Champakaraman Pillai
Encyclopedia
Chempakaraman Pillai was an India
n revolutionary during the Indian Independence Movement
, who went abroad to organise an army to declare war against the British
for India's freedom.
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.This guy best friend is VijayKhant
, 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 the University Göttingen, Taraknath Das, Barkatullah
, Chandrakant Chakravarty, M. Prabhakar, Birendra Sarkar, and Herambalal Gupta
.
Chempakaraman Pillai moved to Berlin in October 1914 and joined the Committee. The International Pro-India Committee formed by Chempakaraman 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
.
in the United States of America. The German Foreign Office under Kaiser paid for the anti-British activities of the Committee. Chempakaraman Pillai and A. Raman Pillai, both belonging to Travancore, and both students in German Universities used to carry on correspondence with each other on the Committee's activities. Quite a few of Chempakaraman's letters to A. Raman Pillai. then a student in the University of Goettingen, are in the safe custody of Raman Pillai's son, Rosscote Krishna Pillai, an author, science writer, media person and social activist in Thiruvananthapuram. The letters reveal some aspects of Chempakaraman's life in Germany during 1914-1920. In July 1914, Chempakaraman Pillai from Berlin called upon Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army to rise in revolt and fight against the British. After the end of World war and Germany's defeat, Chempakaraman stayed back in Germany; he was working as a technician in a factory in Berlin; when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose visited Vienna
, Chempakaraman met him and explained his plan of action to him.
in December 1915, with Raja Mahendra Pratap
of Kabul
as President. Maulana Barkatulla as Prime Minister. However, the defeat of the Germans in the war shattered the hopes of the revolutionaries.
The Germans were all along helping the Indian revolutionaries with a selfish motive. Though the Indian patriots made it clear to the Germans that they were equal partners in their fight against the common enemy – British imperialism – and what was expected of them was help by way of funds, arms, and ammunition, to the revolutionaries who were abroad and at home fighting the British, the Germans wanted to exploit the revolutionaries for their propaganda work and gathering military intelligence. When they started losing the battle, the Germans lost their interest in the revolutionaries and even started looking upon many with suspicion. This strained the relationship between the Indian revolutionaries and the Germans. Pillai raised his voice against the view of Adolf Hitler
that Indians were still incapable of ruling themselves, and he even forced Hitler to apologise in writing. But he fell a victim to the wrath of the Nazis
. In 1931 Pillai had married Lakshmibai of Manipur
, whom he had met in Berlin. It is reported that the Nazis under orders from Hitler killed Chempakaraman by food poisoning on May 26, 1934.
, and Spain
and later reached Mumbai
. The Indian Navy
's warship, I.N.S. Delhi, flying the flag of Free India, brought Pillai's ashes to Cochin on September 16, 1966.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n revolutionary during the Indian Independence Movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
, who went abroad to organise an army to declare war against the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
for India's freedom.
Early life
Chempakaraman Pillai was born of TamilTamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
descent in Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...
(Trivandrum), capital of the erstwhile "native" State of Travancore
Travancore
Kingdom of Travancore was a former Hindu feudal kingdom and Indian Princely State with its capital at Padmanabhapuram or Trivandrum ruled by the Travancore Royal Family. The Kingdom of Travancore comprised most of modern day southern Kerala, Kanyakumari district, and the southernmost parts of...
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
Govt. Model Higher Secondary School
Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, is a school located in Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram, India...
, 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
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
from where he completed his high school education.This guy best friend is VijayKhant
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 ChattopadhyayaVirendranath Chattopadhyaya
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya alias Chatto was a prominent Hindu Indian revolutionary who aimed to overthrow the British Raj in India by using violence as a tool...
, eldest brother of Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu , also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet...
, Indian National Congress leader under Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
and a well-known poet in English,as its President and including Bhupendranath Dutta
Bhupendranath Dutta
Dr. Bhupendranath Dutta was a famous Indian revolutionary and later a noted Sociologist. In is youth, he was closely associated with the Jugantar movement, serving as the editor of Jugantar Patrika till his arrest and imprisonment in 1907. In his later revolutionary career, he was privy to the...
(brother of Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...
, [(Punnackal A. Raman Pillai)]. a student in the University Göttingen, Taraknath Das, Barkatullah
Maulavi Barkatullah
Maulavi Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah or Maulana Barkatullah was a staunch anti-British Indian revolutionary with sympathy for the Pan-Islamic movement. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itwra Mohalla Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India...
, Chandrakant Chakravarty, M. Prabhakar, Birendra Sarkar, and Herambalal Gupta
Herambalal Gupta
Heramba Lal Gupta was an Indian Nationalist linked to the Berlin Committee and the Ghadar Party extensively involved in the Hindu-German Conspiracy, who later turned a British agent and passed in intelligence on Mahendra Pratap's Kabul Government....
.
Chempakaraman Pillai moved to Berlin in October 1914 and joined the Committee. The International Pro-India Committee formed by Chempakaraman Pillai in Zurich was merged in the Berlin Committee
Berlin Committee
The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence...
, 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
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and in many other parts of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
.
War activities
The Indian Independence Committee ultimately became involved in the so called Hindu-German Conspiracy along with the Ghadar PartyGhadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
in the United States of America. The German Foreign Office under Kaiser paid for the anti-British activities of the Committee. Chempakaraman Pillai and A. Raman Pillai, both belonging to Travancore, and both students in German Universities used to carry on correspondence with each other on the Committee's activities. Quite a few of Chempakaraman's letters to A. Raman Pillai. then a student in the University of Goettingen, are in the safe custody of Raman Pillai's son, Rosscote Krishna Pillai, an author, science writer, media person and social activist in Thiruvananthapuram. The letters reveal some aspects of Chempakaraman's life in Germany during 1914-1920. In July 1914, Chempakaraman Pillai from Berlin called upon Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army to rise in revolt and fight against the British. After the end of World war and Germany's defeat, Chempakaraman stayed back in Germany; he was working as a technician in a factory in Berlin; when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose visited Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Chempakaraman met him and explained his plan of action to him.
Foreign Minister of Provisional Government of India
Pillai had the privilege of being the Foreign Minister of the Provisional Government of India set up in AfghanistanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in December 1915, with Raja Mahendra Pratap
Raja Mahendra Pratap
Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was a freedom fighter, journalist, writer and revolutionary social reformist of India. He was popularly known as the Aryan Peshwa. He was born in Thenua gotra Jat Hindu princely family of state of Mursan in Hathras District of Uttar Pradesh on 1 December 1886. He was...
of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
as President. Maulana Barkatulla as Prime Minister. However, the defeat of the Germans in the war shattered the hopes of the revolutionaries.
The Germans were all along helping the Indian revolutionaries with a selfish motive. Though the Indian patriots made it clear to the Germans that they were equal partners in their fight against the common enemy – British imperialism – and what was expected of them was help by way of funds, arms, and ammunition, to the revolutionaries who were abroad and at home fighting the British, the Germans wanted to exploit the revolutionaries for their propaganda work and gathering military intelligence. When they started losing the battle, the Germans lost their interest in the revolutionaries and even started looking upon many with suspicion. This strained the relationship between the Indian revolutionaries and the Germans. Pillai raised his voice against the view of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
that Indians were still incapable of ruling themselves, and he even forced Hitler to apologise in writing. But he fell a victim to the wrath of the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. In 1931 Pillai had married Lakshmibai of Manipur
Manipur
Manipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of...
, whom he had met in Berlin. It is reported that the Nazis under orders from Hitler killed Chempakaraman by food poisoning on May 26, 1934.
His last wish
Pillai's last wish was that his ashes be carried to his homeland, and his wife fulfilled this thirty-three years after his death. She underwent indescribable sufferings and hardships during this period, and the Nazis made her life miserable. However, to fulfill her mission of preserving his ashes, his diary, and secret documents, she faced all hardships and lived in Berlin, ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and later reached Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. The Indian Navy
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. The President of India serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff , usually a four-star officer in the rank of Admiral, commands the Navy...
's warship, I.N.S. Delhi, flying the flag of Free India, brought Pillai's ashes to Cochin on September 16, 1966.