Sir Narayanan Raghavan Pillai, of Elenkath,[1] KCIE, CBE (24 July 1898 – 31 March 1992), popularly known as "Rag", was an Indian civil servant.
[5] He read English and became a Bachelor of Arts first-class honours in 1918 from Madras University, subsequently receiving a government scholarship to study at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
He successively served as an assistant collector of customs in Madras (now Chennai, 1927–1929) and as deputy director of commercial intelligence at Kolkata (1929–1932).
The subject was brought to a close by a letter from Pillai in which he said that, although the diamond rightfully belonged to India, he felt that Indians everywhere were happy for it to remain where it was (and still is) among the Crown Jewels.
[11] Pillai was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 1960, and was made an honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, his old college, in 1970.