"In the 1937 provincial elections, nationalist associated with the Indian National Congress had gained a legislative foothold and C. Rajagopalachari, a lawyer and Congress nationalist, was the presidency's premier between 1937 and 1939. In an effort to advance the pan-Indian nationalist cause, he had introduced legislation making study of Hindi compulsory in the Presidency’s secondary schools. In the course of protests, twelve hundred persons were incarcerated, and in 1939, two men died in prison. They were hailed as martyrs and mourned with elaborate funeral processions in Madras. Their sentiment was encapsulated in poems such as this: [Our] mind is Tamil; [Our] entire body is Tamil; [Our] life is Tamil; [Our] pulse is Tamil; [Our] veins are Tamil; [Our] flesh, muscle, everything is Tamil; everything in [our] body is Tamil, Tamil, Tamil."