Deiva Zivarattinam (born 3 December 1894,
Pondicherry
Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
, d. 25 March 1975, Pondicherry) was an Indian politician. He represented Pondicherry (then a
French colony) in the French Constituent Assembly election in 1945.
Zivarattinam studied law and became a lawyer. He was appointed to the provisional Constituent Assembly, that had been assembled by
Charles de Gaulle in
Algiers in November 1943. His mandate was validated on 13 January 1944. Zivarattinam was included in the Overseas Commission of the assembly. At the time, Zivarattinam's health was weak. On 7 November 1944 he moved to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
to where the provisional Constituent Assembly had shifted. During the Paris sessions, he participated in Overseas Commission, Labour and Social Affairs Commission, Permanent Coordination Commission and the Muslim Affairs Commission.
In the
1945 French Constituent Assembly election, Zivarattinam stood as a candidate of the Social Democratic Union for the
French India seat. He won the seat, having gotten 22,171 votes (46.8%). He sat in the Democratic and Socialist Resistance (RDS) group. In the assembly he was a member of the Overseas Commission and the Justice and General Legislation Commission.
In the Overseas Commission (chaired by
Lamine Guèye), he became one of the secretaries.
[Lara, Oruno D. ]
De l'oubli à l'histoire: espace et identité caraïbes : Guadeloupe, Guyane, Haïti, Martinique
'. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1998. p. 220
Zivarattinam lost his seat in the
June 1946 elections, being defeated by
Lambert Saravane. Zivarattinam received merely 18 votes.
Towards the end of French rule of Pondicherry, he led a political party called the
Town Congress. The Town Congress favoured integration with India.
References
1894 births
1975 deaths
People from Puducherry district
Puducherry politicians
Members of the National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
People of French India
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