T.M.Varghese-My
Grandfather
1885
– 1961
Ninan
Koshi
(Ninan Koshi is former
Director General of Highways, Govt. Of India. He is son of T.M.V.'s
daughter). Koshi is an accomplished singer. His songs are in
Youtube)
The earliest recollection I
have of Valliappachan (grandpa) is when he came to visit us in
Bangalore sometime in the early nineteen forties. He had come in
connection with his political work to meet leaders of the Mysore
State Congress and stayed with us for a few days. I was awe-struck by
his towering personality and the imposing figure he presented in his
white khaddar dress and Gandhi cap. It was quite a thrill to hear his
presence in Bangalore and discussions with local Congress leaders
being mentioned in the English news bulletin of All India Radio.
One day V (Valiappachan) had
a visitor who came in a car. He was Mr. K.C.Reddy, one of the most
prominent leaders of the freedom movement in Mysore state. (He later
became the first Chief Minister of Mysore after Independence.) He had
discussions with V for a while before leaving. In those days there
were hardly any cars to be seen on the roads of Bangalore. I remember
going out and looking admiringly at Mr. Reddy’s car which was
parked outside our house.
When V had to go somewhere, a
gharry (a horse drawn carriage) was arranged for him. Although I do
not recollect where we went, I remember sitting alongside him in the
carriage and feeling very proud about it. At that time Chinnamma,
Amma’s younger sister was staying with us (she was with us for
almost a year). V wanted her to improve her English, so an
Anglo-Indian lady, Mrs. D’Souza was arranged to give her English
lessons.
I was then studying in Bishop
Cottons Boys School, Bangalore. One of my classmates was a boy called
V.Ranganathan, who was the grandson of Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer. One
day he was boasting in the class about how the Dewan of Travancore
who was his grandfather, had come to his house to visit him. So I
told him, “My grandfather’s name is T.M.Varghese. Go and ask your
grandfather whether he knows him.” (CP was of course, was the one
who was instrumental in sending V to jail many times.) V was hugely
amused when he heard about this incident and would repeat it with a
chuckle to all and sundry.
We used to often go to Quilon
(now Kollam) for the vacations. It was a long journey from Bangalore;
first we had to go to Madras by the broad gauge train, wait there
almost a whole day and then board the metre gauge train from Egmore
station. I always used to look forward to the holidays in Kollam. The
house had a sprawling compound stretching all the way to the lane at
the back. It was full of trees: coconut, arecanut, mango, jackfruit,
guava, banana and tapioca. It was great fun wandering around,
climbing the trees, taking the Alsatian dog (Noble) to the backwaters
for his bath and looking after the newly hatched chickens to protect
them from being snatched away by the predatory kites. In V’s room
there was an almirah full of books, among which were ten volumes of
the Book of Knowledge, an encyclopaedia full of information on every
topic under the sun which I would avidly read for hours. And then of
course there were the hours spent listening to the large collection
of 78 rpm records of Saigal, Pankaj Mullick and others on the old
gramophone which is now a relic of the past. It had a handle which
had to be cranked to make the turntable rotate and a soundbox in
which a steel needle had to be inserted before it was placed on the
rotating record to produce the sound. It was always with a wrench
that I left Kollam at the end of the holidays.
At the end of one such
vacation we had a thrilling experience which I would label as ‘The
Great Train Chase’, when recounting it to my friends. On the day of
our departure, V decided that he would come to the station to see us
off. Appa left early for the station with the luggage. We all got
ready and Amma reminded V that it was time to go. But V was
unperturbed; he had a leisurely murukkan and a talk with
someone who had come to call on him. After much gentle persuasion
from Amma, he finally got into the car and we left for the station.
When we got on to the platform we found to our dismay that the train
had started leaving and the last bogey had gone beyond the end of the
platform! V decided that we would go to Kundara, the next halt of the
train which was about 8 miles away and board it there. So we all
piled back into the car and V told the driver (Peelichetan) to go
full speed to Kundara. The first hurdle was when we came to the level
crossing some distance away from the station and found that it was
closed as our train was just passing through. With mounting tension
we waited for the gates to open before speeding away again. The car,
which was a Ford V8, started groaning and sputtering as it was
probably not used to being driven at such high speeds. Finally, just
as we reached outside the Kundara station building, the car gave up
the ghost and came to a halt with steam pouring out of its radiator.
As we got out of the car and rushed on to the platform, the train was
just steaming in and we were finally able to get into our
compartment. The halt was only for a few minutes and as the train
moved out I looked back and saw V standing there serenely waving to
us as if nothing had happened.
V was very fond of his
murukkan, chewing of betel leaves and tobacco, which he did
several times a day. Its preparation was an elaborate process. There
was a steel box with small compartments in which all the different
ingredients were stored. First he would take out the green betel leaf
and wipe it clean before spreading lime paste on it. Then he would
take out the special cutter and cut the areca nut and dried tobacco
into small pieces and place them on the leaf. The leaf was then
rolled and placed in his mouth for chewing. There was always a
spittoon at hand into which he would spit out the red juice after a
while.
On the days when he was in
Kollam, V would have his bath and get ready by nine-thirty in the
morning. He would then don his black lawyer’s coat and leave for
his practice in the District Court. His fame as a leading lawyer
dealing with criminal cases, was spread far and wide in the state.
“He was an exceptionally able lawyer with a clear mind and an
excellent debater. He was strikingly good-looking.” (Quote from
book by Louise Ouwerkerk). His reputation for handling the most
difficult and seemingly hopeless cases and coming out successful, was
unmatched. He was known for demolishing the opposition’s averments
and arguments with his legal acumen, brilliance and skilful oratory.
He would sit late into the night studying the cases and preparing for
his appearance in court the next day. He would never raise his voice
or use harsh words in the courtroom. Humour was a weapon that he
successfully used while cross-examining witnesses. By this he would
make the witness feel at ease and lull him into a false sense of
security. Then he would cleverly lead him on with further questions
to completely contradict himself and tie himself up in knots. It is
said that when he was slated to appear in a particular court, people
other than the litigants would throng the courtroom to hear him argue
the case.
His legal fee was quite stiff
and he would insist on its being promptly paid by those who could
afford it but would sometimes even forgo it for financially lesser
privileged clients. His professional income at that time (in the
thirties and forties) was the highest among all practising lawyers in
the state and was in excess of Rs.5000/- per month. I was curious to
find out the equivalent of this amount at the present day value of
the rupee, but was unable to hazard a proper guess. So I asked two
eminent persons with some background in banking and finance to
enlighten me on this. Both came up with the same figure and it was
not ten lakhs or fifteen lakhs as I had imagined, but an astounding
and almost unbelievable fifty lakhs per month. One must remember that
in those days a maund (about 40 kg ) of rice was costing just one
rupee and a loaf of bread, less than two paise. In the whole of
Kollam town he was perhaps the only one who had a car and driver. He
owned landed properties at several places. I remember going with him
once in the car to a cashew orchard spread over more than fifteen
acres which he owned in Kundara. The trees were laden with the ripe
fruits of purple, red and yellow colour with the nuts stuck to them
at the bottom and the air was pungent with their smell. I had never
seen the cashew tree or its fruit before and for me the orchard was a
magnificent sight. I later learnt that the orchard was sold off by V
when he needed to raise money. V would, undoubtedly, have been one of
the wealthiest men in the whole state of Travancore if he had
continued in his profession. But alas, it was not destined to be so.
There was a special bond
between V and Amma. She was the eldest of his eight children and much
older than most of her siblings (in fact her youngest sister was only
a few months older than me.) When he first became minister in 1948,
Valliammachi was unwilling to move to Trivandrum to his official
residence, Cliff House. It was Amma who looked after all his needs
and ran the household for him during that entire period that he
remained as a minister. She was extremely solicitous about his needs
and whenever he came to our house, she would herself go into the
kitchen and make all the special dishes that he particularly liked.
When he was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, his official
residence was Highland Bungalow on Barton Hill in Trivandrum but he
used it only as an office and seldom stayed there. Whenever he was in
Trivandrum, he would come to our house for all his meals and Amma
would be ready with his favourite dishes. V was particularly fond of
the small yellow plantains (rasakathali) and would polish off more
than a dozen at one go. There was a shop at the junction near our
house from where Amma would procure these plantains for him. The shop
owner soon came to know for wnom these plantains were required and he
would immediately send over whole bunches of the fruit as soon as he
saw the State car carrying V moving towards our house. In 1955, when
he was hospitalised in Madras for two weeks (I do not exactly
remember the nature of his illness), it was Amma who went there and
stayed at the hospital for the entire period to look after him.
He was inordinately proud of
my scholastic achievements. Whenever we met, he would call me to his
side and enquire about my progress in studies and about the marks I
got in my latest exams. When he had visitors, he would call me again
and make me repeat my marks in front of them. Once when he came to
our house, he was quite pleased to hear about my progress in my
studies. He then called his personal assistant who was sitting in the
car outside and asked him to bring Rs. 100 which he then handed over
to me.
V
was well known for his dry sense of humour. The legal and political
fraternity abounded with stories about his humorous sallies. It is
said that on one occasion he attended a marriage feast where he and
the other guests found that the dish of fish served contained very
little fish and an excess of coconut (peera). While leaving the
function, V was seen standing near some coconut trees in the compound
as if searching for something. When queried by his fellow guests, he
replied with a straight face,” I was just trying to find out which
is the tree that gives coconuts with such a strong smell of fish.”
There was a gentleman named P.S.George who was a frequent visitor at
the house. He had a protruding stomach which would shake
uncontrollably when he laughed. About him V would say, “P.S.George
is a very wiry person,” which was a pun on the Malayalam word for
stomach. There was another instance with a junior Congress worker
called K.K.Chellappan Nair, which became widely known and repeated
throughout the political circles at that time. It appears that V had
called him to his house at a particular time in the morning in
connection with some urgent matter. The man was late for the
appointment and when he finally arrived, V was quite annoyed with
him. When he started apologising for his latecoming, V who was
shaving himself at that time said, “It doesn’t matter. Since you
were late, I have started doing the job myself.” This was his
oblique way of calling the man a barber, which was a mildly
derogatory term in those days. How widespread this anecdote had
become known, was brought home to me when I happened to meet an
old-time politician of that era, Mr. P. Viswambaran, in Trivandrum a
few years ago. While reminiscing about V, he narrated this incident
and we had a hearty laugh.
V was undoubtedly the
richest politician in Travancore. He gave away his money without a
thought, maybe even recklessly, to the Congress party, to
organisations, to institutions and to individual politicians and
others who were in need. His generosity knew no bounds. Nobody who
came and asked him for money would go away empty-handed. While many
of those whom he helped were genuine cases of people in need, there
were many others who were just spongers and hangers-on who knew he
was a soft touch. Pappachayan (my uncle) once told me that while
cleaning out an old cupboard in V’s room, he came across numerous
slips of paper on which were written names with amounts in rupees
against each name. The amounts ranged from tens to hundreds of
rupees. (Keep in mind that one hundred rupees was equivalent to one
lakh rupees at today’s value). These were obviously evidence of
some attempts made by V to keep track of the monies he had given away
to various people and were never returned. There is a recorded
instance of an occasion when he received a cheque of Rs. 3,000 (Rs.30
lakhs by present day reckoning) from a British company as fees for
some legal advice he had rendered for them. Without a second thought
he passed on the entire amount to the funds of the State Congress.
When clients came and paid their fees, he would immediately send a
large part of it to Pattom Thanu Pillai in Trivandrum for
replenishing the funds of the party. Apart from his own money, he
brought large sums into the coffers of the party by way of donations
obtained by using his considerable influence on wealthy people in his
own community as well as outside. Soon V’s immense wealth began to
dwindle. When that happened, he started selling off his properties
one by one to raise money for the cause. It can be said without
exaggeration that if ever there was one person who funded and
financed the Travancore State Congress and the struggle for
responsible government and democratic rights in Travancore State, it
was T.M.Varghese.
On his interminable
journeys throughout the length and breadth of the State,
V used to travel in his own car. His trusted and loyal driver on all
these trips was a person whom we called Peelichetan. He was a short
man with a small Hitler moustache. He was not only V’s driver but
also acted as his personal attendant looking after him and taking
care of all his needs while he lived out of a suitcase. Peelichetan
would come back from his journeys and regale us with stories about
the places he had been to and the things he had seen. When V became a
minister in 1948, he was allotted a government State car along with
an official driver. Peelichetan felt that he should have been made
the driver of the official car and kept urging V to do the needful in
the matter. However, this was not possible as government rules did
not permit it. Peelichetan was upset about this and kept complaining
that he had not been given a fair deal. He was quite aggrieved that
after having served V for such a long time, he could not get to drive
his official car; but as things stood, nothing could be done to save
the situation for him. After that, he faded away and I never saw him
again.
V’s political activities led
him into direct conflict with the repressive government of CP, the
Dewan of Travancore. He was jailed several times and spent many
months in prison in the Central Jail in Trivandrum. Even his family
was not spared. The house was kept under constant surveillance. At
one stage the police came and even confiscated the furniture and
other articles and took them away, leaving the house an empty shell.
I remember seeing some tables and other things with ‘PNK’ written
on then in white paint. ‘PNK’ were the initials of my father,
P.N.Koshi. Amma told me that this was done to save at least a few
things from the clutches of the police. In 1939 or so when the TSC
was banned by CP, V went into self-imposed exile in order to avoid
arrest by the government. He stayed in various cities of Madras
Presidency and also went to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and spent many
months in that country. He worked tirelessly in these places speaking
at public meetings, mobilising Malayalis and spreading awareness
about the freedom struggle in Travancore State. He was also
instrumental in raising money on a large scale and sending it back to
the Travancore State Congress party for funding its activities. I
once found bunches of dusty old letters tied with strings, kept in
the roof of the cattle shed in Kollam, which bore the postage stamps
of Ceylon. They were all letters written to V by people whom he had
known and worked with, during his exile there. It must be remembered
that all this was done at his own expense and after forgoing his
flourishing and highly lucrative legal practice.
Once he emerged as the
foremost leader in the fight for responsible government, V’s house
became the centre of intense political activity and discourse. I
remember large numbers of people coming to the house and staying on
for endless discussions. When it was time for lunch, there would be
at least six people sitting down with him at the table. Some of
those who could not find a place there, would go and sit on low
stools in the kitchen, to be served by Valliammachi herself. It is a
remarkable fact that day after day, no one who came to that house,
left without partaking food from there.
Which brings me to that most
wonderful person Valliammachi, my grandmother. She was married off
when she was still a child of about ten years, as was the practice
prevalent even among Christians in the 19th century. She
never had any proper schooling and perhaps it was because of this
that she was quite diffident and averse to being in the limelight in
any way. Her life was centred in and around the kitchen, which she
hardly ever left, except perhaps to go to church. She would cook the
most tasty food ever, not only for her family, but also for all the
people who came to her house. She was the embodiment of motherly love
and compassion. I have been told that when V was in jail and
policemen were posted outside the house for surveillance, she would
call them into the kitchen and give them food at lunchtime. I have
never been able to comprehend how she managed to ensure that there
was always enough food in the house for her large family and her
innumerable guests. One must remember that in those days there were
no gas hobs, refrigerators or other kitchen appliances that we take
so much for granted now. The cooking was done using firewood and
dried fronds of the coconut tree as fuel, which made the kitchen
always full of smoke. In spite of all this, she saw to it that at no
time was there any dearth of food on the table. She had a sweet
singing voice and I used to listen to her raptly when she sang the
hymns at our evening prayers. (I like to think that I inherited my
singing voice from her) She was particularly fond of me, being her
eldest grandson. In the afternoons sometimes when she would lie down
on a cot placed just outside the kitchen, I would go and sit by her
side and we would talk about many things. She called me ‘Poochi‘,
which was the pet name she gave me and there was always a hug and a
kiss for me when we met. When I left Madras in 1953 after doing my
Intermediate at Loyola College, I bought a set of dining plates for
her with some amount I had saved from my extremely meagre pocket
money. The plates were of fine English crockery with beautiful blue
and gold borders. She was overjoyed when I gave them to her. She
treasured those plates till the end of her days and would proudly
show them to all as the gift that her grandson had given her.
The circumstances
under which V came into politics, are not known to me first-hand.
However, from what I have learned from hearsay and information
gathered from other sources, they were as follows: The early
nineteen thirties saw the rise of political unrest in Travancore
State as the minority communities such as the Christians, Muslims,
Ezhavas and others started to assert themselves. In those days all
the top posts in Government were given to Tamil Brahmins and others
from outside the State and also to the Nairs and upper caste Hindus.
The Nairs , though much smaller in numbers compared to other
communities, had almost a complete monopoly on Government jobs and
wielded totally disproportionate power in the administration of the
State. They were desperate to retain their positions and felt
threatened by the growing demands of the minorities which they
opposed tooth and nail. For intensifying the agitation of the
minorities for better representation in the legislature and in
government jobs, an umbrella organisation called the Joint Political
Congress (JPC) was formed to represent all the minorities in their
struggle for democratic rights. As a leading lawyer of the State, V
entered the political stage as a part of the JPC, perhaps sometime
towards the end of 1933. As the government was totally unresponsive
to the demands of the aggrieved minority communities, they started
what was called the Abstention Movement. V played a prominent role in
this Movement by which the people were mobilised and exhorted not to
vote and not to stand as candidates in the elections. In 1935,
C.Kesavan, a prominent leader of the Ezhava community, made a speech
in which he strongly attacked the administration of the Dewan and the
monopoly of the Nairs in the government. For this he was immediately
arrested and charged with sedition. As the foremost lawyer in the
state, it was V who argued Kesavan’s case in court with great legal
skill and astuteness which was widely reported throughout the state.
With this V came fully into the political limelight and his name
became well known to people across the state. In 1937 when the JPC
decided to participate in the elections, V stood for election from
Pathanamthitta constituency. He was bitterly opposed by the Nairs,
who put up their own candidate against him and hoped to divide the
electorate on communalal lines. They pulled out all the stops to
defeat him. Large numbers of Nairs moved to the constituency to
campaign against him. They had the full backing of the Dewan who was
also keen to see that V did not win. But V’s image was that of a
moderate who stood tall above the narrow confines of communal
politics and even some members of the Nair community came out in
support of him. In this context the words of K.Ayyappan, a prominent
Ezhava leader, are worth quoting: ‘ There is no other person who is
as great as T.M.Varghese in Travancore. In him we find scholarship,
ability and nobility combined in proper proportions and he fights
for justice at all costs. If the Ezhava community forgets him and
joins the opposite camp, it will be immoral and ungrateful.’ V won
the election and his victory was hailed throughout the State
especially in Kollam, where a large public meeting was held to
felicitate him.
While looking at
the politics of that era, it is necessary to know something about the
office of the Dewan, who was the head of the administration of the
State. Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer was a brilliant constitutional lawyer,
orator and administrator who came to Travancore State in the early
nineteen thirties as the Legal and Constitutional Advisor to the
Maharaja of Travancore. He was a Tamil Brahmin of aristocratic
demeanour and characteristic arrogant disdain for the lower castes
among the Hindus. He also had a particular dislike of the Christians
because of their proselytising activities among the Ezhavas and
others. CP found his position in Travancore quite congenial for his
overweening ambitions. He soon wormed his way into the good books of
the royal family who became so dependent on him that all major
decisions of the State Government were left in his hands . Later, in
1936 CP was appointed the Dewan of Travancore and continued in that
position till 1947. This gave him immense powers which made him the
virtual ruler of the state. He used those powers in an autocratic and
high-handed way. He pitted himself totally against the movement for
responsible government spearheaded by the Travancore State Congress
which he perceived as a direct threat to his power and V being the
tallest leader of that movement, was one of his prime targets . When
the TSC submitted a Memorandum to the Maharaja calling for the
removal of CP from the post of Dewan, he was infuriated beyond
measure. He unleashed a reign of terror on the populace. He was
ruthless in his attacks on the freedom of the press, banning
newspapers and jailing individuals who dared to criticise or oppose
him. He even corrupted the judiciary and pressurised the spineless
judges handpicked by him to give judgements according to his
dictates. He had no compunction in using the might of the police to
disrupt the meetings of the TSC, manhandle its workers and arrest and
jail its leaders, some of whom were even beaten up and tortured. He
would send his hired goons to every meeting of the TSC to disturb the
peace and even physically attack the leaders and speakers on the
dais. In more than one instance, police opened fire on huge crowds
participating in meetings organised by the TSC, resulting in the
death of several people. In his vindictiveness, he even forced into
liquidation a flourishing private bank belonging to the Christian
community, The Travancore National & Quilon Bank Ltd. on the
grounds that it was helping the TSC. As the bank was in sound
financial condition, he used every possible crooked and underhand
means to cause a run on the bank and engineer its collapse. He did
not stop there; he brought criminal charges against the owners of the
bank and sent them to jail. (Incidentally, my father was the Manager
of the branch of this Bank in Bangalore in 1938 when it was
liquidated and he was overnight left without a job.) It was indeed an
evil and iniquitous regime presided over by this cruel, vengeful
tyrant. CP’s ruthless suppression of the popular movement in the
State led to mounting public anger against him. In 1947 when India
became independent, CP prevailed upon the Maharaja to delay the
signing of the Instrument of Accession to the Indian Union by
Travancore, as was required to be done by all the Princely States in
the country. Instead, his megalomania led him to put forth the
preposterous proposition of an Independent Travancore , which would
be a sovereign state outside the Indian Union. He had delusions of
grandeur in which he saw himself as the virtual head of such an
independent country. One historian has noted that he even approached
Jinnah and the British and obtained their support for this venture.
All of this came to an ignominious end in September 1947 when he was
attacked and seriously wounded by an assailant at a public function
in Trivandrum, after which he beat a hasty retreat to Madras and
never returned to the state again. The people of Travancore heaved a
collective sigh of relief to see the back of this malevolent rakshasa
who had inflicted such untold misery on them for more than a decade.
In the Sri Moolam
Assembly that was formed after the election of 1937, the President
was the Dewan and the post of Deputy President was to be filled from
among the elected members. It is worth noting that V was elected
Deputy President, defeating four other candidates including Pattom
Thanu Pillai. V’s election as Deputy President was widely welcomed
and he was felicitated by people all over the state. However, the
Dewan was quite unhappy with this development and was looking for a
chance to get V removed from office. In V, CP was confronted
with a person who could deal with him on equal terms as regards
sharpness of intellect, knowledge of constitutional law, legal acumen
and outstanding debating skills. Within five months, before V could
even start functioning effectively, CP and the Nair members of the
Assembly, who were his staunch supporters, ganged up to bring a
motion of no confidence against him. The charge against him was one
of impropriety for having addressed two public meetings in which he
felicitated C.Kesavan on his release from prison. It was clear to all
that the passing of the no confidence motion was the result of
political intrigue and a conspiracy between the Dewan and the Nairs.
V immediately resigned from the post, after making a notable speech
in which, without any tinge of resentment or rancour at his ouster,
he clearly explained his position in a dispassionate way and called
upon all to eschew communalism and work unitedly for the good of the
people.
The decade between 1937 and
1947 was one of turmoil in the politics of the State. It was also one
of intense political activity for V. His stature as an astute,
committed and principled politician grew rapidly and he soon came to
be acknowledged as one of the foremost leaders of the movement for
democratic rights and responsible government, which was being
suppressed by the despotic Dewan with a heavy hand. V used to be
away from his house for many days at a time travelling the length and
breadth of the State with indefatigable energy, making speeches at
well attended public meetings and mobilising people’s support for
the Travancore State Congress. Sometimes, on a single day he would be
addressing three separate meetings in three different towns. He was
an accomplished orator. The skills that he had so successfully
practised in the court room were brought to bear in his political
speeches which were extremely persuasive and effective in drawing the
crowds and evoking positive response from them. I had only one
occasion to listen to a public speech by him and that was when he
spoke at a meeting held at Pettah maidan in Trivandrum just after his
resignation from the first Ministry.
February 1938 saw the
replacement of the JPC by a new organisation called the Travancore
State Congress, of which V was a founder member. Pattom Thanu Pillai
was the President and V was the Vice-President of the party. It is
said that V’s public image and popularity across the State at that
time was such that he could easily have become the President of the
TSC if he so desired. But he was selfless and farsighted enough to
realise that the need of the hour was to bring the Nairs, who were
bitter opponents of the JPC, into the fold of the TSC. So he had no
hesitation or second thoughts about accepting the number two position
in the party.
The objective of the
TSC was to attain responsible government through peaceful means with
adequate protection for the interests of the minorities. V worked
heart and soul to nurture and sustain the TSC. He persuaded not only
his many Nair friends but also several other prominent members of
that community to join the TSC, so that it became a party truly
representative of all the people of the State. At the time of its
formation, he hired a bungalow in Trivandrum at his own expense to
serve as its office. Thereafter he was the sole fund-raiser for the
party. His stature was such that In one instance, he collected
Rs.20,000 (rupees two crores by present reckoning ) from the
planters of the Nilgiris as donations for the party. His legal
practice was at a standstill but his accumulated wealth was such that
it made little difference. He criss-crossed the State addressing
innumerable meetings to communicate with the masses and carry forward
the objectives of the TSC. Many of the party meetings of the TSC were
held at his residence in Kollam.
During these years, V was
arrested at least four times and sent to jail for various periods.
The first was in August 1938, when he addressed a public meeting at
Sankumugham beach in Trivandrum, defying prohibitory orders. He was
given a sentence of one year imprisonment and a fine of Rs.300, but
was released before completing his sentence. He was again arrested in
March 1939 and in February 1942, when he took part in the ‘Quit
India’ Movement. In 1943 he was arrested and jailed for 6 months on
the charge that subversive literature was found at his residence.
There may have been other instances of arrests, but I am unable to
get further details about them.
Apart from the Pathanamthitta
election which he won in 1937, V stood for election two more times in
his political career. The first was from Pathanapuram in 1948 where
his opponent was the Communist leader P.T.Punnoose. V won a landslide
victory there. The third and last time was from Ezhumattur in 1951
where also he won comfortably. I was in Kollam when the results of
this election came through and I remember him receiving many
congratulatory messages on the telephone on the occasion.
V led many delegations that
interacted at various times with leaders of the Indian National
Congress. He was in touch with Mahatma Gandhi and met him more than
once at Wardha and stayed for a week at Rajkot, to seek his advice
and apprise him of matters relating to the State Congress. Similarly,
he had meetings with Jawaharlal Nehru and others at Delhi and
elsewhere to make them aware of the struggle of the people of
Travancore against the despotic rule of the Dewan.
In the nineteen forties there
was an organisation called the All India States Peoples Conference,
which was formed to co-ordinate the freedom movements in the various
princely states of India. Jawaharlal Nehru was the President of this
organisation. In its meeting held in 1943, T.M.Varghese was elected
as one of the two Vice-Presidents, the other being Sheikh Abdullah of
Kashmir. In 1946 (perhaps) at Gwalior,(not very sure of the year and
place), while presiding over one of its meetings , Nehru was called
away unexpectedly. While leaving, he requested T.M.Varghese to
preside and it was V who ably conducted the remaining part of the
meeting and brought it to a successful conclusion. I remember reading
about this in the English newspaper and also being there when he came
back to Kollam, where a number of people had gathered at the house to
felicitate him on his return after completion of his mission.
V is reported to have had a
good rapport with Nehru, who was well aware of V’s leading and
significant role in the politics of Travancore State. Between 1940
and 1947, V met him more than once for apprising him about the
affairs of the Travancore State Congress and its fight against the
oppressive rule of the Dewan. It is said that just after
independence, Nehru invited him to Delhi to join the Central
Government as a member of his cabinet, but V declined the offer. He
may have had his own personal reasons for doing so (which we will
never know), but politically it was a grievous error. The position of
a Minister at the centre would have been just reward for the lifetime
of sacrifice he had spent and a deserving recognition of the
unlimited amounts of money, time and effort he had unstintingly given
to the Congress party and to the struggle for responsible government
in Travancore State. It would have also given him an opportunity to
rise to a higher plane above the petty communal politics of
Travancore State and use his brilliant intellect and outstanding
capabilities in the service of the people
of the whole country. But
regrettably it never came about.
V was the Home
Minister in the first democratically elected government formed in
Travancore State in March 1948 after Independence. The
official residence given to V when he became the Home Minister was
Cliff House. This was a large building built at three levels on the
side of a high ground, as its name would suggest. The main building
was at the ground level as you approached from the gate. At the
higher level of the first floor, was the office and bedroom occupied
by V. On one side, it also had a lower floor in which the kitchen and
other rooms were located. We stayed in Cliff House for the entire
period for which V remained a minister, which was just about one year
before he resigned. The house had large sprawling grounds covering
maybe two acres or so. The government had allotted a cook to work in
the kitchen but Amma was the one who managed the household and saw to
it that food for V was sent up to the higher floor promptly at the
times required by him.
I
remember an incident when V had just moved into Cliff House and was
wanting some changes to be made so as to accommodate his office and
other requirements. I also tagged along when V went around the house
and grounds explaining the changes he wanted to the Estate Officer, a
man called Chacko. He was a pompous man dressed in suit and tie, who
obviously had a high opinion about the importance of the post he
held. When V had finished speaking, Chacko in his stiff official
voice said,” I will have to get Government permission for carrying
out these changes.” V looked at him quizzically and said,” Mr.
Chacko, you seem to forget that I am the Government.” Chacko was
completely deflated.
On
weekends V would pack his official files into the car and along with
his PA set off for Kanyakumari where a room would be booked for him
in the State Guest House. This was done so as to enable him to
dispose of his files without being disturbed by visitors and
telephone calls. Whenever possible I would also jump into the car and
go along with him. In those days Nagercoil District and Kanyakumari
were still part of Travancore state. While V remained immersed in his
work, I would spend my time reading or wandering around on the beach.
At that time the beach was pristine, the air was wonderfully bracing
and there were very few tourists. Sometime ago when I visited
Kanyakumari again after a long gap of many years, I was appalled to
see its present condition: the waterfront marred by rows of tacky
shops, congestion caused by crowds of unruly people and mounds of
filthy litter lying around.
From 1949 to 1951, V was
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Travancore-Cochin. During his
tenure as Speaker, he successfully convened and conducted the All
India Speaker’s Conference in Trivandrum which was also attended by
Mr. G.V. Mavlankar, the first Speaker of the Indian Parliament. He
also arranged a trip to Kanyakumari for all the Speakers who had come
for attending the conference. From 1952 to 1953 he was again
Education Minister in the cabinet of A.J.John. But after the fall of
that Ministry towards the end of 1953, V more or less withdrew from
politics.
The
last time I saw him was in April-May 1961 when I went home on my
first vacation after joining Central Government Service at New Delhi
in 1959. I went to Kollam to meet him. I found him to be unusually
quiet and withdrawn. I felt quite disturbed that he did not interact
with me in his usual way. I could see that he was in decline and that
made me very sad. The end came soon thereafter. On 31st
December 1961, he got up from where he was sitting on the verandah,
walked unsteadily to his room, lay down on his bed and was gone.
Mercifully he did not have to undergo lengthy hospitalisation or
remain bedridden for a long time. I was back in Delhi when I heard
about his passing. On the day I came to know that he was no more, my
heart was filled with emptiness and I fasted for a whole day as a
small token of reverence and love for this great man. For me he was
and will always remain an iconic figure, the epitome of all that is
great and noble in life.
It
is a sad irony of fate that this man who had fought relentlessly for
the democratic rights of the people of Travancore and was the
lifeblood of the freedom movement there, never became the Chief
Minister of the State. Men of lesser calibre and credentials became
Chief Ministers, but he was denied the position, mainly because he
was seen to be above communal politics. In the Congress party which
was at that time riven with communalism, factionalism and groupism,
this proved to be an insurmountable drawback. All the selfless
services he had rendered, the sacrifices he had made, the large
portions of his personal wealth he had given and the tireless efforts
he had put in over so many years for furthering the Congress party
and its objectives, were of no account. Manouvering and skulduggery
to gain political advantage were not in his nature, nor was he
willing to project himself at all costs and use all means to attain
the top position. He was willing to be considered for the post only
if he had the consensual support of all sections of the party and
unfortunately such support was not forthcoming. So after a while when
he found that he was being sidelined in the affairs of the party, he
withdrew from politics and spent his last years in complete
retirement.
I have often wondered as
to what were the reasons behind V’s total involvement in and
commitment to his political activities. What was the force and strong
motivation that drove him to do what he did? Even after much deep
thought and consideration of various aspects, I have not been able to
come up with any plausible answer. Obviously, the question of
financial enrichment or monetary gains that might accrue by entering
politics would never have arisen in his mind. In fact the situation
was exactly the opposite; it was public knowledge that he was a
millionaire, giving away large portions of his wealth to the Congress
party and to countless others
who approached him. It was also not any strong egoistic desire to
project himself as the foremost leader of the movement for democratic
rights and gain any political advantage over others. Again facts
speak otherwise. It was widely acknowledged that he was above
communal politics and deliberately kept himself in the background so
as to facilitate the entry of the Nairs and other upper caste Hindus
into the fold of the State Congress which was being wrongly projected
by its detractors as the party of the Christians and other
minorities. Throughout his political career he never showed any
desire for self- aggrandisement. So I am left with no answers.
Perhaps it was his innate sense of justice, his moral integrity and
his extraordinary courage of conviction that led him to believe that
he was duty bound to use the exceptional qualities he possessed, for
opposing the unjust, repressive and abhorrent acts of the Dewan and
for rendering service to the people of the state in their fight for
justice, responsible government and democratic rights.
It
fills me with ineffable sadness to think that this man who should
have been wealthy beyond imagination, was reduced to almost a pauper
towards the end of his days. His brilliant and lucrative legal
practice was over, his wealth had all been given away and all his
properties had been sold off. His only income was the rent from the
building at the back of the compound of his house and even that was
not regularly forthcoming. It was indeed a most distressing end for a
man who had once possessed unlimited wealth and had never felt the
dearth of money at any time previously in his life.
In
the entire history of the freedom movement in India, I doubt whether
there is another instance to equal that of T.M.Varghese, where
without desiring or expecting anything in return, a man gave away
everything that he possessed – his family life, his highly
lucrative profession, his immense wealth and his properties, all for
the sake of a cause that he strongly believed in.
