-A Biography of Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai
French(français): Jai Hind. Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai, combattant de la liberté oublié qui a inventé le slogan «Jai Hind"
-une biographie de Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai
-Una biografía de Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai
Swedish(svenska): Jai Hind. Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai, Forgotten frihetskämpe som myntade slagordet "Jai Hind"
-En biografi av Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai
Italian(italiano):Jai Hind Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai, combattente per la libertà dimenticata che ha coniato lo slogan "Jai Hind"
-Una biografia di Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai
Born On: September 15, 1891
(Malayalam: ചെമ്പകരാമന് പിള്ള,
Tamil: செண்பகராமன் பிள்ளை) was an Indian revolutionary during the Anti-British Movements in India, who went abroad to organise an army to declare war against the British for the self-rule in Indian subcontinent.
Tamil: செண்பகராமன் பிள்ளை) was an Indian revolutionary during the Anti-British Movements in India, who went abroad to organise an army to declare war against the British for the self-rule in Indian subcontinent.
Early life
Dr.C.Champakaraman pillai was born of Tamil descent in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital of the erstwhile "native" State of Travancore in southernmost India. His father, Chinnaswami Pillai, who was a police head constable in Travancore State Government Service, and mother, Nagammal, lived in Thiruvananthapuram. Chempakaraman had his primary and high school education in the Model School, Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram city. As a school boy he happened to meet Sir Walter Strickland, a British biologist, who visited Thiruvananthapuram in search of botanical specimens; Chempakaraman and another boy, a cousin of Chempakaraman by the name of Padmanabha Pillai, became close friends of Strickland, who on his return voyage, took the two boys with him. But Padmanabha Pillai ran away at Colombo and came back to Thiruvananthapuram. Chempakaraman, then fifteen years old, continued the journey with Strickland and landed in Europe. Strickland got him admitted to a school in Austria from where he completed his high school education.
In Europe
Pillai later joined a Technical Institute and took a Diploma
in Engineering. On the outbreak of the
First World War,
Pillai formed the International Pro-India Committee with Zurich as its headquarters
in September 1914 and
himself as its President. Around this time the Indian
Independence Committee
was
formed in Berlin by a group of Indian expatriates in Germany with Virendranath
Chattopadhyaya,
eldest brother of Sarojini Naidu,
Indian National Congress leader under Mahatma Gandhi and a
well-known poet in English, as its President and including Bhupendranath Dutta
(brother of Swami Vivekananda, Punnackal A. Raman Pillai. a
student in theUniversityGöttingen,
TaraknathDas, Barkatullah, Chandrakant
Chakravarty, M.
Prabhakar, Birendra
Sarkar,
and Herambalal Gupta.
Champakaraman Pillai moved to Berlin in October 1914 and joined the
Committee.
The International Pro-India Committee formed by Champakaraman Pillai in Zurich
was merged in the Berlin Committee,
which continued as the guiding and controlling institution for
all the
Pro-Indian revolutionary activities in Europe. Lala Har Dayal was also persuaded to join
the movement. Soon the Committee's branches
sprang up in Amsterdam, Stockholm, Washington,
and
in many other parts of Europe and America.The
letter the postman brought on November 10 contained
just a small newspaper
cutting dated November 7 2001 and with the headline `IA to operate Airbus to
Colombo.' Reading through it I was delighted to find that Indian Airlines was
not only operating a more
comfortable aircraft but also at a more comfortable
time than what had been referred to in Miscellany
on October 29, thereby
showing a welcome concern for passengers and what they say.
Dr. Chembakaraman was the first to "utter the mantra Jai
Hind." Subash Chandra Bose followed suit,
according to a reader. He adds a
final note to the Chembakaraman Pillai saga by retailing the story of
the
doctor's `last journey.
' Dr. Chembakaraman Pillai's wife, Lakshmi Bai, who was from
Manipur, returned to India with his ashes.
She travelled with them from Bombay
to Trivandrum aboard INS Delhi some years after Independence
and
immersed them in the River Karamani during a Government-sponsored
function. The surgeon of the
Emden was finally laid to rest — in
Kerala.
About 120 years back there lived a Vellala couple
Chinna Swami Pillai and Nagammal in Trivandrum
in a house where the present Accountant Generals office is
situated. Champaka Raman was born to
them on September 15, 1891.Even during
school days he was a revolutionary. Strickland an European
lived in Trivandrum
send this brilliant boy to Germany in 1908 for higher studies. He continued his
studies
in Italy and Switzerland. He took Doctorate in Political Science
Economics. He lived in Germany for 20
years.He carried campaign against British
rule in India, With Hardayal, Raja Mahendra Pratap,
Dr. Prabhakar and A.C.
Nambiar he founded Indian Independence Committee. Armed with Engineering
degree
he joined German Navy. He was officer on the cruiser” Emden” and attacked
British ships and
shelled several places in India. On september 22,1914 Madras
was shelled. A free Government of India
was established in Afganistan on Dec 1,
1915 with Raja Mahendra Presad as President Barkatulla as
Prime Minister and
Pillai as Foreign Minister. After World War 1 he formed an association of the
“League of Oppressed People” In 1933 he met Subash Chandra Bose. They organized
INA outside India.
The Azad Hind Government was based on Pillai ’s experience
during World War 1.
In 1933 Pillai married Lakshmi Bai. Unfortunately
they had short life together.Pillai soon fell ill.
There were symptoms of slow
poisoning and he went to Italy for treatment.
He passed away on May 28,
1934.Lakshmi Bai bought his ashes to India in 1935 and
after ashes were
ceremoniously immersed in Kanyakumari with full state honours.
His career was
marked by supreme sacrifice and total dedication to a noble cause.
Early days
He was born on Sept 15th, 1891 in Trivandrum (One relative
mentions that the father was the Travancore
royal physician) Chinnaswamy Pillai
and Nagammal of the Vellala community. Pillai was greatly influenced
by Bal
Gangadhar Tilak and his journal, Kesari, and when Tilak was arrested and
sentenced to transportation,
Pillai pledged lifelong dedication to the cause of
India's liberation. It was at this time that Pillai came into
contact with an
Englishman, Strickland, and with the latter's help left India bound for Italy
when he was
seventeen years old. Even from his younger days there was spirit of
revolution in his blood. His thirst for freedom
was so great, that during his
student days in Maharaja’s College, Trivandrum, he greeted all his friends with
‘Jai Hind’ coined by him”.
In the course of his short life abroad he was to meet many famous
and infamous people, including
Gandhiji, Nehru, ACN Nambiar, Motilal and
Jawaharlal Nehru, MN Roy, Chatto, NSC Bose, Kaiser,
Hindenberg, Hitler and many
others in the Nazi party. He even served aboard the Emden during its voyage
and
probably partook in its shelling of Madras living his last years in Germany,
dying before the world war.
All through this period he worked for India’s
freedom, though ending up choosing the wrong route and some
wrong friends in
the process. Some even say that he was the inspiration behind NSC Bose.
His overseas trip & scholarship
He sailed out in 1908 (probably staying two years in Ceylon in exile as some put it) with Strickland,
studied in Italy and Switzerland before
proceeding to Germany which would then become his home
for the rest of his
life. He was proficient in English, French German and other languages and
spearheaded the fight against the British from Germany.
He reached Italy and was able to study in the Berlin School of Languages there, and also
He reached Italy and was able to study in the Berlin School of Languages there, and also
enrolled for engineering studies. He continued education in
Switzerland and finished it in Germany,
securing doctorates in Engineering and
Economics. An engineer armed with a dual doctorate
(some have mentioned wrongly
that he was a Doctor of Medicine and as Emden’s surgeon)
in Political science
& economics, he found employment in the German foreign office.
Anti British activities
Anti British activities
As a student in Berlin, he formed the Aid India International Committee that
campaigned for India’s liberation. When World War I (1914-1918) broke out,
he
established the Indian Independence Committee and the Indian Voluntary
Corps.
He also set up an army camp at Mesopotamia from where he established
secret
contacts with Indian nationalist leaders.
Dr Champakaraman Pillai then helped set up an organization called
International Pro-India Committee
at Zurich before the outbreak of the World
War I. During the war Dr Champakaraman Pillai intensified
his revolutionary
activities. By 1914 Pillai had organized and created a revolution movement in
Zurich
(with the support of the German Counsel for his activities). The other
members of his group were
Chatto, Prabhakar & Hafiz, later joined by Har
Dayal & Thara Chandar Das. All these people
reached Berlin either through
USA or Switzerland, two neutral states.
During the World War I in 1914, an organization was established in Germany,
During the World War I in 1914, an organization was established in Germany,
namely the Berlin Committee. After 1915, it was renamed the
Indian Independence Committee.
The organization was formed by Indian students
and political activists who resided in the Germany.
The organization was
established with the aim to promote the cause of Indian Independence.
In the
beginning the organization was called the Berlin-Indian Committee. Later,
this
Berlin-Indian Committee played an instrumental part in the Hindu-German
Conspiracy.
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, Champakaraman Pillai and Abinash
Bhattacharya were
the key members of the committee.During the First World War,
he is said to have printed &
dropped pamphlets from airplanes among the
Indian soldiers in France, exhorting them
to turn against the English.Responding to “Fourteen
Points” of the then President of the
United States Woodrow Wilson,
Champakaraman came up with an Eight Point proposal
for Indian independence. His
proposal demanded the French and the Portuguese also to
leave the country.In
1919, he and American author Edwin Emerson established the
League of the
Oppressed People to fight for the right of every person to shape his own
domestic institutions and determine their relations with others.Champakaraman
launched
Pro-India, a monthly published in German and English from Zurich,
Switzerland, through
which he highlighted the glorious past of India.
Another institution founded
by him at Berlin was the “Orient Club.”
Post world war I
After the war, Champak became a Member of the nationalist party of Germany. Champakraman Pillai was
not pro-Nazi as some said, but was apparently murdered (poisoned or
beaten to death) by Hitler’s goons.
In the Pan German Nationalist party, he was
the only non-white man to have the honor and with his shiny
black complexion,
was proud of the distinction. Having met Kaiser Wilhelm and claming close
friendship
with two important Generals, Hindenberg and Ludendorf, he was
considered something of a dandy with
perfect drawing room manners. Pillai was
then active in the German Fatherland Party. In later years in Berlin,
where he
died, he remained one of the very few Indians in Germany.
After the world war when Hitler came to power, Dr Champakaraman Pillai
developed a working relationship
with Hitler with a hope of getting military
assistance to end the British rule in India. Though he had a friendly
relation
with Hitler, he could not tolerate a derogatory remark made by the latter
against India. This led to
discordance between them and an enraged Hitler
ordered the confiscation of Champakaraman Pillai’s
property. This incident hurt
him deeply and it turned out to be the cause of his death on May 13, 1934.
By 1930’s he had become upset with Hitlers attitude about Indians, comments about color and other
By 1930’s he had become upset with Hitlers attitude about Indians, comments about color and other
principles, especially those expressed in speeches and
his book. Hitler had stated that Indians deserved
to be ruled by the British
and stated that they were not Aryans due to the color. Finally he chose to
protest,
in 1931, writing a complaint to him with a deadline for an answer.
While many say the letter was
addressed to the fuehrer, it was actually sent to
the secretary. The reply of apology apparently came
one day later than Pillai
required. Pillai first wanted to send the letter dated 10/12/1931 to Hitler
direct,
after listening to his press conference words at otel Hotel Kaiserhof
in Dec 1931, but then changed
his mind and sent it to the Reich Chancellor
His secret name
Many of the Indians were on the English secret service watch lists, they were all entrusted with special
tasks and Pillai worked under the assumed German
East African name Abdullah Bin Manzur.
Swadeshi movement
In 1924, Dr Champakaraman
Pillai organized the first exhibition of Indian Swadeshi goods at
the
international fair held at Leipzig.
Free government of India 1915
He had the privilege of
being the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of India set up in
Afghanistan in December 1915, with Raja Mahendra Pratap of Kabul as President.
However, the
defeat of the Germans in the war shattered the hopes of the
revolutionaries. On the other hand,
some documents list him actually as Foreign
minister
Pillai and the INA
Pillai was the forerunner of Rash Behari Bose and Subhas Chandra Bose in organizing an Indian
Army abroad to strike against the enemies at home. In 1933, Dr
Champakaraman Pillai met
Subhash Chandra Bose, and they jointly conceived the
idea of Azad Hind
Marriage to Lakshmi
In 1933, Pillai met Lakshmi Bai, from Manipuri living in Berlin and they decided to get married.
After a short married life, Pillai fell ill due to
apparent poisoning and went to Italy for treatment.
They came back to Germany
but he died on May 28th, 1934. The body was cremated by Lakshmi Bai.
Immediately before his death, he asked his wife to sprinkle his ashes in
“Nanjilnadu”
(Kanyakumari district) and the Karamana River in Thiruvananthapuram.
His wish was fulfilled in September 1966. Let us now see what she has to say
about her husband.
' My husband's ashes have
been kept in the drawing room of my flat in Bombay,
awaiting the honor
commensurate with the bold, noble and self-sacrificing life led by Dr. Pillai
for the sake of his motherland. When he was alive he had taken a vow that he would
return
to the land of his birth in a powerful warship flying the flag of the
Indian Republic. But cruel
fate willed otherwise and he died an untimely death
on foreign soil of suspected slow poisoning.
He died a crushed and wounded man
in the service of his country though he was the
only man in Germany who had the
moral courage to challenge Adolf Hitler when the
latter made disparaging
remarks about India. It was because of this that both he and
I suffered
numerous troubles and difficulties in Germany including the loss of our flat
and belongings.
'Now that India is
free, independent and a republic, it is time that it carried out the cherished
desire of Dr. Pillai as a mark of respect to the memory of a man who gave all
his time
energy and thought for the liberation of his country. I feel it would
be a most significant
and noble gesture on the part of the Government if his
ashes are taken from Bombay in a
warship of the Indian Navy to Cochin, the
biggest port in Kerala and
the land of his birth and
where he once landed during World War I from the German Naval
Ship
Emden.........
'For the past thirty years,
I have preserved the ashes as the symbol of the partriot who gave his all
and
who gained nothing. I have lived a lone life.....I only want the dream of Dr.
Pillai to be honored
with me accompanying the ashes.'
'When the country becomes independent, it is not possible to
forget those who achieved it. Dr. Pillai
was the greatest of revolutionaries,
who really carried the torch of freedom to other countries.'
After independence, she wanted to keep the memory of Dr. Pillai
alive and to spread his views.
She was also supported by a nephew of Dr Pillai
to petition the Government of Tamil Nadu,
in order to rename Fort St. George to
Fort Chambakaraman but that did not seem to have gone
well with the government.
They erected a statue there as you can see in the picture.
Curiously LakshmiBai confirms the visit of Pillai to Cochin on the
Emden. That Emden called on
Cochin is clear and is well documented in the book
Ruby Daniel of Cochin
(a very interesting story of German sailors landing up
for supper in a Jewish house in Cochin and
the men folk of Cochin forcing the
Germans to eat with their hands). Lakshmi Bai died in Bombay in 1972..
ChampakaRaman had a sister named " Papathiammal"
who married a sculptor named Chetrapatha Pillai.
His "Koravan Korathi
statue is still available in the Trivandrum Museum. Papathi ammal had four
daughters
and one daughter Late Abayambal Sivasubramania Pillai whom
spent her days at Goudia Maharaja
Palace in Trivandrum.
About Late Abayambal Sivasubramania Pillai & Family :
Abayambal was left alone in Madurai with 5 sons by name Late
S.Ariyasamy,
Late S.Maruthanayagam,S.Sunderesan,Late S.Rajarathinam,S.Devadoss
and 2 daughters S.Saraswathi Devi,
S.Krishnaveni after the death of
Sivasubramania Pillai,in 1957.Abayambal was living with his
youngest son
S.Devadoss in Villivakkam,Chennai,where she left her last breath in 1976.
She
was narrating all these stories to S.Devadoss & P.Mangayakarasi ,
presently
who lives in Chennai.Devadoss is blessed with 3 Daughters D.Agalya,with 2 sons
living in Chennai ,
D.Revathy , with a daughter & a son & D.Lakshmi
Rekha with a daughter settled in abroad.
It is me [karan Ganesan]who is a grand
grand son of Dr C.Champakaraman Pillai…reveilling all these facts
about the Untold stories of the Forgotten Freedom Fighter through
his grand father S.Devadoss.
Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai's Family Tree ;
Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai's Father , brother and his friend ;
Dr.C.Champakaraman Pillai ' Original painting
Statue in Chennai,Gandhi Mandap.
to be continued...
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