S. Muthiah

Subbiah Muthiah, (13 April 1930 – 20 April 2019) , was an Indian writer, journalist, cartographer, amateur historian and heritage activist known for his writings on the political and cultural history of Chennai city. He was the founder of the fortnightly newspaper Madras Musings and the principal organizer of the annual Madras Day celebrations. Muthiah was also the founder-President of the Madras Book Club.

Early life and education Muthiah was born in Pallathur in the Ramnad district of Madras Presidency, British India in a Nagarathar family on 13 April 1930. He is the son of V.Vr.N.M. Subbiah Chettiar, an influential businessman and politician. Muthiah had his early schooling in Ladies' College, S. Thomas' Preparatory School and Royal College in Colombo and completed his matriculation in India in 1946. Between 1946 and 1951, Muthiah studied arts and engineering in the United States of America and returned to Ceylon after obtaining his master's degree in International Relations in 1951.

With The Times of Ceylon

On his return to Ceylon, Muthiah took up a job with The Times of Ceylon and served the newspaper for 17 years eventually rising to the second position in the newspaper's hierarchy and heading the weekly Sunday edition. When the citizenship laws of the country were amended in 1968, Muthiah, who was not yet a citizen of Ceylon lost his job and had to move to India.

In 2011, Muthiah published the book Madras Miscellany, a collection of articles from weekly columns of the same name that he had written for The Hindu since 19 November 1999. Muthiah also volunteered to edit the gazetteer on Chennai that was commissioned by the British Council through the Association of British Scholars, India Chapter. Volume one of the 3-volume gazetteer titled Madras, Chennai: A 400-year record of the first city of modern India on "The Land, People and Governance" and volume two on "Services, Education and the Economy" were published in 2008 and 2014 respectively and a third on "Information, Culture and Entertainment" is under preparation.

Honors

On 7 March 2002, Muthiah was made a "Honorary Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire". The award was presented to him by Michael Herrige, British High Commissioner to India at a function in Chennai. was a stockbroker and politician who served as a mayor of Colombo, British Ceylon and was one of the founders of the Ceylon India Congress formed in 1939. He even stood for elections for the House of Representatives of Ceylon from the Nuwara Eliya constituency in 1947 and lost. The couple had two daughters Ranjani and Parvathy.

Works