The Unsung Heroes of the Bomb Case

We had touched upon the 1942 Keezhariyur Bomb Case in an earlier post (click here). Many readers responded that they were not aware of this incident in the history of Calicut's fight for Indian independence. But, far away from Calicut, a young writer from Bihar had written a Hindi play on the incident and a theatre group in California had staged it in 1998! Sujit Saraf, the young writer and author of bestsellers like The Peacock Throne and Confessions of Sultana Daku  (www.sujitsaraf.com) had commemorated the Keezhariyur Bomb Case in his Hindi play entitled Vande Mataram.

Today we remember one of the unsung heroes of the case who was among the 'Bombay Five' - young men working in Bombay who had embarked on this suicidal venture convinced that non-violence would not get India freedom. The five - Dr.K.B.Menon, N.A.Krishnan Nair, V.A.Kesavan Nair, Mathai Manjooran and C.P.Sankaran Nair - left Bombay for Calicut and began their political activities here at a time when the Malabar Congress was in disarray after the mass detention of its top leadership during the Quit India movement.

N.A. Krishnan Nair, 2nd Accused

Nampannur Azhakil (N.A.) Krishnan Nair was born in 1902 into a family of substance in Calicut. As a student, he was actively involved in the Boy Scout movement. Later he participated in the Civil Disobedience movement and was the 19th 'Dictator' from Kerala. Jailed for 16 months, he came out and decided to be a full-time political worker.

He left for Bombay in 1934 and joined the Century Mills as a coolie in order to understand the plight of the workers. He organised workers under the Girni Kamgar Union (whose leader was S.A.Dange) and also participated actively in the Congress movement. He attended the Faizpur session of the Indian National Congress in 1937. 

Nair was by now a known trade union leader in Worli and had worked for B.G.Kher during the 1937 elections. He resumed Boy Scout work briefly in 1938 but left it in 1941 to join TOMCO. While working as a labour leader in TOMCO, he was also Chairman of the Governing Body of the Bombay Keraleeya Samaj.

Back in Kerala he was part of the group which organised several acts of sabotage between August 1942 and May 1943, including causing explosions to blow up the Feroke bridge, railway lines, cutting telegraph lines, setting fire to government buildings etc. The conspiracy was hatched in Ramanattukara (in Pulapre gate house) and subsequently in a house in Chalapuram. The bombs were fabricated in Kandiyil Methal house in Keezhariyur in Quilandy. Later, as the Police seemed to have got wind of the manufacturing, it was shifted to Parappanangadi, a fatal error which led to the unravelling of the conspiracy and the capture of the conspirators. For, one of the Parappanangadi team decided to use some bombs for settling a private score!

The case was tried in the Court of the Sessions of South Malabar Division, with M.A.T. Coelho, Sessions Judge presiding. The Bombay Five (except for Mathai Manjooran who was absconding) was defended by the ace criminal lawyer from Madras, Sri K. Bhashyam Ayyangar, ably assisted by Sri K.G. Nayar. The Bombay Five were acquitted by the Sessions Court but were convicted on appeal by the Madras High Court and sentenced to 7-10 years of imprisonment.

Nair was released in 1946 when the interim Congress government came to power. He drifted back to mainstream Congress work, but found that during his long absence, new faces and new interests had taken over the Party. The party chose him to be a candidate for the Madras Legislative Council elections, but intra-party feuds led to his defeat. As a protest against the party, he later contested elections as an independent for Assembly and Parliament elections with predictable results.  

He drifted away from Congress and eked out a living as an Insurance agent. He however continued his social service through Harijan Sevak Sangh, Sanskrit Prachar Sabha and Boy Scout movement. 

Old timers in Calicut remember Nair (fondly called 'Kittar') on the Mananchira ground encouraging footballers ( he was himself a keen player in the company of football legends of Calicut like Andy Master of 'andy pass' fame, Kottayi Achu and Kesavan Nair). Meticulously dressed in Khadi, he was a presence in the halls where chess was being played, for chess was another of his passions. And young cubs in those days remember the elderly Scout Rover encouraging them from a distance!  The indomitable Nair found time to pass the intermediate and BA examinations from Madras University when he was well past 60!

How did the Nation honour him for his sacrifice?  His name ranked 658 in the first batch of 1000 Freedom Fighters who were honoured at the red Fort in 1972 with Tamrapatra and a pension of Rs. 300. The State government sanctioned a pension of Rs.150.

Mr. Nair spent a life of service and altruism till death invited him on 26th December, 1987 at the age of 85. Jai Hind! 

Read more ►

Did the British Really Conquer Us?

Jahangir

The title is intended to provoke. We hear the refrain that those who came to trade conquered us and colonised us. How far is it true? Was it a one-sided conquest or did our rulers aid and abet the conquest by their actions?

For instance, the 19^th century historian Philip Anderson observes that the British empire in India ‘began without a strip of territory. A warehouse was expanded into a province; a province into an Empire’. How did this happen?

A good way to understand this is by following a couple of early English expeditions and how they were treated by the Indian rulers.  The first two voyages of the East India Company focused more on the Spice Islands in search of cinnamon, cloves and other spices. It was the third voyage which was mandated to touch Aden and Surat, to explore a market for English broadcloth.

The fleet was commanded by William Keeling and had William Hawkins, the seasoned navigator who also spoke Turkish, who was expected to use his linguistic skills in Aden.

They took off on 1^st April 1607 with Keeling piloting the Red Dragon and Hawkins leading the ship, the Hector. While Keeling aborted his plans for Aden and headed straight for Bantam, Hawkins landed in Surat on 28^th August 1608, and became the first commander of an East India Company vessel to set foot on Indian soil. Surat was the principal port of the land-locked Mughal Empire.

Hawkins did not have a happy experience in Surat, as Mukarrab Khan, the Mughal officer in charge of ports was hostile to the new visitors, having been influenced by the Portuguese who were entrenched in the port. Hawkins tried to browbeat the Portuguese by claiming to hold the commission from his King; the Portuguese reply to this was:’a fart for his commission’!

The Emperor in a session

Hawkins then decided to travel to Agra to plead with the Emperor himself. Armed with the letter of introduction from King James I to the Emperor Akbar (who had, by now, been interred in his tomb at Sikandra) Hawkins travelled to Agra and was received by Emperor Jahangir with embarrassing warmth. They soon became such pals that Hawkins became a permanent invitee to the Emperor’s daily drinking spree.

 Hawkins was ordered not to move out of the Emperor’s side and was offered an annual salary of 3200 pounds, the rank of ‘Khan’ and permission to build a factory at Surat (the permission remained on paper, though, till Sir Thomas Roe used his superior diplomatic skills on the Mughals, and got the promise implemented  in 1615.) 


The Emperor also found a suitable bride for Hawkins – the daughter of an Armenian Christian who was in the service of his father, Akbar. But for the intrigue of the courtiers who thought that the Emperor was being far too generous to the ‘Inglis Khan’, the first Englishman to have landed in India could have got half the Mughal Empire for the asking! Call it conquest?

As for Keeling, he did not fare badly, either. He was sailing past Calicut when the Zamorin sent his minister to invite him offering him many inducements. The Zamorin was then at war with Cochin and was in the vicinity of Cranganore. He concluded a treaty with Keeling : As I have been ever an enemy of the Portuguese, so do I propose to continue forever.

The Zamorin wanted the English to help him win over the combined forces of Cochin and the Portuguese. And in return, the Underecon Cheete (a corruption for Poonthurakkon Cheet, the name by which Zamorin’s communications are known)offered : And if I succeed in taking the port of Cranganore, I engage to give it to the English, to possess as their own, together with the island belonging to it, which is in length along the sea coast nine miles and three in breadth’. 

 Further, if he succeeded in conquering Cochin with the help of the English, the cost will be apportioned half and half and ‘the benefits of the plunder thereof, whatsoever kind, shall belong half to me and half to the English’.

This was more than 140 years before the Battle of Plassey which is described in history as the beginning of territorial acquisition by the East India Company!

It would appear that the idea of territorial sovereignty was a western concept imported into India by the colonials in the 18^th Century. Our rulers – the Mughals as well as smaller rulers like the Zamorin – had viewed the state more as an economic unit which could be controlled to extract revenue for the state.

Ultimately, it looks as if our rulers were too keen to offer portions of their territory on a platter to the colonial powers in return for protection, weapons, money or even a cask of red wine, as in the case of Jehangir! Cheers!!

Read more ►