Tamil Nadu Timeline

Social ReformBritish Crown rule

Rettamalai Srinivasan launches the Paraiyan newspaper

· Chennai

Rettamalai Srinivasan launches the Paraiyan newspaper
India Post, Government of India, GODL-India · Wikimedia Commons

Dalit leader Rettamalai Srinivasan started the Tamil paper Paraiyan in October 1893 to speak for the Paraiyar community.

Rettamalai Srinivasan had founded the Paraiyar Mahajana Sabha in 1891. In October 1893 he launched a Tamil newspaper called Paraiyan. It began as a four-page monthly priced at four annas. Srinivasan was fined for his writings in the paper. The publication was an early example of Dalit journalism in the Madras Presidency.

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