Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan 19

Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
19

We are keeping Chellammal company. We cannot lurch her time and again as Bharathi in her vision and Boyce does bog sound authentic but was bad is as well. “India’ started to make waves as Bharathi was fully immersed. His writings attained a polish and strength of its own as he ‘took charge’. The Swadeshi movement got a fillip in the Madras Presidency as ‘Bharathi’s writings spread far and wide, to the nooks and corners of even remote villages’ as Chellammal noted.

Enter V O C Chidamabaram Pillai in the life and times and Bharathi. There was Subramania Siva too. It was a firebrand triumvirate and the audience, in their presence, was spellbound. Bharathi did not miss any opportunity to organise meetings on the Triplicane Beach. But what changed the face of their affirmative disobedience to Britishers was VOC’s bold attempts and efforts to take them in in the shipping sector.

Just Imagine this. Chellamma never complained about the difficult financial climate in the family. She ‘adjusted’ to everything that was thrown at her Bharathi. And once ‘India’ got going, there was no stopping Bharathi’s verve and enthusiasm. Despite the financial wobbles in his own family life, Chellamma was proud, yet there was a sense of ‘mild mocking’ as a commentator alluded to it, when Bharathi bent over backwards to mobilise funds for VOC to set up his steam shipping company. Bharathi introduced VOC to many rich benefactors and ‘pleased with them to support the national cause’.

We cannot go on with Chellamma’s Bharathi without talking about who this VOC was. That he was a lawyer makes it a tempting to go over his life at a higher length despite these are musings on Bharathi. VOC and Subramania Siva had a great influence on Bharathi and it may apt too. He was no ordinary lawyer. He fumed at ‘judicial corruption’ and took on the mighty Magistrates, and his father was forced to shift base for his son’s practice. That endears him more and these musings unashamedly and unabashedly lay down the contours of VOC’s life, which truly belongs in the life and times of Bharathi too.

V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, popularly known by his initials, V.O.C. (spelt Vaa. Oo.Ce in Tamil), was an Indian freedom fighter born on 5 September 1872 in Ottapidaram, Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu State of India. He was a prominent lawyer, and a trade union leader.

V. O. Chidambaram Pillai is credited with launching the first indigenous Indian shipping service between Tuticorin and Colombo in the name and style of ‘Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company’, competing against British ships.

V. O. Chidambaram Pillai was an Indian National Congress (INC) member, later charged with sedition by the British government and sentenced to life imprisonment; and his barrister license was stripped. He is also known as “Kappalottiya Tamilan””, or The Tamil Helmsman in Tamil.

Vallinayagam Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai or else V.O.C. was born to an eminent lawyer olaganathan Pillai and Paramyee in Ottapidaram, Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu State in India.

After completing schooling in Ottapidaram and Tirunelveli, he worked for a few years in the Ottapidaram district administrative office. Later following his father’s footsteps he completed law. As a lawyer he often pleaded for the poor, at times appearing against his father, who appeared for the affluent. Among his notable cases, he proved corruption charges on three sub-magistrates. In the Kulasekaranallur Asari case he proved innocence for the accused.

In the 1890s and 1900s India’s independence movement and the Swadeshi movement, initiated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai of Indian National Congress (INC), were at their peak. Mahatma Gandhi was yet to land in India. In Madras Presidency, the Swadeshi/Independence movement was championed by the likes of Subramanya Siva, the poet Subramanya Bharathi, and Aurobindo Gosh later to be joined by V.O.C. He entered politics in 1905 following the partition of Bengal, joining the Indian National Congress and taking a hardliner stand. He also presided at the Salem District Congress session.

V.O.C., drawing inspiration from Ramakrishnananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, resorted to Swadeshi work. Following requests by local citizens, he initiated steps to break the monopoly of British shipping in the coastal trade with Ceylon.
On 12 November 1906, V.O.C. formed the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, by purchasing two steamships ‘S.S.Gaelia’ and ‘S.S.Lawoe’, thanks to the assistance and support of Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo Ghose.

The ships commenced regular service between Tuticorin and Colombo (Srilanka), against the opposition of the British traders and the Imperial Government. V.O.C. was thus laying the foundation for a comprehensive shipping industry in the country, more than just a commercial venture.Until then the commerce between Tuticorin and Colombo was a monopoly enjoyed by the British India Steam Navigation Company (BISN).

This was later to be merged with P&O Lines and its Tuticorin agents, A.& F. Harvey. The British had assumed the Indian venture would collapse like a house of cards, but soon found the Indian company to be a formidable challenge. To thwart the new Indian company they resorted to the monopolistic trade practice of reducing the fare per trip to Re.1 (16 annas) per head. Swadeshi company responded by offering a fare of Re.0.5 (8 Annas).Unfair Trade Practices were introduced by the Britishers. The British company went further by offering a free trip to the passengers plus a free umbrella, which had ‘S.S.Gaelia’ and ‘S.S.Lawoe’ running nearly empty. By 1909 the company was heading towards bankruptcy.

To widen the swadeshi base and to create awareness of British Imperialism V.O.C.became instrumental in mobilising the workers of Coral Mills (also managed by A. & F. Harvey) (now part of Madura Coats) in Tirunelveli. This brought him into increasing conflict with the British Raj.

On 12 March 1908, he was arrested on charges of sedition and for two days, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin witnessed unprecedented violence, quelled only by shooting four people to death (a Muslim, a Dalit, a baker and a Hindu temple priest). Punitive police forces were brought in from neighbouring districts.

But newspapers had taken note of V.O.C. Sri Aurobindo’s nationalist Bengali newspaper Bande Mataram (spelt and pronounced as Bônde Matôrom in the Bengali language) acclaimed him (March 27, 1908) with “Well Done, Chidambaram”. Apart from the Madras press, Anand Bazaar Patrika from Kolkata (Calcutta) carried reports of his prosecution every day. VOC became a ‘celebrity and if he had pivoted,as persuaded by many well wishers to resume legal practice, he may have rebelled with name, fame and lucre. VOC outright rejected such suggestions for he, Bharathi and Siva were not meant to serve the daily hum drum of family life but were born to pursue self less higher causes. What a tragedy that we get to recall them and their contributions only during annual and pedestrian anniversary gatherings. That is who we are. Ungrateful tamils and Indians, any order you choose. If these self sacrificing souls are a forgotten lot, what right do we have to complain at the political class we elect. We deserve the lot we elect”, furiously anguished Tamilaruvi Manian. Sadly true.

Funds were raised for VOC’s defence not only in India but also by the Indians in South Africa.
Trial. Poet Subramanya Bharathi and Subramanya Siva too appeared in the court for questioning, as witnesses, for the case instituted against V.O.C. He was charged with sedition and a sentence of two life imprisonments (in effect 40 years) was imposed. He was confined in the Central Prison, Coimbatore (from 9 July 1908 to 1 December 1910).

Court sentence may be seen as a reflection of the fear the British had of V.O.C. and their need to contain the rebellion and be sure that others would not follow in Chidambaram Pillai’s footsteps.

V. O. Chidambaram Pillai life is a story of resistance, strife, struggle, suffering and sacrifice for the cause to which he was committed. Today his name among people in Tamil Nadu evokes his sufferings in jail and his shipping company. He is aptly called as “Kappal’ottiya Thamizlan ’ –- the Tamil who drove the ship, and as “Chekkiluththa Chemmal” — a great man who pulled the oil press in jail for the sake of his people.
The Indian Posts & Telegraphs department of India issued a special postage stamp on 5 September 1972, on the occasion of his birth centenary.A college in Tuticorin is named after V.O.C. V C Ganesan @ Sivaji exhibited, essayed and excited the role of VOC in his immortal movie ‘Kappalotiya Tamizhan’. The Public park and the meeting grounds of Coimbatore is named V.O.C. Park (Vaa. Vu.Ce Poonga) and V.O.C. Grounds (Vaa. Vu.Ce Thidal). We remember these souls only on occasions it suits. Tragically, we have forgotten their values and services. The Central Prison in Coimbatore has built a commemorative monument, preserving his Yoke and Oil Grinding stone. The Bridge connecting Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai over the river Tamaraparani is named V.O.C. Bridge.

The noted historian and Tamil scholar, R. A. Padmanabhan, would note in his works “yoked (in place of Bulls) to the oil press like an animal and made to work it in the cruel hot sun….” Even from prison VOC continued a clandestine correspondence, maintaining a steady stream of petitions going into legal niceties. Later, the High Court would reduce his sentence and he was finally released on December 12, 1912.
After his release

The huge crowds present during his arrest were obviously absent, reminding him of Aurobindo’s similar fate upon his release from Uttarpara in 1909 and his famous remark “When I went to jail the whole country was alive with the cry of Vande Mataram… when I came out of jail I listened for that cry, but there was instead a silence… a hush had fallen on the country and men seemed bewildered”.

Upon V.O.C.’s release he was not permitted to return to his Tirunelveli district. With his bar license stripped from him he moved to Chennai with his wife and two young sons. To his dismay, the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company had already been liquidated in 1911, and the ships auctioned to their competitors.

V.O.C and his family had lost all their wealth and property in his legal defence. In Madras, almost broke, he continued organising labour welfare organisations. V.O.C. attended the Calcutta Indian National Congress in 1920. He later would quit, but rejoined later.M.K. Gandhi in 1910s was yet to be known as Mahatma, and V.O.C. carried on a steady stream of correspondence between them (1915–16). They would even once meet in Chennai, but sadly none of their correspondence was published in the 100-volume Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi.

In one of the letters Gandhi enquires whether he received the money which he had collected for V.O.C. in South Africa. In another letter V.O.C. expresses unease over an early morning appointment to meet Gandhi, as he explains the unavailability of Tram service at that hour. Such trivia about these men too make fascinating reading at this distance.

On hearing V.O.C.’s destitute condition Justice Wallace, the judge who sentenced V.O.C. later being Chief Justice of Madras Presidency, restored his bar license. But V.O.C. spent his last years (1930s) in Kovilpatti heavily in debt, even selling all of his law books for daily survival. V.O.C died on the 18 November 1936 in the Indian National Congress Office at Tuticorin as was his last wish.

It is true that Chellammal alluded to VOC less than what we may have. But then we are musing on Bharathi. He regarded and respected VOC very highly. Bharathi would have readily and willingly yielded this space.

(Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)