Indian Justice Party

From Governance Wiki

The Justice Party was established in 1917 as the South Indian Liberal federation by Sir P. Theagaroya Chetty and Dr. T. M. Nair as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the Madras Presidency. The formation of the SILF or the Justice Party marked the culmination of a series of failed efforts to establish an organisation representing the non-Brahmins of the Presidency. The early political work of the party involved petitioning the imperial administrative bodies and British politicians demanding more representation for non-Brahmins in administration and in the government. In 1920, elections were held in the Madras Presidency as per the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. The Justice party contested the elections and was elected to power. The party ruled the province for six years before giving way to the independent ministry of P. Subbarayan in 1926. The Justice Party, however, recaptured power in the Presidency in the 1930 elections and ruled till 1937 when it lost to the Indian National Congress. It never recovered from the defeat and was eventually withdrawn from politics in 1944 by its then President E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker. A rebel faction called itself the Justice Party and survived till 1957 when it was eventually disbanded due to poor performance. The Justice Party's period in power is remembered for the introduction of caste-based affirmative action and also for the educational and religious reforms it introduced. The Justice Party under E. V. Ramasami spearheaded the anti-Hindi agitations of 1937 and allied with Mohammad Ali Jinnah in its demand for separation from the Indian union. more about IJP