The Indian independence movement had a long history in the Tamil-speaking districts of the then Madras Presidency going back to the 18th century.
The first resistance to the British was offered by the legendary Since then there had been rebellions by polygars such as the Puli Thevar, Veeramangai Velu Nachiyar, Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar, Ondiveeran, Marudu brothers, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Veeran Sundaralingam, Oomaithurai, Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone Yadav, Chinna Alagumuthu kone, and Dheeran Chinnamalai and the sepoys of Vellore. Though there were no violent rebellions in the 19th century, still, there were continuous agitations by Indian independence activists such as Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty, John Bruce Norton, Eardley Norton, Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer, P. Rangaiah Naidu, G. Subramania Iyer, Sir S. Subramania Iyer, C. Jambulingam Mudaliar, Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar, T. M. Jambulingam Mudaliar, Tiruppur Kumaran, M. Veeraraghavachariar and C. Karunakara Menon. After a brief interlude of militancy in the early 1900s, independence activists from Tamil Nadu adopted the non-violent principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Some of the important Gandhian leaders of the region were C. Rajagopalachari, K. Kamaraj and S. Satyamurti.
Contemporaneous with the Indian nationalist movement, there were also pro-British political parties and movements, the most prominent being the Justice Party. Some important pro-British leaders were P. Theagaroya Chetty, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and Raja of Panagal. The first freedom fighter alakumuthu kon in thirulavali Kattamkulam
