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{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Taravath Madhavan Nair
| birth_date = 15 January 1868
| image = TM Nair 2008 stamp of India.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_place = [[Tirur]], [[Ponnani taluk]], [[Madras Presidency]] (present-day [[Malappuram district]],
[[kerala]])
| spouse =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1919|07|17|1868|01|15}}
| death_place = [[London]], [[England]]
| occupation = Politician<br>Physician
}}
'''Taravath Madhavan Nair'''<ref name=MR>
{{cite web
| title = Founder Leaders of Justice Party honoured
| publisher = Modern Rationalist
| date = October 2008
| url = http://www.themronline.com/200810mr/page15.html
| access-date = 15 January 2008
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090105175235/http://www.themronline.com/200810mr/page15.html
| archive-date = 5 January 2009
| url-status = dead
| df = dmy-all
}}
</ref> (15 January 1868 – 17 July 1919) was an Indian politician and political activist of the Dravidian Movement from the [[Madras Presidency]]. He founded the [[Justice Party (India)|Justice Party]] along with [[Theagaraya Chetty]] and [[C. Natesa Mudaliar]].

== Early life ==
{{Dravidian politics-col}}
Nair was born near [[Tirur]] on 15 January 1868,<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp9">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 9</ref> [[Madras Presidency]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp8">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 8</ref> His father Chingicham Veetil Sankaran Nair was a District Munsiff in the Judicial service at Tirur.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp8" /> Madhavan Nair's elder brother Sankaran Nair studied law and served as Deputy Collector while his sister Taravath Ammalu Amma was a Sanskrit and Malayalam scholar who wrote a book in Malayalam on the lives of the 63 Nayanmars.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp9" />

Nair was educated at the Government High School, Palghat.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp9" /> He was known for his academic proficiency and he passed his matriculation exam one year in advance.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp9" /> He graduated from the [[Presidency College, Chennai|Presidency College]], Madras and joined [[Madras Medical College]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp9" /> However, he did not complete his course in medicine moving to continues his studies at the [[University of Edinburgh]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp9" /> He graduated from the University with an in [[Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery|MBChB]],<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp9" /> and obtained his MD in 1896, with Sanskrit as the compulsory classical subject.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp10">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 10</ref> He researched in [[Otorhinolaryngology|ENT]] diseases at Paris and returned to India in 1897.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp10" /> During his stay in the United Kingdom, he was a member of the Edinburgh Student's Representative Council, Secretary and later, President of the Edinburgh Indian Association, member of the Edinburgh University Liberal Association and University Union and one of the editors of Edinburgh University Liberal's magazine "The Student". Prior to his return to India, Nair spent some time in London where he served as Secretary and later Vice-President of London Indian Society which was led by [[Dadabhai Naoroji]]. He also served as a member of the [[British Medical Association]], [[Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|the Royal Asiatic Society]], [[National Liberal Club|the National Liberal Club]] and [[Royal Society|the Royal Society]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp10" />

== Public offices ==

Nair represented [[Triplicane]] in the Madras Corporation from 1904 to 1916.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp12">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 12</ref> During his term he frequently attacked the Corporation and its President Molony over the quality of water supplied.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp12" /> In 1910 he agitated for the revival of the Palghat Municipal Council.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp12" />

In 1908 Nair was appointed member of the Labor Commission by the Government of India.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp14">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 14</ref> He submitted a report condemning the situation of workers in factories and recommended the reduction of hours of work.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp14" /> He personally submitted his condemnation and recommendations before the Secretary of State for India at London.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp14" />

In 1912 Nair was elected to the [[Madras Legislative Council]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp14" /> When the [[First World War]] broke out Nair served as one of the surgeons on the hospital ship SS Madras, and was commissioned as a lieutenant.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp15">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 15</ref> At the end of the war he was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind medal and posthumously the War Service medal.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp15" />

== In the Indian National Congress ==

Nair was associated with the [[Indian National Congress]] right from the time of his return to India in 1897.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp13">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 13</ref> In the Congress sessions in 1898 and 1899, he strongly condemned the present status of Indian officers in the Medical services and campaigned for equal treatment to be meted out to them.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp13" /> He presided over the District Congress at Chittoor, [[North Arcot]] in 1907.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp13" />

== Formation of the South Indian Liberal Federation ==

When Nair lost the elections to the [[Imperial Legislature of India]] held in 1916 he blamed caste-based prejudices in the Indian National Congress for his loss.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp17">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 17</ref> Nair felt that the [[Brahmins]] were dominating the Indian National Congress. He protested the [[Home Rule Movement]] launched by [[Annie Besant]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp16">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 16</ref><ref name="Non-Brahmin Movement">{{Cite web|url=http://www.tamilnation.org/caste/nambi.htm|title=Caste & the Tamil Nation:The Origin of the Non-Brahmin Movement, 1905–1920|access-date=3 September 2008|publisher=Koodal Publishers|year=1980|author=K. Nambi Arooran|work=Tamil renaissance and Dravidian nationalism 1905–1944}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref>

In 1917 Nair left the Indian National Congress. At a meeting in August 1917 he said:

{{quotation|Non-Brahmins were looking to the British Government for protection, to hold scales evenly and to mete out Justice, but when they saw a movement progressing whose object was to undermine British influence and power in this country, they thought it their duty to rally round the British Government and to support them<ref name="Non-Brahmin Movement" />}}

In October 1917, Nair launched the South Indian Liberal Federation, also known as the [[Justice Party (India)|Justice Party]] in collaboration with [[Theagaroya Chetty|Sir Pitti Theagaroya Chetty]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp16" /><ref name="Non-Brahmin Movement" />

== Editorship of the ''Justice'' ==

In November 1916 a meeting was held at Madras in which Sir P. Theagaroya Chetty and Nair participated.<ref name="Non-Brahmin Movement" /> The meeting brought out a resolution mandating the establishment of a newspaper for voicing the aspirations of non-Brahmins.<ref name="Non-Brahmin Movement" /> From 26 February 1917 onwards, the ''Justice'' began to be published.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp17" /><ref name="Non-Brahmin Movement" /> Nair was the chief editor until his death in 1919. In his newspaper he attacked his opponents in the Indian National Movement and supporters of the Home Rule Movement.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp19">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 19</ref> Once when the Indian National Congress carried out agitations in Ernad Tirur and Valluvanad, he prophesied that "the Congress was smoking in a gunpowder magazine".<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp19" /> His words proved to be true when the [[Moplah Rebellion]] broke out in the region in the year 1921.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp19" />

== Mission to England and death ==

In 1918–19, despite warnings from fellow doctors not to travel abroad as his health was deteriorating, he led a mission to England to speak in support of communal representations before a Joint Parliamentary Committee.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp7">[[#Encycylopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 7</ref> He remains one of the few Indians to have addressed a meeting of the members of the UK Parliament.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp7" /> However he was prohibited from speaking to the public on the orders of [[Edwin Samuel Montagu]], the [[Secretary of State for India]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp7" /> Nair died on 17 July 1919 at the age of 51 due to heart seizure following diabetic [[gangrene]] and [[Bright's disease]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp7" /> His body was cremated at Golders Green, cemetery in London and is still a pilgrim's centre for many who admire him.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp8" />

== Inclination ==

Nair always wore Western clothes and followed Western manners and customs. As a result, he was frequently criticised as an [[anglophile]].<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp10" /> However, at the same time, he displayed his love for his mother tongue [[Malayalam]] by speaking and writing in chaste Malayalam.<ref name="encyclopediapoliticalpartiesp11">[[#Encyclopedia of Political Parties|Encyclopedia of Political Parties]], p. 11</ref>

== Commemoration ==

In 2008, the [[Government of India]] released a postage stamp in his honour. Dr. Nair Road, an arterial road running through [[T. Nagar]], [[Chennai]] connecting Pondy bazar and GN Chetty Road – is named after him, since he lived and practised medicine from there.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite book | title=Encyclopaedia of Political Parties| last=Ralhan| first=O. P. | year=2002| publisher=Anmol Publications PVT. LTD| ISBN=978-81-7488-865-5|ref=Encyclopedia of Political Parties}}
* {{cite book|title=India Old and New Chapter XII:Cross Currents in Southern India|first=Sir Valentine|last=Chirol|year=1921|author-link=Valentine Chirol|publisher=Macmillan & Co.|place=London}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nair, T. M.}}
[[Category:1868 births]]
[[Category:1919 deaths]]
[[Category:People of British India]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Malayali politicians]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]]
[[Category:Justice Party (India) politicians]]
[[Category:Politicians from Palakkad]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians from Kerala]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]

T. M. Nair - Revision history

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