P. Subbarayan

Subbarayan was born to Paramasiva Gounder[1] in the family estate of Kumaramangalam near Tiruchengode, Namakkal district on 11 September 1889.[2][3] He belonged to the family of Zamindars.[4][5] He graduated from the Presidency College[2][4] and obtained his M.A.[6] and LLD[7] from the Christ Church, Oxford[6][8] and Trinity College Dublin respectively.[6] He started practising as an advocate of the Madras High Court in 1918.[5]

In 1922, Subbarayan was nominated to the Madras Legislative Council as an independent candidate representing the landowners of the South-Central division of the Madras Presidency[5] and served as a Council Secretary.[9][10] He took the side of C. R. Reddy and the Swarajists and voted against the Raja of Pangal during the no-confidence motion of 1923.[10]

In the Assembly elections which took place on 8 November 1926, no party was able to get a clean majority.[11] The Swaraj Party won 41 of the 98 seats and emerged as the single largest party while the Justice Party won 21.[11] It was a setback for the Justice Party and its incumbent Chief Minister, the Raja of Panagal. However, none of the parties could form the Government as they did not have a clean majority.

The Governor invited the Swarajya Party to take the lead in forming a coalition government but the latter refused.[11] The Justice Party did not have enough seats. Hence, the Governor chose Subbarayan, who was not affiliated to either of these parties, to form the Government and nominated 34 new members to the Madras Legislative Council to support him.[3][12] An independent ministry was formed with A. Ranganatha Mudaliar and R. N. Arogyaswamy Mudaliar as the second and third ministers. The Justice Party took the place of an opposition.[13]

Because Subbarayan's regime was appointed and largely controlled by the Governor, it became the target of strong criticism both from the Justicites as well as the Swarajists.[13] In March 1927, P. Munuswamy Naidu of the Justice Party passed a motion recommending salary cuts for Government ministers. However, they were defeated by a margin of 41 votes.[13] A no-confidence motion was passed on 23 August 1927, but was defeated 56 to 67 with the support of the Governor and the members nominated by him.[14]

The Simon Commission was appointed by the British Parliament in 1927 to report on the working of the progress of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms.[14] The Swarajya Party moved a resolution to boycott the commission and this was passed 61 to 50 with 12 remaining neutral.[15] Subbarayan opposed the resolution but his cabinet ministers Ranganatha Mudaliar and Arogyaswamy Mudaliar supported it.[15] Subbarayan resigned as Chief Minister, but at the same time, he also compelled his ministers to submit their resignations.[15] Fearing the possibility of the formation of a Swarajya Party-Justice Party coalition Government, the Governor stepped in to foster discord amongst the opposition. In order to obtain the support of the Raja of Panagal, he appointed Krishnan Nair, a leading member of the Justice Party as his Law Member.[15] Led by the Raja of Panagal, the Justice Party switched sides and lent its support to the Subbarayan government. Soon afterwards, the Justice Party passed a resolution welcoming the Simon Commission.[16] The Simon Commission visited Madras on 28 February 1928[16] and 18 February 1929[17] and was boycotted by the Swarajya Party and the Indian National Congress. However, the Justicites and the Subbarayan Government accorded the commission a warm reception.[17]

In the 1930 elections, due to the non-participation of the Indian National Congress and the Swarajya Party, the Justice Party won an overwhelming majority and was voted to power. Subbarayan was succeeded as Chief Minister by Munuswamy Naidu.[18]

Subbarayan was re-elected as an independent to the Madras Legislative Council in 1930. As a member of the legislature, Subbarayan was instrumental in introducing prohibition in Salem district in 1930. Prohibition was enforced in Salem till 1943 when it was scrapped by the British. In 1932, C. S. Ranga Iyer passed the Untouchability Abolition Bill in the Imperial Legislative Council.[24] On 1 November 1932, Subbarayan proposed the Temple Entry Bill which permitted low-caste Hindus and Dalits enter Hindu temples and made their prohibition illegal and punishable.[25][26][27] He also passed a copy of the resolution and the proceedings of the council to Mahatma Gandhi who was in jail.[28] The Viceroy, however, refused permission explaining that temple entry was an all-India problem and should not be dealt with in a provincial basis even while clearing Ranga Iyer's bill.[29] The Temple Entry Bill was not passed until the Indian National Congress came to power in 1937.[25] Subbarayan had been a follower of Mahatma Gandhi from his early days[26] and he officially joined the Indian National Congress in 1933.[26] He also served as the President of the Tamil Nadu Harijan Sevak Sangh.[26]

Subbarayan was an admirer of Indian National Congress leader Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) right from his early days.[26] Rajaji had been his personal lawyer in property cases. In 1937, when the Indian National Congress swept to power in the Madras Presidency and Rajaji took over as the Chief Minister of the Presidency, he appointed Subbarayan the Minister of Law and Education.[2][3][30][31][32][33] Subbarayan resigned along with other members of the Rajaji cabinet when war was declared in 1939.[3] Subbarayan also served as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India from 1937–38 to 1945–46.[34]

Subbarayan actively participated in the Quit India Movement and was arrested along with other Congress leaders as Sathyamurthy and M. Bakthavatsalam.

In 1947, he served as a Minister for Home and Police in the Ramaswamy Reddiar Cabinet in Madras[2][3] and was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.[2][35] He served as a member of the Provincial Constitution Committee.[36]

From 1949 to 1951, Subbarayan served as independent India's first ambassador to Indonesia.[3][37] He was instrumental in the signing of a mutual treaty of friendship with the Indonesian Foreign Minister Mohammad Roem on 3 March 1951.[38][39] Subbarayan's tenure came to an end in 1951 and he was succeeded by Alagappan.[37]

On his return to India, Subbarayan was elected president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC).[40]

Subbarayan also served as a member of Rajya Sabha from 1954 to 1957.[3] In 1957, Subbarayan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tiruchengode and served as a member till 1962.[41][42] He was elected again in 1962[43] but was instead made Governor of Maharashtra.[42]

Subbarayan was a member of the first Official Language Commission constituted by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 7 June 1955, under the chairmanship of B. G. Kher. The commission delivered its report on 31 July 1956. It recommended a number of steps to eventually replace English with Hindi as the sole official language of India. Subbarayan and another member – Suniti Kumar Chatterji from West Bengal – did not agree with its findings and added dissenting notes to the report.[44][45] Later when the Indian President Rajendra Prasad sought his opinion on making Hindi as the sole official language, Subbarayan advised against it.[46][47]

Subbarayan served as the Minister of Transport and Communications in the Government of India union cabinet from 1959[48] to 1962.[49][50][51]

Subbarayan took a keen interest in sports during his lifetime. He wrote numerous articles on cricket[52] and was the Founder-president of the Indian Cricket Federation, the first association in the Madras Presidency to represent Indian cricketing interests. He also served as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) during the Second World War.[34] With Sir John Beaumont and Sikandar Hayat Khan, he formed the commission that investigated the return of Lala Amarnath from the India's tour of England in 1936. He also served as the president of the Madras Olympic Association and the Madras Hockey Association.[53]

Subbarayan died at the age of 73 on 6 October 1962.[54]

Subbarayan married Kailash Radhabai Kulmud,[3] a Mangalorean Brahmo of Brahmin parentage,[10][55] who was his colleague in Presidency College, by Brahmo rites despite opposition from family members. Radhabai Subbarayan was an active campaigner for women's rights and served as a member of the Indian parliament.

Subbarayan's eldest son Mohan Kumaramangalam was a minister in Indira Gandhi's cabinet.[12] His second son, General P. P. Kumaramangalam was a Second World War veteran and served as India's Chief of Army staff. A third son Gopal Kumaramangalam headed important public sector undertakings. Mohan's son and Subbarayan's grandson Rangarajan Kumaramangalam was a minister in Indian National Congress and NDA governments.[12] Subbarayan's daughter Parvathi Krishnan was a politician belonging to the Communist Party of India. She was a Member of the Rajya Sabha from 1954 to 1957 and represented Coimbatore in the Lok Sabha three times.[56]

A portrait of Subbarayan was unveiled in the central hall of the Indian Parliament on 16 October 1989.[26][57]

• Political families of the world

• Ralhan, O. P. (2002). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties. Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. ISBN 978-81-7488-865-5.
• Balasubramaniam, K. M. (1934). South Indian Celebrities Vol 1. Madras: Solden & Co. pp. 90–109.

• Media related to Paramasivan Subbarayan Gounder at Wikimedia Commons