Raja Sir Muttaiya Annamalai Muthiah Chettiar (5 August 1905 – 12 May 1984) was an Indian banker, politician, philanthropist, socialite and cultural activist who served as
Mayor of Madras city (1933) and Minister of Excise and Education (1936–37) in the provincial government of
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...
.
[Tamil scholar honoured]
''The Hindu''. 6 August 2005.
''The Hindu''. 6 August 2006. He was holder of the hereditary title Kumar-rajah (1929–48) and later,
Raja of Chettinad (1948–84).
Muthiah Chettiar's father
Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar was also a famous educationist and along with him he founded the
Annamalai University in the town of
Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu.
[Dr. Rajah Sir Muthiah Chettiar – Biography on release of postal stamp on his honour]
Indianpost.com. Retrieved on 10 December 2018. He was also the third
Nattukottai Chettiar
The Nagarathar (also known as Nattukottai Chettiar) is a Tamil caste found native in Tamil Nadu, India. They are a mercantile community who are traditionally involved in commerce, banking and money lending.
They use the title Chettiar and are ...
to be
knighted; the first two were his nephew and father.
[Muthiah, S. (8 September 2003) . ''The Hindu''.] The government of Tamil Nadu honoured him with the title ''Tamil Isai Kavalar''.
[
]
Early life
He was born on 5 August 1905, son of Dr. Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar
''Diwan Bahadur'' Sir Satappa Ramanatha Muttaiya Annamalai Chettiar, Raja of Chettinad KCSI (30 September 1881 – 15 June 1948) was an Indian industrialist, banker, educationist and philanthropist from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder of Ann ...
, the Raja of Chettinad and a distinguished member of the Nattukottai Nagarathar community. He studied mostly in Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, graduating from the Presidency College, Chennai in 1922. He then went to Burma on his family's business, acquiring expertise in banking.[
]
As a banker
He became a member of the Madras Legislative Council, representing the South Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with which he was associated for 50 years, and was elected its President in 1941. He was appointed member of the Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee (1931). In 1929, he became a member of the Corporation of Madras and was elected mayor in 1933 and 1934. In 1943, he was elected president of the Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and industry. He was associated with the Imperial Bank of India (now the State Bank of India
State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational public sector bank and financial services statutory body headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is the 49th largest bank in the world by total assets and ranked 221st in the ''Fortune ...
) and the Indian Bank.[
]
As an educationist
Interest in education was part of the family heritage. He was associated with his father in making Sri Meenakshi College, Chidambaram the nucleus of Annamalai University. While pursuing his political career as Chief Whip and Legislative Assembly Chairman of the Justice Party, he retained his interest in education. In 1936 he was appointed Minister-in-Charge of education, Public Health and Excise, and was also the pro-Chancellor of Madras University for over a year. He remained on the Board of Management of the Pachaiyappa's Charities for 33 years. He was also on the Syndicate of the Madras University and the Board of Management of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. In 1948 he became Pro-Chancellor of Annamalai University which expanded to include the faculties of Education, Fine Arts, Culture, Law and Medicine. Two UGC centres of advanced study in marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...
and linguistics came into being. The Engineering and Technology Department developed into a post-graduate centre. The Muthiah Polytechnic, Annamalainagar, and the Annamalai Polytechnic, Chettinad, were established.[
He was interested in the study of Tamil language, literature, music and culture. His services to the Tamil cause earned him the title of ''Tamil Isai Kavalar''.][Encomiums on Raja Muthiah Chettiar – The Hindu]
Hindu.com (4 August 2004). Retrieved on 2018-12-10.
In politics
He earned the reputation of being a sensitive Parliamentarian, impartial
Impartiality (also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness) is a principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another ...
and balanced, as a leader of the opposition in 1939 and when he held charge of Local Administration and Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
Religious Endowments. He was the first Mayor of Chennai (then called Madras) when the mayoralty was reinstated for the Corporation of Chennai in 1933. The mayoralty had been earlier removed in 1792, when the act made Madras a municipality. In 1946 he was elected member of the Constituent Assembly at New Delhi.[
]
Awards and legacy
He was knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in the 1941 King's Birthday Honours, and was invested by the Viceroy of India on 24 June 1941.Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
and the Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...
. The government of India bestowed on him Padma Bhushan in 1973,[ He died on 12 May 1984 in Madras leaving an impressive record of interests and achievements. The Indian government honoured him with a postal stamp issued on his memory on 21 December 1987.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muthiah Chettiar, M A
1905 births
1984 deaths
Tamil Nadu politicians
Indian bankers
20th-century Indian educational theorists
Mayors of Chennai
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry
Indian Knights Bachelor
Knights Bachelor
Annamalai University faculty
Businesspeople from Chennai
20th-century Indian businesspeople
20th-century Indian philanthropists