T. M. Nair

Public offices

Nair represented Triplicane in the Madras Corporation from 1904 to 1916. During his term he frequently attacked the Corporation and its President Molony over the quality of water supplied. In 1910 he agitated for the revival of the Palghat Municipal Council.
In 1908 Nair was appointed member of the Labor Commission by the Government of India. He submitted a report condemning the situation of workers in factories and recommended the reduction of hours of work. He personally submitted his condemnation and recommendations before the Secretary of State for ntran@example.com.
In 1912 Nair was elected to the Madras Legislative Council. When the First World War broke out Nair served as one of the surgeons on the hospital ship SS Madras, and was commissioned as a lieutenant. At the end of the war he was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind medal and posthumously the War Service medal.

In the Indian National Congress

Nair was associated with the Indian National Congress right from the time of his return to India in 1897. In the Congress sessions in 1898 and 1899, he strongly condemned the present status of Indian officers in the Medical services and campaigned for equal treatment to be meted out to them. He presided over the District Congress at Chittoor, North Arcot in 1907.

Formation of the South Indian Liberal Federation

When Nair lost the elections to the Imperial Legislature of India held in 1916 he blamed caste-based prejudices in the Indian National Congress for his loss. Nair felt that the Brahmins were dominating the Indian National Congress. He protested the Home Rule Movement launched by Annie Besant.
In 1917 Nair left the Indian National Congress. At a meeting in August 1917 he said:
Non-Brahmins were looking to the British Government for protection, to hold scales evenly and to mete out Justice, but when they saw a movement progressing whose object was to undermine British influence and power in this country, they thought it their duty to rally round the British Government and to support them
In October 1917, Nair launched the South Indian Liberal Federation, also known as the Justice Party in collaboration with Sir Pitti Theagaroya Chetty.

Editorship of the Justice

In November 1916 a meeting was held at Madras in which Sir P. Theagaroya Chetty and Nair participated. The meeting brought out a resolution mandating the establishment of a newspaper for voicing the aspirations of non-Brahmins. From 26 February 1917 onwards, the Justice began to be published. Nair was the chief editor until his death in 1919. In his newspaper he attacked his opponents in the Indian National Movement and supporters of the Home Rule Movement. Once when the Indian National Congress carried out agitations in Ernad Tirur and Valluvanad, he prophesied that "the Congress was smoking in a gunpowder magazine". His words proved to be true when the Moplah Rebellion broke out in the region in the year 1921.

Mission to England and death

In 1918–19, despite warnings from fellow doctors not to travel abroad as his health was deteriorating, he led a mission to England to speak in support of communal representations before a Joint Parliamentary Committee. He remains one of the few Indians to have addressed a meeting of the members of the UK Parliament. However he was prohibited from speaking to the public on the orders of Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India. Nair died on 17 July 1919 at the age of 51 due to heart seizure following diabetic gangrene and Bright's disease. His body was cremated at Golders Green, cemetery in London and is still a pilgrim's centre for many who admire him.

Inclination

Nair always wore Western clothes and followed Western manners and customs. As a result, he was frequently criticised as an anglophile. However, at the same time, he displayed his love for his mother tongue Malayalam by speaking and writing in chaste Malayalam.

Commemoration

In 2008, the Government of India released a postage stamp in his honour. Dr. Nair Road, an arterial road running through T. Nagar, Chennai connecting Pondy bazar and GN Chetty Road –  is named after him, since he lived and practised medicine from there.