Vanchinathan (1886 – June 17, 1911)
Vanchinathan (1886 – June 17, 1911)
A hero who has earned an enduring place in the history of India’s freedom struggle. He was one of the important revolutionaries who took up arms against the tyranny of British rule.
Vanchinathan was born in 1886 in Sengottai, then part of the princely state of Travancore and now in Tenkasi district, to Raghupathi Iyer and Rukmani Ammal. His birth name was Sankaran.
He worked as a guard in the Punalur Forest Department. Because of his devotion to the country’s freedom, he gave up his government job.
Once he came into contact with Neelakanda Brahmachari, the leader of the Bharata Mata Association, Vanchinathan dedicated himself completely to the freedom struggle.
Vanchinathan dared to eliminate William Ashe, the Tirunelveli District Collector who had arrested leaders such as V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Subramania Siva and sought to crush the Swadeshi Movement.
Since Ashe was a white man, there is still a habit among our subjugated Tamils of respectfully referring to him as “Ashe Durai.” Even worse than that, because Vanchinathan belonged to the Brahmin community, Dravidian fabrications have so far been propagated in a manner that belittles his sacrifice and portrays the oppressive white colonizer as a very good man.
Having decided to eliminate William Ashe, Vanchinathan received firearms training from the revolutionary V. V. S. Aiyar, who was staying in Pondicherry for this purpose.
On the morning of June 17, 1911, Ashe was waiting with his wife at Maniyachi railway station to travel to Kodaikanal.
Vanchinathan, together with his associate Sankara Krishnan, entered the first-class railway compartment in which Ashe was seated and shot him dead with a concealed Browning pistol.
After shooting Ashe, Vanchinathan did not attempt to escape. He was determined not to be captured alive by the British police. He went to the railway station lavatory and, using the same pistol, shot himself in the mouth and attained a hero’s death.
At that time, he was only 25 years old.
In a letter found in his shirt, he had written that he had carried out this act for the freedom of the nation and in opposition to British oppression.
In memory of this heroic deed of Vanchinathan, that railway station is today known as “Vanchi Maniyachi Junction.”
Vanchinathan is celebrated in the history of Tamil Nadu as the first revolutionary who sought out and shot a British official and then sacrificed his own life.
Compiled by: Tamilarasan Abdul Kader
Translation by Hari
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