Immanuvel Devendrar

Emmanuvel Sekaran Devendrar

Born	Emmanuvel Sekaran இம்மானுவேல் சேகரன் தேவேந்திரர் (1924-10-09)9 October 1924 Sellur Village, Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu
Died	11 September 1957(1957-09-11) (aged 32) Mudukulathur, South Tamil Nadu
Other names	Vellu, Sekaran, Devendranar
Organization	Tamil Nadu Youth Congress, Devendra Kula Velalar, Tamil Nadu Scheduled Castes Federation
Title	Youth Leader of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, antisocial revolutionary
Spouse(s)	E. Amirtham Grace (அமிர்தம் கிரேஸ்)
Children	E.Mary Vasantha rani E.papin vijaya rani E.sundari prabha rani E.Jansi rani.

Emmanuvel Sekaran Devendrar was a revolutionary of Tamil Nadu against the caste. He was a farmer in the ramanathapuram and later he joined Army and Dr B.R.Ambedkar requested then he resigned from army for the people(including Nadar) who were suffering by cast-ism in Tamil Nadu. He belongs to Devendra Kula Vellalar caste. He actively participated in caste reform activities. His death anniversary day is attended by groups of Devendrakula(Mallar) people from different places in Tamil Nadu every year.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Personal life

Emmanuvel Sekaran Devendrar was born on 9 October 1924 to Mr. Vedhanayagam Devendrar(School teacher and founder of Devendra kula velalar sangam, Mudukulathur) and Mrs. Gnanasoundhari Ammal in a village of Sellur, which is located in Mudukulathur Taluk in Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu.

Early life and adulthood

He was the eldest son of Vedanayagam Devendrar, alias Sethu Vedanayagam Devendrar, and Gnanasoundari Ammal. He was born on 9 October 1924 in Sellur, a village of Mudukulathur block of Ramanathapuram district. His early education was in the same village. Later, as the family moved to Paramakudi, he transferred to the local school, and completed high school education from Schwartz’s High School, Ramanathapuram.

The Devendra Kula Vellalar are mostly found in south parts of Tamil Nadu. They are the main source of social and economic oppression of the Backward & Scheduled Castes in the area, and are also politically quite ascendant in the area. form another significant caste in the region. .

Immanuvel Sekaran’s father, like a number of the people of his community, was a staunch nationalist and was very active in the freedom struggle but we don't know how many days they were prisoners for freedom struggle. Despite being physically challenged, he was to be found in the forefront of any event, public meeting or conference for against any antisocial events. He always took his son along and encouraged him to understand, participate and speak in public. The young Emmanuvel sekaranar was known for his fiery speeches against the colonial powers of the time. But it was also a time when the colonial powers were battling against the forces of fascism. The Second World war forced them to change the pattern of governance and give the people’s representatives a voice and space in governance. As a result, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar also became one of the National leaders active in governance. Emmanuvel Sekaran responded to his call by joining the British-Indian Army as Soldier to fight on the side of the British.

On 17 June 1946, he entered into matrimony with Amritham Grace, a teacher by training and profession. She was the eldest daughter of Samuel and Mariyal. The young couple was married in a ceremony where three other couples also took their vows, in Ithampaadal village near Sikkil. A few days after the wedding, he attended a conference at Madurai, in the company of iyya Balasundararaju.

The following year, the couple’s first child, a daughter Mary Vasantharani, was born, and in 1949, the second, another girl, Poppin Vijayarani, was born. His public life continued – around this time, he organised a public reception at Sellur, in honour of a unique couple, Krishnammal and Mugavai Chengappa Jagannathan. The bride was the daughter of Vathalagundu Ramasamy Kudumban and the sister of a lawyer, G R Muniyandi. She was the first girl from the Devendar community to get a college education. Her husband was a leader of the Bhoodan movement. He busied himself with maintaining contact with the people by conducting meetings at street-corners and community platforms (thinnais – a platform built around the trunks of trees in the centre of a settlement, usually a public meeting place for the locals of the community). He worked and spoke incessantly to groups, raising political awareness, even holding wayside meetings under trees and in fields and village pathways. In 1951, Mr. Balasundararaju, who had organised the conference in Madurai, died. Immanuvel Sekaran went to Meenakshipuram to attend the funeral.

In 1952, he travelled to Malaysia at the invitation of Aliya Thangappan for political events. He returned to Tamil Nadu in six months as he was want to service his own people.

Blood and history

A by-election was held in the Mudukulathur assembly constituency on 1 July 1957, as Pasumpoan Muthuramalinga Thevar had resigned from his assembly seat. The election was won by member of his own party D.V. Sasivarna Thevar of the Forward Bloc. The situation in the area was tense on the day that the results were released, and there was a sizeable presence of police forces in place. On 10 September the 'Peace Conference' formed with T. V. Sasivarna Thevar and Velu (a Dalit legislative assembly member of the Forward Bloc). From the Congress side six Devendrars took part. The conference concluded that the three castes should live in harmony.

Emmanuel Sekaran , at the Peace Conference was killed the following day. On 28 September, a few days after the clashes had ceased, Pasumpoan Thiru U Muthuramalinga Thevar was arrested by the police under the Preventive Detention Act. Pudukkottai court was hearing that case. He was later accused of having masterminded the murder of Emmanuel Sekaran Devendrar.

In British army

Immanuvel sekaran served in the British-Indian army.

References

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