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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/

  

Bajrang Bali Ki Jai

On the 10th of October 1962, the Chinese crept up the hills around Thagla in the Namka Chu valley. Facing them were three Indian Companies: 4 Grenadiers, 9 Punjab, 1/9 Gorkha, 2 Rajputana Rifles and 01 Platoon of Assam Rifles. 

The Chinese had arrived with their 11th Div with 3 regiments, equaling a brigade. They had lined the hills with over 150 guns of 82 mm and 120 mm. The numerical superiority was around 20:1.

Lt Col Rikh of 2n Rajput had taken stock. He had 150 bullets per rifleman, 17 magazines (28 rounds each) per LMG and 2 grenades per soldier. The battalion's 3" (2 & 3 inch) mortars had 60 rounds of ammo, equal to five minutes firing time. But then, he also knew what the Chinese did not know: his men were Rajputs.

At 05:14 hrs on 20 Oct 1962, the Chinese opened up their 150 guns. 82 and 120 mm shells were raining over every square inch of the Rajput position. After 15 to 20 minutes of heavy shelling, Chinese infantry moved from top and bottom of the hills. The battle was joined soon.

Chinese came in wave after wave and by the third wave, Rajputs had nearly run out of ammunition. Though they had taken heavy casualties, they were determined to repulse the Chinese onslaught. They did not wait much. The fourth wave of Chinese descended on them in quick succession.

Major BK Pant of the Rajputs saw that his men were hopelessly outnumbered and severely wounded. Though he himself was wounded in the leg and shoulder in earlier fighting, he virtually dragged himself from trench after trench, rallying his men to fix bayonets and hurl the Chinese wave down in the smog over the slopes of the hill that reeked of blood and gore. Picking himself painfully up a small overhang, he let out a blood curdling war cry that sent his men charging down the slopes. The Chinese took heavy casualties and withdrew the attack.

They realized that tough as they are, the Rajputs, it was BK Pant who was the pivot of their fierce motivation. When their next wave came, they sited the ridge on which Major BK Pant was propped up, gun in hand, rallying his men. A burst of Chinese machine gun fire was directed at him, ripping him through his chest and shoulder.

Though mortally wounded, Major BK Pant, raised himself up and let out a roar. He held his head high in the Rajput tradition and told his men: Men of the Rajput Regiment, you were born to die for your country. God has selected this small river for which you must die. Stand up and fight like true Rajputs.

As he collapsed, he let out the war cry of the Rajputana Rifles - BAJRANG BALI KI JAI.

Out of the 112 Rajuts under his command, 82 died in the battle. The Rajputs lived up to their motto : 

   Veer Bhogya Vasundhara (वीर भोग्य वसुंधरा ) "The Brave Shall Inherit the Earth" 

  The 7th Infantry Brigade under which the 2nd Rajput  had faught was commanded by Brigadier JP Dalvi. Brig Dalvi wrote an authentic but moving account of the 1962 war in his 'Himalayan Blunder'.

Foot in Mouth

United States government designated Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2001, listing it along with its ilk like Al Quaeda, Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HUJI), Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh (HUJI-B), Harakat ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Indian Mujahedeen (IM) and Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT).

Active since 2000,  JeM is headed by former senior Harakat ul-Mujahideen leader Masood Azhar upon his release from prison in India in exchange for 155 hijacked Indian Airlines hostages. The group’s aim is to annex the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan and expel international forces from Afghanistan. JeM has openly declared war against the United States.
JeM was implicated in the beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl and assassination attempts on Pervez Musharraf. In 2016, JeM was involved in the attack on an Air Force base at Pathankot that shook India. It has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on security forces in the valley of Kashmir. On 14 February 2019, A Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist named Adil Ahmad Dar, a Kashmiri local, was identified as the attacker of the CRPF convoy that claimed the life of 40 jawans.

The incident sent shock waves across India and around the world. There has been a public outpouring of grief and anger that threatens to wash over the normally tolerant Indian society. The PM of India of course responded with an assurance that the culprits of Pulwama and their masters will not go unpunished.

Terrorism across the world has been condemned as the most reprehensible act that a state can connive with. It is against international behavior that responsible states are expected to abide by. In a globalized world, such behavior is fraught with the dangers of isolation and sanctions that could sting. Yet, the PM of Pakistan today states brazenly that India would face the consequences if it acts against Pakistan. Pakistan has been sheltering JeM and liberally supporting its activities in India and Afghanistan.

The Pakistani PM’s statement exposes the shallow lip service the country has been paying to counter threat of terrorism. The brazen threat that he meets out to India does not seem to come from a country that is conscious of its duties to the international community at large, both on moral and legal grounds. The fact that he chose to convey veiled threats to India reflects the shallow hold that he has on the affairs of his state, reflecting rather the stranglehold that terror groups have on the government of Pakistan.

Pakistan, with the world’s 5th largest population (over 207 million), a nominal GDP per capita of $1,641 in 2018 ranking 147th in the world. It ranks 150th in Human Development Index as assessed by UNDP. Pakistan ranks 117/180 in international corruption perception index (Transparency International), 139/180 in Worldwide Press freedom index (Reporters without borders), 110/167 in Democracy Index (Economist Intelligence Unit) and the top 20th in the Failed States Index.

Pakistan is also home to five terror organizations (Al Quaeda, Jaih-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Omar, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Sipah-e-Sahiba. Pakistan’s connections with Haqqani Network are public knowledge.
In an atmosphere where international condemnation on JeM attack in Pulwama is flooding the world media, the democratically elected PM of Pakistan, Imran Khan, chooses instead to say that Pakistan will retaliate if India attacks. He expects that the Indian government to bend its knees in front of the terror tycoons who control Pakistan lest the wrath of the sovereign might of Pakistan fall on India. It is not clear as to where Pakistan and its PM rank in humour index. Instead of grabbing the opportunity to wipe the venomous blood in the veins of his country, he chooses to threaten spilling of Indian blood.

Great leaders do not wait for opportunities to knock on their doors and then go consulting their appointment books to see if the door can be open. They grab fleeting opportunities to open doors that bring in amity, cooperation and prosperity in their wake. An opportunity such as this where Pakistan can choose to behave like a responsible state can be missed only to its own peril. The vortex of violence that Pakistan has fostered in India and Afghanistan is already consuming the flower of its youth. In a country where poverty poses the most serious challenge to its governance, the door of opportunity to cooperate on terrorism thereby stepping into the bandwagon of collective prosperity can be sacrificed for protecting terrorist havens only by leaders who are consumed by their desire for self-preservation.