T. M. Nair

Taravath Madhavan Nair (15 January 1868 – 17 July 1919) was an Indian politician and political activist of the Dravidian Movement from the Madras Presidency. He founded the Justice Party along with Theagaraya Chetty and C. Natesa Mudaliar.

Early life

Nair was born in Tirur, Malabar District (in present day Ponnani taluk, Malappuram district, Kerala, India) on 15 January 1868. He belongs to an affluent Kiriyathil-Charna Nair subcaste family of North Kerala. His father Chingicham Veetil Sankaran Nair was a District Munsiff in the Judicial service at Tirur. Madhavan Nair's elder brother Sankaran Nair studied law and served as Deputy Collector while his sister Taravath Ammalu Amma was a Sanskrit and Malayalam scholar who wrote a book in Malayalam on the lives of the 63 Nayanmars.

In 1917 Nair left the Indian National Congress. At a meeting in August 1917 he said:

Non-Brahmins were looking to the British Government for protection, to hold scales evenly and to mete out Justice, but when they saw a movement progressing whose object was to undermine British influence and power in this country, they thought it their duty to rally round the British Government and to support them Once when the Indian National Congress carried out agitations in Ernad Tirur and Valluvanad, he prophesied that "the Congress was smoking in a gunpowder magazine". He remains one of the few Indians to have addressed a meeting of the members of the UK Parliament.

Inclination

Nair always wore Western clothes and followed Western manners and customs. As a result, he was frequently criticised as an anglophile. However, at the same time, he displayed his love for his mother tongue Malayalam by speaking and writing in chaste Malayalam.

Commemoration

In 2008, the Government of India released a postage stamp in his honour. Dr. Nair Road, an arterial road running through T. Nagar, Chennai connecting Pondy bazar and GN Chetty Road – is named after him, since he lived and practised medicine from there.