coming over to the Justice Party, being fed up with the Brahmin's methods and ways of dealing with political questions, it was nothing short of folly to think of admitting him into the ranks of the Justice Party. The party began to accept Brahmin members only in October 1934. The pressure to compete with the Justice party forced the Congress party to let more non-Brahmins into the party power structure. The party's policies disrupted the established social hierarchy and increased the animosity between the Brahmin and non-Brahmin communities. Nationalism The Justice party was loyal to the British Empire. In its early years, Justice opposed the Indian Home Rule movement. It did not send representatives to the Central Legislative Assembly, the national parliamentary body. During 1916–20, it focused on obtaining communal representation and participating in the political process. During the non-cooperation period, it joined with the Madras Mail in opposing and denouncing Gandhi and the nationalists. Sir Theagaraya Chetty, President of the party from 1916 to 1924, publicly expressed his view on the floor of the assembly that "political prisoners were worser than dacoits and robbers" amidst opposition from nationalists including members of his own party as A. P. Patro. The then Justice Party government headed by the Raja of Panagal banned the publication and distribution of poems written by Indian nationalist Subramanya Bharathy. However, by the mid-1920s, the party adopted more nationalist policies. It discarded its earlier disdain of spinning thread by hand and Swadeshi economics. In 1925, the party's annual confederation passed a resolution supporting "indigenous industries" and "swadeshi enterprise". This shift enabled Justice to better compete against Swaraj to whom Justice was slowly losing ground. The term "Swaraj" (or self-rule) itself was included in the constitution. Madras branch president C. R. Reddy led this change. To Justicites, Swaraj meant partial self-government under British rule, not independence. The constitution stated: ".. to obtain Swaraj for India as a component of the British Empire at as early a date as possible by all peaceful and legitimate and constitutional means.." The historical record does not clearly indicate whether Justice condemned the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The party's shift toward nationalist policies was reversed in the 1930s, during the terms of Munusamy Naidu and Raja of Bobbili. During the civil disobedience campaign, the Justice governments did not protest the polices' harsh measures. However, with nationalism growing in the country and a string of