Since 2007, he has been serving as the general secretary of the Dravida Iyyakka Tamilar Peravai, a Tamil Nadu-based political organisation that aims to promote Ambedkarite, Dravidian and Marxist ideals in the State and elsewhere.

[2] In 2021, Subavee was appointed to two posts – Member of the Advisory Committee for Tamil Nadu Text Book and Educational Services Corporation, and as chairperson of the newly constituted Social Justice Monitoring Committee of Tamil Nadu Subavee was born in Karaikudi on the early morning of 22 April 1952 as the youngest of seven children[3] to Rama.Subbaiah (1908–1997) and Visalatchi (d.19 September 1987).

Following the Madras High Court's dismissal of an order (which caused a break in his career), Subavee resumed teaching at S.I.V.E.T College from February 1997.

Rama.Subbaiah was also housed in Tiruchirappalli Central Prison in 1953 for participating with DMK leader M. Karunanidhi in the Kallakudi demonstration, a part of the Anti-Hindi agitations.

Apart from campaigning for his father in the Karaikudi seat during the 1957 Madras Legislative Assembly election, Subavee also participated in the 1965 phase of the Anti-Hindi agitations as a Class IX student.

In 1979, Subavee was imprisoned[8] along with others including professor-poet Kuruvikkarambai Shanmugam for a week in connection with a protest organised by the Association of University Teachers (AUT), in which he was serving as Secretary for Zone II.

The protest was against the first MGR ministry's decision to shift the Pre-university course (PUC) in Tamil Nadu's higher education institutions to schools (as classes XI and XII).

In the same year, he was elected as the organiser of the Federation for the Protection of Rights of Eelam Tamils, in which personalities such as Perunchitiranar, Salai Elanthiraiyan, Mu.

In June, he was imprisoned for 20 days along with about 100 others in Tiruchirappalli Central Prison for participating in a rally against a ban on "Tamil Nation's Self Determination Conference" held in Thanjavur by Pazha Nedumaran (president of Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam).

During the imprisonment, Venkatraman repeatedly said to Subavee: "At a point, quit the teaching job and become a full-time cadre for serving people through politics".

The charge against him was that of forcing shops in Thana Street (in Purasawalkam, Chennai) to shut in order to show solidarity with the Eelam Tamils.

His prison-mates included S. Ramadoss (PMK founder), Nedumaran, Panruti S. Ramachandran, Nellikkuppam V. Krishnamurthy, Professor Dheeran, P. Maniyarasan and Thozhar Thiyagu.

In January 1993, Subavee, Nedumaran and functionaries from the PMK and Dravidar Kazhagam planned for a mass rally in Madras condemning the "assassination" of Kittu, an LTTE commander, on the 16th.

It was alleged in court that these three, along with Professor Saraswathi, conspired to blow up the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Madras that was to be inaugurated by the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao on 19 January.

In December 1996, Subavee was briefly jailed along with Maniyarasan in Vellore Central Prison for another speech in support of LTTE, which by then had become an officially proscribed organisation.

From 1998, he began to accept the Eelam Tamil diaspora's calls to travel abroad and to gather international support for the "rationales behind the struggle of the LTTE".

In August 2002, Tamil Nadu Police booked Subavee[10] along with Nedumaran, Pudukottai Paavanan and Dr. Thayappan Azhagirisamy under Section 21 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) for making speeches in support of LTTE.

On the same day, the ruling National Democratic Alliance held a discussion meet in New Delhi, during which Baalu criticised the government's statement.

He added that some junior lawyers had erroneously written in the statement that even verbal support to a proscribed organisation amounts to terrorism.

[9][16] After Karunanidhi returned as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 2006, he withdrew the POTA cases that his predecessor J. Jayalalithaa filed against Subavee, Nedumaran, Paavanan and Thayappan.

He arranged a 70-minutes-long meeting on 20 December 2006, in which five Sri Lankan Tamil MPs – R. Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and G. G. Ponnambalam – spoke with Karunanidhi, M. K. Stalin and M. K. Kanimozhi.

The topics of the discussion included the sufferings undergone by the Eelam Tamils, state terrorism, and the Supreme Court's ruling against former Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene's 1988 proclamation of merging the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Stalin appointed Subavee as a member of the Advisory Committee for Tamil Nadu Text Book and Educational Services Corporation (TNTBESC).

[26] During his career as a professor, Subavee wrote articles and poems for several journals, including Chutti, Viduthalai, Unmai, and Thenmozhi (owned by Perunchithiranar).

In 1984, he published the தமிழீழச் சிவப்பு மலர் (translit.Tamiḻīḻac civappu malar; meaning Red Flower of Tamil Eelam) exposing the anti-Tamils violence in Sri Lanka.

Venkatraman) (Aṭakkumuṟaiccaṭṭa etirppuk kūṭṭiyakkam) [Coalition Against Repressive Laws] (Inta vitai muḷaikkum) (Uṭaiyum cittiraṅkaḷ) (Kuṭumpamum araciyalum) (Periyāriṉ iṭatucārit tamiḻttēciyam) (Atu oru poṭā kālam) [Kuṟaḷvāṉam (aṟattuppāl)] (Vantatum vāḻvatum) (Tirāviṭattāl eḻuntōm) (Oṉṟē col naṉṟē col) (in six volumes) (Īḻam tamiḻakam nāṉ: Cila pativukaḷ) (Iḷamai eṉum pūṅkāṟṟu) (Ciṅkaḷaṉ mutal caṅkaraṉ varai) (Aṟintum aṟiyāmalum) (Tirāviṭam vaḷartta tamiḻ) (Tīṭṭum puṉitamum) (Etuvāka irukkum?)

(Vali) (Kāṟṟai kaitu ceytu...) (Mēṭai ilakkiyam) (Stage Literature) (Oru nimiṭam oru ceyti) (in four volumes) Karunchattai Pathippagam (Itutāṉ rāmarājyam) (Nāyakkar kālam ōr aṟimukam) (Māṉuṭam tirāviṭam camattuvam (pākam 1) [co-authored with Prof. Karunanandan, Kolathur Mani, Pollachi Ma Umapathy and Udayakumar] (Oru nūṟṟāṇṭil tamiḻakam kaṇṭa pōrāṭṭaṅkaḷ) (Karuppum kāviyum) (Tirāviṭa iyakkamum intukkaḷum) (Vālṭērum rūcōvum) (Sṭīpaṉ hākkiṅ pārvaiyil kaṭavuḷ uṇṭā?)

(Eṉ nāṭ kuṟippiliruntu...) (Īḻam kāppōm) (Tamiḻakap paṇpāṭṭu varalāṟu) Right from his college years, Subavee began to write plays, inspired by (and imitating) Karunanidhi's style as seen in films like Raja Rani (1956).

[9] Later, during his career as a clerk in Madras University, he founded a theatrical troupe named Kalaivanar Kalaimanram (in memory of actor-comedian N. S. Krishnan).

Being a rationalist, Subavee argued that the heroine has revolutionary ideals and therefore need not be portrayed in a white saree (attire of a traditional Hindu widow).