T. V. Sasivarna Thevar

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T. V. Sasivarna Thevar(d.November 7, 1973)[1] was a protege of U. Muthuramalinga Thevar and a leader of the Forward Bloc.

Sasivarna Thevar was born in the southern part of the Madras province. Little is known about his early life until 1934 when he joined the movement organized by Muthuramalinga Thevar to oppose the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA). He later joined the Indian National Congress.

When Muthuramalinga Thevar resigned from the Congress and joined the All India Forward Bloc in 1939, Sasivarna Thevar followed suit. In 1951, he contested and won the Legislative Assembly elections as a Forward Bloc candidate [2].

In 1957, Muthuramalinga Thevar contested the Parliamentary elections as a candidate of the Forward Bloc from Aruppukottai and won. As a result of this, he resigned the Mudukulathur Legislative Assembly seat which he had previously held. Sasivarna Thevar stood for bye-election from Mudukulathur and won[3]. However, the victory triggered controversy which resulted in the murder of Congress Dalit leader Emmanuel Sekaran and fuelled the 1957 Ramnad riots.

Sasivarna Thevar was also a part of the inter-caste peace conference organized by Muthuramalinga Thevar for reconciliation between people of different castes. This conference was attended by Thevar, Nadar and Dalit leaders. The death of Emmanuel Sekaran and the Ramnad riots followed soon afterwards.

Following the death of Muthuramalinga Thevar on October 30, 1963, there erupted a power struggle between Thevar's other disciple, P. K. Mookayya Thevar and Sasivarna Thevar. Mookiah Thevar emerged victorious and Sasivarna Thevar broke off to form the Subhasist Forward Bloc[4].


[edit] References

  1. ^ Resume of work. Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Fifth Assembly Ninth Session
  2. ^ List of Members of the Madras State Legislature in 1951 from the Election Commission of India website
  3. ^ [http://www.assembly.tn.gov.in/archive/Resumes/review_02assly/table4.pdf List of Members of the Madras State Legislature from 1958 Tamil Nadu Assembly website]
  4. ^ History of the All India Forward Bloc describing the split into two factions

[edit] See Also