Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
htm
A.R. VENKATACHALAPATHY
1915, along with his wife , Kasturba. The couple stayed at 60,
Thambu Chetty Street (George Town), the residence of G .A.
Natesan, the nationalist publisher . He was to stay in Chennai
(Madras) for three weeks before setting out for Ahmedabad
on May 8.
V.O. Chidambaram Pillai , born in Ottappidaram , now in
Tuticorin district , in 1872 was about three years younger to
Gandhi. Unlike Gandhi, he was neither a barrister nor did he
acquire a degree , just passing a second grade pleadership
examination in 1894, after completing school , which enabled
him to practise at the local sub -magistrate's court. However,
he soon moved to practise at Tuticorin , the port town nearby .
He evinced interest in Saiva Siddhanta , taking part in the
local Saivite association and pursuing his literary and
religious interests . But with 1906, "The New Spirit " that was
the outcome of the Swadeshi movement, everything changed.
The year and a half that followed radically changed his
life,
propelling him to brief all -India fame and immortality in the
Tamil world.
Flourishing commerce between Tuticorin and Colombo was
the monopoly of the British India Steam Navigation Company
(BISN) and its Tuticorin agents , A. & F. Harvey. Inspired by
Swadeshi ideals , V.O.C. garnered the support of local
merchants, and launched the first indigenous Indian shipping
enterprise, the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company , thus
earning for himself the sobriquet , "Kappalottiya Tamilan (The
Tamil who launched ships "). The fledgling company soon
made it clear that it was up against
the very might of the
colonial Indian state . VOC's pioneering attempt was lauded
across the sub -continent and he went on to purchase two
steamships, S.S. Gallia and S.S. Lawoe for the company.
His efforts to widen the base of the Swadeshi movement , by
mobilising the workers of the Coral Mills , also managed by A.
& F. Harvey, accentuated the contradiction . In the nationalist
movement, he backed Bal Gangadhar Tilak , leading a
contingent (which included the poet Subramania Bharati) from
the Madras Presidency to the Surat Congress (1907) where
the Congress had split into two camps
the extremists and
the moderates. By the time he returned , he had become the
most popular leader of the extremists in South India
galvanising the Swadeshi shipping company , organising the
mill workers to strike and conducting a series of nationalist
meetings in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli.
On March 12, 1908, he was arrested on charges of sedition
***
It was at this time that Gandhi arrived in Chennai
. A
correspondence which began at this juncture between VOC
and Gandhi continued for about six months
, which is our
present concern . We do not know what happened to the
enormous mail Gandhi received . But VOC seems to have
preserved all these letters, and for good measure , had written
his draft replies on Gandhi 's letters. So we have his side too .
The lines he had scribbled out in his draft letters add to our
knowledge
amply rewarding for the task of decipherment.
The first letter , drafted probably a day after Gandhi arrived ,
addressed Gandhi as "Dear Brother": "I have had the fortune
of seeing you and my respected Mrs Gandhi when you came
out of the Railway compound the other evening ", it said and
added, "I want to have a private interview with you at any time
convenient to you before you leave this place".
Gandhi replied promptly with a single line on April 20, 1915:
"If you kindly call at ... 6 A.M. next Friday, I could give you a
few minutes".
Switching over to a more formal "Dear Sir", VOC replied the
next day: Underlining the words "a few minutes", he said, "As I
am afraid that my conversation with you will take more than
the allotted `a few minutes ', I need not trouble you with my
presence". He excused himself "for having intruded upon your
precious time".
It was now Gandhi 's turn to take mild offence : " If you do not
want to see me I would like to see you myself . Will you kindly
call on Friday or Saturday at 6 A.M. and [sic?] give me a few
minutes?" He then went on to explain: "Of course you can call
any day between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. when I am open to be
seen by anybody . But as you wanted a private interview I
suggested Friday morning as I suggest some morning or the
other for private interviews". (April 21, 1915)
Here came the first poignant moment in the exchange . VOC
agreed to meet Gandhi early in the morning but said, "I cannot
reach your place before 6:30 a.m."
Reason: " the tram car , the only vehicle by which I can now
afford to go to your place , leaves Mylapore after 5:30 in the
morning". A man who had bought up two steamships a few
years earlier was now unable to take anything more than a
tram! Yet VOC went on to add , "I can spend not `a few
minutes' but, the whole of my lifetime with the patriots of my