P. Sabanayagam

Panchanada Sabanayagam (7 June 1922 – 22 June 2023) was an Indian Administrative Service officer who served as chief secretary of Tamil Nadu. As a civil servant he served under four chief ministers of Tamil Nadu including C. Rajagopalachari, K. Kamaraj, M. Bhaktavatsalam and M. Karunanidhi, and at the centre under prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Early life Sabanayagam was born in Madras (now Chennai) to S. Panchanada Mudaliar, a lawyer, on 7 June 1922. After earning an honours degree from Madras Christian College in 1942 and leaving with the college's Ross Prize, he considered graduate studies, but instead applied and was selected for a commission in the British Indian Army. Impressing his commanding officer Colonel Gurney with his efficiency, Sabanayagam was promoted to war-substantive lieutenant on 25 December 1944 and received further promotion to captain in October 1945 over eight more senior lieutenants, six of whom were British. In the wake of Independence and partition on 15 August, his training was suspended while he and his fellow junior civil servants were dispatched to manage the resulting refugee crisis. He was then assigned to the Madras cadre and sent to the state in December 1947 to undergo training in district administration.

Published work(s)

Personal life Sabanayagam was married and had three childrentwo sons and a daughter. His daughter Meenakshi Chitharanjan, is an Indian classical danseuse. Sabanayagam's nephew is Palanivel Thiagarajan, Tamil Nadu's Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services in the M. K. Stalin ministry. On 22 June 2023, he died in Chennai at age 101.