Ponnambalam Arunachalam

Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Tamil name Ponnambalam Arunachalam (Template:Langx; 14 September 1853 – 9 January 1924) was a Ceylonese civil servant and a member of the Executive Council of Ceylon and Legislative Council of Ceylon.

Early life and family

Arunachalam was born on 14 September 1853 in Colombo in south western Ceylon in a Tamil family.Template:Sfn He was the son of Gate Mudaliyar A. Ponnambalam, a leading government functionary, and Sellachi Ammai.Template:Sfn He was the brother of P. Coomaraswamy and P. Ramanathan.Template:Sfn Arunachalam was educated at Royal Academy, Colombo where he won many prizes including the Turnour Prize.Template:Sfn After school he joined Christ's College, Cambridge in 1871 on a scholarship, graduating in 1874 with BA degree in law and history.Template:Sfn He received an MA degree from Cambridge in 1880.

Arunachalam married Svarnambal, daughter of Namasivayam, in 1883.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They had three sons (Padmanabha, Mahadeva and Ramanathan) and five daughters (Maheswari, Manonmani, Sivanandam, Pathmavathy and Sunthari).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Sir Sangarapillai Pararajasingam was his son-in-law, having married Pathmavathy.

Career

Arunachalam was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1875. He wanted to start a career in law but was persuaded by his maternal uncle Muthu Coomaraswamy to join the civil service.Template:Sfn He sat the Civil Service Examinations in 1875 and became the first Ceylonese to enter the Ceylon Civil Service via open competition.Template:Sfn His initial posting was at the Government Agent's office in Colombo.Template:Sfn Thereafter he held numerous posts within the civil service: police court in Kandy; police magistrate and commissioner of requests at Kalpitiya, Puttalam, Matara, Avissawella, Pasyala, Matale, Kalutara and Colombo; and district judge in Chilaw, Kegalle, Kalutara, Batticaloa and Kurunegala.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Early on his career, Arunachalam's quality of work was noticed by Chief Justice John Budd Phear who recommended him to the Governor and Secretary of State.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1887 Governor Arthur Hamilton-Gordon appointed Arunachalam acting Registrar-General and Fiscal of the Western Province, by passing 30 officers senior to Arunachalam.Template:Sfn Fraud, corruption and inefficiency was endemic in the department and so Arunachalam successfully re-organised the department.Template:Sfn He was appointed acting Commissioner of Requests in 1891 and Registrar-General in 1898.

Arunachalam was entrusted with managing the 1901 census by being appointed Superintendent of Census in 1900.Template:Sfn He started codifying Ceylon's law but only managed to produce the first volume of A Digest of the Civil Law of Ceylon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Arunachalam was an official member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon and a member of the Executive Council of Ceylon between 1912 and 1913.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn He retired from the civil service in 1913.Template:Sfn He was knighted in February 1914.Template:Sfn

Arunachalam's became interested in politics during his university days.Template:Sfn He agitated for political reform whilst still working in the civil service.Template:Sfn In retirement Arunachalam became involved in politics, founding the Ceylon National Association and the Ceylon Reform League, of which he was chairman, in 1917.Template:Sfn He was one of the founders of the Ceylon National Congress (CNC) in 1919 and served as its first president from 1919 to 1920.Template:Sfn Arunachalam left the CNC in 1921 following disputes about communal representation in the Legislative Council, which Arunachalam opposed, and the connivance of Sinhalese politicians which resulted in no Tamils being elected from Western Province at the 1921 legislative council election. He founded the Ceylon Tamil League in 1923.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 1917 he became the first Ceylonese to be elected president of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.Template:Sfn He founded the Senthamil Paripalana Sabai and was president of the Ceylon Saiva Paripalana Sabai.Template:Sfn He and his wife founded the Sri Arunachaleswarar Temple at Mutwal.Template:Sfn Arunachalam co-founded the Ceylon Social Services League in 1915 and served as its president.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was also involved in the fledgling trade union movement in Ceylon and founded Ceylon's first trade union, the Ceylon Workers' Welfare League, in 1919.Template:Sfn He served as president of the Ceylon Workers' Federation from 1920 to 1921.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Arunachalam led the campaign for a university in Ceylon and was known as the "father of the Ceylon University", having founded the Ceylon University Association in 1906.Template:Sfn He died on 9 January 1924 in Madurai whilst on Hindu pilgrimage in southern India.Template:Sfn

Works

• A Revel in Bliss (1895).
• A Few Hymns of Manikka Vachaka and Thayumanavar (1897).
• Sketches of Ceylon History (1906, Ceylon National Review)Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
• A Digest of the Civil Law of CeylonTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
• Studies and Translations from the Tamil
• Studies and Translations – Philosophical and Religious (1937)Template:Sfn