Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar

Dewan Bahadur Sir Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar, (14 October 1887 – 17 July 1976) was an Indian lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who was the first president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council He also served as a senior leader of the Justice Party and in various administrative and bureaucratic posts in pre- and Independent India. He was a prominent orator and was known for his inspiring speeches.

Early life Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar was born in the town of Kurnool in then-Madras Presidency, British India, in a Tamil-speaking Thuluva Vellalar (Arcot Mudaliar) family. He was the elder of a pair of twins, the other being Arcot Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar. He had his schooling at Municipal High School, Kurnool.

He graduated from Madras Christian College

Political career

Justice Party Mudaliar was a part of the Justice Party ever since its inception in 1917 and served as its general secretary. In July 1918, he went to England along with T. M. Nair and Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu as part of the Justice Party delegation to argue in favour of communal representation and offer evidence before the Reforms Committee. The evidence was taken just before Nair's death on 17 July 1919.

All India Non-Brahmin Movement Mudaliar rose in stature gradually and began to be regarded as the "brain of the Justice Party". He was a participant in the Satara Non-Brahmin Conference held on 18 December 1922,

Following the death of Sir P.T. Theagaroya Chetty in 1925, Mudaliar functioned as the sole link between Shahu Maharaj's Satya Shodhak Samaj and the Justice Party. He assisted Raja P. Ramarayaningar in organising an All-India Non-Brahmin Confederation at Victoria Hall, Madras, on 19 December 1925. He supported the candidature of B.V. Jadhav who was eventually appointed president. On 26 December 1925, he organised a second conference at Amaravati. The conference comprised two sessions: Rajaram II presided over the first while P. Ramarayaningar presided over the second. In the second session of the Conference, Mudaliar said:

Mudaliar's utterances at this conference became the target of The Hindu, which criticised him by saying that "the speaker was desiring to produce an effect in another province, forced him to draw rather freely on his imagination".

In the elections to the Madras Legislative Council held on 8 November 1926, the Justice Party lost the elections, winning just 21 of the 98 seats in the council. Mudaliar was one of the many who met with failure in the elections. He took a temporary retirement from politics and replaced P. N. Raman Pillai as the editor of Justice, the mouthpiece of the Justice Party. by which time he was a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India.

Member of Churchill's war cabinet Poole, Dorset, Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji, the Maharajah Jam Sahib of Nawanagar and Sir A. Ramaswamy Mudaliar arrived from India for talks with the War Cabinet (between 1940 and 1945).

Shortly before the Second World War broke out in 1939, Mudaliar was appointed a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. In June 1942, he was knighted again with KCSI. In July 1942, he was appointed to Winston Churchill's war cabinet, one of the two Indians nominated to the post.

President of the UN Economic and Social Council Mudaliar served as India's delegate to the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference between 25 April and 26 June 1945, where he chaired the committee that discussed economic and social problems. He was elected as the first president of the Economic and Social Council during its session at Church House, London, on 23 January 1946. Under his presidency, the council passed a resolution in February 1946 calling for an international health conference.

At the conference which was eventually held on 19 June 1946, inaugurated by Mudaliar, the World Health Organization came into being, and the constitution for the new organisation was read out and approved by delegates from 61 nations. On the expiry of his one-year term, he returned to India and became Diwan of Mysore.

Diwan of Mysore Mudaliar was appointed as the Dewan of Mysore in 1946 by Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, succeeding Sir N. Madhava Rao. He presided over a very turbulent period in Mysore's and India's history.

During his tenure as Diwan of Mysore, Mudaliar organised a number of Tamil music concerts in the kingdom in order to raise money for the restoration of the Carnatic musician Tyagaraja's tomb at Tiruvaiyaru.

Executive career On 5 January 1955, the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) was established. Mudaliar was elected as its first chairman.

Mudaliar helped Murugappa Group setup Tube Investments of India Limited. In his later years, he served as its chairman until his death in 1976.

Murugappa Group, run by members of his family, also runs A.R.L.M. Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Cuddalore in his memory. His descendants are based out of United States, Canada, and Australia.

Honours Oxford University conferred him the Doctor of Civil Law, appreciating his contributions during the Second World War. He was also awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India and Knight Bachelor.

Mudaliar was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1954 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1970.

Religious beliefs

Despite his violent tirades against the Varnashrama dharma and Hindu scriptures in his writings and editorials in the Justice, Mudaliar was known to be a staunch Vaishnavite. He regularly sported the Vaishnavite namam. Once, while offered beef during a visit to England, he refused it with horror.

Works