20 November 1916: the evening a movement was founded in Madras
How a gathering of non-Brahmin leaders in Vepery created the South Indian People's Association and the South Indian Liberal Federation, the organisation history remembers as the Justice Party.
The Justice Party began not with a mass rally but with a meeting of notables. On 20 November 1916, non-Brahmin leaders gathered in Madras and agreed to create two bodies: the South Indian People's Association (SIPA), a company that would publish newspapers in English, Tamil and Telugu, and the South Indian Liberal Federation (SILF), a political movement. Wikipedia's history of the party records the meeting at the Vepery residence of advocate T. Ethirajulu Mudaliar, and associates the founding with Victoria Public Hall.
Why it happened
Explainer
By the early twentieth century, Brahmins, a small share of the Presidency's population, held most of the government posts open to Indians and dominated the Legislative Council. Between 1910 and 1920, eight of the nine official members appointed by the Governor were Brahmins. In 1916, non-Brahmin candidates including T. M. Nair, P. Ramarayaningar, P. Theagaraya Chetty and Kurma Venkata Reddi Naidu lost elections to Brahmin candidates. Those defeats convinced their supporters that they needed an organisation of their own.
The founding is credited to Dr C. Natesa Mudaliar, with T. M. Nair, P. Theagaraya Chetty and Alamelu Mangai Thayarammal as co-founders. Natesa Mudaliar's achievement was partly personal: Chetty and Nair had been rivals in the Madras Corporation council, and he reconciled them. Those present included P. Rajarathina Mudaliar, who became president of the federation, as well as M. C. Rajah, A. P. Patro and A. Ramaswamy Mudaliar.
What the founders said they wanted
In October 1917 the party published its objectives, drafted by T. M. Nair, in The Hindu. The notice remained the nearest thing the party had to a constitution until it adopted one in 1925.
Objectives of the South Indian Liberal Federation, as published in The Hindu, 18 October 1917 (quoted in Wikipedia)1) to create and promote the education, social, economic, political, material and moral progress of all communities in Southern India other than Brahmins 2)to discuss public questions and make a true and timely representation to Government of the views and interests of the people of Southern India with the object of safeguarding and promoting the interests of all communities other than Brahmins and 3) to disseminate by public lectures, by distribution of literature and by other means sound and liberal views in regard to public opinion.
What it meant
The objectives were moderate in method: representation to Government, lectures and literature. They were radical in aim, because they asked the State to treat the progress of most of its people as public business. The federation was also loyal to British rule, a position that later isolated it from the national movement.
Legacy
The party came to be known by the name of its English daily, Justice, first published in February 1917. Within four years it would form the first elected ministry of the Presidency. Its successors include the Dravidar Kazhagam and, through it, the Dravidian parties that have governed Tamil Nadu since 1967.