Arumugam Canagaratnam

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Arumugam Canagaratnam is the founder of Canagaratnam Maha Vidyalayam ( formerly Stanley College) in Jaffna.

[edit] Biography

His nephew Late C. Sittampalam, was the first Cabinet Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in the independent Sri Lanka.^[1][2] Another illustrious descendant of Visvanathar was A. Canagaratnam, the younger brother of C.Sittampalam’s grandfather A. Cathiravelu. Canagaratnam followed in the footsteps of his uncle V. Casipillai in devotion to public service. In 1924 he became the member of the Northern Province, Southern division in the legislative council and agitated for the establishment of a University of Ceylon. As a keen nationalist he edited and published the 'Ceylon Patriot' at his own expense and is credited with strengthening the independent movement in Jaffna. In 1927 he was the leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Conference. With his own money, on his own land, he built Stanley College, initially named after the British Governor and subsequently named Canagaratnam Maha Vidyalayam in his honour. As chairman of the first urban Council of Jaffna. He set the stage for another descendants of the above Visvanathar to follow, 2 of them serving as Mayor of Jaffna. He had been largely instrumental in the establishment of the urban council, though the previous establishment of the Jaffna local board.

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