G. Subramania Iyer
Ganapathy Dikshitar Subramania Iyer (Tamil: கணபதி தீக்ஷிதர் சுப்பிரமணிய ஐயர்) (19 January 1855 – 18 April 1916) was a leading Indian journalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who led the Triplicane Six in launching The Hindu, an English newspaper on 20 September 1878. He was proprietor, editor and managing director of The Hindu from 20 September 1878 to October 1898. The Tamil language newspaper 'Swadesamitran' was also founded by him in 1891.
Ganapathy Dikshitar Subramania Iyer
19 January 1855
18 April 1916 (aged 61)
- Lecturer
- Journalist
- Entrepreneur
Early life[edit]
Subramania Iyer was born in January 1855 in Tiruvadi in the then Tanjore district. He was the fourth of seven sons of Ganapathi Dikshitar, a pleader in the Munsiff's Court of Tiruvadi. Subramania Iyer had his early schooling in Tiruvadi and matriculated from St. Peter's College, Tanjore in 1871. In 1873, he passed his arts examinations in merit and attended a teacher's training course at Madras from 1874 to 1875.
Subramania Iyer taught at the Church of Scotland Mission School at Madras from 1875 to 1877 and at Pachaiyappa's High School in 1877. In 1877, he cleared his B. A. examinations as a private candidate and was appointed headmaster of the Anglo-Vernacular school, Triplicane in 1879.
Founding of The Hindu[edit]
To voice their support for Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer to be appointed to the bench of the Madras High Court, Subramania Iyer founded The Hindu along with M. Veeraraghavachariar, T. T. Rangachariar, P. V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pantulu and N. Subba Rao Pantulu, on 20 September 1878.[1] Initially, The Hindu was started as a weekly, but later, it was converted into a tri-weekly and then a daily.
Politics[edit]
Subramania Iyer actively participated in the Indian Independence movement. He was one of the 72 delegates present at the Bombay Conference at Tejpal Sanskrit College on 12 December 1885, which resulted in the founding of the Indian National Congress. In the second session of the Indian National Congress, Subramania Iyer was selected member of the committee to report on the representation of Indians in the public services. In the Madras session of 1887, Subramania Iyer was appointed member of the Committee which framed the constitution of the Indian National Congress. During the 1894 Madras session, he was selected as a part of the delegation which presented the case of Indian nationalists before the Secretary of State for India in London. He was met by Gandhi in Pachaiyappa's hall when Gandhi came to Madras for spreading the information on the status of Indians in South Africa, as per the guidance of Sir Pherozeshah mehta. Gandhi mentioned himself this event in his My Experiment with truth. In 1906, he was appointed member of the Standing Committee to promote the objectives of the Indian National Congress. He was one of the founding members of Madras Mahajan Sabha (1884) which coordinated local nationalist effort in Madras Presidency.
When he conducted his widowed daughter's remarriage in 1889, Subramania Iyer was socially boycotted by his own relatives apart from the conservative Mylapore society. Subramania Iyer lost the support of conservative elements who formed a powerful lobby in the Indian National Congress. As a result, he was never elected President of the Indian National Congress nor was he ever elected to the Madras Legislative Council.
Later life and death[edit]
In 1898, Subramania Iyer relinquished his claims over 'The Hindu' and concentrated his energies on Swadesamitran, the Tamil language newspaper which he had started in 1882. When he left The Hindu in 1898, he made the Swadesamitran, a tri-weekly and, in 1899, a daily, the first in Tamil.
Subramania Aiyar's pen "dipped in a paste of the extra-pungent thin green chillies" – as Subramania Bharati described his Editor's writing style – got him in trouble with the British in 1908. He suffered jail terms and persecutions which gradually broke his health.
In his later years, Subramania Iyer was diagnosed with leprosy and succumbed to the disease on 18 April 1916.