The risings in this region were pre-national and tenurial, and reading them backwards as nationalism misdescribes them. The chiefs who fought the Company between 1772 and 1801 were holders of palayams and chiefships, and the quarrel was over tribute, the right to keep troops and the right to collect in their own tracts; it was settled not by a battle but by the permanent settlement of 1801–03, which converted the office into a rent-collecting estate and ended armed resistance here for good. The Marava, Kallar and Nadar communities that appear in this history are named because the record names them, and their part in it is social and economic history — tenure, migration, trade, and the disabilities imposed by colonial law — not a matter for praise or blame. The region's twentieth-century contribution came through its port and its emigrants rather than through risings, and through campaigns for social reform.
The Sivaganga succession1772–1780
Company forces attacked Kalaiyar Kovil in 1772 over arrears and the Sivaganga chief was killed. His widow, Velu Nachiyar, took refuge at Virupachi for eight years and returned in 1780 with support from neighbouring chiefs; the Maruthu brothers administered the recovered territory.
परिणाम: Sivaganga was held by the line until it was drawn into the confederacy of 1801 and then settled as a zamindari.
The first palayakkarar war1799
A dispute over unpaid kist between the palayakkarar of Panchalankurichi, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, and the Company's collector escalated after a fatal encounter in 1798. A Company force under Major Bannerman took the Panchalankurichi fort in 1799 and Kattabomman withdrew into the country before being taken with the help of chiefs allied to the Company.
परिणाम: Kattabomman was hanged at Kayathar on 16 October 1799 and his palayam was confiscated.
The second palayakkarar war1801
Kattabomman's brother Oomaithurai, released from confinement, joined the Maruthu brothers of Sivaganga and other chiefs in a confederacy that issued a proclamation at Tiruchirappalli calling on the palayakkarars to combine. Panchalankurichi was retaken by a Company force under Colonel Agnew after a siege in mid-1801.
परिणाम: The Maruthu brothers were hanged at Tiruppathur on 24 October 1801 and Oomaithurai later the same year. Between 1801 and 1803 the palayams were converted into zamindari estates and the military tenure was abolished.
The Tuticorin strike and the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company1906–1908
V. O. Chidambaram Pillai registered the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in October 1906 to run steamers between Tuticorin and Colombo in competition with an established British line. In February and March 1908 he and Subramania Siva addressed meetings during a nine-day strike at the Coral Mill in Tuticorin; both were arrested on 12 March 1908, and disturbances followed at Tirunelveli.
परिणाम: Chidambaram Pillai was convicted of sedition and sentenced to transportation; the shipping company failed. He was released in December 1912 and his licence to practise was restored only later.