The Justice party was formed by non-Brahmin elites in 1917.
The Justice party originated with the Madras United League which was initially started as a work group that helped non-Brahmin students in Madras with accommodation and later grew into a political party under the efforts of leaders like [[C. Natesa Mudaliar]], [[P. Theagaraya Chetty]] and [[T. M. Nair]].
The party was named South Indian Liberal Federation (S. I. L. F.) – popularly known as Justice party.
The party had been in power in Madras Presidency since self-governance was introduced in 1920, until it was defeated by the Indian National Congress in 1937.
By the time Annadurai joined the Justice party, Periyar was the party president. Annadurai served as the sub-editor of the Justice magazine.
He later became the editor for Viduthalai (Freedom in English) and was also associated with the Tamil weekly paper, Kudi Arasu.
He started his own journal Dravida Nadu (named after the Dravida Nadu – an independent state that the party called for).
In 1944, Periyar renamed the Justice party to Dravidar Kazhagam and gave up contesting in the elections.