Cinnamanur Subramaniam Chellappa (29 September 1912- 18 December 1998) was a Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 writer, journalist and Indian independence movement

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

 activist. He belonged to the "Manikodi" literary movement along with Pudhumaipithan

Pudhumaipithan

Pudhumaipithan also spelt as Pudumaipithan or Puthumaippiththan, is the pseudonym of C. Viruthachalam , one of the most influential and revolutionary writers of Tamil fiction. His works were characterized by social satire, progressive thinking and outspoken criticism of accepted conventions...

, Ku Pa Ra

K. P. Rajagopalan

Kumbakonam P. Rajagopalan , known by his pen name Ku. Pa. Ra. was a Tamil writer, translator and journalist.- Early life :Rajagopalan was born in 1902 in Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency. He had his education in Kumbakonam and joined the services of the Madras government...

, Va. Ramasamy, N. Pichamurthy and A. N. Sivaraman. He also founded Ezhuthu, a literary magazine

Literary magazine

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

  His novel Suthanthira Thagam won the Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...

 for 2001.

Biography

Chellappa was born in 1912 to Subramania Iyer, a government employee and nationalist. Chellappa did his schooling in Tuticorin and obtained a degree in economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

. However, he failed to obtain a degree in English literature.

In the early years of his life, Chellappa was influenced by Bhagat Singh but later he adopted Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

's creed of non-violence. Chellappa participated in the Batlagundu

Batlagundu

Batlagundu [pronounced Vathalakkundu] is a panchayat town in Dindigul district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The town is about an hour and a half from Kodaikanal....

satyagraha and was arrested on January 10, 1941. He spent six months in jail and on his return, established a paper manufacturing industry. Chellappa began writing in 1934 when he published his first story Margazhi Malar.

By the time of his death in 1998, Chellappa had written over 109 short stories and 50 articles..