[citation needed] Rajah was born to Mylai Chinna Thambi Pillai in 1883[2] at St. Thomas Mount, Madras.
Rajah joined politics at an early age and was elected president of the Chingleput district board.
[1] In 1922, Rajah passed a resolution demanding that the terms Paraiya and Panchama be dropped from official usage and instead be substituted with Adi-Dravida and Adi-Andhra.
[11] Disenchanted, Rajah led a delegation of scheduled castes to protest the act and press their demand for separate quota.
[11] Instead, when riots broke out in Puliyanthope the same year, top-ranking Justice Party leaders regarded the Government's policy of appeasement of paraiyars responsible for the strike.
[1] During April–July 1937 he was the Madras Presidency's Minister for Development in the short lived interim provisional cabinet of Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu.
[1] However, Rajah changed his mind to Joint Electorates with reserved seats on population basis due to lower representation of the Minority Pact in 1932.
[8] To honour his works, Bayya Suryanarayana Murthy founded the M. C. Rajah Memorial Hostel for the college students of the Scheduled Classes in 1944 at Saidapet in Madras.