Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar

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A brief note on him-

• Ukkirapandi Muthuramalinga Thevar, also known as Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, was a politician and the patriarch of Thevar community from the state of Tamil Nadu, India. 
• He was elected three times to the national Parliamentary Constituency. 
• One issue particularly impacted on Thevar’s political career is the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) that had been enacted in 1920 by the government of the Madras Presidency and was subsequently implemented in a piecemeal fashion. 
• Thevar mobilised resistance to it, touring villages in the affected areas and leading protest rallies for the rights of the individuals registered under it. 
• In 1929, the Maravars of 19 villages in Appanad were forced to register, under the CTA. Thevar led a massive campaign in the villages, urging the people to defy it.
• In 1934, Thevar organised a convention at Abhiramam, which urged the authorities to repeal the CTA. 
• The CTA was, however, not revoked but instead its implementation was widened. Thevar again led agitations and awareness-raising campaigns against the Act. At the time the Justice Party was governing the Madras Presidency, and their refusal to revoke the law created a strong animosity on Thevar’s behalf towards that party.
• In 1936 he won District Board elections and became District Board Chairman.
• 1937, he won a massive victory against the king in Provincial Election.
• 1939, he supported the Temple Entry Movement. And in 1940 he was imprisoned for citing the Indian Defence Act.
• 1946, he was elected without contest in Madras Presidency Election.
• 1948, he became leader of Forward Block party. Subsequently, Muthuramalinga Thevar served as the national deputy chairman of All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) from 1952.
• 1949, he started the weekly editor in the name of Netaji.
• 1952, he won Independent India’s first general election.
• He died on October 29 1963.
• The Mukulathor community views Muthuramalinga Thevar as divinity.

Thevar community-

• The Mukkulathor people, who are also collectively known as Thevar, are a community or group of communities native to the central and southern districts of Tamil Nadu, India. 
• The terms Mukkulathor and Thevar are used synonymously. According to R. Muthulakshmi of Madurai Kamaraj University, Thevar “literally means celestial beings or divine-natured people” and Mukkulathor means “three clans united together”
• They comprise the Agamudayar, Kallar and Maravar communities that share a common myth of origin and claim to have once been members of various ancient South Indian dynasties.
• They believe themselves to share a common myth of origin formed through being the offspring of a relationship between Indra and a celestial woman.
• Thevars, traditionally practise a Tamil martial art variously known as Adimurai, chinna adi and varna ati. 
• In recent years, since 1958, these have been referred to as Southern-style Kalaripayattu, although they are distinct from the ancient martial art of Kalaripayattu itself that was historically the style found in Kerala.

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