ROLE OF JAMES FINLAY IN TOPPLING EMS

The Role of the U K Based Tea Giant Revealed

The liberation struggle, spearheaded by the Christian Church and financed by the CIA was not the sole reason for prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to dismiss the EMS Namboodiripad-led first Communist government in Kerala in 1959. A foreign plantation lobby also played a crucial role in the decision, reveals K Ravi Raman's book, Global Capital and Peripheral Labour: The History and Political Economy of Plantation Workers in India.

Published by Routledge in 2009, the book is based on the archives in London. Ravi Raman, a labour expert and a member of the Kerala State Planning Board member, quotes from the Memoir of Walter Smith Sutherland MacKay (1976), a chronicle prepared by the then general manager of Kanan Devan, which was a subsidiary of UK-based plantation giant James Finlay. The Memoir is a collection of opinion pieces and memoirs of Col W.S.S. MacKay about his time in Travancore, from 1924 to 1957, written for the Overseas Development Ministry of Britain.

High Range Club in 1910, the year of its foundation

Over the years many diabolical stories about the CIA's role in Kerala’s “Liberation Struggle” have been proved beyond doubt, by various sources. The first insider story came from From Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ambassador to India during 1973-1975, in 1978. In his book, A Dangerous  Place, Moynihan said the CIA had paid money to the Congress party twice and once through its president Indira Gandhi to fight the EMS ministry. 

Though Ms Gandhi rubbished it as a malicious lie, in an oral interview in 1991 and again in 2003, Ellsworth F Bunker, U S Ambassador to India from 1956-1961, who was in charge of the covert operations in Kerala during 1957-1959, revealed that money was indeed paid to the Congress. He expressed no regrets about the operation because the embassy had hard evidence that the Soviets were funding the Kerala communists, "as they have done everywhere, all over the world... But as we have done elsewhere in the world." (1)

However, Bunker exonerated Ms Gandhi and named S K Patil, a prominent Maharashtra Congress leader, as the intermediary. But S Gopal has confirmed Ms Gandhi's role in his biography of Nehru. Subsequently, David Burgess, who was Charge de Affairs at the U S embassy in New Delhi, corroborated the revelations.

A 1996 book, Beating the Unbeatable Foe: One Man's Victory Over Communism, Leviathan and the Last Enemy, by Australian evangelist Fred Schwarz, admitted that he had led the Christian anti-Communism crusade. He had paid money to the Kerala politician George Thomas to start a newspaper Keraladhwani, to campaign against the Communist ministry. Thomas had a PhD in Political Science, from the University of Washington, where he had taught too when he met Schwarz and sought help to fight Communism in Kerala. After the fall of the EMS government, Thomas wrote to Schwarz, proudly acknowledging his contribution. Thomas later became a legislator and published the Keralabhooshanam Daily. He ran into income tax troubles when he diverted the donations from the Indian Gospel Mission in the US, for other activities.

The declassified CIA documents also contain a plethora of information related to its activities in Kerala. They reveal that a daily brief to the U S President Lyndon B Johnson even mentioned the marital discord between T V Thomas and K R Gowri, two ministers in the EMS government. Allen Wells Dulles, CIA director from 1952-1961, was monitoring all reports from Kerala. Allen was the brother of John Forster Dulles, U S Secretary of State during President Eisenhower.

When the EMS ministry took over, the CIA report noted: "If commies play cards right, gains could be more than local. Economic improvement in Kerala could have a nationwide appeal. The local policy of moderation would tend to make commies more acceptable elsewhere in India."

The report observed that communists had been working hard to gain popularity. "They have cut their own pay, stayed eviction of peasants attacked corruption, solicited private capital." The report lamented that "in the interim, we face embarrassing problems regarding US-sponsored activities in Kerala.

High Range Travancore tea estate rolling room, 1910

Two years into power, there were administrative lapses, and the communists found themselves amid law and order issues. There was widespread anarchy, nepotism and the rule of law by communist cells. 

Even though one of the first decisions of EMS as home minister was to ask the police to be people-friendly and not intervene in labour disputes, things went sour. Throughout his first term as CM, a series of police actions were criticized.

On 18 November 1957, striking cashew industry workers were lathi-charged. On 26 July 1958, police firing killed two striking cashew workers belonging to the ruling CPM ally Revolutionary Socialist Party in Chandanathope, near Kollam district. On 20 October of the same year, police killed two striking tea estate workers, Pappammal and Rawther, associated with the party in Munnar. 

Two fishermen, Yacob and Yaggappan, died at Pulluvilla, in Thiruvananthapuram in the police firing, on June 12, 1959. 

At Vettucaud in the coastal belt of Thiruvananthapuram, three persons, J. Marian, John Netto and P. John Fernandez were killed in the firing on 15 June 1959. The same day, a police firing killed three, including Flory Pereira, a pregnant woman, at Cheriyathura, in Thiruvananthapuram. 

The rest is history with the resultant protest snowballing into the liberation struggle that brought down the EMS Ministry. Finally, the communist government was dismissed by the central government on 31 July 1959.

But the MacKay papers reveal a British effort to topple the Communist ministry in Kerala. Walter Smith Sutherland Mackay, was employed by James Finlay & Co. in the management of tea estates in the High Range of Travancore of which Finlay was the Managing Agent. Born in 1904, and related to Charles Mackay, the Scottish poet, he was Assistant Manager during 1924-32, Manager from 1932-46, and Assistant General Manager from 1946-57.

MacKay records the evidence thus: “It was here that EMS met his waterloo!”  According to him, William Roy, visiting agent of James Finlay, had met then Prime Minister Nehru, along with George Sutter, acting general manager.“The Union Government has been convinced that the Namboodiripad government in Kerala should be dismissed,” says MacKay. 

(Incidentally, MacKay has also written a paper, Trout of Travancore, in 1945, in the Bombay Natural History Journal. It talks about the Rajamalai hatchery and his efforts to rear the fish in the High Range waters.)

At that time, the Scottish company James Finlay had around 1.27 lakh acres of land in Kerala alone.

There have been varied accounts of what led to Nehru’s decision to dismiss the first democratically-elected Communist government in the country. The role played by the CIA has been widely discussed. Ravi Raman’s book, however, has thrown open the role of another player behind the dissolution of the government.

Ravi Raman's work points out that the EMS government’s move towards the nationalisation of foreign-owned plantations coupled with militant trade unionism had provoked the plantation giant.

Going by Raman's book, global capital played a vital role as the plantation lobby had already set the ground that later led to the decision. The James Finlay-owned plantation in India was the largest integrated plantation in the world at the time. The book quotes MacKay as saying, "the planters were a state within a state". 

“So far, it hasn’t come out who lobbied Jawaharlal Nehru initially on dismissing the government. This work sheds light on that. The intervention of A K Gopalan (the Communist opposition leader in the Indian Parliament) for the nationalisation of foreign-owned plantations and the Communist Party (CPI) manifesto had already provoked the plantation major. The emphasis on caste and communal alliance with Congress toppling the government is an incomplete narrative. We cannot forget the role played by global capitalist forces in the decision,” Raman says.

Finlay in India

It was Kirkman Finlay (1773-1842), a leading merchant in Glasgow, Scotland, and a member of Parliament, who as the head (1790) of James Finlay & Co, first made efforts to capture lucrative Asian markets, and ventured into India. He successfully challenged the British East India Company, first in the cotton trade with India.

Thirty years after Kirkman’s death, the Company took its first steps into the rapidly growing Indian tea business thanks to the vision of Sir John Muir, Baronet of Deanston, Scotland. Muir was made a junior partner in 1861 before becoming the sole proprietary partner in 1883. He was instrumental in opening a branch in Calcutta in 1870. Styled as Finlay Muir & Co., the branch soon added agencies for a range of British companies either exporting to or with businesses in, India. 1872 saw Finlay Muir’s first recorded involvement with Indian tea when 80 chests were shipped to New York. In the following year, the branch became agents for the Nonoi and Sootea tea farms. By 1881 the Company had amassed 16 agencies including the Chubwa Company, one of whose farms was, and still is, the oldest in India.

At this time most tea farms were owned and or managed by a band of hardy pioneers. In the case of Sootea, one of its proprietors lived in the jungle for three years after being outlawed by the Government and before leaving India with a train of ten children and two ayahs!

John Muir saw the opportunity to cultivate tea on a large scale and had the finance necessary to put his ideas into practice. Working with several talented agriculturists and traders including P R Buchanan and Thomas McMeekin, whose businesses were eventually to become part of the Group, John Muir floated two large tea companies on the Glasgow Stock Exchange in 1882, The North Sylhet and The South Sylhet tea companies. In addition to developing tea in Sylhet, in what is now Bangladesh, over the next 15 years, these companies acquired interests in other farms in Assam, the Dooars, Darjeeling, North Travancore and Ceylon.

In 1896 and 1897 Muir rationalised the Company’s now significant tea interests by grouping them into what were effectively four holdings companies with shares being offered to the public as part of a stock exchange listing.

In addition to having significant shareholdings, Finlays controlled and managed these, and other tea interests, both in India and the UK, by way of agency and secretarial agreements. One company, The Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Co., Limited had as one of its objects, “bringing the consumer into direct contact with the producer”.

Sir John Muir

Finlay Muir began buying and trading tea in 1874 and over the years this became, as it still is, a staple part of the Group’s business. Carried out from a worldwide network of offices, this allowed Finlays to become one of the largest traders of tea in the World. By the end of the 19th century, the British Empire was the world’s biggest producer of tea. India was responsible for 200 Million lbs, 85% of which went to the UK, far outstripping exports from China; over 500,000 acres of tea had been planted in just over 40 years.

When Muir died in 1903 he had been ennobled as Sir John Muir and had built Finlays into one of the pre-eminent tea businesses in the world. By his final years, Finlay Muir & Co had 90,000 employees worldwide, one of the largest companies ever. Approximately 70,000 were in the Indian subcontinent. 1949 Finlays was the largest tea plantation business in the world managing over 100,000 acres in India alone. 

Muir suffered two strokes, one in 1901 in Glasgow and another at Deanston House where he died on 6 August 1903. He left an estate of £862,802 but with much of his wealth invested as capital in James Finlay & Co and various offshoots, it is thought that his true worth was considerably greater.

The History of Munnar Tea Plantation

The first European to visit the Munnar hills was the Duke of Wellington in 1790. The Planting Opinion of 1896 records that the Duke, then Col. Arthur Wellesley, was dispatched by General William Meadows to cut off the retreat of Tipu Sultan at Kumily gap. Tipu’s intelligence, however, forewarned him of this move and Wellesley was ordered to retract.

It was nearly 30 years later that Lieutenants Ward and Connor of the Madras Army were assigned to the Great Trigonometrical Survey, located the mountain peaks of the High Range, and in particular, the Anaimudi and the Chokanad.

In 1878, Henry Gribble Turner and his half-brother A.W. Turner (Thambi Turner), both ICS officers, came on vacation from Madras and reached the mountains by the Bodimettu pass. Guided by the Muthuva tribal head Kanan Thevan, Turners eventually reached the summit of the Anaimudi and saw the grandeur of these hills. The commercial advantage of the hills struck them, and before the expedition ended, they obtained a ‘Concession’ of approximately 588 square km from the Poonjar Raja of Anjanad.

On behalf of them, John Daniel Munro, the Scottish designated Superintendent of the Cardamom Hills, related to the former Resident of Travancore-Cochin, John Munro, made an application to the Poonjar chief for the grant of the property called Kanan Thevan Anchanatu Mala on payment of Rs 5000 and obtained from the Raja the first Pooniat Concession Deed.

Smallholders then began to purchase plots of these lands and planted a variety of crops ranging from cinchona to coffee and sisal to tea, and these planters formed the North Travancore Land Planting and Agricultural Society Limited in 1879. The first tea is planted in Parvathi Estate, a part of today’s Sevenmallay Estate, by A. H. Sharp in 1880.

In 1895, Sir John Muir bought over the deeds of the Concession for further development. 

The Kanan Devan Hills Produce Company was formed in 1896 in the Kanan Devan Concession territory. In 1900 the Concession area became vested with the Company, in which Finlay Muir held a large interest, and the area started to develop rapidly along more commercial lines, the main crop becoming tea. Estates outside the Concession territory but within the High Range were owned by the Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Company, a subsidiary of Finlay Muir & Co. Ltd.

The Kanan Devan Hills Produce Company constructed the first Hydro-electric Power House in  India, at Pullivasal in 1900. In the same year, the Korangani – Top Station ropeway was also established to transport goods from the plains to the Hills and tea to the plains in turn.

By 1915, about 16 fully equipped factories were functioning on the estates. Transport of leaf from the field to the factory was by bullock cart. The Kundaly Valley Ropeway for the transportation of tea and goods was completed 1n 1926 aforRs 7.61 lakhs. The Company started a Veterinary Department in the same year to improve the condition of the cattle in the High Range.

Presently all the archives of the James Finlay Company are with the University of Glasgow, and it contains the personal accounts of the employees which help us visualize the tea estates’ social environment rather than just numerical financial figures.*

Croly Boyd, a Finlay employee in the 1920s, shares his account of the 1924 Kerala floods (2) that caused major loss of life and damage to the high-range tea estates. The devastating aftermath has been documented in a photo album (3) which shows the impact of 3.8 metres of rain over ten days. At first, the storm was mistaken for normal monsoon weather. Boyd and his family were trying to reach Rajamallay Estate for an extended visit to friends; however, they found the roads blocked by a flooding Periyar river. They reached their bungalow much before many landslides destroyed numerous properties.

Major JRS MacKay with Eravikulam trout and Rajoo Thevan, Head Ghillie

Returning to Munnar on foot, Boyd found the estate's factory flooded under several feet of water. Estate workers were trapped in the factory structures having an anxious wait on the roof, in the hopes it could survive the strong currents engulfing it. Boyd would find the main bridges were down and the estate's light railway completely destroyed. All contact had been lost with the opposite side of the Periyar river. In the aftermath, establishing communication and getting a rope over the river was a priority. This was achieved by Chief Engineer Grant, who attached a string to a golf ball and with difficulty drove it across the raging river.

It took around a year to repair the estate and bring it back into full operation. The huge international expanse of James Finlay’s business interests would lead to several encounters with earthquakes, storms and flooding, some are documented within the photographic collections (4) and mentions of the impact on the business can be found in the companies’ minute papers.

Despite the dangers of storms and the long voyage from Scotland to India, this did not deter adventurous individuals such as engineer Josh Walker. Walker is named among the many other employees who were predominantly engaged for work in estates in India and Ceylon. These staff members exported European culture on a grand scale. Staff and their families formed social clubs the same as you would expect to find within Europe. 

The foundation stone of the Christ Church of Munnar was laid on 11 March 1910 by A. K Muir. It was dedicated on Easter day, 16 April 1911 by Bishop Charles Hope-Gill, the third Anglican Bishop in Travancore and Cochin. In January 1927, the marriage of WSS Mackay and Miss John was conducted with a licence because of the plague scare between 1927-1928.

An unexpected document is the Trout of Travancore by W.S.S. MacKay, (5) an account of the establishment of trout in the rivers of Travancore, India. The book is intended to teach the lessons of the many mistakes made during the process and it contains a variety of photographs. The evidence of their success can be found in the minutes of the annual general meetings of the High Range Association.

Finlay’s was described as “going modern” with the replacement of illuminated electric lanterns with white bowls suspended over desks. Intriguingly, an employee WCM Tring noted in his personal notes “Forty Years After,” (6) that the Provident Fund 1938 was designed to increase Finlay’s productivity. This changed the tradition of retaining elder staff for life in favour of funding their retirement.

Apart from Kanan Devan, Munnar will also be remembered in history as the place where the communist government's police killed Pappammal and Rawther, two members of its backbone, the proletariat.

_________________________

*The James Finlay Employees: International Tea Day by Morphew, 15 December 2015

1. Ellsworth Bunker, Global Trouble Shooter, Vietnam Hawk, by Howard B Schaffer, page 67

2.GB 248 UGD 91/1/9/3/5

3.GB 248 UGD 091/1/12/15/21

4.GB 248 UGD 91/1/12/15

5. GB 248 UGD 91/16/8

6.GB 248 UGD 91/1/9/3/6

References: A brief history of tea – Roy Moxham and Finlays Magazine and the Company’s historic archives in the University of Glasgow.

© Ramachandran 

T P PILLAI: SPIDER, SPY AND THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT

He was killed by the British

A letter in the October 22, 1908 issue (no 2034, vol 78) of the reputed science journal, Nature, by India's first Araneologist, T Padmanabha Pillai, begins thus: (1)

"On Saturday, September 5, I found a small spider with light green, transparent legs and a brown body with silver flutings. I bottled it quickly and hurried up to my friend Mr Strickland, and on examining it there under a magnifying glass observed a frequent change of colour in its eyes. I took it home, and on examining it for about six hours consecutively found it to have the faculty of changing the colour of its eyes at its own free will. In an instant, it changed the honey-coloured eyes into shining black. While it changes the eyes, a bright dot or streak appears and vanishes all at once".

It is a long letter and it proves the author's felicity with words as well as his scientific prowess. Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of spiders alone (order Araneae) is known as Araneology, and Padmanabha Pillai was involved only in the study of spiders.

Padmanabha Pillai

But, history has never been generous towards Padmanabha Pillai, because his name always got appended to that of the Indo-German revolutionary, Chempaka Raman Pillai, who was his cousin and soul-mate from the Thiruvananthapuram school days. The revolutionary zeal in both the friends was discovered by the British communist spy, Walter William Strickland, on a visit to the then princely state in India, Travancore. He is the person mentioned by Padmanabha Pillai, in the letter quoted here.

Disciples of Thycaud Ayya

Padmanabha Pillai was born in a Vellala Pillai family on March 21, 1890, to Thaivanayakam Pillai and Parvathy, in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Travancore, in India. He went along with Chempaka Raman, cousin and neighbour, to study at the Tamil preparatory school, near the Gandhari Amman Kovil, Thampanoor and then to the Maharajas School, which is now the University College. There, Padmanabhan fell in love with the History and Literature classes handled by a teacher called Cherian. Quite often, the teacher enlightened the students on the ongoing freedom struggle.

Inspired by the struggle and curious to be part of it, Padmanabhan and Raman bought the pictures of Lala Lajpat Rai, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who were leaders of the freedom movement, and pasted them on the walls of their respective homes. These pictures were available in a kiosk nearby and the boys spent their entire pocket money on them. 

The two boys were agitated by the arrest of Tilak, following the partition of Bengal, spearheaded by the British Viceroy Lord Curzon in 1905. Tilak had led the nationwide protests, in the aftermath of the partition. Padmanabhan and Raman organized a protest march in their schools, with the help of a dozen students. It was in these protests that Raman coined the slogan, Jai Hind. 

The school authorities acted swiftly by alerting the police. They caught the two boys, took them to the station, and beat them up. The boys were freed with a strict warning not to indulge in such seditious activities. The pain that Padmanabhan suffered that day, ignited the revolutionary spark inherent in him.

One day, while the boys were returning from school, they met a shabbily dressed, dishevelled European, who appeared with a bottled cockroach. He introduced himself as W W Strickland. It is believed that Strickland had come to Travancore to spy on the alchemy experiments of the reputed spiritual guru, Thycaud Ayya Swamikal.

In a book he wrote in 1931, Travel Letters From Ceylon, Australia and South India (B. Westermann Co., New York), the anarchic Marxist, Strickland remembers an incident involving two boys and the Thycaud Ayya Swamikal. Strickland writes: 

"One-day Ayya guru was very impatient and restless, walking round and round. The spy asked him what the matter was. The guru told him that he was expecting two of his disciples who had gone to meditate at Maruthwamala to bring a certain plant which he needed for some experiment. After some time two boys entered the scene. The guru eagerly asked, "Did you bring what I had asked you to bring ?"

"The senior of the two boys with some hesitation said, "We have brought what you wanted" and took out something from his mundu and placed it on the table. It was a gold coin which probably they had purchased from the market. The guru's face became red with anger. Seeing this, the boys made a quick exit. The spy asked, "Sir, you should be happy since they have gifted you a gold coin. Why are you angry ?"

"Then the guru said, "They are making fun of me. They think I am greedy for gold. They do not understand my real purpose. What I need is a certain plant for an alchemical experiment. The plant is only for cleaning the brass coin. The real transmutation process is psychical". The spy grabbed the golden opportunity. He offered to bring the plant. The guru at first was reluctant, saying that being a foreigner he may not be able to converse with the local people and get the plant. But the spy was very enthusiastic and at last, the guru told him the name of the plant. The spy hired a horse-drawn carriage, went to Maruthwamala and brought a carriage full load of the plant. This pleased the guru and he included the spy in the experiment in place of the two boys who never showed up again."

Some scholars had wrongly guessed that the two boys in this story are Chattampi Swamikal and Sree Narayana Guru, but the guess is absurd because Chattampi was born in 1853, and Guru in 1856, and they were not boys, being in their 50s. The two boys were undoubtedly Padmanabhan and Raman. 

Raman, alias Venkidi was born to a Vellala couple, Chinna Swami Pillai and Nagammal on 15 September 1891, in Thiruvananthapuram in a house where the present Accountant General office is situated.  As we have already seen, even during his school days he rallied against the British inside the school campus. Fearing retribution, the Principal called in the police. A Constable, Chinnaswami Pillai was sent to investigate the misdemeanour of the erring student. For the constable, the culprit turned out to be his own son.

In 1908, the British Biologist cum spy, Stickland was camping at Thiruvananthapuram and he claimed he had come to study butterflies that were found in the Western Ghats. On one of his field trips, he met the boy, Padmanabhan. The boys became friendly with Strickland and visited him regularly at his rented home. Padmanabhan fell in love with Strickland's lab, and for the first time, he saw a microscope. There were plenty of bottled spiders and cockroaches inside the lab. 

One day, walking back to his home from school, Padmanabhan caught a brown spider and observed it under the microscope. He saw the small spider undergoing a frequent change of colour in its eyes. Strickland instructed him to write to Nature. The journal published it and thus Padmanabhan became India's first araneologist. Strickland was impressed by the skills of the 18-year-old boy.

Strickland

Soon Strickland revealed the truth to the young boys-he is not only an Arachnologist but a spy too. A Britisher working as a German spy, leaking British secrets to Germany. 

The spy recruits the boys

Strickland (1851- 1938) was the eldest son of Sir Charles Strickland, 8th Baronet and the only child of his first marriage to Georgina, daughter of Sir William Milner. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was known as the Anarchist Baronet because he wandered around the world for much of his life espousing radical causes. 

He wrote several books and pamphlets and translated works of the Czech poet Viteslav Halek, Moliere and Horace. He has been linked with the mysterious Voynich manuscript, which was in the possession of the Polish revolutionary, Wilfrid Voynich.

Strickland spent some time in Russia and in 1923 became a citizen of Czechoslovakia, renouncing his British citizenship and the Baronetcy. Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English states:

"The virtually unknown English eccentric was a traveller and free thinker with a taste for anarchism and Buddhism, but he managed to find time to learn Czech and to translate poems. The quality of the translation is rather good but again the impact on the British public was nil and they are long out of print".

He had libertarian, socialist and atheist ideas. After 1912 Strickland did not live in England. Eventually, he settled in Java and became a strong opponent of imperialism. He gave Sun Yat Sen £10,000 "to help him start a revolt against the Emperor of China". During the First World War, Strickland donated £10,000 to his friend Tomáš Masaryk's Czechoslovakian Independence Movement. He funded Guy Aldred, founder of the Glasgow Anarchist Group. He left Aldred £3,000 in his will and with this money he bought some second-hand printing machinery and established The Strickland Press.

Strickland's two works of some interest are Sacrifice; Or, the Daughter of the Sun (1920), a tale with Lost Race implications, and the more ambitious Vishnu Or, the Planet of the Sevenfold Unity (1928), in which a distant planet, whose inhabitants are divided into seven Sexes, is visited.

Strickland told Padmanabhan and Raman that his mission in Travancore is over and he has to go back. He offered to take them along, fund their higher studies and equip them for the Indian revolution. Though Raman accepted the offer instantly, Padmanabhan was hesitant. 

Padmanabhan accompanied Strickland and Raman to Quilon, en route to their trip to Europe. There, Strickland once again placed an offer before Padmanabhan. If he joins them on the trip, he will be gifted the microscope. Though Padmanabhan fell for it, he left the ship and returned to Travancore from Colombo. Padmanabhan spent sleepless nights, till a letter from Strickland arrived with an offer for studies at Munich university. In Munich, Padmanabhan was admitted to the BSc Forestry course.

Raman continued his education in Zurich and Germany. That he studied in Zurich, not Italy, and Strickland financed it, is confirmed by Harald Fischer-Tine, in the biography, Shyamji Krishnavarma: Sanskrit, Sociology, Anti-Imperialism.

Along with his studies, Padmanabhan got enrolled in the revolutionary Indian Committee set up in Switzerland by Raman and in the Berlin Committee led by Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (Chatto, brother of Sarojini Naidu), and Bhupendranath Dutta (brother of Swami Vivekananda). He was in charge of the propaganda machine of the Berlin Committee and he strived hard to spread the message among the overseas Indian workers and POWs.

Naturally, Padmanabhan made it into the list of conspirators and rebels prepared by the British administration at Travancore and they intercepted the letters sent by him to his home. His family members were put under the lens of the police. 

When the First World war erupted in 1914, the Director of Criminal Intelligence in India published an order banning the entry of Indian revolutionaries abroad, to India. Though Padmanabhan was not on the first list, he smelt his name would be there on the next list, and to avoid the ban, he returned to Thiruvananthapuram. The police spared him since there was no credible case against him.

Since he wanted to move on with the revolutionary activities, Padmanabhan decided to have an outer garb of a scientist and applied for the post of curator at the Museum. The royal family helped him, and at a monthly salary of 75 rupees, he was assigned to compile data on the plants and animals in Travancore. Besides, he also organized secret meetings of revolutionary activists.

In 1915, Padmanabhan took leave for a year and travelled to Afghanistan. A Provisional Government of India-in-exile had been set up in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 1, 1915, by the Indian Independence Committee with support from the Central Powers. Its purpose was to enrol support from the Afghan Emir as well as Tsarist (and later Bolshevik) Russia, China, and Japan for the Indian Movement. Established at the conclusion of the Kabul Mission composed of members of the Berlin Committee, and German and Turkish delegates, the provisional government was composed of Mahendra Pratap as President, Maulana Barkatullah as Prime Minister, Deobandi Maulavi Ubaidullah Sindhi as Home Minister, Deobandi Maulavi Bashir as War Minister, and Champaka Raman Pillai as Foreign Affairs Minister. This government assigned Padmanabhan its propaganda machine, to spread the policies and to raise new members to the Committee.

Though the provisional government was there for four years, Padmanabhan returned within six months and got married to Rajammal, daughter of the Travancore palace physician, Sankara Murthy Pillai. They had two children, Sankaran and Sarojini.

Padmanabhan stayed at his wife's house, pursuing revolutionary activities. Sankara Murthy, who became suspicious of the midnight deliberations, chastened him. Once again, Padmanabhan left for Europe, to present a paper on frogs, at the University of Bern.

At this time, the Britishers chalked out a programme to exterminate the Indian extremists, and Padmanabhan was on the list. On the return journey, Padmanabhan found one person following him, watching his actions. To avert the enemy's plan, Padmanabhan disembarked at Penang, Malaysia, to continue the trip in a ship called Bonn. While he was leaving the deck to sleep in his room, a man jumped on him, trying to strangulate his neck. The assailant pushed Padmanabhan over the ship's railing, into the boisterous ocean. 

The official version was that, on his way back, Padmanabhan disappeared without a trace. His coat was retrieved from a beach in Thailand; his leather bag with his belongings was recovered from the Colombo coast. 

Pillai with wife Rajammal

Rajammal received a telegram after a few days, saying Padmanabhan has gone missing from the ship. 

A severely shocked Rajammal wrote a letter to Strickland. He conducted an investigation in which it was revealed that it was a planned murder operated by the Britishers. Following this, to secure the family's future, Sankara Murty burnt all the documents related to Padmanabha Pillai. Thus, India lost a valuable treasure of a revolution.

Padmanabhan's grandson Dr Padmarajan lives in Chennai, after retiring as a neurosurgeon from the Madras Medical College. He painstakingly gathered biographical details of his grandfather, from Europe and other centres. It is his wish to erect a statue of his grandfather, which will be an everlasting tribute to him.

________________________

1. Here is the Nature article of Padmanabha Pillai

On the Change of Colour in the Eyes of an Attis Spider

T Padmanabha Pillai

On Saturday, September 5, I found a small spider with light green, transparent legs and a brown body with silver flutings. I bottled it quickly and hurried up to my friend Strickland, and on examining it there under a magnifying glass observed a frequent change of colour in its eyes. I took it home, and on examining it for about six hours consecutively found it to have the faculty of changing the colour of its eyes at its own free will. In an instant, it changed the honey-coloured eyes into shining black. While it changes the eyes, a bright dot or streak appears and vanishes all at once. 

I am quite sure that the animal actually changed something inside the eves. The cornea-as one may call it is circular. The two corneas stand in a vertical plane so that they face the observer like a pair of gig-lamps, or, still better, as those in front of a railway locomotive. Behind each cornea is a conical sack, in shape much like an ordinary butterfly net or a jelly bag. Taken together with the cones, the pair of eyes look like a pair of field glasses. The spider was found to wag the conical portion of the eyes every now and then. Fortunately, the head in this species being translucent, the mechanism by which the colour-change is effected can be easily seen by means of a good pocket lens. The spider itself was 6 mm. in length, and it is conical eye one millimetre.

 I put the spider in a· small, thin, clean test-tube, and stopped the mouth of the tube with a little bit of cotton wool. Having done this, I took the tube to a powerful table lamp and examined it with a pocket lens in that light against a white background. A thin strip of white paper serves very well as a background. When I first took it near the spider, it seemed to be startled and ran about. It was at this moment that I saw it wagging the conical part of the eye all the more. The spider ran a few paces, then stopped, and began moving its eyes very vigorously. On closer examination, I found that the outer and larger end of the cone was a· transparent honey colour. The inner tapering portion of the cone was jet black. The light and black halves were divided by a well-marked ring. The change in the colour of the eye is caused-as will be explained immediately-by the wagging to and fro of the two posterior cones.

Reference to the diagram will show that the cones can be in such a position (A, A) that their axes are parallel to one another and in the line of sight of the spectator facing the cornea, or they can converge to a point just halfway between the two eyes in question (B, B), or the axis of one eye may con-verge while that of the other will remain unchanged. It is to be observed that the apices of the cones never diverge. 

Roughly speaking, the black extends only one-third of the whole length of the cone from its tips. Consequently, when the spectator faces the eyes, and the axes of the cones are parallel, he sees into the depths of the two cones, and the eyes necessarily appear jet black. When the two tips of the cones converge the line of sight strikes the honey-coloured outer portion of the cones, and then the Eyes in consequence appear honey-coloured. Lastly, the spider has the power to cause the tip of only one cone to converge inward, and then only that eye appears honey-coloured, while "the other one remains black. It has been stated above that when the spider changes the colour of the eye a bright line or dot traverses the cornea. This is due to the ring formed where the black and honey-coloured portions of the cones unite traversing the cornea as the colour of the eye changes from light to dark, and vice-versa. It must be well borne in mind that in all these cases the cornea of the eye remains perfectly unchanged and immobile, the change of colour being wholly and entirely due to the movement of the cones behind it. 

When the line of sight from the observer's eye to the cornea is· at right angles to the latter the eyes invariably appear honey-coloured. The reason is obvious, namely, that the line of sight strikes only the honey-coloured portion of the conical sack behind the eyes: Hence it follows that the axis of the cones must be either above or below the line of sight. But as a matter of fact, it is above it.

( This article has two diagrams with it-Ramachandran)

© Ramachandran 

RED JIHAD: MY BOOK IN THE PIPELINE

The book is to be released on 26th

My book, Red Jihad: Islamic Communism in India 1920-1950 will be released on 26 January 2023. Please book the copies in advance. It can be booked on Amazon and Flipkart.

About the book :

The modern world realizes that the common factor in Islam and communism is violence and authoritarianism in the name of humanism. But there have been many attempts to merge the two in an absurdity called Islamic Socialism. The practical applications of Islamic Socialism have a history going back to Muhammad and the first few Caliphates to modern political parties founded in the 1970s. Sadly, from its very inception, the Communist Party of India embraced the tenets of Islam and the paraphernalia of crime that came along with it. As a result, the Indian communists have even justified Hindu genocides committed by Islamic fundamentalists in Malabar and Bengal, using the jargon of class war.

This book tells the story of the bonhomie of the Communist Party with Islam in the Indian context, with reference to the global humiliation the Party has faced so far.

ISBN: 978-9390981281; Pages: 350; Paperback; Indus Scrolls Press Rs 600, pre-booking price Rs 500. Amazon kindle edition Rs 400

About the Author :

Ramachandran is a reputed editor and writer based out of Kerala. He was the chief editor of Janmabhumi Daily, News Editor of The Week and Political commentator of Malayala Manorama. He is a historian and writer with a dozen books to his credit.

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കുമാരനാശാൻ, മാപ്പിള ലഹളയ്ക്ക് ശേഷം

ആശാൻ നടന്ന ജാതിവിരുദ്ധ വഴികൾ 

ഇസ്ലാമിക വര്‍ഗ്ഗീയതയെക്കുറിച്ച് കുമാരനാശാൻ മാപ്പിള ലഹളയ്ക്കു മുമ്പുതന്നെ ബോധവാനായിരുന്നു. നല്ല കവികൾ പ്രവാചകന്മാരുമാണ്. 1915 ഒക്ടോബറിലെ  'വിവേകോദയ'ത്തില്‍ ആശാന്‍ എഴുതി: ”നമ്മുടെ മഹാരാജ്യത്തിൻറെ അതിര്‍ത്തികളിലും, ബംഗാള്‍ മുതലായ പ്രദേശങ്ങളിലും രാജ്യദ്രോഹികള്‍ വീണ്ടും തലപൊക്കിയിരിക്കുന്നു. കുറേക്കൂടി അടുത്തുനോക്കുമ്പോള്‍ മലബാറില്‍ മാപ്പിളമാര്‍ വീണ്ടും ലഹളയ്ക്ക് ഭാവിക്കുന്നതായി കാണുന്നു” (1)

1915 ൽ തന്നെയാണ് വള്ളത്തോൾ 'ഒരു നായർ സ്ത്രീയും മുഹമ്മദീയനും' എന്ന കവിതയിൽ ക്രൂര മുഹമ്മദീയർ നടത്തുന്ന അത്യാചാരങ്ങളെക്കുറിച്ച് പരാമർശിച്ചതും അപലപിച്ചതും. അതിൽ വള്ളത്തോൾ എഴുതി:

വെറിയൻ അവൻ അതാതിടത്ത് 

തട്ടിപ്പറി തൊഴിലായ് പുലരും മുഹമ്മദീയൻ 

പകലിരവ് അവനാചരിക്കും ദുരിത 

തൊഴിലിൻറെ ലാഞ്ഛനങ്ങൾ

ഒരുവക വലുതായ കത്തി 

കൂറ്റൻ തിരുകിയിരുന്നു വലത്ത് 

പാന്ഥക്കുരുതിയിൽ അത് 

ഊളിയിടാത്ത നാൾ ചുരുങ്ങും 

എന്നാൽ, 1921 ലെ മാപ്പിളലഹളയ്ക്ക് സാക്ഷിയായ വള്ളത്തോൾ അന്നത്തെ ഹിന്ദു വംശഹത്യയെപ്പറ്റി കുറ്റകരമായ മൗനം പാലിച്ചത്, അദ്‌ഭുതകരം തന്നെ.

ആശാൻ ആകട്ടെ, ഹൈന്ദവ സംസ്‌കൃതിയെ ഉദ്‌ഘോഷിച്ചും ഇസ്ലാമിക മത തീവ്രവാദത്തെ അപലപിച്ചുമാണ്  'ദുരവസ്ഥ' എഴുതിയത്.

കുമാരനാശാൻ, മാപ്പിള ലഹളയ്ക്ക് ശേഷം എഴുതിയ 'ദുരവസ്ഥ' ലഹളക്കാലത്ത് നടന്ന ഹിന്ദു വംശഹത്യയ്ക്ക് എതിരായ കാവ്യ പ്രതിഷേധമാണ് എന്ന സത്യം കേരള സമൂഹം വിലയിരുത്തി കഴിഞ്ഞതാണ്. അയിത്തവും ജാതിവിവേചനവും നീക്കി ഹിന്ദുക്കൾ ഒറ്റക്കെട്ടായി വർഗീയതയ്ക്ക് എതിരെ പോരാടണം എന്ന ആഹ്വാനമാണ്, മാപ്പിള ലഹളയ്ക്ക് ശേഷമുള്ള കുമാരനാശാൻറെ ലഘു കവനങ്ങളിൽ കാണുന്നത്. ജാതിക്കെതിരായ ഹിന്ദു പരിഷ്കരണ പ്രസ്ഥാനമായ ആര്യസമാജവുമായി ആശാൻ, ലഹളയ്ക്ക് ശേഷം ബന്ധപ്പെട്ടു പോന്നത്, ജാതി വിരുദ്ധ വിചാരങ്ങളെ ഊർജ്ജസ്വലമാക്കി.

ഈ വിചാരം തുടിച്ചു നിൽക്കുന്ന ആശാൻറെ ലഹളനാന്തര ലഘു കവനങ്ങളാണ്, 'സിംഹനാദം', 'സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യഗാഥ' എന്നിവ. 'സിംഹനാദം' 1097 മേടത്തിൽ എരമല്ലൂരിൽ നടന്ന എസ് എൻ ഡി പി യോഗം 19 -)൦ വാർഷികത്തിൽ സന്നദ്ധഭടന്മാർക്ക് പാടാൻ എഴുതിയത് എന്നാണ് സമ്പൂർണ പദ്യ കൃതികൾ അടിക്കുറിപ്പിൽ പറയുന്നത്. (2) അതായത് 1922 ഏപ്രിൽ -മെയ്. 1922 ഏപ്രിലിൽ തന്നെയാണ് 'സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യഗാഥ'യും വരുന്നത്. (3) 'ഒരു ഉദ്ബോധനം' (1919) എന്ന കവിതയ്ക്ക് ഉശിരു പോരാ എന്ന് സഹോദരൻ അയ്യപ്പൻ പറഞ്ഞതിനാൽ ആശാൻ 1919 ഫെബ്രുവരിയിൽ എഴുതിയ കവിതയാണ് സിംഹനാദം എന്ന് എം കെ സാനു 'മൃത്യഞ്ജയം കാവ്യജീവിതം' എന്ന പുസ്തകത്തിൽ പറയുന്നത്, ഈ അടിക്കുറിപ്പുമായി ചേരുന്നതല്ല. മാത്രമല്ല, കുമാരനാശാനെപ്പോലെ ആന്തരിക ജീവിതമുള്ളവർ ആരെങ്കിലും പറഞ്ഞിട്ടല്ല കവിത എഴുതുക.

തൻ്റെ എഴുത്തിനെപ്പറ്റി ആത്മവിശ്വാസത്തോടെ ആശാൻ പറയുന്നതു നോക്കുക: "ഞാൻ വളരെ കവിതകൾ എഴുതാറില്ലെങ്കിലും എഴുതുന്നിടത്തോളം വളരെ സൂക്ഷിച്ച് എഴുതാറാണ് പതിവ്. ഒരു ഉൽകൃഷ്ട കലയുടെ നിലയിൽ കവിതയുടെ സാങ്കേതികമായ ഗുണദോഷങ്ങളുടെ എല്ലാ അംശങ്ങളേയും പറ്റി ഗാഢമായും നിർദ്ദയമായും ചിന്തിച്ചു ത്യാജ്യങ്ങളെ പാടുള്ളത്ര ത്യജിച്ചും ഗ്രാഹ്യങ്ങളെ കഴിയുന്നത്ര ഗ്രഹിച്ചും അല്ലാതെ ഞാൻ ഒരു 'മുക്തകം' പോലും രചിക്കാറില്ലെന്നുള്ളത് എനിക്ക് നല്ല നിശ്ചയമുള്ള സംഗതിയാണ്." (4) അതു കൊണ്ടാണ്, 'ദുരവസ്ഥ'യിലെ മുസ്ലിം വിമർശം അദ്ദേഹം തിരുത്താൻ വിസമ്മതിച്ചത്.

കുമാരനാശാൻ

'സഹോദരനി'ൽ 1919 ൽ ആശാൻ എഴുതിയ 'ഒരു ഉദ്ബോധന'ത്തിൻ്റെ തുടർച്ചയാണ്, ലഹളയ്ക്ക് ശേഷമുള്ള രണ്ടു കവനങ്ങളും -എന്നാൽ, ഈ കവനങ്ങൾക്ക് പിന്നാലെയാണ്, 'ദുരവസ്ഥ'യുടെ പിറവി എന്നത് നിസ്സാരമല്ല.അതിനാൽ തന്നെ, 1920 ഡിസംബറിൽ ആശാൻ എഴുതിയ 'പരിവർത്തനം' എന്ന കവിതയ്ക്ക് ചില ഇടതു കുബുദ്ധികൾ ആരോപിക്കും പോലെ, 1917 ലെ റഷ്യൻ വിപ്ലവ പ്രചോദനം ഉണ്ടാകാൻ ഒരു സാധ്യതയും ഇല്ല.(5) കാൾ മാർക്‌സിൻറെയും ലെനിൻറെയും സമകാലികരായിരുന്ന ശ്രീനാരായണ ഗുരുവും കുമാരനാശാനും അവരിരുവരെയും ഒരിടത്തും പരാമർശിക്കാതിരുന്നത്, അവർക്ക് വേണ്ടിയിരുന്നത് ഹിംസയിൽ മുങ്ങിയ വ്യാജ പരിവർത്തനം അല്ല എന്നതു കൊണ്ടാണ്. അവർ ലക്ഷ്യമിട്ടത്, സമുദായ പരിഷ്കരണം വഴി ഹിന്ദുമത ഐക്യമാണ്. 'മതപരിവർത്തന രസവാദ' ത്തിൽ, ജോൺ സ്റ്റുവർട്ട് മില്ലിനെയും ഇമ്മാനുവൽ കാന്റിനെയും പരാമർശിക്കുന്ന ആശാൻ, മാർക്സിനെയും ലെനിനെയും അറിഞ്ഞു കൊണ്ടു തന്നെ തള്ളിക്കളഞ്ഞതാകണം. 

ആശാൻറെ ഈ കാവ്യങ്ങൾ എല്ലാം 'മണിമാല' എന്ന സമാഹാരത്തിലാണ്  വന്നത്. 'പരിവർത്തനം' എന്ന കവിത, സൂര്യസ്തുതിയാണ്. 

കരഞ്ഞുകൊണ്ടു കൂമനും കുറുക്കനും ഗമിക്കവേ
വിരഞ്ഞു കുക്കുടങ്ങൾ മോദകാഹളം വിളിക്കവേ
എരിഞ്ഞുയർന്നെഴും ദിനേശ കൂസിടാതെയെങ്ങുമേ
തിരിഞ്ഞു നിന്നിടാതെ നിൻ‌വഴിക്കു പോക പോക നീ.

എന്നു തുടങ്ങുന്ന കവിതയിൽ, 

കവി, പരിവർത്തനം കാംക്ഷിക്കുന്ന വരികൾ ഉണ്ട്:

അറയ്ക്കകത്തെഴുന്നൊരന്ധകാരവും വിഭോ ഭവാൻ
പറത്തുകിന്നഭസ്സിൽനിന്നു മൂടൽമഞ്ഞുപോലുമേ
വിറച്ചണഞ്ഞു വെയ്ലുകൊണ്ടിടട്ടെ വൃദ്ധഭൂ തണു-
ത്തറച്ചതൻ ഞരമ്പിലെങ്ങുമുഷ്ണരക്തമോടുവാൻ

അകന്നു മിന്നുവോരുഡുക്കളന്തികത്തിലായ് ദ്രുതം
പകച്ചു മങ്ങി നിന്നിടട്ടെ ദേവ പാഞ്ഞുപോക, നീ
പുകഞ്ഞെരിഞ്ഞുടൻ പൊടിഞ്ഞു താണിടട്ടെ പർവ്വതം
നികന്നിടട്ടെ വാരിരാശി നിന്റെ തേർത്തടങ്ങളിൽ.

തിമിർത്തൊരീർഷ്യയാൽ തടഞ്ഞിടട്ടെ വൻ‌ഗജങ്ങളോ
തിമിംഗലങ്ങളോ ഭവൽ പഥത്തെ-അല്പദൃഷ്ടികൾ.
അമർത്തലേറ്റു മസ്തകം ഞെരിഞ്ഞവറ്റ ചോരയാൽ
സമഗ്രമന്തിവർണ്ണമാക്കിടട്ടെ കുന്നുമാഴിയും.

സമത്വമേകലൿഷ്യമേവരും സ്വതന്ത്രരെന്നുമേ
സമക്ഷമിത്തമസ്സകറ്റിയോതി ലോകമാകവേ
ക്രമപ്പെടുത്തിടും ഭവാന്റെ ഘോരമാം കൃപയ്ക്കു ഞാൻ
നമസ്ക്കരിപ്പു, ദേവ പോകപോക നിൻ‌വഴിക്കു നീ

ഈ കവിതയിലെ സൂര്യൻ, സഹോദരൻ അയ്യപ്പനാണ് എന്ന് എം കെ സാനു വ്യാഖ്യാനിക്കുന്നതോടെ,  അൽപ പ്രാണികൾ ഈ കവിതയിൽ കാണുന്ന ബോൾഷെവിക് വിപ്ലവം ആവിയായി പോകുന്നു. (6) കവിതയുടെ ഒടുവിൽ ദേവൻ എന്നു തന്നെ കവി സൂര്യനെ സംബോധന ചെയ്യുന്നതോടെ, ഭാരതത്തിൻറെ, ഭാരതീയമായ പരിവർത്തനമാണ് കവി ലക്ഷ്യമാക്കുന്നത് എന്ന് വ്യക്തമാകുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നു.ബ്രിട്ടീഷ് അടിമത്തത്തിൽ നിന്നുള്ള മോചനം ഇതിവൃത്തമായ കവിതയാണ് ഇത് എന്ന് കാണാൻ ചരിത്രബോധമുള്ളവർക്ക് പ്രയാസം ഉണ്ടാവില്ല. ജാതിവിവേചനം നീക്കാൻ കോൺഗ്രസിന് (ഭാരതീയ ജനസഭ) കഴിയുമെന്ന് പല ലേഖനങ്ങളിലും പ്രത്യാശ ആശാൻ പ്രകടിപ്പിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട് -കമ്യൂണിസത്തിൽ അല്ല.

'ഒരു ഉദ്‌ബോധനം' എന്ന കവിതയിൽ,

തരുശാഖയിലോ താഴെ
പ്പൊത്തിലോ കന്ദരത്തിലോ
ഗൃഹകോടിയിലോ സംഘം
കൂടി ക്ഷേമം നിനയ്ക്കുവിൻ

എന്ന വരികൾ ഗറില്ലാ യുദ്ധത്തിനുള്ള ആഹ്വാനമാണ് എന്നാണ്, മാർക്സിസ്റ്റ്  വ്യാഖ്യാനം. (7) എന്നാൽ, ആ കവിതയുടെ പ്രചോദനം ഇനിയുള്ള വരികളിൽ വ്യക്തമാണ്:

മുറിവേൽ‌പ്പിക്കിലും ധൂർത്തർ
പത്രം ചുട്ടുകരിക്കിലും
മുഷ്ക്കിന്നു കീഴടങ്ങാതെ
മരിപ്പോളം തടുക്കുവിൻ

കുമാരനാശാൻ ജീവിച്ചിരുന്ന കാലത്ത് അഗ്നിക്കിരയാക്കിയത്, പരവൂർ കേശവനാശാൻറെ 'സുജനാനന്ദിനി' എന്ന പത്രമാണ്. അതിന് തീയിട്ടത്, 1905 ൽ ഹരിപ്പാട് ഉണ്ടായ നായർ -ഈഴവ ലഹളക്കാലത്താണ്. അന്ന് 'കേരളഭൂഷണം' പ്രസിനും നായന്മാർ തീയിട്ടു.

വീണ്ടും, ജാതിക്കോമരങ്ങൾക്കെതിരായ പോരാട്ടമാണ് ആശാൻ ലക്ഷ്യമിട്ടത് എന്ന് വ്യക്തം. മുതലാളിത്തത്തിന് എതിരായ, മാർക്സിസ്റ്റ് ഗറില്ലാ യുദ്ധം അല്ല.

മുകിലൻ ആശാൻ കവിതയിൽ 

സൂര്യൻ കിഴക്കുദിക്കാറായ്
സരഘാനിവഹങ്ങളേ!
സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യമധു തേടീടാൻ
സോത്സാഹമെഴുനേൽക്കുവിൻ.

എന്നാണ് കവിതയുടെ ആരംഭം. തേനീച്ചകളോട് സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യ മധു നുകരാൻ എഴുന്നേൽക്കൂ എന്നാണ് ആഹ്വാനം. ഇത് ഈഴവരോടുള്ള ആഹ്വാനം ആണെന്നും ഈഴവർക്കും തേനീച്ചകൾക്കും ഉപജീവനമാർഗം മധുശേഖരണം ആണെന്നും ടി കെ മാധവൻ നിരീക്ഷിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. 

പിൽക്കാലത്ത് മാപ്പിളമാർ ചെയ്തതു പോലെ, ആക്രമണം കവി നിർദേശിക്കുന്നില്ല:

ഉപദ്രവിക്കായുവിൻ പോ
യൊരു ജന്തുവിനേയുമേ
അപായം തടയാൻ ഘോര
ഹുങ്കാരം കൂട്ടി നിൽക്കുവിൻ.

ആശയസമരമാണ് മികച്ച ആയുധം:

മുഖത്തുണ്ടിന്നു നിങ്ങൾക്കു
ദൈവദത്തമൊരായുധം
മൃദുവെന്നാകിലും തീക്ഷ്ണം
പേടിക്കുമതു വൈരികൾ.

ആശാൻ തുടർന്ന് തിരുവിതാംകൂർ ആക്രമിച്ച ഒരു മുസ്ലിം സേനാനായകനെ  ഓർക്കുന്നത്, ആകസ്മികം ആവില്ല:

വഞ്ചിശ്രീയെക്കവരുവാൻ
പണ്ടു വന്നൊരു മുഷ്കരൻ
മുകിലൻ പടയോടൊത്തു
മുടിഞ്ഞു മക്ഷികാളിയാൽ.

വേണാട് ആക്രമിച്ച മുഗൾ സേനാധിപനാണ് മുകിലൻ. ഉമയമ്മ റാണി വേണാട് ഭരിച്ചിരുന്ന കാലത്തായിരുന്നു (1677 - 1684) ഈ ആക്രണം. ഇത് കൊല്ലവർഷം 855-ലായിരുന്നു (എ.ഡി. 1680) എന്ന് കരുതപ്പെടുന്നു. കേരളത്തിലെ ആദ്യ മുസ്ലിം ആക്രമണം മുകിലൻ നടത്തിയതാണ്. (8)

വർക്കല മുതൽ തോവാള വരെയുള്ള പ്രദേശം മുകിലൻ പിടിച്ചെടുത്തു. തിരുവനന്തപുരത്തെ മണക്കാട് ആസ്ഥാനമാക്കി അദ്ദേഹം രാജ്യം ഭരിച്ചു തുടങ്ങി. കന്യാകുമാരി ജില്ലയിൽ ബുധപുരത്ത് നെയ്തശ്ശേരിമഠം വകയായ ഒരു ബലരാമ ക്ഷേത്രം ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. പ്രധാനദേവൻ ബലരാമൻ ആയിരുന്നു. കൂപക്കരപ്പോറ്റിക്കായിരുന്നു ഇവിടെ തന്ത്രം. മുകിലൻ ഈ ക്ഷേത്രം ആക്രമിക്കാൻ വരുന്നുണ്ടെന്നറിഞ്ഞ നെയ്തശ്ശേരിപ്പോറ്റി കൂപക്കരപ്പോറ്റിയുടെ സഹായത്തോടെ വിഗ്രഹങ്ങൾ ഇളക്കിയെടുത്ത് കുറച്ചു ദൂരെയുള്ള സ്വാമിയാർ മഠത്തിൽ എഴുന്നള്ളിച്ചു കുടിയിരുത്തി. ക്ഷേത്രം ആക്രമിക്കാനായി മുകിലൻ എത്തിയപ്പോൾ നായന്മാരും ചാന്നാന്മാരും അദ്ദേഹത്തെ നേരിട്ടു. അവരെ നിർദ്ദയം അരിഞ്ഞു വീഴ്ത്തിയ ശേഷം മുകിലൻ ക്ഷേത്രം കൊള്ളയടിച്ചു. അയാൾ ക്ഷേത്ര മതിൽക്കെട്ടിനുള്ളിൽ ഗോക്കളെ കൊന്നു, ക്ഷേത്രം തകർത്തു.

മുകിലൻ സമ്പത്ത് കൊള്ളയടിക്കാനായി നാനാദിക്കിലേക്കും പടയാളികളെ നിയോഗിച്ചു. എട്ടരയോഗക്കാരും എട്ടുവീട്ടിൽ പിള്ളമാരും മുകിലന്റെ ആക്രമണസമയത്ത് ജാതിഭ്രഷ്ട് ഭയന്ന് ശ്രീപദ്‌മനാഭസ്വാമിക്ഷേത്രം അടച്ചിട്ടു പലായനം ചെയ്തു എന്ന് ചരിത്രകാരൻ പി. ശങ്കുണ്ണി മേനോൻ എഴുതിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.

പദ്‌മനാഭസ്വാമി ക്ഷേത്രം കൊള്ളയടിക്കാൻ മുകിലൻ സ്വയം പുറപ്പെട്ടപ്പോൾ മണക്കാട്ടുള്ള പഠാണികളായ മുഹമ്മദീയർ അത് തടഞ്ഞു. അന്നദാതാക്കന്മാരായ വേണാട്ടരചന്മാർ തങ്ങളെ കാരുണ്യത്തോടെയാണ് സംരക്ഷിച്ചു പോരുന്നതെന്നും രാജവംശത്തിന്റെ പരദേവതാക്ഷേത്രം കൊള്ള ചെയ്യരുതെന്നും അവർ അപേക്ഷിച്ചു. അതിനാൽ മുകിലൻ ശ്രീപദ്‌മനാഭസ്വാമി ക്ഷേത്രം ആക്രമിച്ചില്ല.

എന്നാൽ വർക്കല മുതൽ തോവാള വരെയുള്ള പ്രദേശങ്ങളിൽ അയാൾ നിർബന്ധിത മതം മാറ്റം നടത്തി.

ഇസ്ലാം സ്വാധീനം തെക്കൻ തിരുവിതാംകൂറിൽ അടിച്ചേൽപിച്ചത് മുകിലൻറെ ആക്രമണം ആയിരുന്നു.തീരപ്രദേശത്ത് വർക്കല മുതൽ വിളവങ്കോട് വരെ അയാൾ നിർബന്ധിത മതം മാറ്റം നടത്തി, സുന്നത്ത് പോലുള്ള ആചാരങ്ങൾ അടിച്ചേൽപിച്ചെന്ന് നാഗമയ്യ 'തിരുവിതാംകൂർ സ്റ്റേറ്റ് മാനുവലി'ൽ രേഖപ്പെടുത്തിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.ആണുങ്ങൾ പുറത്തിറങ്ങുമ്പോൾ തല മറയ്ക്കണം,സ്ത്രീകൾ മാറു മറയ്ക്കണം,ആൺകുട്ടികൾക്ക് ചേലാകർമ്മം നടത്തണം,കല്യാണം പോലുള്ള ചടങ്ങുകളിൽ എല്ലാവരും ഒരേ പാത്രത്തിൽ നിന്നുണ്ണണം,കുട്ടികൾ തലയിൽ ഉറുമാൽ കെട്ടണം,സ്ത്രീകൾ പുറത്തിറങ്ങുമ്പോൾ അരയ്ക്ക് മേൽ മറയ്ക്കണം എന്നീ നിബന്ധനകൾ നടപ്പാക്കി.

മുകിലനെ നേരിടാനായി ഉമയമ്മറാണി വയനാട്ടു നിന്നെത്തിയ കോട്ടയത്തു കേരളവർമ്മയെ നിയോഗിച്ചു. കേരളവർമ്മയുടെ പട മുകിലപ്പടയുമായി ഏറ്റുമുട്ടി. മുകിലൻറെ കുതിരപ്പടയുടെ വലിയ പങ്കും വർക്കല മുതൽ തോവാള വരെയുള്ള പ്രദേശത്തായി കരം പിരിക്കാൻ പോയിരിക്കുകയായിരുന്നു. മുകിലൻ തോവാളയിലേക്കു പിൻവാങ്ങി. സൈന്യവുമായി പിന്തുടർന്ന കേരളവർമ്മ തിരുവട്ടാറ്റു മുകിലനെ വധിച്ചു.

ഉമയമ്മ റാണി കേരളവർമ്മയെ വേണാട്ടു രാജകുടുംബത്തിലേക്കു ദത്തെടുത്ത് ഇരണിയൽ രാജകുമാരൻ എന്ന ഔദ്യോഗികാംഗീകാരം നൽകി. തുടർന്ന് കേരളവർമ്മയായിരുന്നു ഉമയമ്മ റാണിയുടെ പ്രണയ ഭാജനം.1696 ൽ അദ്ദേഹം കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടു.ആട്ടക്കഥാകാരൻ കോട്ടയത്ത് തമ്പുരാൻറെ അനുജൻ ആയിരുന്നു.

പുലപ്പേടി,മണ്ണാപ്പേടി എന്നിവ അദ്ദേഹം നിരോധിച്ചതിന് പിന്നാലെയാണ് കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടത്. വലിയൊരു ഭാഗം ജനങ്ങളെ പുലയർ, മണ്ണാൻ എന്നീ ജാതിക്കാരായ ആളുകളാൽ അപമാനിതരാക്കപ്പെടുന്നതിൽ നിന്ന് ഒഴിവാക്കുക പരിഷ്കരണ ലക്ഷ്യമായിരുന്നു.ഈ വിളംബരം പുലയ, പറയ, മണ്ണാൻ സമുദായത്തിൽ പെട്ട കുട്ടികളടക്കം അനേകരുടെ കൂട്ടക്കൊലയ്ക്കും ഗർഭസ്ഥശിശുക്കളുടെ നേരേ വരെയുള്ള കിരാതമായ ആക്രമണങ്ങൾക്കും വഴിതെളിച്ചതായി പറയപ്പെടുന്നു. റാണിയുടെ ഭരണത്തിന്റെ ശക്തി കേരളവർമ്മയാണ് എന്നു ധരിച്ച മാടമ്പിമാർ; അദ്ദേഹത്തെ ഇല്ലാതാക്കിയാൽ ഭരണം ശിഥിലമാകുമെന്നു കണക്കു കൂട്ടി അദ്ദേഹത്തെ കൊല്ലാൻ പദ്ധതികൾ തയ്യാറാക്കി.ഭരണം കൂടുതൽ രാജ കേന്ദ്രീകൃതമാകുന്നതിൽ എതിർപ്പുണ്ടായിരുന്ന എട്ടരയോഗം എന്ന ക്ഷേത്ര ഭരണക്കാരാണ് അദ്ദേഹത്തെ കൊന്നത് എന്നു കരുതപ്പെടുന്നു.

ഭൂതകാല ചരിത്രം മലയാളികൾക്ക് ആവേശമാകട്ടെ എന്ന് ഉദാഹരിച്ച ശേഷം, കുമാരനാശാൻ ആ വലിയ സന്ദേശം നമുക്ക് പകർന്നു തന്നത്, ഈ കവിതയിലാണ്:

മലക്കുണ്ടിൽ മറിഞ്ഞെത്ര
കീടം ചാകുന്നു നാൾക്കുനാൾ
മധുകാത്തുറ്റ തേൻ‌കൂട്ടിൽ
മരിപ്പിൻ നിങ്ങൾ വേണ്ടുകിൽ.

സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യംതന്നെയമൃതം
സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യംതന്നെ ജീവിതം
പാരതന്ത്ര്യം മാനികൾക്കു
മൃതിയെക്കാൾ ഭയാനകം.

ഈ കവിത 1919 ൽ 'സഹോദരനി'ൽ വന്നുവെന്നാണ് സാനു പറയുന്നത്. (9)

ജാതിയെ പിശാചായും കലിയായും കാണുന്ന തീക്ഷ്ണ കവിതയാണ്, 'സിംഹനാദം'. ജാതിയെന്ന കരിവീരൻറെ മസ്തകം ഉടയ്ക്കാനുള്ള ആഹ്വാനം, ഭാരതീയമായ കല്പനകൾ വച്ചു തന്നെ:

കരനഖനിരകൊണ്ടു കൂരിരുട്ടാം
കരിയുടെ കുംഭമുടച്ചു ചോരതൂവി
ത്വരയൊടുദയമാർന്നു നിങ്ങളോടീ
‘ഹരി’യുരചെയ്‌വതു ഹന്ത! കേട്ടുകൊൾവിൻ

നേടിയൊരിരുൾ തുലഞ്ഞു രാത്രിയോടും
കൊടിയ പിശാചുക്കൾ കോടിപോയ്മറഞ്ഞു
മുടിവിനു നിഴൽകണ്ടു മൂലതോറും
കുടികളിൽ നില്പിതു ഘോരഭൂതമേകും.

ത്സടിതിയവനെയാഞ്ഞു വേട്ടയാടിൻ
നൊടിയളവിക്കലി നിൽക്കിലുണ്ടപായം
പടിമ പെരുതവന്നു പേപിടിപ്പി-
ച്ചടിമകളാക്കിടുമാരെയും ദുരാത്മാ.

പറക പണിയിരുട്ടു പെറ്റതാകും
പറയനിവൻ സ്വയമെന്തു വിദ്യയാലോ
മറയവരുടെ മണ്ടയിൽക്കരേറി-
ക്കുറകൾ പറഞ്ഞു മുടിച്ചു കേരളത്തെ.

നരനു നരനശുദ്ധവസ്തുപോലും
ധരയിൽ നടപ്പതു തീണ്ടലാണുപോലും
നരകമിവിടമാണു ഹന്ത! കഷ്ടം
ഹര! ഹര! ഇങ്ങനെ വല്ല നാടുമുണ്ടോ?

ജാതിയുടെ ഉന്മൂലനം ഇതിവൃത്തമായ ഒടുവിലെ കവിത,  സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യഗാഥയിൽ, ജാതിവ്യവസ്ഥയെ മായാവ്യവസ്ഥ എന്ന് വിളിക്കുന്നു; ബ്രിട്ടീഷ് ചക്രവർത്തിയോടുള്ള വിലാപമാണ്, ഇത് :

അന്ധകാരത്തിന്റെയാഴത്തിൽ ക്രൂരമാ-
മെന്തൊരു മായാവ്യവസ്ഥയാലോ
ബന്ധസ്ഥരായ് ഞങ്ങൾ കേഴുന്നു ദേവ, നിൻ
സ്വന്തകിടാങ്ങൾ, നിരപരാധർ.

ഓരുന്നു ഞങ്ങൾ പിതാവെ, നിൻ കൺ‌മുന
ദൂരത്തും തേന്മഴ ചാറുമെന്നും
ക്രൂരതതന്നുടെ നേരേയതുതന്നെ
ഘോരമിടിത്തീയായ് മാറുമെന്നും.

ചട്ടറ്റ നിൻ കരവാളിൽ ചലൽ‌പ്രഭ
തട്ടുമാറാക ഞങ്ങൾക്കു കണ്ണിൽ
വെട്ടിമുറിക്കുക കാൽച്ചങ്ങല വിഭോ!
പൊട്ടിച്ചെറികയിക്കൈവിലങ്ങും

ചക്രവർത്തിയെ അംഗീകരിച്ചു കൊണ്ടു തന്നെയാണ് ഈ വിലാപം എന്ന് കാണാൻ പ്രയാസമില്ല. അതിനാൽ തന്നെ, ജോർജ്‌ ആറാമൻറെ പട്ടും വളയും വാങ്ങിയ കവി എന്ന് ഇ എം എസ് ആക്ഷേപിച്ച ആശാനെ മാർക്സിസ്റ്റ് കവി എന്ന് വിളിക്കുന്നത് അസംബന്ധമാണ്. ഹിന്ദുമതത്തെ വിഘടിച്ചു നിർത്തിയ ജാതിപ്പിശാചിനെ ഉന്മൂലനം ചെയ്യാനുള്ള നിലവിളിയാണ് ആശാൻ കവിത. 

ഗുരുവും ആശാനും 

അതിനാൽ, ബ്രിട്ടീഷ് ഇന്ത്യയിൽ രംഗപ്രവേശം ചെയ്ത ആര്യസമാജത്തിൻറെ ജാതിവിരുദ്ധ പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങളിൽ ശ്രീനാരായണഗുരുവിനും കുമാരനാശാനും താൽപര്യം തോന്നി. മാപ്പിളലഹളയ്ക്ക് ശേഷം ആശാനും ആത്മസുഹൃത്ത്  പത്രാധിപർ ടി കെ നാരായണനും മലബാറിൽ പോയി. ദുരിതാശ്വാസ പ്രവർത്തനത്തിന് വന്ന  പണ്ഡിറ്റ് ഋഷിറാം, വേദബന്ധു ശർമ (ആർ വെങ്കിടാചലം) എന്നിവരുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ടു. ടി കെ നാരായണൻ ആര്യസമാജത്തിൽ ചേർന്നു. 

കമ്മ്യൂണിസ്റ്റ് നേതാവ് എം  എൻ ഗോവിന്ദൻ നായർ ആത്മകഥയിൽ ഇങ്ങനെ എഴുതുന്നു: (10)

"എൻ്റെ നാട്ടിൽ (പന്തളം) നിന്ന് വിവാഹം കഴിച്ച ഒരു ടി കെ നാരായണൻ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ പ്രതിഷേധം കുട്ടികളായ ഞങ്ങൾക്ക് രസകരമായി തോന്നി. അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ വേഷം വടക്കേ ഇന്ത്യക്കാരെപ്പോലെ പുറകിൽ ശിഖ, ബ്രാഹ്മണരെപ്പോലെ പൂണൂൽ, പൂജ നടത്താൻ പ്രത്യേക രീതിയിലുള്ള മുണ്ടുടുപ്പ് എന്നിവയായിരുന്നു. പൂജ നടത്താൻ തിരഞ്ഞെടുത്ത സ്ഥലം മണപ്പുറം. ധീരനായി പുരാണെതിഹാസങ്ങളെയും ജാതിവ്യവസ്ഥയെയും ക്ഷേത്രാരാധനയെയും വെല്ലുവിളിച്ചു കൊണ്ടും വേദങ്ങൾ മാത്രമാണ് ഹിന്ദുക്കളുടെ അടിസ്ഥാന ഗ്രന്ഥങ്ങളെന്ന് വാദിച്ചു കൊണ്ടും  അവയിലേക്ക് എല്ലാവരും മടങ്ങണമെന്ന് ആഹ്വാനം ചെയ്തുകൊണ്ടുമുള്ള അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ പ്രഖ്യാപനങ്ങൾ വീരസാഹസികത്വത്തിൻറെ മാതൃകയായിരുന്നു. വടക്കേ ഇന്ത്യയിൽ പ്രചുരപ്രചാരത്തിലിരുന്ന ആര്യസമാജത്തെയാണ് അദ്ദേഹം പ്രതിനിധാനം ചെയ്തത്". 

ആദ്യം പറഞ്ഞ 'സുജനാനന്ദിനി'യുടെ പത്രാധിപർ ആയിരുന്ന ടി കെ നാരായണൻ, എസ് എൻ ഡി പി സംഘടനാ സെക്രട്ടറിയും ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് പണ്ഡിതനും ആയിരുന്നു. 

ശ്രീനാരായണ ഗുരു 1924 ലെ  ആലുവ സർവമത സമ്മേളനത്തിൽ പണ്ഡിറ്റ് ഋഷിറാമിനെ പങ്കെടുപ്പിച്ചു. ആര്യസമാജം നേതാവ് സ്വാമി ശ്രദ്ധാനന്ദയും ഗുരുവും തമ്മിൽ കണ്ടു. അങ്ങനെ ഗുരുവും ആശാനും നാരായണനും ഭാരതീയ ആത്മീയ ധാരയിൽ നിന്നു. ആര്യസമാജ പശ്ചാത്തലത്തിൽ ആശാന് ജാതിവിമർശനത്തിന് ഒരു പ്രസ്ഥാന ബലം കൂടി കിട്ടി.

നാരായണൻറെ വീട്ടിലായിരുന്നു, ആശാൻറെ അവസാന അത്താഴം. തണുപ്പായതിനാൽ, നാരായണൻ തൻ്റെ കറുത്ത കോട്ട് ആശാനെ ധരിപ്പിച്ചു. റെഡീമർ ബോട്ടപപകടത്തിൽ മരിച്ച ആശാൻ ധരിച്ച ആ കോട്ടിൻറെ കീശയിൽ, നാരായണൻ എഴുതിക്കൊണ്ടിരുന്ന ഒരു ജീവചരിത്രം ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു -ആര്യസമാജം സ്ഥാപകൻ സ്വാമി ദയാനന്ദ സരസ്വതിയുടെ ജീവചരിത്രം.

https://kesariweekly.com/35484/

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1.കുമാരനാശാന്‍ (1982), കെ അശോകൻ, പേജ് 120, കേരള ഹിസ്റ്ററി അസോസിയേഷൻ, ഡോ പി ശിവപ്രസാദ്, ആർഷദർശനങ്ങളുടെ ആശാൻ കവിതകൾ, കേസരി വാരിക, 6 ജനുവരി 2023 2.കുമാരനാശാൻറെ സമ്പൂർണ പദ്യകൃതികൾ, എസ് പി സി എസ്, കോട്ടയം, 1971, പേജ് 734

3.സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യ ഗാഥ 'മാതൃഭൂമി' പത്രം 1923 ജൂലൈ 10 ന് പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിച്ചിരുന്നു.

4. ആത്മപോഷിണിയും പ്രരോദന നിരൂപണവും, കുമാരനാശാൻ, 1920, കുമാരനാശാൻറെ ഗദ്യലേഖനങ്ങൾ, വാല്യം ഒന്ന്, പേജ് 133 -142

5. ജാതിധ്വംസനം ആശാൻറെ ലഘു കവനങ്ങളിൽ, ഡോ എസ് ഷാജി, സഹോദരൻ, ജനുവരി, 2023

6 . do

7 . do

8. Menon, P. Shungoonny (1878). A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times, Volume 1. Madras: Higginbothams & Co. പുറങ്ങൾ. 102–105.

9.മൃത്യുഞ്ജയം കാവ്യജീവിതം, എം കെ സാനു, പേജ് 157, ചിന്ത പബ്ലിഷേഴ്‌സ്

10. എമ്മെൻറെ ആത്മകഥ, പ്രഭാത് ബുക് ഹൗസ്, പേജ് 48

.

© Ramachandran 

CHINA TO STRIVE FOR PROGRESS THROUGH STABILITY

Circumventing the western sanctions

The Central Economic Work Conference of the Chinese Communist Party held recently stated that China aims to focus on restoring and expanding consumption and strive for "progress through stability."

The Conference admitted that China's economy faced difficulties in 2022 due to a contraction in demand, supply shocks, and a volatile environment, in the aftermath of COVID-19.

A decline in demand reflects a decrease in purchasing power, which in turn calls for financial support to people during the crisis. A supply shock occurs as a result of closed factories, resulting in the restructuring of the global supply chain and the outflow of international orders. 

My article

Despite pandemic disruptions, China's economic output is likely to exceed $17.2 trillion in 2022. Over the past three years, China's GDP growth rate averaged 4.5 percent, higher than the global average.

In 2020, China was among the first countries in the world to resume work and reopen businesses, and registered a 2.3-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth, making it the world's only major economy to attain positive growth.

Its GDP crossed the 100-trillion-yuan (about 14.37 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold in 2020 and further expanded to over 114 trillion yuan in 2021, contributing over 30 percent to world economic growth.

The Chinese economy advanced 3.9% YoY in Q3 of 2022, exceeding the market consensus of 3.4% and picking up from a 0.4% growth in Q2, in response to significant measures by the government. Meantime, industrial output rose the most in seven months, to 6.3% YoY, due to faster growth in the manufacturing and mining sectors.

In the first 11 months of this year, China's trade in goods expanded 8.6 percent year on year to 38.34 trillion yuan, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, went up 17.4 percent year on year to $168.34 billion in the first 10 months of 2022.

But, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's November retail sales sank by 5.9 percent YoY, showing a declining trend in domestic demand. So, the creation of a resilient domestic market is very critical.

It was against this backdrop that this year’s Central Economic Work Conference was held. The Conference is an annual meeting held by the Chinese government to review the ups and downs and set economic policy for the following year. 

The first Central Economic Work Conference was held in 1978, following the launch of economic reforms. The Conference usually prepares the groundwork for the Government Work Report in March. 

The key takeaways

Realising the current crisis, on social policy, the Conference emphasised the need to secure the bottom line of people's livelihood, focusing on "promoting employment for young people, especially college graduates, in a more prominent position”. The Party doesn’t want young people to protest on the streets.

The Conference stated that in 2023, it will focus on expanding domestic demand, rewarding investment, and increasing exports to "boost confidence in development, prioritise the restoration and expansion of consumption, and increase the income of urban and rural residents through various channels and encouraging more private capital to participate in the construction of key national projects”.

The conference also emphasised, "fully promoting rural revitalisation and resolutely preventing large-scale re-poverty."

In addition to expanding domestic demand, the five main tasks for next year include speeding up the construction of a modern industrial system, implementing "two unwavering" principles, more actively attracting foreign investment and effectively resolving major economic and financial risks.

The two unwavering principles are "to deepen reform of state-owned enterprises and improve the competitiveness of state-owned enterprises." The Conference pointed out that "private enterprises' property rights and entrepreneurs' rights and interests must be protected by law." So, cracking down on private enterprises will no longer be the rule.

In response to Western technology sanctions, the Conference emphasized the importance of a resilient industrial chain. 

Coping with U.S. sanctions

With the announcement of sweeping fresh controls on sales of semiconductors to China in October 2022, the U.S. approach looked drawn from the Cold War playbook. A growing raft of U.S. measures now aims at slowing China’s development as a high-technology economy. 

In the last eight years, China’s technology sector has faced several challenges due to sanctions imposed by the U. S. The acceleration in tech sanctions by the U.S. coincided with the rise of China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR) under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 

The U.S. blacklisted Hikvision, a Chinese security equipment maker, involved in DSR, in 2021. Apart from Hikvision, companies like Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and ZTE are the main drivers of the DSR.

After Trump took office, several measures were taken targeting Chinese science and technology policies. These include the National Defence Authorization Act 2019, Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act 2020, and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act 2020, which have imposed sanctions on Chinese entities.

In May 2019, Huawei was added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, leading to stricter export controls. It was unable to do business with any U.S. firm.

DSR not only facilitates the export of Chinese technology to previously untapped markets but also allows private Chinese firms to expand extensively. This enables China to carry its influence on the global tech sector, which has been dominated by the West since its inception. Chinese companies have already taken significant business away from Western companies like IBM and Cisco.

U.S. sanctions also emerged in the context of Chinese policies like Made in China 2025 (MIC 2025), emphasizing technological self-reliance. Instituted in 2015, MIC 2025 aims to help China skip the middle-income trap by installing technology-powered production as opposed to labour-intensive production and ultimately aid in the development of an “Internet Superpower”. 

China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, covering the years 2021 to 2025, also emphasizes the strategic importance of the development of science and technology and is further complemented by policies such as the Internet+ and the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan.

Distressed by China’s technical prowess, Biden in June 2021 signed an order prohibiting U. S. investments in Chinese surveillance technology companies that “facilitate serious human rights abuses” or “undermine the security or democratic values of the United States”, adding 59 entities to its new Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List.

Yangpu container terminal

But, U.S. chip sales to China surged as demand for Chinese-made laptop computers, video games, and other home technology soared during COVID-19. In 2022, U.S. sales plummeted, from a combination of expanded controls and a slowdown in the Chinese economy; chip sales to China are down 25 percent, and semiconductor equipment sales have fallen 15 percent. Boston Consulting Group has estimated that a complete ban on U.S. chip sales to China would cost U.S. semiconductor firms 18 percent of their global market share and 37 percent of their revenues.

The U.S. strategy is to contain China’s ability to make or acquire logic chips below the 14-nanometer node, well above the current leading-edge capabilities of 5 nanometers or less. The smaller the node, the more advanced the chip.

But the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China’s largest chipmaker, announced in August 2022 that it had started shipping 7-nanometer semiconductors, just one generation behind the most advanced chips made in Taiwan and South Korea. It has done so, using production techniques less efficient than the current standard since U.S. controls have blocked the SMIC from acquiring the most advanced lithography equipment.

Thus, China has proved that it is easy to circumvent the U.S. sanctions.

And the Economic Work Conference strategy assures that the Western sanctions would be futile since China is much more integrated into the global economy and supply chain than Russia. China has been gradually showcasing domestic alternatives. 

Chinese technology has a far-reaching impact on the developing world because the BRI exports domestic technology globally. Since the Chinese tech ecosystem has extensive footprints globally, the U.S. sanctions will not achieve the goal of technologically isolating China. The impact of the sanctions would be minimal, as most of the Silicon Valley giants have already been banned in China. 

Hence, the Work Conference has mentioned that China's science and technology industry should be self-reliant and "must effectively coordinate education, science and technology, and talent work to improve the quality and ability of independent talent cultivation."

This means China's high-tech industrial chain cannot be decoupled from the global economy. 

China has been working to develop its technological capabilities and become less reliant on the U.S. for a long time. This includes efforts to produce its chips, solar energy, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles.

Boost to platform technology

Quite a few sectors would benefit from next year's Chinese policies, as hinted at by the Work Conference. New-energy car and elderly services will enjoy preferential policies.

At the same time, policies will be tilted to support research and production of technology services and products. This relates to the Work Conference's emphasis on protecting private enterprises' legal rights. Combining the two policies implies that platform technology companies may get a boost in China, in 2023.

What is platform technology?

The platform business model is created by digital communities and marketplaces that allow different groups to interact and transact. Seven of the 10 most valuable companies are now based on this model. Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon and Alibaba have used the model to grow enormously, grabbing significant market share from established firms.

A McKinsey report in 2020 said that more than 30% of global economic activity — some $60 trillion — could be mediated by digital platforms in six years, and yet only 3% of established companies have adopted an effective platform strategy.

The platform economy is reshaping global trade. Global platforms such as Alibaba, allow much smaller enterprises to participate in global trade, without the need to invest in their supply chains. In a world dominated by platform companies that offer ways for customers and companies to connect, countries that want to act as global trade hubs must think like a platform nation.

In China, an example of a traditional corporation transforming its business model is PingAn, an insurance company, based in Shenzhen. They have created a portfolio of platform businesses that are directly related to insurance: in healthcare, connecting patients with doctors; in automotive for buying and selling cars; and it dabbles even in entertainment. PingAn is now the most valuable insurance company in the world.

In South Africa, a 100-year-old company, Naspers, got transformed from being a printer of newspapers to a digital and platform company. It took a stake early on in Chinese Internet giant Tencent and is now worth more than the whole of all their companies combined, built up a global online classified business called OLX.

Platform technology shows that sanctions are absurd and China will march forward.

The recovery ahead

Amid multiple domestic and external headwinds, China’s GDP growth is expected to slow sharply to 3.3 percent in 2022, from 8.1 per cent in 2021. 

According to CEIC data, Chinese households are limiting their spending on non-essential items, and industries such as catering, accommodation and aviation are suffering the most. Industrial production has hitherto shown a stronger trend than retail sales, thanks to overseas demand.  

Industrial production, measured by the added value of industries above the designated size, increased by 3.6% YoY in the first eight months of 2022, up from 3.4% in June 2022. The slow recovery of industrial production was broad-based among state-owned enterprises and private sectors.  

Retail sales of consumer goods increased by 0.5% YoY in the first eight months of 2022, mainly dragged down by the COVID-19 lockdown in Q3.  

By product type, automobiles sales, accounting for 29% of all retail sales in the first eight months of 2022, declined by 1.3% YoY, down from the record high of 56.6% YoY in March 2021, but still much better than in the corresponding period of 2020 when the COVID-19 led to a decline of 8.8% YoY. The lifting of lockdowns in provinces such as Guizhou, Xizang Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Guangdong, Gansu, and Ningxia may lead to a recovery in retail sales.

Online retail sales of goods increased by 5.8% YoY in the first eight months of 2022, much faster than the overall retail sales growth rate as it was less affected by the lockdown.  

Government revenue was RMB 13.8tn and decreased by 8% YoY in the first eight months of 2022, while expenditure was RMB 16.5tn, an increase of 6.3% YoY, resulting in a deficit of RMB 2.7tn. Central government revenue of RMB 6.4tn accounted for 46% of total government revenues, and local government revenue of RMB 7.4tn the remainder.

Foreign trade growth was slower in Q3 2022 than in Q2 2022, but it remained resilient compared with domestic demand, with merchandise (goods) exports rising by 18% YoY and 7.1% YoY in July and August 2022, respectively, in USD terms. Merchandise imports growth improved from 0% YoY in April 2022 to 0.3% YoY in August 2022 but was still much below the 19.8% YoY in January and 19.5% YoY in December 2021, affected by the lockdowns in large Chinese cities, such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu.  

In response to critical headwinds, China has stepped up macroeconomic policy easing with higher public infrastructure spending, tax rebates, policy interest rate cuts, and a relaxation in local purchase restrictions in the property sector. However, resurgent COVID-19 outbreaks and associated measures have limited the push of the policy stimulus.

To face these challenges, macroeconomic policies need to be carefully calibrated not to exacerbate financial risks. Structural reforms are needed to reinvigorate the shift to more balanced high-quality growth.

The government measures are paying off, as shown by the China Ports Data. China's trade turnover improved in November 2022, after three months of sluggish growth in both exports and imports. Real-time port statistics provided by Elane Inc., reveal that China's top 20 ports have been handling an ever-increasing number of arriving and departing ships in November 2022, despite the lockdowns.

The total number of arrived ships in November reached 147,054, while the departures stood at 163,182, both recording all-time highs. Not only the absolute numbers, the YoY growth rate for both arrived and departed ships have also jumped in November, expanding by 29% and 44% respectively, levels that have not been observed in more than a year and a half.

The improvement in terms of volume, measured in deadweight tonnage, is even more pronounced.

Also, after the Work Conference called for an overall improvement in economic operations in 2023, there is growing confidence in a rapid recovery of the Chinese economy, with room for a robust GDP growth rate in 2023.

The Conference has assured that China will further step up policy support for economic growth in 2023, with the intensity of fiscal and monetary policy to further intensify, compared with 2022, and stepped-up support is expected to boost consumption and other areas that have been hit hard.

China is definitely poised for an accelerated economic recovery in the first half of 2023 and overall recovery and improvement are expected in the country's economic performance in 2024. 

It is also expected that life and production will recover at a faster pace releasing vitality into the economy. The force of China's fiscal policy for 2023 will be at least equal to or more intensified than in 2022, with targeted efforts to the key and weak links in the economy.

This commentary was published in the China-India Dialogue

http://chinaindiadialogue.com/progress-through-stability

© Ramachandran