Tamil Nadu showed the lead in resistingcolonial rule. As early as the late eighteenthcentury the Palayakarars, resisted theEnglish attempts to establish their politicalhegemony in Tamil Nadu. Even after thedefeat of the Palayakarars, an uprising wasorganised by Indian sepoys and officers inVellore Fort in 1806 that had its echoes inseveral cantonments in south India. Thanksto the introduction of Western educationand eventual emergence of educated Indianmiddle class, the struggle against the Britishtook the constitutional path. The freedomstruggle in Tamil Nadu was unique, becausefrom the beginning it was not only a strugglefor independence from the English rule butalso a struggle for independence from socialdisability imposed by the obnoxious castesystem. In this lesson we shall study the roleplayed by nationalists wedded to diverse ideologies in Tamil Nadu.
The
Madras Native Association (MNA)was the earliest organisation to be
founded insouth India to articulate larger public ratherthan sectarian
interests. It was started byGazulu Lakshminarasu, Srinivasanar and
theirassociates in 1852. It consisted primarily ofmerchants. The
objective was to promote theinterests of its members and their focus was
onreduction in taxation. It also protested against
the support of
the government to Christianmissionaryactivities.Itdrew the attention of
thegovernment to the conditionand needs of the people.One of the
importantcontributions of the MNAwas its agitation against
torture of
the peasants byrevenue officials. These efforts led to the
establishment of the Torture Commission and the eventual abolition of
the Torture Act, which justified the collection of land revenue through
torture. However, by
1862, the Madras Native Association had ceased to exist.
The
appointment of T. Muthuswami as the first Indian Judge of the Madras
High Court in1877 created a furore in Madras Presidency. Theentire press
in Madras criticized the appointmentof an Indian as a Judge. The press
opposed his
appointment and the educated youth realizedthat the press
was entirely owned by Europeans.The need for a newspaper to express the
Indianerspective was keenly felt. G. Subramaniam,M. Veeraraghavachari
and four other friendstogether started a newspaper The Hindu in1878. It
soon became the vehicle of nationalist
propaganda. G. Subramaniam
also started aTamil nationalist periodical Swadesamitranin 1891 which
became a daily in 1899. Thefounding of The Hindu and
Swadesamitranprovided encouragement to the starting of other native
newspapers such as Indian Patriot, South Indian Mail, Madras Standard,
Desabhimani,Vijaya, Suryodayam and India.
9 th class|Socialscience|important Qustion|both Medium
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