Rao Bahadur Rai Bahadur (in North India) and Rao Bahadur (in South India), R.B., was a title of honour bestowed during British Raj, British rule in India to individuals for outstanding service or acts of public welfare to the British Empire, Empire. From ...

Namasivayam Sivaraj (29 September 1892 – 29 September 1964) was an Indian lawyer, social reformer and political leader and Scheduled Castes activist from the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. He is also referred to by the honorific title "Thanthai", which means "Father" in Tamil.

Early life and education

Sivaraj was born into a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

family to Namsivayam, an accounts officer, on 29 September 1892 in the town of

Cuddapah Kadapa is a city in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located in the Rayalaseema region, and is the district headquarters of YSR Kadapa district. It is located south of the Penna River. The city is surrounded on three sides b ...

in the then

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

. His ancestors were from the town of Poonamallee near

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

. N. Sivaraj passed his matriculation in 1907 and did B.A. from Presidency College, Madras in 1911. In 1915 he graduated as a lawyer from the Madras Law College and practised as a junior under Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer. He worked as a lecturer in the Madras Law College for a period of thirteen years.

Family

Sivaraj was married to Annai Meenambal and had four children.

Politics

Sivaraj was one of the founding members of the Justice Party in 1917 and supported it until 1926. In 1927, along with Rettamalai Srinivasan, he founded the Madras Provincial Depressed Classes Federation. In 1936, the Madras Provincial Depressed Classes Federation was transformed into the Madras Scheduled Castes Party. Again, it was renamed as the Madras Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) in 1938. He was nominated to the

Madras Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former 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 initia ...

in 1926 and served as a member until 1937. From 1937 to 1947, Sivaraj served as a member of the Imperial

Central Legislative Assembly The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Indian Legislature, the legislature of British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was also sometimes calle ...

. He was elected as the mayor of the Madras Municipal Corporation in 1945 and served until 1946. He contested the 1952, 1957 and 1962 Lok Sabha elections, and was elected to the Parliament of India from the Chengalpattu constituency in 1957. He was an active member of

Anti-Brahminism Anti-Brahminism is a term used in opposition to caste based hierarchal social order which places Brahmins at its highest position. Initial expressions of Anti-Brahminism emerged from instances of pre-colonial opposition to the caste system ...

movement and Women's Rights movement in Tamil Nadu along with Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy. In 1942, Madras SCF and Bombay and Central Provinces-based ILP were transformed into the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation. The All-India SCF was an organisation in India founded by N. Sivaraj and B. R. Ambedkar in a national convention held at Nagpur during 17–20 July 1942. It was presided by Sivaraj, and he was elected as its first President. The germs of the AISCF were to be found in the Madras Provincial Depressed Classes Federation. When the

Republican Party of India The Republican Party of India (RPI, often called the Republican Party or simply Republican) was a political party in India. It had its roots in the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation led by N. Sivaraj and B. R. Ambedkar. The Party was e ...

was founded in 1957, he was again elected as its first president and continued working to establish the organisation until he died in 1964.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sivaraj, N. 1892 births 1964 deaths Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu Members of the Central Legislative Assembly of India Mayors of Chennai India MPs 1957–1962 20th-century Indian lawyers People from Kadapa district Indian Tamil politicians Activists from Tamil Nadu Politicians from Kanchipuram district Republican Party of India politicians Scheduled Castes Federation politician