Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar - Justice Party

Justice Party

Ramasamy Mudaliar was a part of the Justice Party ever since its inception in 1917 and served as its General Secretary. In July 1918, Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar went to England along with Dr. T. M. Nair and Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu as a part of the Justice Party delegation to argue in favor of communal representation and give evidence before the Reforms Committee. The evidence was taken just before Dr. Nair's death on July 17, 1919.

Ramasamy Mudaliar rose in stature gradually and began to be regarded as the "brain of the Justice Party". He assisted in coordinating between non-Brahmins in different parts of India and organizing non-Brahmin conferences. Mudaliar was a prominent orator and was known for his inspiring speeches.

In the elections to the Madras Legislative Council held on November 8, 1926, the Justice Party lost the elections winning just 21 of the 98 seats in the Council. Mudaliar was one of the many who met with failure in the elections. Mudaliar 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 circulation and the Justice became widely popular. On March 1, 1929, Mudaliar 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. Mudaliar served as the mayor of Madras from 1928 to 1930. In 1935, Mudaliar resigned as the Chief Editor of Justice following his appointment to the Tariff Board. Mudaliar 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. He received the accolade at Buckingham Palace on 25 February 1937.