Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi            Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan                                  55

Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

55

What an anecdote? Put Bharathi, Iyer, Kuyavan and his Bharat Mata Padhumai. Add the lightning rod Vanchinatha Iyer. It cannot get any more  ‘dynamatic’ than this. Can it? It was during the time that Bharathi and V V S Iyer were literally ‘trading’ in Bharat Mata Padhumai that the young man in Vanchinathan came to Pondicherry. To Bharathi m, he seemed a perfect Swadeshi with a spark waiting to get lit. He had ‘extremist’ ideas and vision that Bal Gangadhar Tilak wanted his brethren to have.Tilak was not happy or comfortable with Gandhian or peaceful ways. He wanted the British to be shown the door. 1857, Sepoy Mutiny he felt was a missed opportunity. And the British quelled it with violence. But it taught them a lesson that if Indians rose in anger as one, things could and would happen.

Typically, this muser goes on his digress yet again, on alluding to Sepoy Mutiny. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 may not be India’s first war of independence. The first such war, not recognised by Indian history, took place in 1839 between the Tai Khamti people and the British. The theatre of this war was some 2,400 km east of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh where the mutiny began, Arunachal Pradesh’s Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein said on 24th Dec,2021.

Speaking at an event in Guwahati on December 24, he said the Tai Khamtis resisted colonisation by the British. Some 80 British soldiers, including Col. Adam White, were killed in the resultant conflict.The Tai Khamti people, who follow Theravada Buddhism, number a little more than 1,00,000 today and live in areas straddling Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

“It is high time we rewrote our history from our own perspective, not that of the British. Who they viewed as traitors and punished were actually our freedom fighters and our war heroes,” Mr. Mein said, urging the Centre to recognise the Tai Khamti-British war as India’s first for independence from the United Kingdom.

The Deputy Chief Minister also batted for recognition of battles between other communities of Arunachal Pradesh and the British. They include a series of Anglo-Abor wars from 1858 to 1911 and the Wancho-British war in Tirap district’s Ninu in 1875.

The Abors, now called Adis, inhabit central Arunachal Pradesh, while the Wanchos live in the southern part of the State. Mr. Mein said the country needed to include the histories of the freedom struggles across the northeast in the books published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training.”Sadly, the battles fought by the tribal people for independence from the colonial rule are nowhere reflected in the books of Indian history,” he said. Arunachal is alone in airing this grievance. As the African proverb goes, “ The Victor always gets to write the history’, and our history too seems to have been written from the prism of  the British.

Bharathi was for ‘extremism’. But not for violence. He wanted militancy in thought, not action. He wanted the Britishers to be overthrown lock, stock and barrel and not ‘to negotiate their departure. They came uninvited. They came and took over. They deserve to be disinvited at our time and choosing’. In fact, the triumvirate of Bharathi, V V V S Iyer and Subramania Siva were perceived to be ‘too much of hard liners and the pacifists in the Kolkata Congress session of 1906 made it clear that such militancy was not to their liking. Bharathi’s writing took on a ‘militant hue  after he became a disciple of Tilak’ noted V V S Iyer.

It was during such a phase that Vanchinathan came calling. When Vanchinathan saw the Bharat Mata statue in Bharathi’s house, he was stunned. Tears rolled down his eyes. Bharathi and Iyer could sense the trauma of this young man who vociferously yearned for  India’s freedom. He was clear, brutal and blunt in his expositions. The Britishers were worried and did keep him under a watch. But then he went silent for a while and that is when he came to Pondicherry.

The moment Vanchinathan saw the Bharat Mata Padhumai , he took hold of her. Adoringly,  saw her eyes. Turned her round and round and kept examining  her minutely. Bharathi asked him, “ what is this? Why  are you examining the Padhumai  so much? What makes you indulge in this curious  exploration”. Vanchinathan said,” Ayya, I was wondering if I could have one of this kind. It is so awe inspiring. Her eyes are brilliantly made. Whoever has made it must have done it with love and devotion. Not as a simple workman. There is a spirit that seems to have been infused into the statue. I can see and sense her smile . Even winking at me as if aware of my thoughts. It may be a dream to have one of her, as one’s own”.

Bharathi immediately put Vanchinathan on the path to Kuyavarpalayam. Within a couple of days, the Kuyavan obliged with a magnificent piece. He brought it fully covered with cloth over a paper packed parcel. And when he came home, Bharati was not around. Kuzhandai Sakuntala or Child Sakuntala asked Vanchinathan to show her the Padhumai. Reluctantly, Vanchinathan revealed a bit of Bharat Mata. Then, he said, “ Oh my god, I have to leave now to catch my train back home. I am sorry I can’t share the Padhumai with you or play with it with you. Next time, my child”.

Vanchinathan lovingly packed the Bharat Mata  statue. And no one knew there was  an unlicensed revolver, hidden inside the Bharat Mata statue. And news broke that on June 11, 1911 at 10.30 am, Vanchinathan had  shot Collector Ashe at the Maniyachi junction, Tirunelveli and then killed himself with the same revolver. While Iyer was ecstatic at the killing andb mortified by the suicide, Bharathi was downright critical of both. He denounced the assassination as dastardly and outrageous. He immediately sent out a statement to the newspapers condemning the killing in the harshest possible terms. Bharati rejected the means adopted by Vanchinathan and wondered whether Bharat Mata whose statue performed the act of ferrying the revolver inside of her, would approve?

( Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)