Sir Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar (14 October 1887 – 17 July 1976) was an Indian lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who was the first president of the

United Nations Economic and Social Council The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...

and the 24th and last

Diwan of Mysore The diwan of Mysore, also spelled dewan of Mysore, synonymously the prime minister of Mysore, was the ''de-facto'' chief executive officer of the government of the Kingdom of Mysore and the prime minister and royal adviser to the Maharaja of M ...

. He also served as a senior leader of the Justice Party and in various administrative and bureaucratic posts in pre- and

Independent India 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 ...

. He was a prominent orator and was known for his inspiring speeches.

Encyclopedia of Political Parties An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

, Pg 153

Early life

Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar was born in the town of Kurnool in then- Madras Presidency,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, in a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-speaking Tuluva Vellala (Agamudaya Mudhaliyar) family. He was the eldest of a pair of

twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

, the other being Arcot Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar. He had his schooling at Municipal High School, Kurnool. He graduated from Madras Christian College and studied law at

Madras Law College Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, commonly known by its former name Madras Law College, is a law school, located in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is also referred to as Government Law College or GLC, Chennai. It was established in ...

. On completion of his studies, he practised as a lawyer before joining the Justice Party and entering politics. Mudaliar was nominated to the Madras Legislative Council in 1920 and served from 1920 to 1926 and as a member of the

Madras Legislative Assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members of whom are democratically elected using the First-past-the-post system. The presiding officer of the Assembl ...

from 1931 to 1934, losing to S. Satyamurti in the 1934 elections. He served as a member of the

Imperial Legislative Council The Imperial Legislative Council (ILC) was the legislature of the British Raj from 1861 to 1947. It was established under the Charter Act of 1853 by providing for the addition of 6 additional members to the Governor General Council for legislativ ...

from 1939 to 1941, as a part of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

's war cabinet from 1942 to 1945, and as the Indian representative in the Pacific War Council. He was India's delegate to the

San Francisco Conference The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), commonly known as the San Francisco Conference, was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, Calif ...

and served as the first president of the

. He also served as the last

from 1946 to 1949. He was an uncle to Cmdr. V.S.P. Mudaliar, a veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Political career

Justice Party

Mudaliar was a part of the Justice Party ever since its inception in 1917 and served as its general secretary.

, Pg 152 In July 1918, he went to England along with T. M. Nair and

Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu Rao Bahadur Sir Kurma Venkatareddy Naidu KCSI (1875–1942) was an Indian lawyer, professor, politician and Justice Party leader who served as the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from 1 April 1937 to 14 July 1937. He was the last Chief Min ...

as part of the Justice Party delegation to argue in favour of communal representation and offer evidence before the Reforms Committee.

, Pg 69 The evidence was taken just before Nair's death on 17 July 1919.

All India Non-Brahmin Movement

Mudaliar rose in stature gradually and began to be regarded as the "brain of the Justice Party". He assisted in coordinating between non-

Brahmins Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

in different parts of India and organising non-Brahmin conferences. Mudaliar maintained friendly relations with Shahu Maharaj and non-Brahmin leaders from Maharashtra and parts of

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

and helped coordinate between and uniting leaders from different parts of India and in organising non-Brahmin conferences.

, Pg 48 He was a participant in the Satara Non-Brahmin Conference held on 18 December 1922, presided over by Raja Rajaram II. He also participated in the All-India Non-Brahmin Conference held at Belgaum on 26 December 1924 where his oratory was appreciated. At the Seventh Non-Brahmin Conference held on 8 February 1925, he appealed for unity amongst non-Brahmins.

, Pg 49 Following the death of Sir P.T. Theagaroya Chetty in 1925, Mudaliar functioned as the sole link between Shahu Maharaj's Satya Shodhak Samaj and the Justice Party. He assisted Raja P. Ramarayaningar in organising an All-India Non-Brahmin Confederation at Victoria Hall, Madras, on 19 December 1925. He supported the candidature of B.V. Jadhav who was eventually appointed president. On 26 December 1925, he organised a second conference at Amaravati. The conference comprised two sessions: Rajaram II presided over the first while P. Ramarayaningar presided over the second. In the second session of the Conference, Mudaliar said: Mudaliar's utterances at this conference became the target of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', which criticised him by saying that "the speaker was desiring to produce an effect in another province, forced him to draw rather freely on his imagination". In the elections to the

Madras Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was init ...

held on 8 November 1926, the Justice Party lost the elections, winning just 21 of the 98 seats in the council.

, Pg 189 Mudaliar was one of the many who met with failure in the elections. He took a temporary retirement from politics and replaced P. N. Raman Pillai as the editor of ''Justice'', the mouthpiece of the Justice Party. Under Mudaliar, there was a tremendous growth in its circulation, and ''Justice'' became widely popular. On 1 March 1929, he appeared before the Simon Commission along with Sir A. T. Paneerselvam, another important leader of the Justice Party, to provide evidence on behalf of the Justice Party.

Administrative career

Mayor of Madras

Mudaliar served as the mayor of Madras from 1928 to 1930. In 1935, he resigned as the chief editor of ''Justice'' following his appointment to the Tariff Board. On 25 February 1937, he was knighted in the 1937 Coronation Honours List, by which time he was a member of the Council of the

Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...

Member of Churchill's war cabinet

Shortly before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

broke out in 1939, Mudaliar was appointed a member of the

Viceroy's Executive Council The Viceroy's Executive Council was the cabinet of the government of British India headed by the Viceroy of India. It is also known as the Council of the Governor-General of India. It was transformed from an advisory council into a cabinet consistin ...

. In June 1942, he was knighted again with KCSI. In July 1942, he was appointed to Winston Churchill's war cabinet, one of the two Indians nominated to the post.

President of the UN Economic and Social Council

Mudaliar served as India's delegate to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

at the

between 25 April and 26 June 1945, where he chaired the committee that discussed economic and social problems. He was elected as the first president of the Economic and Social Council during its session at Church House,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, on 23 January 1946. Under his presidency, the council passed a resolution in February 1946 calling for an international health conference. At the conference which was eventually held on 19 June 1946, inaugurated by Mudaliar, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

came into being, and the constitution for the new organisation was read out and approved by delegates from 61 nations. On the expiry of his one-year term, he returned to India and became

Diwan of Mysore

Mudaliar was appointed as the Dewan of Mysore in 1946 by Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, succeededing

N. Madhava Rao Sir Nyapathi Madhava Rau (8 June 1887 – 28 August 1972) was an Indian civil servant, administrator, and statesman who served as the 23rd dewan of Mysore from 1941 to 1945 and later as a member of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Asse ...

. He presided over a very turbulent period in Mysore's and India's history. On 3 June 1947, Lord Mountbatten made a public declaration about the acceptance by the Indian leaders of partition of India into two independent dominions. This announcement had a tremendous impact on Indian states. Early in June 1947, the Mudaliar convened a press conference at

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

and announced that the Mysore Government had taken a decision to accede to the new

dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...

and to send its representatives to the

Indian Constituent Assembly The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to frame the Constitution of India. It was elected by the 'Provincial Assembly'. Following India's independence from the British rule in 1947, its members served as the nation's first Parliament as ...

. Thereafter,

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

passed the

Indian Independence Act, 1947 The Indian Independence Act 1947 947 CHAPTER 30 10 and 11 Geo 6is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The Act received Royal Assent on 18 Ju ...

on 15 July 1947, and the bill received royal sssent on 18 July 1947. This act provided for the creation of the independent dominion of India and Pakistan on 15 Aug 1947. This act also freed the Indian states from the suzerainty of British government. There were a lot of misgivings about the lapse of suzerainty and the resultant freedom given to the over 560 Indian states. Indian leaders drafted an Instrument of Accession asking the rulers to accede to the dominion government on the three subjects of defence, communication, and external affairs. Jayachamaraja Wadiyar executed the instrument on 9 August 1947, and the same was accepted by the Mountbatten on 16 August 1947. But this also gave impetus to the local

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

leaders to renew their demand for a responsible government. This led to an agitation known as "Mysore Chalo". There appears to be obfuscation of facts among the agitating public that the maharaja, at the advice of the diwan and his secretary Sir T. Thamboo Chetty, was refusing to join the Indian Union. The truth of the matter was that India was not a union yet. India had just become an independent dominion. Jayachamaraja Wadiyar was one of the earliest to sign the instrument of accession. Soon, on 24 Sept 1947, he gave his assent to setting up of a government, and on 25 October 1947, K.C. Reddy became the first

chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

with a cabinet of nine ministers. Mudaliar continued to remain a link between the cabinet and the maharaja. As Jayachamaraja Wadiyar accepted the recommendation of the constituent assembly of Mysore to accept the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ...

for the state,

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

and become a Part-B state in the soon to be formed Republic of India, and issued a proclamation to this effect on 25 Nov 1949. With this, the post of diwan was also abolished. During his tenure as Diwan of Mysore, Mudaliar organised a number of Tamil music concerts in the kingdom in order to raise money for the restoration of the Carnatic musician

Tyagaraja Thyagaraja (Telugu: త్యాగరాజ) (4 May 1767 – 6 January 1847), also known as Thyāgayya and in full as Kakarla Thyagabrahmam, was a composer and vocalist of Carnatic music, a form of Indian classical music. Tyagaraja and his ...

's tomb at

Tiruvaiyaru Thiruvaiyaru (also spelled as Tiruvaiyaru or Tiruvayyaru) is a panchayat town in Thanjavur District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Etymology Thiruvaiyaru means ''Five Rivers around the city''. The Five Rivers are Vadavaar, Vennaar, Vett ...

. Mudaliar was sent by

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

as head of the Indian delegation to New York to argue India's case in the Security Council when

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

appealed to the council against accession to India and eloquently argued the case for India. The council eventually decided in favour of India.

Executive career

On 5 January 1955, the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) was established. Mudaliar was elected as its first chairman. Mudaliar helped Murugappa Group setup Tube Investments of India Limited. In his later years, he served as its chairman until his death in 1976. Murugappa Group, run by members of his family, also runs A.R.L.M. Matriculation Higher Secondary School in

Ambattur Ambattur is located in northwestern part of Chennai City, in Ambattur taluk of the Chennai District, surrounded by Avadi, Anna Nagar, Padi, Mogappair, Kallikuppam, Surapet, Korattur, Ayappakkam, and Thiruverkadu. It covers an area of . The nei ...

in his memory. His descendants are based out of

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

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 ...

, and Australia.

Honours

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conferred him the

Doctor of Civil Law Doctor of Civil Law (DCL; la, Legis Civilis Doctor or Juris Civilis Doctor) is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees. At Oxford, the degree is a higher ...

, appreciating his contributions during the Second World War.நகரத்தூதன் (City Herald), 22-7-1945, Page.5 Mudaliar was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

in 1954 and the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...

in 1970.

Religious beliefs

Despite his violent tirades against the ''

Varnashrama dharma ''Varṇa'' ( sa, वर्ण, varṇa), in the context of Hinduism, refers to a social class within a hierarchical caste system. The ideology is epitomized in texts like ''Manusmriti'', which describes and ranks four varnas, and prescribes ...

'' and Hindu scriptures in his writings and editorials in the ''Justice'', Mudaliar was known to be a staunch

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

. He regularly sported the Vaishnavite ''namam''. Once, while offered beef during a visit to England, he refused it with horror.

Works

* *

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mudaliar, Ramasamy 1887 births 1976 deaths Administrators in the princely states of India Madras Christian College alumni Scientists from Karnataka Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Bachelor Indian Knights Bachelor Diwans of Mysore Tamil Nadu politicians United Nations Economic and Social Council World Health Organization officials Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in civil service University of Mysore alumni Tamil civil servants Indian Tamil academics Mayors of Chennai Dewan Bahadurs Members of the Central Legislative Assembly of India Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy University of Madras alumni People from Kurnool Indian officials of the United Nations Members of the Council of the Governor General of India Léon Bernard Foundation Prize laureates