MAM Ramaswamy (84), the last of the Rajahs of Chettinad, died on Wednesday after a brief illness. MAM, as he was popularly known, was hospitalised in November.
He was a multifaceted personality – an industrialist, educationist, philanthropist, patron of fine arts and a sports lover – best known for his passion for horse racing.
He is survived by his adopted son, MAMR Muthiah, who now heads the ₹4,000-crore Chettinad Group of companies, co-founded by MAM. The Group has diversified business interests in cement, logistics, power, construction and infrastructure.
In recent years, the father and son had clashed over control of business and family assets, which culminated in MAM announcing in June that he had disowned his son.
MAM was the third generation patriarch of the House of Chettinad, which traces its roots back to 1912 when it was founded by Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar, whose legacy his son, Raja Sir Muthiah Chettiar, and grandson MAM, have built upon.
R Ramakrishnan, a close associate and childhood friend of MAM, described him as an “aristocratic but humble” person, his “first and basic love was for horses and horse racing. With his demise, the sport has lost a doyen really and truly. There can never be such a personality in the Indian horse racing scene.”
He added: “MAM’s achievement of winning over 600 classics in horse racing cannot be matched. He would have been felicitated on the occasion of the Invitation Cup in Chennai early next year. But the horse racing world has been cheated of this opportunity.”
Ramakrishnan, Deputy Chairman of the 277-year-old Madras Racing Club, recalled that even in hospital, MAM was enquiring about the Club he had long nurtured.
MAM was also a supporter of hockey and served as president of the Indian Hockey Federation.
As an educationist for long, he headed the Annamalai University, founded in 1929 by his grandfather at Chidambaram, as Pro-Chancellor, till it was taken over by the Tamil Nadu Government in 2013. MAM also dabbled in politics, and was a Janata Dal (Secular) member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. A close friend of the family was saddened that MAM leaves behind a huge legal battle for control of the family’s assets, including the 125-acre Chettinad Palace in Adyar in South Chennai.
It was at this venue that MAM had announced in a press conference that he had disowned Muthiah, by annulling the ritual adoption at a family temple. MAM’s wealth will go to a charitable trust run by his cousin and industrialist AC Muthiah, and other senior members of the Chettiar community.
Recently, AC Muthiah and MAMR Muthiah had met to settle differences at least as long as the ailing MAM was alive, and a short truce had been called.