13 Facts About Rettamalai Srinivasan

Diwan Bahadur Rettamalai Srinivasan, commonly known as R Srinivasan, was a scheduled caste activist and politician from then Madras Presidency of British India.

Rettamalai Srinivasan is remembered today as one of the pioneers of the Scheduled caste movement in India.

Rettamalai Srinivasan founded the Adi dravida mahajana sabha in 1893.

Rettamalai Srinivasan was born on 7 July 1860 in a poor Tamil family in Madras Presidency.

Rettamalai Srinivasan's family was able to send him to a residential school in Coimbatore because of his father Rettamalai's trade relations with the British.

Rettamalai Srinivasan was the only Paraiyar student among the 400 pupils in the school.

Rettamalai Srinivasan then worked as an accountant at Ooty which was then the summer capital of the Madras presidency.

Rettamalai Srinivasan was a brother-in-law of the famous scheduled castes activist Iyothee Thass.

Rettamalai Srinivasan established and led the Paraiyar Mahajana Sabha in 1891 which later became the Adi-Dravida Mahajana Sabha.

Rettamalai Srinivasan founded a Tamil newspaper called Paraiyan in October 1893 which started selling as a monthly with four pages for the price of four annas.

Rettamalai Srinivasan was a participant in the freedom movement and an arrest warrant was issued against him claiming that he was fleeing the nation.

In 1896, a case was filed against the newspaper and Rettamalai Srinivasan was dragged to the court citing a letter to the editor.

In 1932, Ambedkar, M C Rajah and Rettamalai Srinivasan briefly joined the board of the Servants of Untouchables Society established by Gandhi.