M. C. Rajah

Mylai Chinna Thambi Pillai Rajah (17 June 1883 – 23 August 1943) was a politician, educationist and social activist from Madras. He entered politics after graduating and was among those present at the founding meeting of the Justice movement in November 1916.

In the Legislative Council he was the main representative of the Scheduled Castes. During the 1921 Pulianthope mill dispute, when Justice leaders blamed officials for favouring Adi Dravida workers, Rajah agreed with the Government that caste prejudice had inflamed the conflict. He quit the party in 1923 over its treatment of the then Depressed Classes, and many Adi Dravida supporters left with him.

Wikipedia describes him as the first leader to organise the Scheduled Castes at the national level, as a figure considered in his time equal in stature to B. R. Ambedkar, and as a pioneer of the mid-day meal scheme. His place in this gallery is a reminder that the Justice movement's history includes those it failed as well as those it served. The portrait shown here comes from his September 1929 sitting at the Lafayette studio in London; the National Portrait Gallery, London, holds a photograph of him and his wife from that sitting.