Sivasubramaniam Kathiravelupillai ( ta, சிவசுப்பிரமணியம் கதிரவேலுப்பிள்ளை; 24 October 1924 – 31 March 1981) was a

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pr ...

lawyer, politician and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Early life and family

Kathiravelupillai was born on 24 October 1924. He was the son of Sivasubramaniam, a

proctor Proctor (a variant of ''procurator'') is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another. The title is used in England and some other English-speaking countries in three principal contexts: * In law, a proctor is a historical class of lawye ...

from Irupalai in northern

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. After school he entered the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univer ...

to study a degree in philosophy. He studied law later.

Career

After qualifying Kathiravelupillai practised civil law. Kathiravelupillai stood as the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi's (Federal Party) candidate in

Jaffna Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...

at the March 1960 and July 1960 parliamentary elections but on each occasion was defeated by

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidate Alfred Duraiappah. He stood as the ITAK candidate in Kopay at the 1965 parliamentary election. He won the election and entered

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. Kathiravelupillai played a leading role in the 1961 satyagraha campaign organised by ITAK. He was re-elected at the 1970 parliamentary election. On 14 May 1972 the ITAK,

All Ceylon Tamil Congress All Ceylon Tamil Congress ( ta, அகில இலங்கைத் தமிழ்க் காங்கிரஸ்), is the oldest Tamil political party in Sri Lanka. History The ACTC was founded in 1944 by G.G. Ponnambalam. Ponnambalam ask ...

Ceylon Workers' Congress The Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) ( ta, இலங்கை தொழிலாளர் காங்கிரஸ், translit=Ilaṅkai Toḻilāḷar Kāṅkiras; si, ලංකා කම්කරු කොංග්‍රසය ''Lanka Kamkaru ...

, Eelath Thamilar Otrumai Munnani and All Ceylon Tamil Conference formed the

Tamil United Front The Tamil United Liberation Front ( ta, தமிழர் ஐக்கிய விடுதலை முன்னணி, translit=Tamil Onrupattatu Viduthulai Munnai, si, ද්‍රවිඩ එක්සත් විමුක්ති ප� ...

, later renamed

Tamil United Liberation Front The Tamil United Liberation Front ( ta, தமிழர் ஐக்கிய விடுதலை முன்னணி, translit=Tamil Onrupattatu Viduthulai Munnai, si, ද්‍රවිඩ එක්සත් විමුක්ති ප� ...

(TULF). In 1973 Kathiravelupillai published a pamphlet titled ''A Statement on Eelam: Co-Existence – Not Confrontation'', considered one of the most important documents in the Tamil independence movement, which articulated the reasons why the two

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

s - Tamils and

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

- needed to co-exist on the island of Ceylon in separate states. Kathiravelupillai was the TULF's candidate in Kopay at the 1977 parliamentary election and was re-elected. Kathiravelupillai died on 31 March 1981 in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Works

* ''Glimpses of Western Philosophy'' * ''Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam'' (1961, translation) * ''A Statement on Eelam: Co-Existence – Not Confrontation'' (1973)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kathiravelupillai, S. 1924 births 1981 deaths Alumni of the University of Ceylon Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi politicians Members of the 6th Parliament of Ceylon Members of the 7th Parliament of Ceylon Members of the 8th Parliament of Sri Lanka People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka People from British Ceylon Sri Lankan Hindus Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan lawyers Tamil politicians Tamil United Liberation Front politicians