Tamilnadu (a) Ramalinga Swamigal Popularly known as Vallalar, Ramalinga Swamigal or Ramalinga Adigal ( – ), Sayyid Ahmed Khan Social and Religious Reform Movements in the 19th Century was born in Marudhur, a village near Chidambaram. After his father’s death, his family moved to his brother’s house at Chennai. Despite having no formal education he gained immense scholarship. Ramalinga emphasised the bonds of responsibility and compassion between living beings.
He expressed the view that ‘those who lack compassion for suffering beings are hard-hearted, their wisdom clouded’. He showed his compassion and mercy on all living beings including plants. This he called Jeevakarunya. He established the Samarasa Vedha Sanmarga Sangam in and it was renamed “Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Satya Sanga” which means “Society for Pure Truth in Universal self-hood”.
Ramalinga also established a free feeding house for everyone irrespective of caste at Vadalur ( ), in the wake of a terrible famine in south India in . His voluminous songs were compiled and published under the title Thiruvarutpa (Songs of Grace). Vadalur Satya Gnana Sabha Ramalinga Adigal b. Iyothee Thassar Pandithar Iyothee Thassar ( – ) was a radical Tamil scholar, writer, siddha medicine practitioner, journalist and socio- political activist.
Born in Chennai, he was fluent in Tamil, English, Sanskrit and Pali languages. He campaigned for social justice and worked for the emancipation of the “untouchables” from the caste clutches. He worked for the construction of a casteless identity and castigated caste hegemony and untouchability. He considered education as an important tool for empowerment and became the driving force behind the establishment of several schools for the “untouchables” in Tamil Nadu.
Pandithar Iyothee Thassar founded the Advaidananda Sabha to raise the voice for the temple entry of the “untouchables”. In , John Rathinam and Iyothee Thassar established a movement called, Dravida Kazhagam and launched a magazine called Dravida Pandian in . He founded the Dravida Mahajana Sabha in 1891and organised the First Conference of the association at The Nilgiris. Pandithar Iyothee Thassar was disappointed with the Hindu dharma, which served as the basis for