Sir Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar (14 October 1887 – 17 July 1976) was an Indian lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who was the first president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council and the 24th and last dewan of Mysore. He also served as a senior leader of the Justice Party and in various administrative and bureaucratic posts in pre- and Independent India.
He was a prominent orator and was known for his inspiring speeches.
Early life
Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar was born in the town of Kurnool in then-Madras Presidency, British India, in a Tamil-speaking Tuluva Vellala (Agamudaya Mudhaliyar) family. He was the eldest of a pair of twins, the other being Arcot Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar. He had his schooling at Municipal High School, Kurnool.
He graduated from Madras Christian College and studied law at Madras Law College. On completion of his studies, he practised as a lawyer before joining the Justice Party and entering politics. Mudaliar was nominated to the Madras Legislative Council in 1920 and served from 1920 to 1926 and as a member of the Madras Legislative Assembly from 1931 to 1934, losing to S. Satyamurti in the 1934 elections. He served as a member of the Imperial Legislative Council from 1939 to 1941, as a part of Winston Churchill's war cabinet from 1942 to 1945, and as the Indian representative in the Pacific War Council. He was India's delegate to the San Francisco Conference and served as the first president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. He also served as the last Diwan of Mysore from 1946 to 1949.
He was an uncle to Cmdr. V.S.P. Mudaliar, a veteran of World War II.
Political career
Justice Party
Mudaliar was a part of the Justice Party ever since its inception in 1917 and served as its general secretary. In July 1918, he went to England along with T. M. Nair and Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu as part of the Justice Party delegation to argue in favour of communal representation and offer evidence before the Reforms Committee. The evidence was taken just before Nair's death on 17 July 1919.
All India Non-Brahmin Movement
Mudaliar rose in stature gradually and began to be regarded as the "brain of the Justice Party". He assisted in coordinating between non-Brahmins in different parts of India and organising non-Brahmin conferences.
Mudaliar maintained friendly relations with Shahu Maharaj and non-Brahmin leaders from Maharashtra and parts of North India and helped coordinate between and uniting leaders from different parts of India and in organising non-Brahmin conferences. He was a participant in the Satara Non-Brahmin Conference held on 18 December 1922, presided over by Raja Rajaram III. He also participated in the All-India Non-Brahmin Conference held at Belgaum on 26 December 1924 where his oratory was appreciated. At the Seventh Non-Brahmin Conference held on 8 February 1925, he appealed for unity amongst non-Brahmins.
Following the death of Sir P.T. Theagaroya Chetty in 1925, Mudaliar functioned as the sole link between Shahu Maharaj's Satya Shodhak Samaj and the Justice Party. He assisted Raja P. Ramarayaningar in organising an All-India Non-Brahmin Confederation at Victoria Hall, Madras, on 19 December 1925. He supported the candidature of B.V. Jadhav who was eventually appointed president. On 26 December 1925, he organised a second conference at Amaravati. The conference comprised two sessions: Rajaram II presided over the first while P. Ramarayaningar presided over the second. In the second session of the Conference, Mudaliar said:
Mudaliar's utterances at this conference became the target of The Hindu, which criticised him by saying that "the speaker was desiring to produce an effect in another province, forced him to draw rather freely on his imagination".
In the elections to the Madras Legislative Council held on 8 November 1926, the Justice Party lost the elections, winning just 21 of the 98 seats in the council. Mudaliar was one of the many who met with failure in the elections. He took a temporary retirement from politics and replaced P. N. Raman Pillai as the editor of Justice, the mouthpiece of the Justice Party. Under Mudaliar, there was a tremendous growth in its circulation, and Justice became widely popular. On 1 March 1929, he appeared before the Simon Commission along with Sir A. T. Paneerselvam, another important leader of the Justice Party, to provide evidence on behalf of the Justice Party.
Administrative career
Mayor of Madras
Mudaliar served as the mayor of Madras from 1928 to 1930.