M. A. Muthiah Chettiar

Rajah Sir Muttaiya Annamalai Muthiah Chettiar
M. A. Muthiah Chettiar in 1941
Minister of Education and Excise (Madras Presidency)
In office 10 October 1936 – 14 July 1937
Premier	Ramakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili, P. T. Rajan, Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu
Governor	George Frederick Stanley
Preceded by	S. Kumaraswami Reddiar
Succeeded by	P. Subbarayan
Personal details
Born	5 August 1905 Kanadukathan, Madura District, Madras Presidency
Died	12 May 1984(1984-05-12) (aged 78) Madras, India
Political party	Justice Party

Rajah Sir Muttaiya Annamalai Muthiah Chettiar (5 August 1905 – 12 May 1984) was a banker, educationist, philanthropist and a short time politician from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was the first Mayor of Chennai. His father Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar was also a famous educationist and along with him he founded the Annamalai University in the town of Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. He was also the third Nattukottai Chettiar to be knighted; the first two were his nephew and father. The government of Tamil Nadu honoured him with the title Tamil Isai Kavalar.

He was born on 5 August 1905, son of Dr. Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar, the Raja of Chettinad and a distinguished member of the Nattukottai Nagarathar community. He studied mostly in Madras, graduating from the Presidency College, Chennai in 1922. He then went to Burma on his family's business, acquiring expertise in banking.

He became a member of the Madras Legislative Council, representing the South Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with which he was associated for 50 years, and was elected its President in 1941. He was appointed member of the Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee (1931). In 1929, he became a member of the Corporation of Madras and was elected Mayor in 1933 and 1934. In 1943, he was elected president of the Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and industry. He was associated with the Imperial Bank of India (now the State Bank of India) and the Indian Bank.

Interest in education was part of the family heritage. He was associated with his father in making Sri Meenakshi College, Chidambaram the nucleus of Annamalai University. While pursuing his political career as Chief Whip and Legislative Assembly Chairman of the Justice Party, he retained his interest in education. In 1936 he was appointed Minister-in-Charge of education, Public Health and Excise, and was also the pro-Chancellor of Madras University for over a year. He remained on the Board of Management of the Pachaiyappa's Charities for 33 years. He was also on the Syndicate of the Madras University and the Board of Management of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. In 1948 he became Pro-Chancellor of Annamalai University which expanded to include the faculties of Education, Fine Arts, Culture, Law and Medicine. Two UGC centres of advanced study in marine biology and linguistics came into being. The Engineering and Technology Department developed into a post-graduate centre. The Muthiah Polytechnic, Annamalainagar, and the Annamalai Polytechnic, Chettinad, were established.