Thillaiyadi Valliammai (22 February 1898 – 22 February 1914) was a South African Tamil woman who worked with Mahatma Gandhi in her early years when she developed her nonviolent methods in South Africa fighting its apartheid regime.

1. Thillaiyadi Valliammai
Sengunthar
Born 22 February 1898
South Africa
Died 22 February 1914 (aged 16)
South Africa
Thillaiaadi Valliammai
Thillaiyadi Valliammai (22 February 1898 – 22 February 1914) was
a South African Tamil woman who worked with Mahatma Gandhi in
her early years when she developed her nonviolent methods in South
Africa fighting its apartheid regime.[1]
She was born to R. Munuswamy Mudaliar and Mangalam, a young
immigrant couple from a small village called Thillaiyadi in
Mayiladuthurai district in India to Johannesburg – the gold-city of
South Africa to work for their way out of difficulty.[2] She was from
Sengunthar Kaikola Mudaliar community.[3] Her father was a trader
and owner of a confectionery shop. Since her mother Mangalam is
from Thillaiyadi in Tamil Nadu, her daughter Valliammai came to be
popularly called Thillaiyadi Valliammai. Valliammai had never been
to India. She grew in an environment that was rather hostile to
Indians. But the young child did not even know that it was not right to be segregated so, until she was in her
early teens.
A law was passed that any marriage that is not according to the Church or according to the marriage law of
South Africa would be held null and void, which disproportionately affected the Indian community in that
country.[4] Doubts regarding of inheritance arose. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi began his opposition.
Young Valliammai joined her mother in the march by women from Transvaal to Natal – which was not legally
permitted without passes.
Valliamma, and her mother Mangalam, joined the second batch of Transvaal women who went to Natal in
October 1913 to explain the inequity of the three pound tax to the workers and persuade them to strike.
(Valliamma’s father, R. Munuswamy Mudaliar, owner of a fruit and vegetable shop in Johannesburg and a
satyagrahi in the Transvaal, was recovering from an operation). They visited different centres and addressed
meetings. They were sentenced in December to three months with hard labour, and sent to the Maritzburg
prison. Valliamma fell ill soon after her conviction, but refused an offer of early release by the prison
authorities. She died shortly after release, on 22 February 1914.
Gandhi wrote in Satyagraha in South Africa:
"Valliamma R. Munuswami Mudaliar was a young girl of Johannesburg only sixteen years of age. She was
confined to bed when I saw her. As she was a tall girl, her emaciated body was a terrible thing to behold.
'Valliamma, you do not repent of your having gone to jail?’ I asked.
'Repent? I am even now ready to go to jail again if I am arrested,’ said Valliamma.
"But what if it results in your death?’ I pursued.
'I do not mind it. Who would not love to die for one’s motherland?’ was the reply.
Biography

2. Thillaiyadi Valliammai memorial building
Thillaiaadi Valliammai memorial
pillar
Valliammai on a 2008 stamp
of India
"Within a few days after this conversation Valliamma was no more with us in the flesh, but she left us the
heritage of an immortal name…. And the name of Valliamma will live in the history of South African
Satyagraha as long as India lives".
On 15 July 1914, three days before he left South Africa, Gandhi attended the unveiling of the gravestones of
Nagappan and Valliamma in the Braamfontein cemetery in Johannesburg.[5] [2]
Thillaiyadi Valliammai
Memorial Hall, including
a public library, was
instituted in 1971 on
2452 square meters of
land by the Indian
Government in the
village of Thillaiyadi,
now in Tharangambadi
Taulk, Nagapattinam,
India.[6] The Library is
functioning regularly in
this memorial. Other
buildings in her name
include Thillaiyadi Valliammai Nagar and the Thillaiyadi
Valliammai High School in Vennanthur.
India released a commemorative
stamp for her on 31 December 2008.
American-Tamil Hip-Hop artist Professor A.L.I. releases the song
"Herstory" about Thillaiyadi Valliammai[7]
1. Thillaiyadi Valliammai – First day cover (http://fdc4all.blogspot.co
m/2009/01/thillaiyadi-valliammai-fdc-from-india.html).
Fdc4all.blogspot.com (6 January 2009). Retrieved on 2018-11-12.
2. Gandhi, Tamils and the Satyagraha in South Africa (http://www.mu
thalnaidoo.co.za/indian-south-african-history-enuga-reddy/340-ga
ndhi-tamils-and-the-satyagraha-in-south-africa).
Muthalnaidoo.co.za (4 August 2012). Retrieved on 2018-11-12.
3. Ramaswamy, Vijaya (2017). Historical Dictionary of the Tamils (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=ALUvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA384). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 384.
ISBN 978-1-53810-686-0.
4. Gandhi and the Tamils (http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/08/31/stories/2009083150120200.htm).
The Hindu (31 August 2009). Retrieved on 12 November 2018.
5. Cemeteries (http://www.jhbcityparks.com/index.php/cemeteries-contents-61). Jhbcityparks.com.
Retrieved on 12 November 2018.
6. "Tamilnadu govt. – memorials – in Tamil" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060512220206/http://
www.tn.gov.in/tamiltngov/memorial/thillai.htm). Archived from the original (http://www.tn.gov.in/t
amiltngov/memorial/thillai.htm) on 12 May 2006. Retrieved 3 September 2006.
7. Valliamma and Her Story (http://professorali.com/2016/02/21/herstory/). Professorali.com.
Retrieved on 12 November 2018.
Honors
References

3. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thillaiaadi_Valliammai&oldid=998265594"
This page was last edited on 4 January 2021, at 15:52 (UTC).
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