S. Muthiah

Subbiah Muthiah
S. Muthiah speaking at a Madras Day 2015 presentation on "The story of photography in Madras"
Born	Muthiah (1930-04-13) 13 April 1930 (age 87) Pallathur, Madras Presidency, British India
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Man from Madras Musings
Occupation	journalist
Employer	T. T. K. Maps
Known for	books on the History of Chennai, conservation activities
Title	MBE
Spouse(s)	Valliammai Muthiah (1950-2013) m. 1969 till her death
Children	Ranjani, Parvathy

Subbiah Muthiah, MBE (born 13 April 1930), is an Indian writer, journalist, cartographer, amateur historian and heritage activist known for his writings on the political and cultural history of Chennai city. He is the founder of the fortnightly newspaper Madras Musings and the principal organizer of the annual Madras Day celebrations. Muthiah is also the founder-President of the Madras Book Club.

Muthiah was born in Pallathur in the Ramnad district of Madras Presidency, British India in a Nagarathar family on 13 April 1930. Muthiah had his early schooling in Ladies' College, S. Thomas' Preparatory School and Royal College in Colombo and completed his matriculation in India in 1946. Between 1946 and 1951, Muthiah studied arts and engineering in the United States of America and returned to Ceylon after obtaining his master's degree in International Relations in 1951.

On his return to Ceylon, Muthiah took up a job with The Times of Ceylon and served the newspaper for 17 years eventually rising to the second position in the newspaper's hierarchy and heading the weekly Sunday edition. When the citizenship laws of the country were amended in 1968, Muthiah, who was not yet a citizen of Ceylon lost his job and had to move to India.

Muthiah settled down in the city of Madras and took up a job with T. T. K. Maps, a newly formed cartographic division of T. T. K. Healthcare Ltd where he was tasked with preparation of tourist guides and books on South India. In 1981, Muthiah wrote his first book Madras Discovered based on the research he had done to prepare tourist guides on Madras city. He followed it with two more books on Madras and one each on Parry's and Simpson's Ltd.

On his retirement from T. T. K. Maps in 1990, Muthiah took up writing full-time and founded the fortnightly newspaper Madras Musings. Muthiah also involved himself in heritage activism for Madras city and wrote regular columns for Indian newspapers most prominently The Hindu. In 1999, Muthiah co-founded Chennai Heritage, a foundation for heritage conservation in Chennai. Muthiah is also one of the brains behind the annual Madras Day celebrations held in Chennai city on the anniversary of the founding of the settlement of Fort St. George by Andrew Cogan and Francis Day on 22 August 1639.