N. Sivaraj

Rao Bahadur Namasivayam Sivaraj (29 September 1892 – 29 September 1964) was an Indian lawyer, politician and Paraiyar activist from the state of Tamil Nadu. He served as a Member of the Lok Sabha for Chengalpattu from 1957 to 1961.

Early life and education

Sivaraj was born to Namsivayam, an accounts officer, on 29 September 1892 in the town of Cuddapah in the then Madras Presidency. His father was a Tamil from the Paraiyar community who had converted to Buddhism and Sivaraj was raised Buddhist. His ancestors were from the town of Poonamallee near Madras. Sivaraj passed his matriculation in 1907 and graduated in arts from Presidency College, Madras in 1911. In 1915 he graduated as a lawyer from the Madras Law College and practised as a junior under Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer.^[1] He worked as a lecturer in the Madras Law College for a period of thirteen years.

Politics

Sivaraj was a prominent leader of depressed class federation and he supported the Justice Party. N.Sivaraj was mayor in Madras corporation 1945-1946, during this period he built a stadium for football, which was the largest stadium in south India at that time. The same stadium was renamed as Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium during Kamaraj period. The stadium was reconstructed by Chief Minister Jayalalitha since 1996. Mr.N Sivaraj was elected to the Madras Legislative Council on a Justice Party ticket in 1926 and served as member till 1937. From 1937 to 1945, Sivaraj served as a member of the Imperial Legislature of India. He participated in the 1952, 1957 and 1962 Lok Sabha elections and served as Member of Parliament from 1957 to 1962 representing Chengalpattu constituency.

He was often referred as "Right hand of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar".

AISCF was a first all India political party exclusively for the depressed Class founded by Dr.Babasaheb in a national convention held at Nagpur during 17-20 July 1942. It was presided by Rao Bahadur N.Sivaraj and he was elected as its 1st President.

When the Republican Party of India was founded in 1957, he was again elected as its 1st president and continued working to establish the party's organization until he died in 1964.

Family

Sivaraj was married to Annai_Meenambal and had four children. Annai_Meenambal was the 1st dalit women president of South India SCF. Meenambal Sivaraj presided over the SCF women’s conference held at Madras, in 1944, which was attended by Dr.Babasaheb. She also presided over the All India SCF women’s conference held at Bombay, on May 6th, 1945.

Notes

References

• Ramacandra Kshirasagara (1994). Dalit Movement in India. M. D. Publications. pp. 331–333. ISBN 8185880433, ISBN 978-81-85880-43-3.