PPR Subramaniam Chettiar
| PPR Subramaniam Chettiar | |
|---|---|
Chettiar during his world tour in 1955
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| Born |
21 September 1901 Avanipatti, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Died | 23 January 1975 (aged 73) |
| Nationality | Indian |
PPR Subramaniam Chettiar was an Indian journalist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Chettiar was born on 21 September 1901 in Avanipatti, a village in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga district. He was the third of five children to PR Periannan Chettiar and Visalakshi Aachi. His passion was journalism and he was a writer for several newspapers in India. In his early 20s, he decided to leave the Sivaganga district, where his father was a wealthy local businessman, in order to explore new territories. He traveled to British Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), where he saw the conditions of the Indian labourers for whom he decided to promote justice and equality by establishing a newspaper.
Chettiar established a newspaper in 1930 and named it Virakesari, meaning "victorious lion". The first edition was published on 6 August 1930 in Colombo. He acted as the paper's editor-in-chief and guided the publication for over 20 years. After Ceylon obtained its independence from British dominance, the Parliament of Ceylon enacted the Ceylon Citizenship Act. Rather than taking up Ceylonese citizenship in order to continue running the business, Chettiar chose to return to India and sold his interests in Virakesari in 1965. Today, this newspaper is the most widely circulated and read newspaper by the entire Tamil speaking population in Sri Lanka.
Chettiar purchased assets and established businesses in Malaysia and Singapore in the 1950s. In Singapore, he set up a money lending business under the name of "SVSP Money Lending", which was a part of the Nattukottai Chettiars business houses.
Chettiar invested in real estate in and around Singapore. He purchased estates in Malaysia and established the Veerakesari Rubber Estates in Gelang Patah, Malacca, which was amongst the first plantations in Malacca. While a majority of the estates were owned and run by expatriate planters of British and Scottish origin, Veerakesari was amongst the few run by Asian planters.
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