Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan 25

Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
25

(Adhishree Manokaran is on a roll. Need I say more?)

It was T S S Rajan who wrote a sequential series of articles in the famed Kalaimagal, Chennai, on Iyer, and it became a quotable quote book on all things Iyer.In line with the devoted philosophy of these musings, just who was this TSS Rajan, a cursory reference, may be par for the course.

Tiruvengimalai Sesha Sundara Rajan (1880–1953) was an Indian doctor, politician and freedom-fighter who served the Minister of Public Health and Religious Endowments in the Madras Presidency from 1937 to 1939. Rajan was born in Srirangam in Trichinopoly district and studied medicine at Royapuram Medical School, Madras and England. He practised as a doctor in Burma and England and obtained his M.R.C.S. degree in 1911. In 1923, he set up his own clinic.

Rajan entered the Indian Independence movement in 1919 and joined the Indian National Congress. He participated in the agitations against the Rowlatt Act and in the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha. He served as the President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and as the Member of the Imperial Legislative Council of India from 1934 to 1936. From 1937 to 1939, he served as the Minister of Public Health in the Madras provincial government.

Back to Va.Ve.Su Iyer , for just a while or half a chapter longer, as he was no less iconic than Bharathi himself. As Iyer reached England to acquire his Barrister status, he meets Veer Damodar Savarkar in India House. The visit of Iyer was just to enquire about vegetarian outlets for food and beverage and this chance meeting became a huge bonding of lasting value, not to both but to India itself. Savarkar alluded to the ‘burning spirit of freedom that Iyer seeded in him which broke into a song’ in India. It is a pity that as poet Kannadasan said, “ These nameless wonders were not born to celebrate themselves, but we ought not to let their sacrifices go uncelebrated”.

There is a stunning facet in his pursuit of Barrister status. He completed the course. Came out in flying colours with a gold medal winning position. Yet, he did not make it to the stage. Why? That is where the self-less sacrificial conduct of these noble souls shine so bright. V.V.S. Iyer was obligated to take an ‘Oath of Allegiance’ to British Monarchy to be bestowed the honours. Despite pleas from his masters and ‘well meaning friends’ Iyer stood firm and ‘disdainfully dismissed the honours as not worth the sacrifice. I owed it to Bharath Mata to not embrace it. She was worth more’. V V S. Iyer became a ‘marked man’ not a celebrity, like Bharathi but ‘did not care’, like Bharathi too. Oh! God, Of what mettle were these men made? Are we born in the same soil as they? How can both be real or true?

Believe it or not, and I would unashamedly admit that I keyed in, with moist eyes, these words. In this millennial and GenZ age when ‘anything and everything is commerce’ we are legatees to the likes of Bharathi, VOC, Subramania Siva,Va.Ve.Su Iyer and many more. How sacrilegious,blasmephous and self-centred of us, to not even know their names or even bare life sketches even if we cannot deep dive, for want of whatever. I am sorry. I feel overwhelmed by whatever it is that is consuming me. I apologise, if you will.

Vanchinathan was a student of this V V np S Iyer. He was not just another back bencher. Vanchinathan (1886 – June 17, 1911), popularly known as Vanchi, was an Indian Tamil independence activist. Vanchinathan is best remembered for having shot dead Ashe, the Collector of Thirunelveli and having later committed suicide in order to evade arrest.

Vanchinathan was born in 1886 in Shenkottai to Raghupathy Iyer and Rukmani Ammal. Vanchinathan’s actual name was Shankaran. Vanchinathan did his schooling in Shenkottai and graduated in M.A. from Moolam Thirunal Maharaja College in Thiruvananthapuram. Even while in college, he married Ponnammal and got into a lucrative Government job.

On June 17, 1911, Vanchinathan assassinated Ashedurai, the district collector of Tirunelveli, who was also known as Collector Dorai. Vanchinathan shot Ashe at point-blank range when Ashe’s train had stopped at the Maniyachi station, en route to Madras. He committed suicide thereafter. The railway station has since been renamed Vanchi Maniyachi.On that day, Ashe boarded the 9-30 a.m. Maniyachi Mail at Tirunelveli junction. With Ashe was his wife, Mary Lillian Patterson, who had arrived from Ireland, only a few days earlier.

They had married on April 6, 1898, in Berhampore; Mary was about a year older than Ashe. They were on their way to Kodaikanal where their four children, Molly, Arthur, Sheila, and Herbert, lived in a rented bungalow.

At 10-38 the train pulled in at Maniyachi. The Ceylon Boat Mail was due to arrive at 10-48. As the Ashes sat facing each other in the first class carriage, waiting for the Boat Mail to arrive, a neatly dressed man with tufted hair and another young man wearing a dhoti approached the carriage.

The former boarded the carriage and pulled out a Belgian-made Browning automatic pistol. The bullet hit Ashe in the chest and he collapsed. The sound of the pistol shot was absorbed by the howling wind.

After the shooting, the assassin ran along the platform and hid in the latrine. Some time later he was found dead, having shot himself in the mouth. In his pocket was found the following letter : “The mlechas of England having captured our country, tread over the sanathana dharma of the Hindus and destroy them.Every Indian is trying to drive out the English and get swarajyam and restore sanathana dharma. Our Raman, Sivaji, Krishnan, Guru Govindan, Arjuna ruled our land protecting all dharmas and in this land they are making arrangements to crown George V, a mlecha, and one who eats the flesh of cows.

Three thousand Madrasees have taken a vow to kill George V as soon as he lands in our country. In order to make others know our intention, I who am the least in the company, have done this deed this day. This is what everyone in Hindustan should consider it as his duty”. To Bharathi, Vanchinathan was not a hero. Of course, A patriot who made a supreme sacrifice. He was a great son of Bharat Mata ‘to be emulated not shunned or despised’. Yet, Bharathi condemned the ‘dastardly act as Vanchinathan forgot about the family behind Ashedurai’. Bharathi, a self-proclaimed ‘extremist’ in the Bal Gangadhar Tilak mould did not approve of the killing!

Did it matter ‘these’ characters were from a ‘community’? Did community matter to these sacrificing souls? Just look at this roll call of honour of the fourteen persons who were charged for the assassination of Collector Ashe. That reveals its own tale. Need one say more?

1) Neelakanta, alias Brahmachari, a Brahmin youth of twenty one, a journalist, fiery patriot and person of considerable persuasive skills and charm, and the leader of a conspiracy to murder Ashe.
2) Sankarakrishna Iyer, a young farmer …
3) Madathukadai Chidambaram Pillai (no relation of VOC), a green-grocer …
4) Muthukumarasami Pillai, a pot vendor in his forties…
5) Subbaiah Pillai, a lawyer’s clerk…
6) Jagannatha Ayyangar, a young cook…
7) Harihara Iyer, a young merchant
8) Bapu Pillai, a farmer… .
9) V. Desikachari, a merchant…
10) Vembu Iyer, a cook…
11) Savadi Arunachalam Pillai, a farmer…
12) Alagappa Pillai, a teen-aged farmer…
13) ‘Vande Matharam’ Subramania Iyer, a schoolmaster, and
14) Pichumani Iyer, a cook.

They thought as one. They believed in one – Bharat Mata. It is she who lived and beat in their hearts and soul. They breathed her. They lived for her. They were not poets in life. Their life itself was poetry. The contents of the letter that Vanchinathan left behind indicated that the murder was political and caused great apprehension. The timing of the assassination indicated a protest against the impending coronation.

He was no ‘coward’ to take his life out. He did not want to become a martyr. He became one because he chose to die for Mother India, in his own hand rather than be caught and prosecuted in the hands of the colonialists whose hegemony he did not respect, regard and/or recognise. Vanchinathan was a proud student of Va. Ve.Su Iyer who believed in ‘extremist ways and use of arms to overthrow the Britishers and Vanchinathan showed the way’, said Isaikavi Ramanan, a Tamil scholar. And Bharathiyar who approved of the Tilak model to achieve freedom from British yoke did not .

As an aside of little consequence, the Tamilnadu Government has built a memorial in Shenkottai the birth place of this martyr. We are musing on Bharathi. His life and times. Bharathi lived a life of substance in the company of such noble souls. Allusion to their life sketches was but inevitable to get to know Bharathi better.

Of course, these musings are conscious, that Bharathi’s Chellamma was still waiting for us to lend her authentic voice.

(Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)

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