Bommu

The Poligar (Palayakkarar) of Panchalankurichi stands tall among the torchbearers of revolt against the British at a time when the East India Company (EIC) had established itself as the sole military power in control of swathes of land much larger than their parent country, England. After battle of Plassey in 1757, only three kingdoms remained unsubdued by the English cannon and it’s Native Infantry (ironically!!). The Marathas to the west, Nizam of Hyderabad in the Deccan and Hyder Ali/Tipu Sultan of Mysore. It would be a mere matter of five decades before these three will come under the English control and a hundred years before Queen Victoria will proclaim herself as the Empress of India.

Between the later destiny of England and the evil designs of East India Company stood one man atop the ramparts of a modest mud fort at Palayamkurichi – Veerapandia Kattabomman.

Bommu Naicker as he was popularly called was just 39. Married to Rani Jakkammal, the lady with the name of his family deity for whom he had constructed a temple at Palayamkurichi, He was a fearless warrior. When the Nawab of the Carnatic tried to establish his control over the Poligar dominions in the southern districts of Tamil country, Bommu refused to accept the Nawab’s suzerainty. Many Poligars in the region endorsed his views, Bommu came to be viewed as a rebel by the Nawab.

The Nawab had also liberally availed loans from East India Company in order to live the life of a king. Some 900000 Star Pagoda[1] worth of loans later, the EIC entered into an agreement with the Nawab in 1793. Under the terms of the agreement, the EIC was given powers to collect Peshcush (tributes) and Kisti (taxes) from the Poligars and peasant/traders to make good Nawab’s loan. Couched in appropriate words, the agreement gave unrestrained power to EIC to collect the revenues, even using force when necessary. Of course, the Nawab was obliged to pay extra for the expenses of the ‘force’ when so used[2].

It is in this background, the Collector of Ramnad/Tinnevely (Tirunelveli), William Collins Jackson, sent an ‘advisory’ to Kattabomman to pay up his dues in 1793. Not receiving favorable reply, Jackson entered into an elaborate political play that eventually unwound in the form of siege of Panchalankurichi. Though it was a mud fort, it stood the siege for nearly five months. In the aftermath of this debacle, EIC was left with little choice but to pull every trick under its hat to subdue Kattabomman, for, his successful stand had fanned the embers of revolt amongst other Poligars. EIC went about proclaiming Kattabomman as a bandit and indulged in a maligning campaign to dent his appeal amongst other Poligars. Obviously, Kattabomman became the most wanted bandit in British India history.

Led by Major John Alexander Bannerman, EIC troops eventually succeeded in breaching and reducing the mud fort in their next attempt. Even though, Bommu lost his able deputy Vellaiyathevan, he escaped capture. Roaming around incognito in the realms of Pudukkottai, Kattabomman was arrested by the soldiers of Vijaya Raghunatha Thondaiman, Raja of Pudukkottai, and handed over to the EIC. By the time Bommu was hunted and captured, Jackson was replaced by Stephen Rumbold Lushington, as Collector of Ramnad/Tinnevely.

In a trial that was aimed at sending a strong message to other Poligars, in as much as ending smothering the fire of revolt in Kattabomman, he sentenced to death by hanging. The public hanging, much in the form of mediaeval fanaticism of the Crusades, was carried out at Kayathar by Major Bannerman. Bommu was hung from a tamarind tree and his body was left there to rot for the public to see.

Bommu had two brothers and two sisters but no progeny of his own. Even though very little is known about his kith and kin, there are reports that some descendants of him still live at Panchalankurichi. Government of Tamil Nadu has re-erected the mud fort and housed a memorial for Bommu at the site. India Post honored his memory with a stamp on the 200^th Death Anniversary in 1999.

School Text Books in Tamil Nadu and books on the history of India celebrate him as the hero of the First Revolt against British Rule. Statues of Kattabomman adorn the pride of place in many a towns and cities of Tamil Nadu, including Panchalankurichi.    

The Indian Navy’s establishment INS Kattabomman was commissioned on 20 Oct 1990 by then President, Shri R Venkataraman.

Tamil cinema immortalized Veerapandia Kattabomman’s story in 1959 by a movie by the same title, with Tamil Cinema’s leading actor Shivaji Ganesan playing Bommu. BR Pantulu’s movie dialogues have gained common usage in Tamil language in every context that is appropriate. A great box-office success, it was premierred in London and then released in India. It ran for 25 weeks continually and was even dubbed in Hindi as Amar Shaheed. It also received a ‘Certificate of Merit ' at the Afro-Asian Film Festival in Cairo.

Among the five hundred odd Tamil folk ballads, Kattabomman Kathai (Story of Kattabomman) remains the most popular along with that of Raja Desing. Scholars like S Ganeshram have rendered the Tamil version into English.

Media reports of peasant activists in Karnataka and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh even show that Kattabomman’s dialogues (from the movie of course, but drawn from historical records, as the below given evidence suggests) have been used to drive home the message of their agitations to authorities concerned.

Source: Mukund, Kanakalatha, The View from Below: Indigenous Society, Temples, and the Early Colonial State in Tamilnadu, 1700-1835, Orient Blackswan: New Delhi. 2005

[1] A Star Pagoda was the coin of exchange in Southern Provinces from 1740 to 1807. Each coin weighed 3.4 gms in gold and carried Vishnu on the Obverse and a star on the reverse.

[2] Treaty with the Nabob Mahomad Ali dated 1 2th July 1792,  in  Collection of Treaties with the Native Princes and States of Asia concluded on behalf of the East India Company, 1812, United East India Company(Publisher): London, P  424-433.

Note & Acknowledgement: The above material is a short synthesis of the study on Veerapandia Kattabomman that the Author has undertaken. The study is guided by the curiosity to find the full and correct version of the political and economic circumstances leading to the eventual hanging of Kattabomman in 1799. The lives of main players in the historical stage viz., Jackson, Lushington and Major Bannerman will be visited in the subsequent posts. Author wishes to place his acknowledgement and gratitude to sources in public domain where

---

[1] A Star Pagoda was the coin of exchange in Southern Provinces from 1740 to 1807. Each coin weighed 3.4 gms in gold and carried Vishnu on the Obverse and a star on the reverse.

Vanchi

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.      

---

[i] http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/late-british-officer's-kin-sent-letter-to-killer's-kin/5/16690/

  

Kattabomman, the First Among Freedom Fighters

Jagaveera Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Polygar of Panchalankurichi, was hanged from a tamarind tree at Kayathar in Tamil Nadu on 16 Oct 1799. His crime was refusal to pay taxes to the East India Company. Little did KC Jackson, Collector of Tirunelveli, realize that he had actually lit a fuse on Polygar revolt than put out the fire called Kattabomman.

Born on 02 January 1760 to Jagaveera Pandiyan and Arumugathammal, the Polygar of Panchalankurichi, Kattabomman revolted against British sovereignty when the Collector of Tirunelveli ordered him to pay taxes. The Nawab of Arcot, suzerain over Polygars of the south had failed to pay his dues to the Company and left it to the Company to collect the dues themselves. With this free hand, the Company had set about collecting huge amounts from the peasantry, to the peril of the country side. 

Initially Kattabomman agreed to pay the taxes as per norm and even went over to Ramanathapuram to meet the Collector. However, Jackson was haughty and made Kattabomman wait for days together even to consent to meet him. Incensed, Kattabomman returned to his fort and thereafter refused to pay taxes. The Company then sent an army to collect the taxes and bring Kattabomman. The Company army was defeated by Kattabomman and his allies.

The new collector of Tirunelveli, Lousington, changed the tactics and invited Kattabomman for talks. Playing on the Tamil sense of pride, Lousington lured Kattabomman to come alone, leaving his body guards away. When Kattabomman arrived with only his head of army, Sivasubramanya Pillai. Lousington arrested both. However, Kattabomman escaped with Pillai and reached Panchalankurichi back. War now was inevitable.

The mud fort at Panchalankurichi fell to the canons of the Company. However, an injured Kattabomman escaped to a forest near Pudukottai with handful of his followers. Pillai was arrested by British, after a battle with Kattabomman's troops near Nagalapuram. Pillai's head was severed by British and put up on a spike in Panchalankurichi. 

In the mean time, regional satraps like the King of Pugukottai and Polygars like Ettappan of Ettayyapuram aided the British and actually betrayed, arrested and handed him over to the British. The date was 02 Oct 1799. Lousington conducted a farce trial for nearly 15 days and on the 16th October, ordered that Kattabomman be hanged to death. Major Banerman of the Company hanged Kattabomman from a tamarind tree at Kayathar and left the body there as a warning to other Polygars. A great son of the Tamil people was thus betrayed, and hanged like an ordinary criminal.

Unfortunately for the British, hanging and shaming of Kattabomman did not bring about peace and subjugation of Tamil lands. Between March 1799 and July 1805, for over six years, the Polygars rose in revolt against the British Company. OOmaithurai, brother of Kattabomman, Maruthu Pandiyan brothers, Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja of Malabar and Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder, among others, led repaeted attacks on Company troops mostly adopting to guerrilla tactics. They attacked Company barracks in Coimbatore, Salem and Dindigul area, Trichy and elsewhere harrying the Company to no end. The King of Ramanathapuram actively supported the Polygars. Panchalankurichi fort, rebuilt by Oomaithurai became the epicenter of operations.

Eventually, forces led by Lt Col Agnew laid seige and eventually razed Panchalankurichi fort in May 1801. Oomaithurai and Maruthu Pandiyan brothers were captured , after their escape from the fort near Kalayar Kovil. They were hanged by the Company troops in November 1801 near Odanilai. Other Poligar rebels were slowly subdued over the next few years.

16th October 2018 would mark 219th Anniversary of the sacrifice by Kattabomman. It is a day that truly must mark Tamil pride with great solemnity. 

Government of India honoured Kattabomman with the release of a postage stamp and Indian Navy has a Naval station INS Kattabomman at Tuticorin. A memorial is built at Panchalankurichi and Kayathar to honour the great warrior.