SANKARAN NAIR, SIR CHETTUR In dian jurist and politician, was born in the Malabar country on July I 1, 1857, and educated for a legal career. Enrolled as a vakil of the Madras high court, he was appointed in 1899 gov ernment pleader and public prosecutor in Madras. In 1907 he was appointed advocate general, being the first Indian to hold the post in the province. In the following year he was made puisne judge of the Madras high court. He was by this time well known as a strong social reformer, a supporter of the Indian National Congress (being president of the 13th meeting, held at Amraoti in 1897), as a publicist and as founder and editor of the Madras Review and The Madras Law Journal. He was for many years a member of the Madras legislature. One of the first Indians and the first Madrasi to become a member of the Government of India he was selected for the education portfolio in 1915, but re signed in July 1919, on the ground that martial law was being continued in the Punjab too long after the disturbances had ceased. Taking a favourable view of the Montagu-Chelmsford
reforms, he was appointed to the India Council in London in January 192o, but resigned to take office in the Indore State in November 1921. A vigorous condemnation of the non-cooperation movement entitled Gandhi and Anarchy (1922) contained refer ences to the Punjab troubles, which led Sir Michael O'Dwyer, late lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, to bring a successful libel action against the author in London in the summer of Elected a member of the Council of State of India in 1925 Nair continued to pursue an independent line, and when that house decided in 1928 to co-operate with the Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon, the viceroy appointed him chairman of the all-India Committee to sit with the Commission, comprising mem bers of both houses of the legislature. (F. H. BR.)