Tiruppur Subrahmanya Avinashilingam Chettiar (5 May 1903 – 21 November 1991) was an Indian lawyer, politician, freedom fighter and Gandhian.
He served as the Education Minister of Madras Presidency from 1946 to 1949 and was responsible for introducing Tamil as the medium of instruction.
[1][2] Avinashlingam was a nephew of Indian National Congress politician and freedom fighter, T. A. Ramalingam Chettiar.
In 1926, he commenced practice as an assistant to his uncle, Ramalingam Chettiar before entering the Indian independence movement.
[1][3] When his final prison term came to an end in 1944, he entered provincial politics and was elected to the Madras Legislative Council in 1946.
[2] Avinashilingam served as the Education Minister of Madras Presidency from 1946 to 1949 under premiers Tanguturi Prakasam and O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar.
[2] One of his most remembered acts as minister was the introduction of Tamil as the medium of instruction in secondary schools all over the Presidency.
Avinashilingam nationalized the poems of freedom fighter, Subramania Bharati and created the professorship for Tamil and other Indian languages at the University of Madras.
[3] Inspired by the patriarchs of the mission, Avinashilingam started the Ramakrishna Vidyalaya school at Race Course, Coimbatore in 1930.
Avinashilingam was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour for his contribution to education and literature in the year 1970.