Subramaniya Siva (4 October 1884 – 23 July 1925) was an Indian freedom fighter, writer and pure Tamil movement activist during the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

Life

Subramaniya Siva was born in a Tamil Brahmin Iyer family at Batlagundu near Dindigul in erstwhile Madurai district of

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 ...

. He was born to Rajam Iyer. He joined the Indian freedom movement in 1908. In 1908, he was arrested by the British and was the first political prisoner in Madras jail. While serving a prison term, he was afflicted by

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...

and was shifted to Salem jail. Since leprosy was regarded as a contagious disease, the British authorities forbade him to travel by rail after his release and hence he was forced to travel on foot. He continued to fight for independence and was incarcerated many times until 1922. He was the author of the journal ''Gnanabhanu'' and books ''Ramanuja Vijayam'' and ''Madhva Vijayam''. He eventually succumbed to

on 23 July 1925.

Pure Tamil Movement

A movement started by Maraimalai Adigal, the Thanittamil (‘pure Tamil’) literary movement intended to rid the

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

of non-Tamil words. The movement was supported & propagated by Subramaniya Siva and is one of the most significant of all Tamil revivalist movements organised by nationalists. His passion for Tamil was such that he wrote an advertisement which was published in Gnanabhanu as: "Five rupees — Can you write pure Tamil? If so, rush in. A lover of Tamil has come forward to offer five rupees (as a prize) for anyone who writes, not less than eight pages on the history of Tiruvalluvar in our Gnanabhanu, which uses only pure Tamil words with no mixtures of words from other languages like Sanskrit.”

Honours

The office of Dindigul district collector is named after as ''Thiyagi Subramania Siva Maaligai'' after him. Bathlagundu bus stand is named after Siva. A memorial has been established at Papparapatti near Pennagaram in Dharmapuri district.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siva, Subramaniya 1884 births 1925 deaths People from Dindigul district Indian independence activists from Tamil Nadu