Swadesamitran (1881–1985) was the first Tamil language newspaper owned and operated by Indians. It was published from Chennai (then called Madras). It was founded by G Subramania Aiyer who also served as the papers first editor. It was founded as a sister paper of The Hindu which Aiyer had also founded two years earlier in 1879. The name translated from Tamil to English literally means "friend of self rule".
