P. Sabanayagam, former Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, who celebrated his 100th birthday in June 2022, died in Chennai on June 22. He was 101. He is survived by two sons and a daughter. Chief Minister M K Stalin had participated in his centenary celebrations.
In 33 years as civil service officer, he had worked with Rajaji as his private secretary and with former Chief Minsiters K Kamaraj, M. Bhaktavatsalam, C.N. Annadurai, and M. Karunanidhi; and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
He became the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu in March, 1971 and continued in the post till April 1976. He was the Secretary of Industries when R. Venkatraman was in the ministry in the state and made the state a destination of industries.
Writing in The Hindu, historian V. Sriraman, had said Sabanayagam’s other great contribution was the popularisation of Indian handlooms in the U.S., for which he literally walked from store to store in that country, lugging samples. His efforts ensured the Madras Checks came to be protected under the Patent Law in the 1960s.
After the declaration of Emergency, he was transferred to Delhi as Secretary, Government of India and had even represented India at the meetings of UNESCO in Paris.
Though he was senior-most secretary of the Indian Government, he was overlooked for the post of Cabinet Secretary because Sanjay Gandhi, the son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, “wanted a personal commitment and personal loyalty to him as an individual.”
In his memoir, ‘Service to the Nation’, he also recalled his meeting with Indira Gandhi to register his complaint about being overlooked for the appointment of the Cabinet Secretary. When he told her that Sanjay had recommended Shri Grewal, Indira Gandhi thumped the table with her first and said, “It was my decision.”
Born in Madras in June 1922, at Travers Garden, a bungalow, in Purasawalkam, purchased by one of his uncles Chidambaranatha Mudaliar, Sabanayagam had his schooling in Ewart School. His father S. Panchanatha Mudaliar was an advocate and worked with S. Muthiah Mudaliar, who was a minister in the Justice Party.
Since it was a girls’ school, boys were allowed to study till Class IV. While his brothers and sisters left the school one after another, his father persuaded F.A. Baker to allow him to continue for one more year. It continued year after year and he succeeded and finished his schooling in a girls’ school. He joined Madras Christian College and completed his BA in 1942 scoring the highest mark of 148 and won the Ross Prize. One of his close friends was Amritraj, the father of tennis fame Amritraj brothers.
He joined the Army in 1943 and while in the service he was selected for the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and he left it. In Madras Presidency, he started his career as Sub-Collector of Pollachi in Coimbatore district.
When he was in the Central Government service, DMK leader and Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi wrote to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to relieve him to return to Tamil Nadu. He was appointed the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).
As a Chief Secretary he continued with his “open door policy.”
“Secretaries and heads of departments could meet me easily. I would occasionally walk around the sections and see the clerks and peons in working as I used to early in my career as Under Secretary,” he had recalled in his memoir.
In the beginning of his tenure as the Chief Secretary he was considered as Congress-aligned since he was close to Rajaji, Kamaraj and Bhaktavatsalam, who was thought to be his relative. “It took several months for them to get over the phobia,” he writes.
He retired as Secretary, Union Ministry of Education and Culture, in New Delhi, in August 1980. Subseqeuntly, he involved himself in the Sekkizhar Charitable Trust, in the field of education and industry. He was a devotee of Kanchi Mutt and Dharmapuram Atheenam.
