Vaithianathan Navaratnam (25 October 1910 – 22 December 2006) 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

Navaratnam was born on 25 October 1910. He was the son of Vaithianathan from

Karampon Karampon (also known as ''Karampan'') ( ta, கரம்பொன்) is a village located in Kayts, Velanai Island, off the Jaffna Peninsula, Northern Sri Lanka. The majority of the people are Hindus along with a minority of Christians C ...

on the island of Velanaitivu 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 ...

. He was educated at Karampon Shanmuganathan Maha Vidyalayam,

St. Patrick's College, Jaffna , motto_translation = By faith and labour , location = Mathews Road, Gurunagar , city = Jaffna , province = Northern Province , country = Sri Lanka , coordinates ...

and

Ananda College ''Appamādo Amathapadan'' (Buddhist quote from the Apramada Vagga in the Dhammapada) , motto_translation = Heedfulness, Punctuality leads to Nirvana , location = P De S Kularatne Mawatha , city = Colom ...

. After school he joined Ceylon Law College, graduating as 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 ...

in 1936. Navaratnam married his first cousin Parameswari. They had five sons (Chandra Mohan, Jagadishan, Jegan Mohan, Raj Mohan and Bala Mohan) and a daughter (Shyamala).

Career

Navaratnam became interested in politics following Ceylonese independence in 1948. He was appointed joint secretary of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party) when it was founded in 1949. Navaratnam stood as ITAK's candidate in Kayts at the 1952 parliamentary election but was defeated by the

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 ...

candidate

Alfred Thambiayah Alfred Leo Saverimuthu Thambiayah ( ta, அல்பிரட் லியோ சவரிமுத்து தம்பிஐயா; (November 10, 1903 - October 1, 2009) was a Ceylon Tamil businessman, centenarian, politician and Member of Par ...

. He was ITAK's theoretician and played an important role in the formulation of the

Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact The Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact was an agreement signed between the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and the leader of the main Tamil political party in Sri Lanka S. J. V. Chelvanayakam on July 26, 1957. It advocated the ...

. Navaratnam stood as ITAK's candidate in the constituency in the 1963

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

following the sitting MP V. A. Kandiah's death. 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 ...

. He was re-elected at the 1965 parliamentary election. An ardent Tamil nationlist, Navaratnam fell out with the ITAK leadership over its decision to join Dudley Senanayake's

national government A national government is the government of a nation. National government or National Government may also refer to: * Central government in a unitary state, or a country that does not give significant power to regional divisions * Federal governme ...

and left the party in 1968. In 1969 he founded the ''Tamils Suyaadchchi Kazahagam'' (Tamil Self Rule Party) which campaigned for Tamil self-rule and

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

for the Tamil speaking provinces of Ceylon. He stood as an

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 in Kayts at the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

and

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

parliamentary elections but on each occasion was defeated the ITAK/

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

candidate

K. P. Ratnam Kaarthigesar Ponnambalam Ratnam ( ta, கார்த்திகேசு பொன்னம்பலம் இரத்தினம்; 10 March 1914 – 20 December 2010) was a Sri Lankan Tamil academic, politician and Member of Parliament. ...

. Navaratnam has written two books: ''Ceylon Faces Crisis'' (1956) and ''The Fall and Rise of the Tamil Nation'' (1995). He died on 22 December 2006 in Montreal, Quebec,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He was

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ''Posthumous'' (E ...

conferred the title of ''Naattu Patralar'' (patriot) by the

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Navaratnam, V. 1910 births 2006 deaths Alumni of Ananda College Alumni of Ceylon Law College Alumni of St. Patrick's College, Jaffna Canadian people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent Ceylonese proctors Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi politicians Members of the 5th Parliament of Ceylon Members of the 6th Parliament of Ceylon People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka People from British Ceylon Sri Lankan Tamil lawyers Sri Lankan Tamil politicians Sri Lankan Tamil writers