THAPPAN NAIR WAS WITH GANDHI AT DANDI

He died after Dharasana satyagraha, in 1933

The Salt March, also known as the Dandi March was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Gandhi. The twenty-four-day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. 

Another reason for the march was that the Civil Disobedience Movement needed a strong opening that would inspire more people to follow Gandhi's example. Gandhi started this march with 78 of his trusted volunteers.

Among the 78, there were five from Kerala. The state of Kerala did not exist then, and in the list of 78, all five have been marked as belonging to Madras Presidency. The five on the list are Thevarthundiyil Titus, C Krishnan Nair, K Shankaran (Shankarji), N P Raghava Poduval and Tapan Nair. 

Thappan Nair

While details on four of them are available, the whereabouts of Tapan Nair remained a mystery. But now, Tom Jose, a teacher of History at Arakkulam St Maries' High School in the Idukki district of Kerala has cracked the mystery- He was not Tapan Nair, but Thappan Nair, and he belonged to the Vadavattath family at Ramassery, Palakkad. The hamlet Ramassery, incidentally, is known for its incredibly soft and fluffy idli, which is a bit flatter in shape than the regular idli. It was brought to Ramassery by a family that migrated from Kanjeepuram in Tamil Nadu.

Thappan Nair migrated to history at the age of 19, bidding farewell to his home and village, to be part of the freedom struggle and the non-violent army of Gandhi. Being not sure whether he will be able to return, he just told his family members that they will meet again, only if destiny deems so. Probably, he might have read about the Dandi march in the newspapers and would have felt the urge to join the march to history.

The Salt march spanned 385 kilometres from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, which was called Navsari at that time (now in the state of Gujarat). Growing numbers of Indians joined the march along the way, but 78 were there from beginning to end. 

The march was part of the struggle to attain self-rule. At midnight on 31 December 1929, the Indian National Congress raised the tricolour flag of India on the banks of the Ravi river at Lahore. Congress publicly issued the Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule, or Purna Swaraj, on 26 January 1930.

The Congress Working Committee gave Gandhi the responsibility for organising the first act of civil disobedience, with Congress itself ready to take charge after Gandhi's expected arrest. Gandhi's plan was to begin civil disobedience with a satyagraha aimed at the British salt tax. 

The 1882 Salt Act gave the British a monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt, limiting its handling to government salt depots and levying a salt tax. Violation of the Salt Act was a criminal offence. Even though salt was freely available to those living on the coast, by evaporation of seawater, Indians were forced to buy it from the colonial government.

Initially, Gandhi's choice of the salt tax was met with incredulity by the Working Committee of Congress. Jawaharlal Nehru and Dibyalochan Sahoo were ambivalent; Sardar Patel suggested a land revenue boycott instead. The British colonial administration too was not disturbed by these plans of resistance against the salt tax. The Viceroy Lord Irwin did not take the threat of a salt protest seriously, writing to London, "At present, the prospect of a salt campaign does not keep me awake at night."(1)

However, Gandhi had sound reasons for his decision. An item of daily use could resonate more with all classes of citizens than an abstract demand for greater political rights. The salt tax represented 8.2% of the British Raj tax revenue and hurt the poorest Indians the most significantly. Explaining his choice, Gandhi said, "Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life." 

Gandhi felt that this protest would dramatise Purna Swaraj in a way that was meaningful to every Indian. He also reasoned that it would build unity between Hindus and Muslims by fighting an evil that touched them equally.

After the protest gathered steam, the leaders realised the power of salt as a symbol. Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "it seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released."(2)

Dandi March

Gandhi's first significant attempt in India at leading mass satyagraha was the non-cooperation movement from 1920 to 1922. Even though it succeeded in raising millions of Indians in protest against the British-created Rowlatt Act, violence broke out at Chauri Chaura, where a mob killed 22 unarmed policemen. Gandhi suspended the protest, against the opposition of other Congress members. He decided that Indians were not yet ready for successful nonviolent resistance. 

However, the Bardoli Satyagraha in 1928 succeeded in paralysing the British government and winning significant concessions. Due to extensive press coverage, it scored a propaganda victory out of all proportion to its size.

Gandhi claimed that success at Bardoli confirmed his belief in satyagraha and Swaraj: "It is only gradually that we shall come to know the importance of the victory gained at Bardoli ... Bardoli has shown the way and cleared it. Swaraj lies on that route, and that alone is the cure ..." (3)

Gandhi recruited activists from the Bardoli Satyagraha for the Dandi march, which passed through many of the same villages that took part in the Bardoli protests.

On 5 February 1930, newspapers reported that Gandhi would begin civil disobedience by defying the salt laws. The salt satyagraha would begin on 12 March and end in Dandi with Gandhi breaking the Salt Act on 6 April. Gandhi chose 6 April to launch the mass breaking of the salt laws for a symbolic reason—it was the first day of "National Week", begun in 1919 when Gandhi conceived of the national hartal (strike) against the Rowlatt Act.

Gandhi prepared the worldwide media for the march by issuing regular statements from Sabarmati, at his regular prayer meetings, and through direct contact with the press. Expectations were heightened by his repeated statements anticipating arrest, and his increasingly dramatic language as the hour approached: "We are entering upon a life and death struggle, a holy war; we are performing an all-embracing sacrifice in which we wish to offer ourselves as an oblation." (4)

For the march itself, Gandhi wanted the strictest discipline and adherence to satyagraha and ahimsa. For that reason, he recruited the marchers not from Congress Party members, but from the residents of his own ashram, who were trained in Gandhi's strict standards of discipline. The 24-day march would pass through 4 districts and 48 villages. The route of the march, along with each evening's stopping place, was planned based on recruitment potential, past contacts, and timing. Gandhi sent scouts to each village ahead of the march so he could plan his talks at each resting place, based on the needs of the local residents.

On 2 March 1930, Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy Lord Irwin, offering to stop the march if Irwin met eleven demands, including reduction of land revenue assessments, cutting military spending, imposing a tariff on foreign cloth, and abolishing the salt tax: (5)

If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the sovereignty and self-rule movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil.

After Irwin ignored the letter and refused to meet with Gandhi, the march was set in motion. Gandhi remarked, "On bended knees, I asked for bread and I have received stone instead." (6)

On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 satyagrahis, among whom were men belonging to almost every region, caste, creed, and religion of India, set out on foot for the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat, 385 km from their starting point at Sabarmati Ashram. The Salt March was also called the White Flowing River because all the people were joining the procession wearing white Khadi.

According to The Statesman, the official government newspaper which usually played down the size of crowds at Gandhi's functions, 100,000 people crowded the road that separated Sabarmati from Ahmedabad. The first day's march of 21 km ended in the village of Aslali, where Gandhi spoke to a crowd of about 4,000. As they entered each village, crowds greeted the marchers, beating drums and cymbals. Gandhi gave speeches attacking the salt tax as inhuman, and the salt satyagraha as a "poor man's struggle". Each night they slept in the open. The only thing that was asked of the villagers was food and water to wash with.

Every day, more and more people joined the march until the procession of marchers became at least three km long. To keep up their spirits, the marchers used to sing the Hindu Bhajan Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram while walking. At Surat, they were greeted by 30,000 people. When they reached the railhead at Dandi, more than 50,000 were gathered. The march arrived at the seashore on 5 April.

The following morning, after a prayer, Gandhi raised a lump of salty mud and declared: "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." (7)

He then boiled it in seawater, producing illegal salt. He implored his thousands of followers to likewise begin making salt along the seashore, "wherever it is convenient" and to instruct villagers in making illegal, but necessary, salt.

Most of the marchers were between the ages of 20 and 30. They hailed from almost all parts of the country. Most of them simply dispersed after the march was over.

But, C Krishnan Nair (1902–1986), belonging to Thirumangalam in Neyyattinkara, became a Member of the First and Second Lok Sabha, representing Outer Delhi. Known as Delhi Gandhi or Nairji, he was nominated by Nehru as the first Chief Minister of Delhi in 1952. A true Gandhian, Nair politely refused and suggested instead, Choudhary Brahm Prakash, who was only 34 at the time.

Nair joined the Sabarmati Ashram in 1928, after studies at Jamia Milia, Aligarh and Delhi. After the Dandi March, he stayed at the Wardha ashram. In 1942, he participated in the Quit India movement. Since 1943, he served as the Vice-President and Chief Public Relations Officer of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) and as its President in 1952.

Shankar, Poduval, Krishnan Nair, Titus

Titus, born to Pathanamthitta Maramon Chirayirambil T K Titus and Eliyamma on 18 February 1905, served as governing secretary for Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram milk project near Ahmedabad, after securing a diploma in Dairy development from the Allahabad Agricultural University. Gulzarilal Nanda, who later became the Prime Minister of India, was the secretary of another unit. Both of them were trusted friends of Gandhi. Gandhi used to call Titus, "Titusji." He died on 8 August 1980, at the Kasturba Hospital, Bhopal.

Raghava Poduval, born in Paruthipra, Shornur, had his education at Bhardwaj Ashtam and Santiniketan. After the Dandi march, he became a full-time khadi activist at Payyannur. He died on 20 December 1992.

K Shankarji, son of Raman Ezhuthachan and Lakshmikutty of Thiruvilvamala, belonged to Mayannur, Chelakkara, in Thrissur. He was only 16 (born in 1914) when he was marching to Dandi. He returned after the march and started a weaving centre. He died on 30 April 1986.

After the march, the wealthy Thappan Nair entered the list of most wanted criminals, and the Police conducted frequent searches of his home. But what happened to Thaappan Nair? 

Barrister A K Pillai, records in Congress and Kerala, that Thappan Nair got arrested at Dharasana, near Dandi and died in 1933, while he was active in the satyagraha movement. 

Fortunately, a framed photo of Thappan Nair adores the wall of the living room of the 250-year-old Bungalow, where he was born. He was the younger brother to four sisters. A Thappanji Memorial Lower Primary School exists at Ramassery, but no one in the school is aware of who Thaappan is. 

Thappan's relatives claim that his ancestors were the soldiers of the Zamorin army. A branch of the ancestral family migrated to Thrissur, and a few among them reached Ramassery.

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi records a letter written by Gandhi to Thappan Nair, on 7 June 1931, and it has been sent not to his home address, but to the Congress camp at Palakkad. In the letter, after advising Nair to read Young India regularly, Gandhi asks him to return to the ashram, if he finds it difficult to stay in his native village. Gandhi also pointed out that many who were part of the march had come to the ashram as inmates.

The letter:

LETTER TO THAPPAN NAIR

AS AT SABARMATI, June 7, 1931

 

MY DEAR THAPPAN,

I have your letter. You should diligently follow the columns of Young India. They might help you. So far as your immediate question is concerned, if you feel that there is no work for you there, you are at liberty to return to the Ashram. Many have done so.

Yours sincerely, 

SYT. THAPPAN NAIR 

CONGRESS CAMP 

PALGHAT (MALABAR)  

(Collected Works, vol 52, page 303)

It is clear that Gandhi's letter was in reply to a query by Thappan Nair, who had returned home. Obviously, he went back to Gandhi.

British rampage at Dharasana

From Barrister Pillai's account it is evident that after Dandi, Thappan Nair took an active part in the Dharsana salt satyagraha. 

Dharasana Satyagraha was a protest against the British salt tax in colonial India in May 1930. Following the conclusion of the Salt March to Dandi, Gandhi chose a non-violent raid of the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat, 119 km from Dandi, as the next protest against British rule. Hundreds of satyagrahis were beaten by soldiers under British command at Dharasana.

After Dandi, on May 4, 1930, Gandhi wrote to Lord Irwin, explaining his intention to raid the Dharasana Salt Works. He was immediately arrested. The Indian National Congress decided to continue with the proposed plan of action. Many of the Congress leaders were arrested before the planned day, including Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

The march went ahead as planned, with Abbas Tyabji, a 76-year-old retired judge, leading the march with Gandhi's wife Kasturba at his side. Both were arrested before reaching Dharasana and sentenced to three months in prison.[2] After their arrests, the peaceful agitation continued under the leadership of Sarojini Naidu and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

Hundreds of Indian National Congress volunteers started marching towards the site of the Dharasana Salt Works. Several times, Naidu and the satyagrahis approached the salt works, before being turned back by police. At one point they sat down and waited for twenty-eight hours. Hundreds more were arrested.

On May 21, the satyagrahis tried to pull away the barbed wire protecting the salt pans. The police charged and began clubbing them. American journalist Webb Miller was an eye-witness to the beating of satyagrahis with steel-tipped lathis. His report attracted international attention. Miller's first attempts at telegraphing the story to his publisher in England were censored by the British telegraph operators in India. Only after threatening to expose British censorship was his story allowed to pass. The story appeared in 1,350 newspapers throughout the world.

Miller wrote: (8)

Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows. They went down like ten pins. From where I stood I heard the sickening whacks of the clubs on unprotected skulls. The waiting crowd of watchers groaned and sucked in their breaths in sympathetic pain at every blow.

Those struck down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing in pain with fractured skulls or broken shoulders. In two or three minutes the ground was quilted with bodies. Great patches of blood widened on their white clothes. ..

Bodies toppled over in threes and fours, bleeding from great gashes on their scalps. Group after group walked forward, sat down, and submitted to being beaten into insensibility without raising an arm to fend off the blows. Finally, the police became enraged by the non-resistance...They commenced savagely kicking the seated men in the abdomen and testicles. The injured men writhed and squealed in agony, which seemed to inflame the fury of the police...The police then began dragging the sitting men by the arms or feet, sometimes for a hundred yards, and throwing them into ditches.

Miller later wrote that he went to the hospital where the wounded were being treated, and "counted 320 injured, many still insensible with fractured skulls, others writhing in agony from kicks in the testicles and stomach...Scores of the injured had received no treatment for hours and two had died."

It is possible that Thappan Nair was beaten up at Dharasana and died later, due to the injuries.

Santosh Ambat, Thappan Nair's grandnephew remembers his father (Thappan Nair was his father's only maternal uncle) telling him that, when he was young,  whenever his uncle would come to vadavattath tharavad, they would reach into his bag which contained a lot of moustaches, beards and wigs etc, since he was being tracked by the British police. To move around India, Thappan Nair used them to disguise himself. The father of Santosh and his siblings would try these on themselves and enjoy them as kids do. One day, a telegram reached the tharavad saying 'Thappanji no more."

________________________

1. Letter to London on 20 February 1930, Ackerman, Peter; DuVall, Jack (2000). A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, p. 84

2. Gandhi, Gopalkrishna. "The Great Dandi March — eighty years after, The Hindu, 5 April 1930
3. Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi 41: 208–209
4. Gandhi, Mahatma; Dalton, Dennis (1996). Selected Political Writings Hackett Publishing, p. 108
5. Gandhi's letter to Irwin, Gandhi and Dalton, p. 78
6. Parliament Museum, New Delhi, India – Official website – Dandi March VR Video. Parliamentmuseum.org
7. Gandhi and Dalton, p. 72.

8. Miller, Webb (1936). I Found No Peace. Simon and Schuster, p. 193-199

I am indebted to the feature written by Raju Mathew in the Sunday magazine of Malayala Manorama, on 4 December 2022.

© Ramachandran