AMBUJAMMAL
AFFLUENT FREEDOM FIGHTER
Ambujammal was born on 8 January 1899
to S. Srinivasa Iyengar and
his wife Ranganayaki. Srinivasa Iyengar was one of the foremost leaders of the Indian National Congress in
the Madras Presidency and
had served as the President of the Swaraj Party. Ambujammal's maternal grandfather was Sir V. Bhashyam Aiyangar,
the first native Indian to be appointed Advocate-General of the Madras Presidency.
Ambujammal
married S Desikachari in 1910. He was an advocate from Kumbakonam.Early on in
her life, she was fascinated by Gandhiji’s ideas, especially his constructive
socio-economic program. This interest was fanned by her contact with Sister
Subbalakshmi, Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy, and Margaret Cousins.
Ambujammal qualified as a
teacher and taught at Sarada Vidyalaya girls school part-time. She was a
committee member of Sarada Ladies’ Union from 1929 to 1936. She worked very
closely with Sister Subbalakshmi. In 1929, she was nominated Treasurer of the
Women’s Swadeshi League, Madras. This League was a non-political wing of the
Congress, implementing Gandhi’s social and economic programs.
She
joined a number of women who donated their jewelry to support the national
movement on Gandhiji’s request. She was a strong proponent of Swadeshi, and
embraced Khadi.
Her
entry into political life was in 1930, during the civil disobedience movement.
She joined the Salt Satyagraha, and courted arrest. In 1932, she was hailed as
the "Third Dictator" of the Congress, and led the Satyagrahis to
boycott foreign cloth. She was arrested and sentenced to six months of
imprisonment.
A
thorough Congresswoman, she was part of the Managing Committee of the Hindi
Prachar Sabha from 1934 to 1938. She did a lot of propaganda work for Hindi. As
part of her activities with the Hindi Prachar Sabha, she attended the All-India
Congress Session in Bombay in 1934. She stayed at Wardha Ashram with Gandhi
from November 1934 till January 1935.
As
part of the role as Secretary of the Mylapore Ladies Club (a post she held from
1936), she conducted Hindi classes.She was a significant part of the Women’s
India Association (WIA), taking the post of Secretary from 1939 to 1942 and
that of Treasurer from 1939 to 1947. With the WIA, the issues she worked of
were: Abolition of Child Marriage, Polygamy, and the Devadasi system; and
bringing about legislation to protect the rights of women and their property
rights. On behalf of the WIA, she was nominated to the Madras Corporation. In
1947, during the All-India Women’s Conference in Madras, she was nominated as
the Chairperson of the reception committee.
A dedicated social worker, she was the
President and Treasurer of the Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam from 1948, an institute
she founded. It provided free coaching to poor girls, had a free dispensary,
and also provided training and employment to women in its printing press. An
associate of Vinoba Bhave, Ambujammal toured Tamil Nadu with him to publicise
the Bhoodan movement in 1956. Ambujammal was not in favour of too much
industrialization; she believed in the Village Self-Sufficiency model – as
advocated by Bhave.
She was the Vice-President of the Tamil
Nadu Congress Committee from 1957 to 1962, and the Chairman of the State Social
Welfare Board from 1957 to 1964.Ambujammal was a notable scholar in Hindi and
Tamil. She has written three books about Gandhi in Tamil. In 1964 Ambujammal won
the padma shri award.
She died at the age of age
of 82 years.
M.BHAKTAVATSALAM
FORMER CM OF TAMIL NADU
Bhaktavatsalam.M was born on 9 October 1897 to C. N.
Kanakasabhapathi Mudaliar of Minjur
and Mallika of Nazarethpet village, Poonamallee,
Chennai. His father died when he was five and Bhaktavatsalam was brought
up by his uncles C. N. Muthuranga Mudaliar and C. N.
Evalappa Mudaliar. He completed his schooling in Madras and
enrolled at Madras Law College. On graduation in 1923, Bhaktavatsalam commenced
practice as a lawyer of the Madras High Court.
Bhaktavatsalam joined the Indian Independence Movement even
during graduation. He joined the Indian National Congress and became a
member of the Madras Provincial Congress Committee in 1922. In 1926, he became
a member of the Congress Working Committee.
Bhaktavatsalam started the daily
newspaper India which he managed till 1933. He was the
Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Congress Civic Board during the district board and
municipal elections of 1926 and 1935. He also served as the Secretary of the
Madras Mahajana Sabha for sometime.
Bhaktavatsalam was injured during
the Salt Satyagraha at Vedaranyam. He was arrested
in 1932 for conducting India's independence day celebrations and spent six
months in prison. In the 1936 municipal body elections, Bhaktavatsalam was
elected to the Madras City Corporation and served as Deputy Mayor.
Bhaktavatsalam stood in the Madras
Assembly elections held in 1937 and was elected from the Thiruvallur Rural
constituency. Bhaktavatsalam served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the
Minister of Local Self-Government in the Rajaji government.
Bhaktavatsalam resigned along
with the other office-holders of the Indian National Congress on declaration of
war by the British government during 2nd world war .
Bhaktavatsalam participated in
the Quit India Movement agitations and was
jailed by the British. On his release in 1944, he elected to the Constituent
Assembly of India.
Bhaktavatsalam stood in the Madras
Assembly elections held in 1946 and was re-elected. He served as the
Minister of Public Works and Information in the O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar cabinet. He
was a senior minister in Rajaji in 1954 and K Kamaraj ministry from 1954
to 1963.
In
1962, the Indian National Congress won the assembly elections and
formed the government in the state. On Gandhi Jayanti day,
2 October 1963, Bhaktavatsalam took office as the Chief Minister of Madras,
after Kamaraj resigned to spend more time as an office bearer of the Congress
Party under K Kamaraj plan. Bhaktavatsalam is, till date, the last Chief
Minister of Tamil Nadu from the Indian National Congress.
In
August 1963, M. S. Golwalkar, the Sarsangchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh established
a Swami Vivekananda Centenary Committee and
a Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee
and appointed Eknath Ranade as its Secretary. The main function of
the committee was to construct a rock memorial at Kanyakumari in
order to honour Swami Vivekananda on his birth centenary. The Chief
Minister Bhaktavatsam and the Union Minister for Cultural Affairs, Humayun
Kabir vehemently opposed the move. However, Bhaktavatsalam yielded when
Ranade presented him a letter with signatures of 323 members of Parliament in
support of a memorial.
Bhaktavatsalam's
tenure as Chief Minister witnessed severe anti-Hindi agitations in Madras
state. Bhaktavatsalam supported the Union Government's
decision to introduce Hindi as
one of the languages. On 7 March 1964, at a session of
the Madras Legislative Assembly, Bhaktavatsalam recommended the introduction of
a three-language formula comprising English,
Hindi and Tamil.
As
26 January 1965, the day when the 15-year-long transition period recommended by
the Indian Parliament came to an end, neared, the agitations intensified
leading to police action and casualties.
On 13 February 1965, Bhaktavatsalam claimed that
the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the
Left parties were responsible for the large scale destruction of public
property and violence during the anti-Hindi agitations of 1965
He served as the able chief Minister but was
defeated in the 1967 elections. In 1970s Bhaktavatsalam partially retired from
politics. He died on 31 January 1987 at the age of 89.
CAPTAIN LAKSHMI SAHGAL
REVOLUTIONARY CAPTION OF INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY UNDER NETAJI
Sahgal was born as Lakshmi Swaminathan in Malabar under Madras Presidency on 24 October 1914 to S.
Swaminathan, a lawyer who practiced criminal law at Madras High Court, and A.V. Ammukutty, better
known as Ammu Swaminathan,
a social worker and independence activist from an aristocratic Nair family
known as "Vadakkath" family of Anakkara in Palghat, Kerala.
Sahgal
chose to study medicine and received an MBBS degree from Madras Medical
College in 1938. A year later, she received her diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics. She worked as a doctor in the
Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital located at Triplicane,Chennai
In
1940, she left for Singapore after the
failure of her marriage with pilot P.K.N. Rao. During her stay at
Singapore, she met some members of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army.
She established a clinic for the poor, most of whom were migrant
laborers from India. It was at this time that she began to play an active
role in the India Independence League.
The
INA marched to Burma with the Japanese army in
December 1944, but by March 1945, with the tide of war turning against them,
the INA leadership decided to beat a retreat before they could enter Imphal. Captain Lakshmi was arrested by the
British army in May 1945, remaining in Burma until
March 1946, when she was sent to India – at a time when the INA trials in Delhi heightened popular
discontent with and hastened the end of colonial rule
Sahgal
married Prem Kumar Sahgal in
March 1947 in Lahore. After their marriage, they settled
in Kanpur, where she continued with her medical
practice and aided the refugees who were arriving in large numbers following
the Partition of India.
They had two daughters: Subhashini Ali and Anisa Puri.
In
1971, Sahgal joined the Communist
Party of India (Marxist) and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha. During the Bangladesh crisis,
she organised relief camps and medical aid in Calcutta for refugees who
streamed into India from Bangladesh. She was one of the founding members
of All
India Democratic Women's Association in 1981 and led many of
its activities and campaigns. She
led a medical team to Bhopal after the gas tragedy in December 1984, worked
towards restoring peace in Kanpur following the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and was
arrested for her participation in a campaign against the Miss World competition
in Bangalore in 1996. She
was still seeing patients regularly at her clinic in Kanpur in 2006, at the age
of 92.
The
Sahgals' daughter, Subhashini, is a prominent Communist politician and labour
activist. According to Ali, Sahgal was an atheist. The filmmaker Shaad Ali is her grandson.
On
19 July 2012, Sehgal suffered a cardiac arrest and died on 23 July 2012 at
11:20 A.M. at the age of 97 at Kanpur..Captain
Lakshmi Sehgal International Airport is proposed at Kanpur Dehat district.
PERIYAR E Ve RAMASAMY
REVOLUTIONARY RATIONALIST AND SOCIAL REFORMER
Periyar E V R joined
the Indian National Congress in 1919 after quitting his business and
resigning from public posts. He held the chairmanship of Erode Municipality and
wholeheartedly undertook constructive programs spreading the use of Khadi,
picketing toddy shops, boycotting shops selling foreign cloth, and eradicating
Untouchability.
In 1921, Periyar courted imprisonment for picketing
toddy shops in Erode. When his wife as well as his sister joined the agitation,
it gained momentum, and the administration was forced to come to a compromise.
He was again arrested during the Non - cooperation movement and the temple
entrance movement.
In 1922, periyar was elected the President of theMadras
Presidency. Congress Committee during the Thirupur session, where he
advocated strongly for reservation in government jobs and education. His
attempts were defeated in the Congress party due to a strong presence of
discrimination and indifeference, which led to him leaving the party in 1925.
In 1956, despite warnings from P. Kakkan, the President of the Tamil Nadu
Congress Committee, Periyar organised a procession to the Marina to burn
pictures of the Hindu God Rama. Periyar was subsequently arrested and
confined to prison.
The activities of Periyar continued when he went to Bangalore
in 1958 to participate in the All India Official Language Conference. There he
stressed the need to retain English as the Union Official Language instead of
Hindi. Five years later, Periyar travelled to North India to advocate the
eradication of the caste system. Nearing Periyar's last years, an award was
given to him by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), and it was presented to him by the Union Education
Minister, Triguna Sen in Madras (Chennai), on 27 June 1970. In his last meeting
at Thiagaraya Nagar, Chennai on 19 December 1973,
Periyar declared a call for action to gain social equality and a dignified way
of life.
E.V. Ramasamy propagated the principles of rationalism, self-respect, women’s rights and eradication of caste. He opposed theexploitation and marginalisation of the poor people.His
work has greatly revolutionised the Tamil society and has significantly removed
caste-based discrimination. He is also responsible for bringing new changes to
the Tamil alphabet.
The
citation awarded by the UNESCO described E.V. Ramasamy as "the prophet of the new age,
the Socrates of South East Asia, father of social reform movement and arch
enemy of ignorance, superstitions, meaningless customs and base manners.
GEORGE JOSEPH
LAWYER OF EMINENCE
During the late 1970s
and early 80s, subaltern historiography emerged as an alternative to the
nationalist, Marxist and colonial historiography, accusing the latter of robbing
the common people of their agency. However, within the nationalist
historiography there were attempts to marginalise nationalists owing to
religious reasons.
One such marginalised
figure was George Joseph (1887-1938), who was always seen as a Christian
nationalist. A multifaceted personality, he was a famous lawyer, journalist, a
trade unionist and a champion of subaltern.
George Joseph remains practically unknown among
the freedom fighters of suth India, despite his being in the vanguard of
struggle for freedom along with great leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal
Nehru, Rajagopalachari, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahadev Desai.
Born in Chengannur,
Kerala, on June 5, 1887, Joseph had his school education in Kerala and went to
the Madras Christian College in 1903. He did M.A. in Philosophy at the
University of Edinburgh and went on to study Law at Middle Temple in London in
1908. During his stay in London, he came into contact with several great Indian
revolutionaries and freedom fighters of the day. George Joseph, completing his
studies, left London in December 1908 and arrived in India in January, 1909.
AGAINST CRIMINAL TRIBES
George Joseph married
Susannah and both went to Madras in 1910. During his short stay in Madras, he
contributed to the South Indian Mail, which later became defunct. Later, he,
through his friend Gopala Menon, a criminal lawyer, came to Madurai and started
his legal practice in 1910.
Within a few years,
Joseph, modelling himself on Eardley Norton, a prominent lawyer and one of the
founding members of Indian National Congress, established himself as a leading
criminal lawyer in Madurai.
He was one of the first
members to have vehemently opposed the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) at a time when
even members from the affected communities such as Piramalai Kallars and
Maravars did not raise their voice. He fought for their cause in courts, wrote
extensively in newspapers and espoused their rights as labourers in the Madura
Mill.
Even to this day,
members of the Kallar community pay homage to him on his death anniversary and
name their children as Rosappoo or Rosappo Durai .
Elders in the community say it is not clear whether he was referred to as Rosappoo
Durai because he used to wear a rose on the lapel of his jacket or a
mispronunciation of Joseph.
Joseph's main
contribution was against the punitive powers of CTA, 1911, by which members of
the criminal tribes had their fingerprints taken and their mobility restricted.
Under Section 10(a) of the Act, hours were fixed for them to report to the
police.
In 1919-20, 1,400
Kallars were brought under this Section. The hours fixed were 11 p.m. to 4
a.m., which compelled them to sleep at the police station every day. This made
life difficult for the Kallars and the women in the community had no safety. In
April, 1920, the Piramalai Kallars rioted in Madurai and a subsequent official
enquiry at which George Joseph was present directed that Section 10(a) be applied
more sparingly in future.
Representations made by
him and others resulted in a more humane approach by the government against
these communities. His 1936-diary contains entries regarding visits by
delegations of Kallars who had come to him for advice on various issues.
FIRST LABOUR UNION
He played a leading
part in setting up one of the early trade unions in India in Madurai. Madurai Labour Union was formed with the help of J. N. Ramanathan of Justice Party and
George Joseph in 1918.
Eamon Murphy, in his
book, Unions
in Conflict: A Comparative Study of Four South Indian Textile Centres,
1918-1939, ' states that Ramanathan's motives for becoming engaged in
the labour union are not clear. Although he used labour meetings to criticise
the Congress, he was ready to work with individual nationalists such as George
Joseph within the union. It was the above said two events which formed the
political evolution of George Joseph.
Joseph was introduced
to Mahatma Gandhi by Rajaji on March 22, 1919, in Chennai and at once he was
mesmerised by the presence and words of the Mahatma. Later, Gandhi came to
Madurai on March 26, 1919, and stayed at the residence of Joseph. Joseph played
a leading role in organising a public meeting for Gandhi in Madurai on March
29, 1919, in which 20,000 people attended.
They were administered
the ‘Satyagraha pledge' as an act of resistance to the Rowlett Act. A
resolution was passed at this meeting to the effect that the people of Madurai
were fully prepared to observe a hartal on April 6, 1919. On April 5, 1919,
Joseph organised a huge procession in Madurai. At the meeting, he appealed to
the people to stop work and observe fast the next day. This was translated into
rebellious action by a large section of people and all shops remained closed on
April 6, 1919. Joseph became the trusted lieutenant of Gandhi in Madurai from
that moment.
In the 1920s, he left
Madurai to join politics at the national level. In February 1920, Motilal Nehru
made Joseph the Editor of ‘The Independent' newspaper in Allahabad. During this
time, Joseph was arrested with members of the Nehru family on the charge of
sedition on December 6, 1921. On September 27, 1923, he assumed the editorship
of Gandhi's ‘Young India' from Rajaji. The tenure lasted for about six months.
RETURN TO SOUTH
As a socially engaged
leader, Joseph, after coming to south India, participated in the Vaikkom Temple
entry struggle in March 1924, much against Gandhi's dislike. Gandhi wrote a
letter on April 6, 1924 stating that temple entry was a problem of the Hindus
and let them solve it themselves.
In his words, “I think
that you should let the Hindus do the work. It is they who have to purify
themselves. You can help by your sympathy and by your pen, but not by
organising the movement and certainly not offering Satyagraha.” (Gandhi M.K.
(1959) Collected
Works of
Mahatma Gandhi XXIII P.391)
Joseph did not look at
the Vaikkom struggle as an isolated movement for temple entry but perceived it
as a denial of basic civic right of free entry to public space for the
‘untouchables' and participated in the struggle.
In January, 1925,
Joseph and his wife returned to Madurai where they took up Gandhi's
constructive programmes, which included promotion of khadi, removal of
untouchability and restoration of communal harmony.
From 1925 to 1938,
Joseph kept himself in touch with all political activities. In 1929, at the
request of the Congress, he contested the municipal elections believing that
the Congress would support him. However, he lost the election which made his
political isolation complete. Yet, he came back to politics. In July 1937, he
was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly from
Madura-cum-Ramnad-Tirunelveli constituency.
An avid reader, George
Joseph was to be found more often in the Connemara Public Library and Literary
Society in Chennai, and on his return to Madurai he renewed his membership at
the Victoria Edward Library where he used to spend at least two hours in the
evening.
His grandson, George
Gheverghese Joseph, in his book George Joseph:
The Life and Times of a Kerala Christian Nationalist, 2003, says that
print media was the important means to express his views and it was through The Hindu most
of his views came to the public sphere. Political and social issues formed the
major part of his contributions. Joseph's relationship with Periyar E. V.
Ramasamy was a complex one but still he admired him because of his
uncompromising stand against the Swarajists and his gutsy approach to stand and
fight alone when needed.
He admired B.R.
Ambedkar and corresponded with him on Vaikkom struggle and mass conversion.
Joseph had a special relationship with Kamaraj. As a youngster, Kamaraj was
busy with Joseph in organising demonstrations against Simon Commission and
successfully organised thousands of volunteers near Tirumalai Naicker Mahal.
When Kamaraj was implicated in the ‘Virudhunagar Conspiracy Case' in 1933,
Joseph and Varadarajulu Naidu argued on his behalf and proved the charges to be
baseless.
During his later days,
Joseph became highly critical of Congress and Gandhi's views and in an article
titled “Gandhiji's New Formula in The Hindu ,
he criticised Gandhi's views on khadi , Salt Act and Prohibition.
Joseph, after prolonged illness, died at the
age of 50 at American Mission Hospital in Madurai on March 5, 1938. His requiem
mass was held at St. Mary's Church and he was laid to rest at the East Gate
Cemetery.
Gandhi, on hearing the
news of Joseph's death, wrote to Susannah, “I have before me your most pathetic
and humane letter. I have seen your longer and fuller letter to Mahadev Desai.
You must not grieve. That will show lack of faith in God. He gives and takes
away. And surely it is with Joseph. You will come to me whenever you can and
want to. You shall remain a dear daughter and more so, if possible, now that
Joseph is no more in our midst in the flesh. Love to you and children — Bapu.”
The Congress government in 1966 erected a
statue of him at Yanaikkal junction. It was unveiled by the then Home Minister
P. Kakkan.
Thanks to The Hindu
