Rao Bahadur Mylai Chinnathambhi Pillai Rajah (M.C. Rajah) was one of the foremost Dalit voices of Bharat. He was born in Thomas Mount, Chennai, on June 17, 1883. He attended Wesley Mission High School in Royapettah, Chennai, and graduated from the Madras Christian College. He finished his teacher training course at the Saidapet Teacher Training College in Chennai and worked as a school teacher and later a college professor.
He was a great orator, debater and a sportsman par excellence – he captained the Madras Christian College cricket team and was also a very gifted Tennis player.
He was the first Dalit leader in the Provincial Legislative Council (1919) and the Central Legislative Assembly (1925). He was a prolific scholar, a teacher of teachers, and, of course, the foremost advocate for equal rights for Dalits.
Presenting the title of Rao Bahadur to M. C. Rajah, the Collector of Madras on December 15, 1922, remarked, “You are such a well-known public man that it is almost unnecessary for me to say much about you. No doubt you have received this title because of the work you have done for and the esteem in which you are rightly held by the members of your own important community of the Adi Dravidas. During the labour troubles you did yeoman service in restraining from violence and in protecting them effectively from law breakers.
You have represented your community in deputations to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State and to His Excellency the Viceroy. You are the first Adi Dravida to enter the Legislative Council and you have the interests of the depressed and poor always at heart”.
Teacher of teachers
The readers of this article will be pleasantly surprised to learn that M.C. Rajah, along with Smt. R. Ranganayaki Ammal, authored a book called Kindergarten Room. This book is a compendium of nursery rhymes, games and riddles which includes the most famous Tamil nursery rhymes such as – Kai Veesamma Kai Veesu (கை வீசம்மா கைவீசு), Nila Nila Odivaa (நிலா நிலா ஓடிவா), Saindhaadamma Saindhaadu (சாய்ந்தாடம்மா சாய்ந்தாடு), Kaakka Kannukku Mai Kondu Vaa (காக்கா கண்ணுக்கு மை கொண்டு வா).
M.C. Rajah was quintessential Guru, not just a teacher but someone who brought clarity to your mind. His magnetic methods could pull even the students from the last bench forward. He was as good an administrator as he was a teacher. In 1917, he was appointed by the then Governor of Madras Province, Lord Pentland, to the committee that looked into Elementary Education in the province. Subsequently, he was appointed into the General Body, which drafted the Elementary Education policy. He was appointed to the Senate of Madras University in 1924 by Lord Willingdon, along with T.S. Ramaswamy Iyer started the first government-approved free hostel for students from the depressed classes. He was also a champion of the Scout movement. As the Director of the Scout movement in the Madras province, he was instrumental in spreading the Scout and Guide movement across the province.
This was the time when Bharat was faced with two issues regarding Dalits and the depressed class – (1) the colonial masters were working from within and outside to remove the depressed classes from the Hindu fold, make them a separate block and, therefore, control the nationalist upsurge. And (2) the society had to be reformed and cleansed of practices like untouchability, and the oppressed classes were to be mainstreamed. M.C. Rajah was someone who not only understood the gravitas of the need to address both these points but also understood how these two points were intertwined.
The British played this politics of numbers at various levels. At the time of the first decennial census in 1871-72, they were ‘obsessed’ with the question of whether the untouchables could be classified as Hindus. Though this question dragged on, there clearly was a guideline to mark them separately. They were instructed “to enumerate the castes and tribes returned or classed as Hindus who do not conform to certain (religious) standards or are subject to certain disabilities”.
We see that this effort to play the politics of numbers and remove the Dalits from the Hindu fold has continued to date despite the best efforts of reformers like M. C. Rajah, Sayajirao Gaikwad of Baroda, G. A. Natesan, T. V. Seshagiri Aiyer, Lala Lajpat Rai and was taken forward by Mahatma Gandhi upon his return from South Africa in 1915.
Rajah-Moonje Pact
Rajah saw through the ill effects of the Communal Awards proposal of giving separate electorates to the society. He saw how the draft proposal was one-sided, offering more to the Muslims and very less to the depressed classes vis-à-vis the population. In February 1932, M.C. Raja who was then the President of the All India Depressed Classes Association and Dr. B. S. Moonje of the Hindu Mahasabha signed an agreement known as the Rajah-Moonje Pact on joint electorates with reservation of seats based on population for the depressed classes. M.C. Rajah, in a letter to the British Prime Minister, mentions this agreement of historical significance as an accord between “the only central organisation of the depressed classes” and “the organised body of Hindus, taken as a whole”. The Rajah-Moonje pact found significant support among the government, the press and the people concerned.
I shall die as a Hindu
Rajah was clear that conversion or communal migration would not improve the condition of the depressed classes. It might only slow down and stunt the slew of social and economic corrections the Hindu community made.
In a public meeting of the All India Adi Dravida Mahajana Sabha in Nungambakkam, Chennai he said –
“The president (of this meeting) mentioned that no other community other than us has more right to be called Hindus. Conversion will not bring about any good. By saying so, I am not undermining or wishing away the oppression and ills we have faced. We need to fight for our rights. The speed at which reforms are happening might be slow. But think about our current situation and how much it has improved. I beseech you to please abandon any move that will weaken us. I request the government to bring about the Untouchability Abolition Bill and pass it quickly. The Harijans are proud Hindus. That is the only reason why even after years of oppression by higher castes and a barrage of proselytisation efforts by other religions hasn’t changed their resolve being Hindus”.
“It is my personal opinion that this issue (of conversion) has been mischievously amplified by people who have zero understanding of the Hindu religion and people who don’t follow it. Most of the problems our society faces are caste-based. This will cure itself once the respective castes become financially independent. Take, for example, the Thiyyas of Kerala or the Nadars of South. Their social standing has improved manifold. And the only reason for that is that they concentrated on making their community financially independent and stable.”
“As long as I am concerned, I have full faith in the Hindu religion and I am ready to die as a Hindu.”
In a statement at the assembly on November 12, 1935, he stated, “While I fully share my resentment which many of our men feel at the treatment meted out to our people in many parts of the country by the so-called high caste Hindus, I would at the same time request them to compare conditions existing now with what they were, say 15 years ago. Conditions have improved considerably today. A large section of educated Hindu has come to condemn the practice of untouchability and has thrown its weight on the side of the reform. I venture to say that in view of the awakening of the Hindu conscience that has been noticed in regard to our conditions and status, the days of untouchability as practiced towards our community are now numbered. It should be remembered that in the course of a decade things have changed considerably in favour of the depressed classes and there is also a very strong awakening among the depressed classes themselves”.
Rao Bahadur M. C. Rajah’s thoughts have been uncomfortably native and Hindu, as have those of other leading lights of the Dalit movement, like Divan Bahadur Rettamalai Srinivasan and the great Yati, Swami Sahajananda. I would attribute this to the primary reason these great leaders have failed to find their rightful place today.
All things considered it is a shame that we don’t celebrate the leader of Rao Bahadur M.C. Rajah’s stature the way we should today. He achieved everything that was difficult for even a person born with a silver spoon. We understand that his staunchly Hindu and vocally anti-Justice Party outlook has ensured that the Dravidian curtain blocks his name or works from being known to society at large.
செயற்கரிய செய்வார் பெரியர் சிறியர்
செயற்கரிய செய்கலா தார்
Seyarkariya Seivaar Periyar Siriyar
Seyarkariya Seikala Thar
Tirukkural, Chapter 3, Kural 26
The great ones are they who can achieve the impossible: the feeble ones are those who cannot.
The Kural or The Maxims of Thiruvalluvar by VVS Iyer.
Notes and References
Swaraj Basu, An Unforgettable Dalit Voice – Life, Writings and Speeches of M.C. Rajah, Manohar Publishers & Distributors (2024)
Ve. Alex, M.C. Rajah Sindanaigal (Tamil). Neelam (2022)
Devandra Swarup – Meenakshi Jain, The Rajah-Moonje Pact – Documents on a Forgotten Chapter of Indian History, Originals (2008)
- C. Rajah, The Oppressed Hindus, Critical Quest (2005)
