வீர சுதந்திரம் வேண்டி, தம் இன்னுயிர் ஈந்தார் தமை போற்றுவோம் In school days, History was no doubt interesting ! ~ what we read about Indian freedom struggle was often a terse statement of India getting freedom through non-violent (ahimsa) means advocated by Mahatma Gandhi.The history as handed by Britishers and reviewed by commies neither portrayed the cruelty of the rulers nor the sacrifices of innumerable individuals.Here is one connected to a patriot born on this day 129 years ago ! Nandi Hills, is an ancient hill fortress in southern India, in the Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka state. It is 10 km from Chickballapur town and approximately 60 km from the city of Bengaluru. There is some connect between this place, a Godman and ... .. .. our freedom struggle !!almost a century ago, in 1919, an ascetic by name Shri Omkar Swami set up a small ashram in the foothills of Nandi Hills. He was none other than Neelakanda Brahmachari [born on 4th Dec 1889] – the man who was listed as accused no. 1 in the Maniyachi railway station killing 1911.This revolutionary founded - Abinava Bharat Samiti, was on the run for the most of his life, living in exile in Pakistan, Burma and more.He ran a magazine called ‘Suryodhayam’ too.
On
June 17, 1911, Collector Robert William d’ Escourt Ashe and his wife left
Tirunelveli Junction by the 9.30 a.m. train to board Boat Mail at Maniyachi
Junction. As the couple waited for the train to arrive, a youth, Vanchinathan,
dressed in green coat and white dhoti, entered the first class compartment and
shot Ashe point-blank. After accomplishing the act, he ran into a toilet on the
platform and shot himself. According to documents of the British police,
Vanchinathan used a Browning automatic pistol made in Belgium and sent by Madam
Cama, a member of Abinava Bharat Samiti, a revolutionary organisation, from Paris.
Neelakanta Brahmachari had formed a branch of Bharatmatha Association in
Punalur in which Vanchinathan became a member. The reason for the selection of
Ashe as the target was his role in the suppression of Swadeshi movement led by
V.O. Chidambaram and others in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.
The
British keen to get them into jail, made extensive searches, made some turn as
approvers and relied on their evidence fully.Interestingly the decision of the Full Bench was not unanimous. Sir
Arnold White and Ayling delivered a joint judgment while Sankaran Nair
delivered his own. He wrote a brilliant judgement, which serves as an excellent
resource material for the history of the Indian Freedom Movement of the period.
Justice Nair came to the conclusion that the charge of murder had not been
legally proved against the accused while he held the charges of waging war
against the King proved against Nilakanta and another but not the rest.Finally the Court by a majority decision
awarded Nilakanta seven years rigorous imprisonment and Sankarakrishnan was
given four years. The remaining accused were sentenced to varying terms of
lesser imprisonment.
Appeals
were filed by the British Govt against
the judgment and a Bench of five judges comprising Sir Ralph Benson, John
Wallace, Miller, Abdul Rahim and P. R. Sundara Iyer heard them. C. J. Napier,
now as the Advocate-General appeared for the Crown assisted by T. Richmond while
the accused were defended by T. Prakasam and others. The appeals were argued on
legal grounds, which were the only issues allowed to be raised in such an
appeal. They focused on the value and reliability of the approver's evidence
and legal admissibility of some of the Prosecution witnesses. Here is some
extract from the case decided in Madras High Court in Feb 1912 – case titled
:The King-Emperor vs Nilakanta Alias
Brahmachari and .. ..
In
this case fourteen persons were tried by a Special Bench, constituted under
Section 6(6) of the Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908, for an offence,
punishable under Section 121 A, Indian Penal Code (conspiring to commit certain
offences against the State), and also with abetting the murder of Ashe. The Special Bench acquitted all the
accused. The accused were: 1)
Neelakanta, alias Brahmachari, a Brahmin youth of 21 (a journalist, a fiery
patriot and person of considerable persuasive skills and charm, and the leader
of a conspiracy to murder Ashe, according to thepolice); 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. The Ashe Murder trial was a prolonged affair
and the hearing in Madras went on for 93 days, from September 1911 to January
1912. Over a hundred witnesses gave evidence on both sides and a mass of the
documentary evidence like letters, diaries, publications, records and reports
was filed in the case. It was quite a task for the three judges who sat and
heard the case without the benefit of a jury.With Vanchinathan killing himself, much of the Crown’s evidence came
from the approvers who were, in other words, accomplices.
The
pleading was that the accused had
alleged to have conspired at various
places between January 1910 and 17th June 1911 with certain persons not now
before the Court, viz., with one Vanchi Aiyar, who is proved to have shot
himself on the 17th June 1911 immediately after murdering Mr. Ashe, (who was
then District Magistrate of Tinnevelly), one DharmarajaAiyar, who is now dead,
(the case for the Crown being that he committed suicide) and one Madaswami who
has absconded, and also with three others Arumugam, Somasundaram and Ramasami Aiyar,
who were given a pardon under the usual conditions and taken as approvers and
called as witnesses. The approvers have given evidence as to a certain
treasonable society founded by the 1st accused, Nilakantan, of which they were
all members. They have also given evidence of meetings of the society at
Tenkasi and Tuticorin and elsewhere attended by the accused, and there is no
question but that, if the accused were present at these meetings and took the
"blood oath" as alleged by the approvers, they are guilty.
After
the killing of Ash, the house of Vanchinathan at Shencottah was searched next
day (18th), certain letters were found which showed that Arumugam (P. W. 6) was
in communication with him; so on the evening of the next day (19th) immediately
after the arrival of Mr. Thomas, the Duputy Inspector-General of the Criminal
Investigation Department, a party of police was despatched to Tuticorin to
search his house. At the trial before the Special Bench, which began in the
following September and went on for some months, Arumugam and Somasundaram were
examined as witnesses for the prosecution and gave evidence, as already stated,
involving not only their own guilt, but also the guilt of several of the
accused who took the " blood oath " at the treasonable meetings held at
Tenkasi and Tuticorin.
This
was a case tried before three Judges of this Court, under Act XIV of 1908, and
comes before us on a certificate of the then Advocate-General pursuant to
Clause 26 of the Letters Patent that certain points of law which in his opinion
were decided by the Judges, or, a majority of them, require to be further considered.
Objection was taken at the outset by the Officiating Advocate-General that
Clause 26 does not apply to criminal trials before the High Court under Act XIV
of 1908.
Having regard to the obscure and humble
position in life of the conspirators, the absolute lack of any means at their
command to carry out a plan which from its magnitude, no less from its
character, would be regarded by most people as one impossible of achievement, I
think the majority of the Court was justified, if I may be allowed to say so,
in regarding the conspiracy as something contemptible, so far as the
possibility of its leading to any result is concerned. In all probability the
idea would have died a natural death and would not even have been heard of
except for an event which, in the language of the judgment of the majority of
the Court, has little or no bearing on the charge of conspiracy. Vanchi who was
an ardent follower of Nilakantan's teachings shot down Mr. Ashe, the Collector
of Tinnevelly, on the 17th June 1911, and himself committed suicide on the
spot. The motive of the murder was evidently political but, as pointed out in
the judgments of the Special Bench, the offense was not committed in pursuance
of the conspiracy with which the prisoners are charged, it was in fact an act
done in direct violation of the plan decided upon at the meetings. The majority
of the Bench observe ' the evidence as to the circumstances in which the murder
was committed has very little, if any, bearing on the question whether the
accused or any of them are guilty under Section 121 A of the Indian Penal
Code.'
Nevertheless, the conspiracy charged against
the prisoners is a grave offense against the State and the legislature attaches
to it the most serious penalties. The three approvers who admit having taken
part in such a conspiracy were permitted to give evidence against the prisoners
under pardon granted to them by the Magistrate under Section 337, Criminal
Procedure Code,' on the condition of their making a full and true disclosure of
the whole of the circumstances within their knowledge relative to such offence
and to every other person concerned whether as principal or abettor, in the
commission thereof.'
The
appeals were argued on the legal grounds, which were the only issues allowed to
be raised in such an appeal. It focussed on the value and reliability of the
approvers’ evidence and legal admissibility of some of the prosecution witnesses.
Three judges, Benson, Wallis and Miller,
held that the appeals could not be sustained while Rahim differed and opined
that the appellants should be acquitted in toto. Sundara Iyer expressed doubts
about the conviction and left it at that. The full Bench finally dismissed the
appeals and confirmed the sentences. The final decision of the Ashe Murder Case
was as expected, because of its political nature.
Sri Neelakanta Brahmachari – pic credit www.rasikas.org
Nilakanda
Brahamachari however, was the first accused in Kolkata by Teggart and was
imprisoned for more than eleven years. Undergoing years of incarceration, the
revolutionary turned to a spiritual leader, as vividly described in his notes
which he later collected as 'Confessions on the way towards Peace'. After coming out of the jail, he took the
'Confessions' to Sri Aurobindo, who wrote a small foreword. After going through
a spiritual itinerary, Sadguru Omkar settled down at the lower Nandi Hills and
built a small ashram around a dilapidated Shiva Temple - which he called
Omkareswara - by a rivulet, the source of the river Pennar.Sadguru
Omkar passed away on 4th March in his Ashram at the Nandi Hills at the ripe old
age of 89.
The Nation owes a lot to him
~ for his revolutionary spirit and kindling the fire of freedom !
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
4th
Dec 2018.
