Dr. J. Sadakkadulla
Founder, Thiruponathar Trust
He began with nothing but hope and educational merit, and spent his life making sure the next young person from Rajagambiram would begin with more.
Dr. J. Sadakkadulla was a first-generation graduate from a humble community in Rajagambiram, Sivagangai District. He lost his father prematurely at the age of thirteen. With the support of a determined mother who toiled in the hot sun to bring him up along with his two younger siblings, he pursued his dreams relentlessly — in the face of social and economic adversity, holding on to nothing but hope and educational merit.
That climb took him a long way from home. He built a career as a central banker and developmental economist that carried him around the world, and retired in 2016 as Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.
But he never mistook his own good fortune for a general rule. He had lived through the particular loneliness of a first-generation graduate — ability in abundance, and no one to point the way. In 2020 he returned to the village he came from and founded Thiruponathar Trust to close exactly that gap, at the grassroots, for anyone who wanted it and could not pay for it.
He knew what it was to have ability and no one to point the way. This trust was his answer to that gap.
He named the trust’s library for his father, Abdulkhader Jainallaudeen, and filled it with what he had once gone without: books in Tamil and English, newspapers and journals, free computers and internet, and a quiet room to work in. Students who walk through that door today are the continuation of a promise he made to himself as a boy.
The road from Rajagambiram
Rajagambiram, Sivagangai District
Born into a humble family and orphaned of his father at thirteen. Raised, alongside two younger siblings, by a mother who worked in the fields to keep them all in school.
A first-generation graduate
The first in his family to reach a university, and later a doctorate — carried there by merit and scholarship rather than means.
Central banker and developmental economist
A career at the Reserve Bank of India and in development economics that took him across India and around the world.
Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India
Retired as Regional Director for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry — and turned immediately to the question of what he owed the place he came from.
Thiruponathar Trust
Founded the trust in Rajagambiram, together with the Abdulkhader Jainallaudeen Memorial Library named for his father. Free tuition, TNPSC coaching, career guidance and job training — open to anyone in the community, at no cost.
The work continues
The trust he built carries on under its trustees, with every programme still free and still open to all — which is the only memorial he would have asked for.
Talent is spread evenly. Opportunity is not.The conviction Thiruponathar Trust was built on
Carry it forward
If his story means something to you, the most fitting tribute is the one he chose himself: keep a young person from this community moving forward. Support the trust, or simply come and use the library he built.