Background
Sambanthan was born in Sungai Siput in 1919. His father, M.S. Veerasamy Thevar, came to Malaya in the 1896, was a pioneer rubber planter in Sungai Siput, Perak and owned several rubber plantations. His siblings were V.M. Sundram V. Krishnan and V. Saraswathy .
Sambanthan received his early education at Clifford High School in Kuala Kangsar, Perak. A keen sportsman, Sambanthan was an intelligent student who loved to chat and joke.
Sambanthan continued his studies in economics at the highly respected Annamalai University in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. His interest in politics is said to have been triggered while studying in India as he closely followed the rise of the Indian nationalist movement. He even took part in some of the protests led by the Quit India Movement against the British and was injured in one instance.
He subscribed to the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence in achieving independence and was attracted to the political ideas of independence fighter Subash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru who later became the first prime minister of independent India.
Not surprisingly, he become involved with the Youth Wing of the Indian National Congress. The ethnicity and sectionalism in Indian society troubled him and this was to influence his later advocacy of racial tolerance, harmony and cooperation in Malayan politics.
When his father died in 1942, Sambanthan was stuck in India as World War II raged. When the war ended, he returned to Malaya in 1946 and took over the management of the family business that included vast rubber plantations.
He took a keen interest in the welfare of the estate community, developing a close rapport with them. He was particularly concerned with the rate of illiteracy among Indians in the estates and devoted much time and energy to introduce schooling.
In 1954, he built the Mahatma Gandhi Tamil School in Sungai Siput with some assistance from the Senior Inspector of Schools, a British official.
His efforts to raise the education level of the Indians drew the attention of the authorities and he was appointed a member of the Board of Councillors by the Perak State Education Department.
Read more about this topic: V. T. Sambanthan
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