V. T. Sambanthan

His wife, Toh Puan Umasundari Sambanthan served as chairman and director of the National Land Finance Co- operative Society (NLFC) from 1980 to 1995 and its president in 1995 and 1996.

At the time of his death in 1979, the cooperative had bought over 18 estates, totalling 120 km and had a membership of 85,000 workers. The Malayan Plantation Agencies administered the estates on behalf of the cooperative.

After resigning as president of MIC, he was appointed chairman of the National Unity Board (1974–78) that replaced the National Unity Ministry.

Sambanthan, by now bearing the title "Tun", was forced to retire in favour of V. Manickavasagam in 1973. This intervention is an indication of the inertia that had gripped the MIC following Sambanthan's rise to leadership in 1955.

During the time the Malaysian Government decided to ban the Chinese lion dance and racial tension was high after 13 May 1969, Tun Sambanthan as National Unity Minister in the early 1970s, took some Chinese leaders to Genting to talk things over. The discussions were successful and the lion dance ban was later lifted because the Government realised it was important to maintain each race's culture.

Apart from ministerial duties, Tunku Abdul Rahman often assigned important tasks to Sambanthan. In 1968, the Tunku sent Sambanthan to Fiji as an emissary of peace; the Chief Minister of Fiji acknowledged Sambanthan's contribution in a letter to Tunku thanking him for the "great success" of the delegation "under the superb leadership of Tun Sambanthan".

Sambanthan also joined the delegation to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1966 to witness the signing of an agreement whereby diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Malaysia were normalised after the Indonesian Confrontation episode.

In 1960 Tun V.T. Sambanthan touted the idea of a social co-operative to help plantation workers during the British land sell off. Tun Sambanthan and K. R. Somasundram worked closely to purchase their first estate at Bukit Sidim in that same year. The co-operative was later called National Land and Finance Co-operative Society (NLFCS).

In the same year, he was elected member of the legislative council for the Kinta Utara constituency. The constituency was renamed in 1959 as the Sungai Siput seat.

It was also the weakest of the three main political parties. It had the smallest electorate – 7.4% in 1959; and it had little support from the Indian community at large.

The finest hour was achieved on 31 August 1957 when Independence was achieved under the Merdeka Agreement, to which Sambanthan was a signatory.

The final constitutional negotiations in London in May 1957 also saw a personal transformation in Sambanthan. While in London for the constitutional talks, Tunku Abdul Rahman decided that Sambanthan needed new attire.

During the debate on the draft Constitution at the Federal Legislative Council on 10 July 1957, Sambanthan urged greater co-operation between the communities, reminding them that Malaya was a plural society. He told the council:

The coalition decided to push for a quicker transfer of power and an Alliance delegation went to London in January 1956 to hold talks on a range of issues, including independence, with Secretary of State Alan Lennox-Boyd.

Earlier, in 1956, Sambanthan led the MIC delegation in the negotiations between the Alliance parties in drawing up a memorandum to be presented to the Reid Commission.

The entry of the MIC into the multi-communal Alliance in 1955 contributed greatly to enhancing the coalition's image as the main representative of the three main communities in Malaya.

Some in the party felt that there was a need for a leader with a stronger relationship with the party's grassroots. In March 1955, reports in the local daily Tamil Murasu urged Tamils to boycott the MIC.

Sambanthan initially declined but following some pressure from the Tamil leaders agreed to take on the party leadership. He was duly elected the fifth president of the MIC in May 1955. Sambanthan was also acceptable to the Malay leadership because he played down political (and to some extent, economic) rights in favour of cultural and language rights.

Under Sambanthan's leadership, the MIC effectively became a Tamil party. Sambanthan served as president of the MIC from 1955 to 1971 and was largely responsible for the transformation of the party from an active, political organisation to a conservative, traditional one, emphasising Indian culture, religion and language.

Since the Indian community was geographically dispersed and divided, it comprised less than 25% in any constituency. Therefore, the MIC's over-riding concern was to remain a partner in the Alliance (the UMNO-MCA-MIC Alliance that had won the first elections in 1955, and that was subsequently renamed Barisan Nasional) and obtain whatever concessions it could from the dominant UMNO. In the process, political and economic rights of workers were sacrificed.

Sambanthan took over the mantle of the MIC during a period of turmoil in the party in 1955, barely months before the first federal elections, and over time strengthen the party and consolidated its position in the coalition. He did not always please his members, but was able to gradually unite a party that had considerable internal splits.

The year 1955 was a milestone for Malaya's advance towards self-governance. The British colonial administration had agreed to hold the first federal elections in July 1955 and Sambanthan was instantly thrown into the cauldron of electoral politics.

Sambanthan had caused some controversy when he wore a dhoti upon being elected into the Federal Legislative Council – a practice deemed taboo during the British period. But Sambanthan defended his choice, arguing: “It makes the average man feel happier.” Even after the elections in 1955, when he was appointed Minister of Labour, his traditional Indian attire remained intact.

As president of a party that was a component of the ruling Alliance Party, he was appointed Minister of Labour (1955–57), Health (1957–59), Works, Posts and Telecommunications (1959–71) and National Unity (1972–74).

On his invitation, she visited Malaya in 1954 and despite the ongoing communist insurgency, visited Sungai Siput where she officially opened the Mahatma Gandhi Tamil School. The meeting between Sambanthan and Vijaya Lakshmi in 1954 helped push the former into the limelight and then on to the party president's position in 1955.

In 1954, there were serious debates within the MIC as to whether the partys should join the UMNO-MCA Alliance that was emerging as the leading political movement in the country, following their successes in local elections. The MIC had aligned itself with Datuk Onn Jaafar's Independence of Malaya Party and later Party Negara, and there was a rethink within the MIC leadership during this period.

According to Rajeswary Ampalavanar, author of The Indian Minority and Political Change in Malaya 1954–1957, the MIC leadership was quite eager to join the Alliance but there was some resistance within the party's broader membership. They were willing to support the move if the party could secure some concessions from the Alliance on inter-communal issues, particularly on education.

Sambanthan, with the intention of creating a more cohesive and unified Indian community, organised the Perak United Indian Council in 1953, the same year he was elected Perak MIC chairman.

The Emergency (declared by the British in 1948 to battle communist insurgency) regulations and new trade union legislation also led to the leadership of the trade union movement passing from the Chinese, who were much better organised, to the Indians. This dilution of the MIC's objectives affected the status of Indian plantation workers in the Malaysian economy then and its repercussions are still being felt today.

In the post World War II period, the Indian professional elite was largely held together by the unifying ideology of Indian nationalism. In 1946, the Indian of other ethnicity in Malaya formed the MIC. For the first eight years, the MIC leaders were either North Indian or Malayalee, representing a minority among the Indians. The majority of Indians (90%) in Malaya at that time were South Indians, mainly from the labouring class.

The MIC's main challenge was to reconcile the political aspirations of the middle class with the poverty and needs of the labouring class, who in 1938 comprised 84% of the plantation labour force. Sambanthan started a recruitment campaign among plantation workers, relying on patronage of Hinduism in its popular South Indian form, increased use and fostering of the Tamil language, and Tamil cultural activities.

Tun Thirunyanasambanthan s/o Veerasamy (Tamil: திருஞானசம்பந்தன், romanized: Tiruñāṉacampantaṉ; 16 June 1919 – 18 May 1979) also known as V.T. Sambanthan, was a Malayan and Malaysian politician who served as Minister of National Unity from January 1972 to 1974, Minister of Works, Posts and Telecommunications from April 1956 to December 1971, Minister of Health from 1957 to 1959, Minister of Labour from 1955 to 1957, Member of Parliament (MP) for Sungai Siput from July 1955 to June 1973, acting Prime Minister on 3 August 1973 for only a day and 5th President of the Malayan Indian Congress and later Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) from May 1955 to his removal from the party presidency in June 1973 by the party members. He is widely known as one of the founding fathers of Malaysia representing one of the three main ethnicities, people of Indian origin along with Tunku Abdul Rahman representing Malay ethnicity and Tan Cheng Lock representing the Chinese ethnicity.

Sambanthan was born in Sungai Siput in 1919. His father, M.S. Veerasamy, came to Malaya in the 1896, was a pioneer rubber planter in Sungai Siput, Perak and owned several rubber plantations. His siblings are V. Meenachi Sundram, V. Krishnan and V. Saraswathy .