founded in Usilampatti by the then DMK-led state government. His biography was included in the high school textbooks in Tamil Nadu. In 1971 his cemetery in Pasumpon was converted into an official memorial. A life-size portrait of Thevar was installed in the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1980. In 1984, after the bifurcation of the Ramnad District the 'Pasumpon Muthuramalingam District' was created.
Greenways Road and Chamiers Road, two important arterial roads in Chennai
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...
, were renamed after Thevar,and currently there is a statue of Thevar where his eponymous road intersects with Anna Salai
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...
. And the one in Mumbai city which connects both western express and eastern express highways to the Mumbai airport the road earlier known as Sion-Mahim link road is renamed after Thevar.
U.Muthuramalingam Thevar is revered as a hero of the Thevar/Maravar community. Thevar was become an icon in the political life in southern Tamil Nadu. Many political parties seeking the support from that community at the time of elections will make pay their respect to him. But at the same time his legacy is not entirely uncontroversial. At times violence between Thevars and Dalits flare up in the area, and desecrations of monuments of Thevar have taken place.