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Rankanatan. Rankanatan was created by the Indian author Melaccivapuri Panaiyappa Cettiyar and appeared in a number of story serials and novels in the 1920s, possibly beginning with Kantimati (1926).

Rankanatan is a Great Detective. Rankanatan is a Tamil and is a patriot who earnestly hopes for India’s independence from Great Britain. Rankanatan disdains Gandhi’s tactic of passive resistance and prefers direct and even aggressive actions against the British oppressors.

* I'm including the Rankanatan stories and novels in the Best of the Encyclopedia list because they are historically important. There were a fair number of crime, detective, and mystery stories and novels published in India in the 1920s and 1930s, but few gave more than a peremptory nod toward Indian independence, and none of them (largely due to British colonial censorship) were as open and rhetorically violent about independence and toward the British as the Rankanatan stories and novels. They were not influential--nobody imitated Cettiyar or Rankanatan--but they were inspirational of supporters and activists of independence. 

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