The Indian independence movement had a long history in the Tamil-speaking districts of the then Madras Presidency going back to the 18th century. The first resistance to the British was offered by the legendary Since then there had been rebellions by polygars such as the Puli Thevar, Veeramangai Velu Nachiyar, Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar, Ondiveeran, Marudu brothers, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Veeran Sundaralingam, Oomaithurai, Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone Yadav, , and Dheeran Chinnamalai and the sepoys of Vellore. Though there were no violent rebellions in the 19th century, still, there were continuous agitations by Indian independence activists such as Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty, John Bruce Norton, Eardley Norton, Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer, P. Rangaiah Naidu, G. Subramania Iyer, Sir S