[2] Rettamalai Srinivasan was born on 7 July 1860[3] (or 1859[4][5]) in a poor Tamil family in Madras Presidency.

[6] His family was able to send him to a residential school in Coimbatore because of his father Rettamalai's trade relations with the British.

[8][9] He founded a Tamil newspaper called Paraiyan in October 1893[10] which started selling as a monthly with four pages for the price of four annas.

[citation needed] Srinivasan was a participant in the freedom movement and an arrest warrant was issued against him claiming that he was fleeing the nation.

[13] In 1932, Ambedkar, M. C. Rajah and Rettamalai Srinivasan briefly joined the board of the Servants of Untouchables Society established by Gandhi.

[5] Commemorative stamps have been issued in memory of Rettamalai Srinivasan by the Department of Posts of the Government of India.