A. Rangaswami Iyengar was born in 1877 to Narasimha Iyengar at Erukattur village in Thanjavur District. He studied at Nagapattinam, Coimbatore, and Madras where he took degrees in Arts and in Law. He joined government service in the Madras Secretariat as a clerk but soon resigned to set up practice in 1902 at Thanjavur. He worked at The Hindu with Kasturi Ranga Iyengar. In 1915, he left The Hindu, when his request for partnership in the concern was turned down. He acquired from G. Subramanya Iyer the leading Tamil daily Swadesamitran, in Partnership with S. Rangaswami and C.R. Srinivasan, and became editor of the paper. He was actively associated with Mrs. Annie Besant’s Home Rule agitation during the years 1914-18, serving as secretary of the Home Rule League for three years. He was a member of the Congress delegation which went to England in 1919 to plead for full self-government for India. Disappointed with the Montford reforms, Congress, under Gandhi's leadership, launched the non-cooperation movement, but Rangaswami Iyer kept out of it. He attended as a delegate the second Round Table Conference on Indian reforms in London in 1931. Gandhiji, who attended it as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, invited Rengaswami Iyengar to act as his political Secretary and Constitutional adviser. He rendered outstanding service to the freedom movement and the nationalist cause. He passed away on 5 February 1934.