INTRODUCTION: THE POLITICS OF THE EMERGENT ‘Names set up a field
of power.’— Michel-Rolph Trouillot1 In 1916 a group of prominent
nationalists from the Madras Presidency, led by T.M. Nair and
Pitti Theagaraya Chetti, broke ranks with the Indian National
Congress and issued a controversial document called the ‘Non-
Brahmin Manifesto’. Their Manifesto argued that Indians were not
yet ready for self-rule, and if the British granted self-rule to
Indians it would result in the tyranny of Brahmins over others.
Though Brahmins constituted about 3 per cent of the population
of the Madras Presidency, their presence in the colonial
bureaucracy, in modern professions such as law, and in the
leadership of the Indian National Congress was preponderant and
highly visible. Provocative in its claims, the Manifesto stirred
a variety of moods in the public, within Madras and elsewhere.
Dismay and anger were the dominant moods in the nationalist
camp. In the understanding of nationalists, such talk of ‘the
non-Brahmin’ was a res