On 17 June 1911, Robert William Escourt
Ashe boarded the Maniyachi Mail at Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. Ashe and his wife
Mary Lillian Patterson, were on the way to Kodaikanal (a hill station near
Madurai) to visit their four children. Ashe was the Collector of Tirunelveli
and was instrumental in sending VO Chidambaram Pillai to life imprisonment on
charges of sedition. The story of VOC, popularly known as Kappalottiya
Thamizan, is by itself a legend in Tamil Nadu.
While Ashe and his wife waited
for their train to move, two young men boarded their first class compartment.
One of them, a well dressed youth of about 25, came abreast of Ashe and pulling
out a pistol shot Ashe in the chest. Ashe collapsed dead on his seat. Before
Mary Patterson could react, the two men exited the coach and went separately
their way. The young man with the pistol ran to the toilet in the end of the
platform. A short while later, his body was recovered from the toilet, pistol
in hand. He had shot himself through the mouth. In his pocket was a note that
claimed his intention to shoot Ashe as a protest against the coronation of King
George the Vth, King and Emperor of India. Ashe was the only Englishman to be
shot dead in South India during the Indian Independence struggle.
The young man was VANCHI aka
Vanchinathan aka Shankaran.
Born into a brahmin family,
Vanchi's generation of young men in Madras Province (as Tamil Nadu was known at
that time) were deeply moved by VOC when he launched the Swadeshi Steamship
Navigation Company in 1906. Challenging the greatest naval power on its own
singular prowess on the seas was like a spark that kindled the fires of freedom
struggle in their hearts. In the two years that VOC's ships broke British
monopoly on the seas, a swell of pride stoked the patriotic fervor in thousands
of hearts. That Ashe as collector of Tirunelveli did everything in his might to
ensure disbanding the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, eventually succeeding
in framing VOC on charges of sedition sending him to jail for 80 years, was not
something that the young generation was willing to take submissively. At least,
Vanchi did not think so.
Vanchi had carried only two
bullets in his pistol. He was clear, after killing Ashe, that he will end his
life than face a trial for murder. He left behind a wife who was apparently
pregnant at the time of his death. However, no direct descendant of Vanchi is
alive.
One hundred years after
Vanchi's death, on 18 June 2011, the son of Vanchi's younger brother,
Hariharan, received an email from Robert Ashe, grandson of Robert William
Escourt Ashe. The email said:
"On this day of sad
but proud remembrance, we, the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Robert
William Ashe would like to extend to the family of Vanchi Iyer, a message of
reconciliation and friendship. Vanchi was an idealist political campaigner
whose zeal for the freedom of his beloved India sent Robert to his early grave.
Moments later, he took his own young life. All who act fervently in the
political arena, both ruler and oppressed, risk making mortal mistakes, and we
who are fortunate enough to live on, must forgive and live in peace together[i]."
The email, sent by the family of the late
British Collector of Tirunelveli, conveys the philosophically broadminded
disposition of Ashe family to the act of Vanchi. Hariharan on his part acknowledged the email
and went further to note that both Vanchi and Ashe merely did what they
perceived as their duty at that time. No ill will prevailed on personal front, then or now.
We must bow to the Ashe family for
their honorable acknowledgement of Vanchi’s sacrifice. But, in celebrating Vanchi we
would truly celebrate India.
Jai Hind.
