A long time earlier than India emerged victorious in its struggle for independence, Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, a defiant voice contained in the British Empire, dared to name out a colonial bloodbath though he needed to pay a value for it. Often called one of the vital outstanding legal professionals of his time, he was one of many few Indians to be appointed to high authorities posts when the British Crown dominated the nation.
Nair was a part of the Viceroy’s Council, a central governing physique in British India, however resigned in 1919 after the Jallianwala Bagh bloodbath within the Indian metropolis of Amritsar in Punjab, the place lots of of civilians attending a public assembly had been shot lifeless by British troops.
On the one centesimal anniversary of the bloodbath, then UK Prime Minister Theresa Could described the tragedy as a “shameful scar” on British India’s historical past. Sankaran Nair’s criticism of Punjab’s then Lieutenant Governor, Michael O’Dwyer, led to a libel case in opposition to him, which helped highlight the bloodbath and the questionable actions of British officers.
Regardless of his wealthy historical past, Nair’s title has by no means shone underneath the highlight in Indian historical past in current many years. Nonetheless, earlier this yr, a Bollywood movie based mostly on the court docket case, Kesari Chapter 2, starring celebrity Akshay Kumar, helped convey consideration to his life.
C Sankaran Nair’s Early Life, Profession & Knighthood
Nair was born in 1857 right into a rich household in what’s now Palakkad district in Kerala. He studied on the Presidency Faculty in Madras and earned a bachelor’s diploma earlier than learning legislation and starting his profession as an apprentice with a Madras Excessive Courtroom choose.
In 1887, he joined the social reform motion within the Madras presidency. All through his profession, Nair fought to reform the then-Hindu legal guidelines on marriage and girls’s rights and advocated for abolishing the caste system.
Nair was a delegate to the Indian to the Nationwide Congress for a number of years and presided over its 1897 session in Amraoti (present-day Amravati). In his tackle, he held the British-run authorities “morally accountable for the intense poverty of the lots,” saying the annual famines “claimed extra victims and created extra misery than underneath any civilised authorities wherever else on the earth.”
In 1899, Nair was appointed public prosecutor. In his autobiography, he wrote about advising the federal government on seditious articles in newspapers, together with these by his shut buddy G Subramania Iyer, the primary editor of The Hindu newspaper. “On many events… I used to be in a position to persuade them to not take any step in opposition to him.”
C Sankaran Nair grew to become a excessive court docket choose in 1908. 4 years later, he was knighted by the British authorities. He moved to Delhi in 1915 earlier than being appointed a member of the Viceroy’s Council. Nair was solely the third Indian to carry the place.
Sankaran Nair was a powerful proponent of India’s proper to self-rule and advocated for constitutional reforms throughout his time on the Viceroy’s Council. He additionally performed a key function in increasing provisions of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, which outlined how India would steadily obtain self-governance, by way of his dissent and negotiations with Edwin Montagu between 1918 and 1919.
Montagu wrote in his diary that he had been warned “that it was completely essential to get him on my aspect, for Sankaran Nair wielded extra affect than some other Indian.”
C Sankaran Nair’s Stand Towards The Jallianwala Bagh Bloodbath
On April 13, 1919, lots of of unarmed Indians, together with ladies and kids, gathered on the Jallianwala Bagh public backyard on the day of the Baisakhi pageant. However in what is taken into account to be one of many darkest days in Indian historical past, 400 individuals had been shot lifeless and greater than 1,500 had been wounded by the troopers, underneath the orders of Common Dyer. Indian sources later put the dying toll nearer to 1,000.
Within the aftermath of the incident, Sankaran Nair emerged as one of many loudest voices condemning the cruel assault. The efforts marked a pivotal second in his profession as a statesman. Practically a month after the tragedy, Nair resigned from the council and traveled to Britain, the place he hoped to evoke public opinion on the bloodbath.
In his 1922 guide Gandhi and Anarchy, Nair expressed rising concern in regards to the occasions in Punjab. The capturing at Jallianwala Bagh was half of a bigger crackdown within the province, the place martial legislation had been launched. The area was reduce off from the remainder of the nation, and no newspapers had been allowed in.
“If to control the nation, it’s essential that harmless individuals needs to be slaughtered at Jallianwala Bagh and that any Civilian Officer might, at any time, name within the army and the 2 collectively might butcher the individuals as at Jallianwala Bagh, the nation is just not price residing in,” he penned.
In the meantime, Nair additionally wrote about talking to the editor of The Westminster Gazette in his memoir. The newspaper quickly revealed an article known as the Amritsar Bloodbath earlier than a number of different publications, together with The Occasions, adopted go well with. “Worse issues had occurred underneath British rule, however I’m glad I used to be in a position to receive publicity for this one at the least,” Sankaran Nair famous.
C Sankaran Nair Vs Sir Michael O’Dwyer
Whereas Nair’s guide, Gandhi and Anarchy, left a number of Indian nationalists offended because of his criticism of Gandhi’s civil disobedience motion, it was the few passages condemning Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, that led to a libel go well with in opposition to him in 1924.
Nair accused O’Dwyer of terrorism and held him accountable for the atrocities dedicated by the civil authorities earlier than the imposition of martial legislation. He went by way of a five-week trial within the Courtroom of King’s Bench in London, which dominated 11:1 in favour of O’Dwyer, awarding him damages of £500 and £7,000 in prices. Though O’Dwyer supplied to forgo this for an apology, Nair refused and paid the sum as an alternative.
Nonetheless, studies of the depositions within the listening to had been revealed each day in The Occasions. In accordance with Nair’s household, he managed to attain his goal regardless of formally dropping the case, because the atrocities had been introduced underneath the highlight in public.
C Sankaran Nair’s Life Publish The Case & Loss of life
After dropping the case, Nair continued along with his profession in India. He additionally served because the chairman of the Indian Committee of the Simon Fee, which reviewed the workings of constitutional reforms in India in 1928. Nair handed away in 1934 on the age of 77.
C Sankaran Nair’s Nice-Grandson Displays On The Case
Nair’s great-grandson Raghu Palat, who co-wrote the guide The Case That Shook the Empire along with his spouse Pushpa, mentioned the case helped spark “an uproar for the liberty motion.” Pushpa added that it additionally confirmed “there was no level in having a dominion standing underneath the empire when the British can’t be anticipated to cope with their topics pretty.”
Historian PC Roy Chaudhury later identified that even Gandhi referred to the case a number of instances, and as soon as wrote that Sankaran Nair had proven pluck in combating with out hope of victory.
What Did KPS Menon Write About C Sankaran Nair In His Biography?
In a biography of Nair, KPS Menon, unbiased India’s first overseas secretary, described him as “a really controversial determine of his time.” Nair was recognized for his unbiased views and distaste for extremist politics, and spoke critically of colonial rule and even of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian independence hero who’s now considered the daddy of the nation.
Menon, who married Nair’s daughter Saraswathy, wrote, “Solely [Nair] may have insulted the all highly effective British Viceroy on his face and opposed Mahatma Gandhi brazenly.”
KPS Menon additionally wrote that by way of his profession, C Sankaran Nair, “bent all his ideas and energies on the emancipation of his nation from the bondage of overseas domination and native customized. On this process, he achieved as a lot success as any man, wedded to constitutional strategies.”
Story Credit score – BBC by way of Dharma Productions
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