C. Sankaran Nair

Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair CIE
Justice of the High Court of Madras
In office 1908 (1908)–1915 (1915)
Advocate-General of Madras
In office 1906–1908
Preceded by	C. A. White
Succeeded by	Sir P. S. Sivaswami Iyer
President of the Indian National Congress
In office 1897 (1897)–1897 (1897)
Preceded by	Rahimtulla M. Sayani
Succeeded by	Anandamohan Bose
Personal details
Born	(1857-07-11)11 July 1857 Palghat, Malabar District, Madras Presidency, British India (present day Palakkad, Kerala, India)
Died	24 April 1934(1934-04-24) (aged 76) Madras, British India (present day Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
Political party	Indian National Congress
Profession	Lawyer Jurist Activist Politician

Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair CIE (11 July 1857 – 24 April 1934) was an Indian lawyer and statesman who served as the Advocate-General of Madras from 1906 to 1908, on the High Court of Madras as a puisne justice from 1908 to 1915, and as India-wide Education minister as a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council from 1915 until 1919. He was elected president of the 1897 Indian National Congress, and led the Egmore faction, opposing the Mylapore group.

According to V. C. Gopalratnam, he was a leader of the Madras bar, alongside C. R. Pattabhirama Iyer, M. O. Parthasarathy Iyengar, V. Krishnaswamy Iyer, P. R. Sundaram Iyer, and Sir V. C. Desikachariar, and immediately behind Sir V. Bhashyam Aiyangar and Sir S. Subramania Iyer.^[1] He wrote Gandhi and Anarchy (1922).

A biopic on Nair's life was announced in June 2021 by Dharma Productions and began production in November 2022, starring Akshay Kumar, R. Madhavan and Ananya Panday. Titled Shankara, it is scheduled to release in 2024.