Immanuvel Devendra | |
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Born |
Sellur Village, Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu |
9 October 1924
Died | 11 September 1957 Mudukulathur, South Tamil Nadu |
(aged 32)
Other names | Vellu, Sekaran, Devendranar |
Organization | Tamil Nadu Youth Congress, Devendra Kula Velallar, Tamil Nadu Federation |
Title | Youth Leader of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, antisocial revolutionary |
Immanuvel Devendrar was a revolutionary from Tamil Nadu, India. He was a farmer in the Ramanathapuram and later joined the British Indian Army's Corps of Signals in 1943 and rose up to the rank of Naik. He fought in the Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay as part of the British Indian Army in World War II and also in the 1948 Indo-Pakistan War. He resigned from the Army in 1951 in protest of caste discrimination practised by NCOs and JCOs belonging to so-called backward caste Thevars and Nadars. He was a member of the Pallar caste. He actively participated in caste reform activities and encouraged Pallars to form self-defence organizations to counter violence by dominant castes. The anniversary of his death is celebrated annually as Devendrar Jayanti by Pallar people in Tamil Nadu.