A revolt, that laid the foundation for the departure of British from India, 1806 Fort Vellore revolt.

[madhav kapdi]

                    Sub. : A revolt, that laid the foundation for the departure of British from India, 1806 Fort Vellore revolt.

 

                    By and large it is said that, 1857 is the first revolt of the Indians against the British, but in my opinion there were two more mini revolts before 1857 as follows. 

 

                    01] Fort Vellore revolt. : In the year 1806 at Fort Vellore.

                    02] Barrackpore Revolt. :  In the year 1824 at Barrackpore cantonment.

 

                    Out of the above, i do not have much information about the Barrackpore revolt, but the sketchy information about the same is as follows,

 

                    Barrackpore Revolt. : 

 

                    As per our Hindu customs, it is a Sin to cross the Ocean [I will say a Salty water] and some time in 1832, Indian soldiers at Barrackpore Cantonment, under the command of the British officers, were asked to proceed to Burma [Now Myanmar] by ship to quell the local law & order situation. 

 

                    Indian soldiers have to travel by the ships, and cross the ocean, which they refused. Some decided to travel by the treacherous land route and enter Burma through the North-eastern states. This was not only the time consuming journey, but the area was a forest land and the soldiers had to face the Leech bites & Malaria like disease en route. That apart, the British refused to acknowledge the casualties and pay compensation to the family of the bereaved soldiers.

 

                    Fort Vellore Revolt. : 

 

                    The Vellore revolt took place in 1806. In the year 1791, Bangalore was conquered by the British by the defeat and killing of Hyder-Ali, the father of Tipu Sultan, and then the Tipu Sultan was killed in the year 1799 at Srirangapatna. His children were captured alive and imprisoned in  the Vellore Fort. Polygars, the offshoots of the Kadamba dynasty from Goa, assisted the British in this mission.

 

                    Having access to the locals, they were having large numbers of followers around Vellore, and taking advantage of that, Tipus childrens revolted against the British. During the quagmire, some British officers send a SOS [Save our souls] a telegraphic message to the nearby Garrisons for the help.

 

 

 

                    The message was received by one of the telegraphic offices in a route named XYZ on the outskirts of Vellore, manned by the Indian operators. They in turn, forwarded the message to the next telegraphic station, but intimating a  wrong destination as the source of trouble. British Commanders immediately responded but reached the wrong destination and came to know of the mischief, but then did the course correction. They ultimately reached the Vellore Fort and quelled the revolt with the heavy hand. 

 

                    The whole episode lasted for less than 10/15 days. The Vellore revolt fizzled out but it exposed the nuisance value of the communication infrastructure being manned by the Indians. While it was having a nuisance value for the British, it was a Golden opportunity for the Indian freedom fighters to exploit, in the next possible opportunity.

                    This nuisance value was studied & analysed by the Barrister Mohammad Ali Jinhha, and he was heading a union of Indian Telegraphic association with over 70,000 members, around 100 years ago.

 

                    There were sedition charges against Barrister Jinnah for the provocative activities of his union, but they were not persuaded by the British, but he was kept on the tows, with the Damocles sword hanging over his head. Incidentally, during the Plague epidemic, Lokmanya Tilak, the editor of Marathi daily newspaper Kesari, wrote a provocative article titled " सरकारचे डोके ठिकाणावर आहे काय?  " meaning here is " Has the Government gone mad ?" British then decided to launch the Sedition charges against Lokmanya Tilak, and Barrister Jinha decided to hold his brief. 

 

                    The British then threatened Barrister Jinnah with the sedition charges, for the provocative activities as a leader of the union. Barrister Jinnah, still took the brief and lost the case in the court. Lokmanya Tilak was then sent for imprisonment to Mandalay in Burma where he wrote " 

गीतारहस्य

  "  Plz note, British could have imprisoned him in India as well, but then there would have been a stream of visitors to meet & greet, and that would have been of much bigger nuisance value to the British administration. 

 

                    The childrens of Tipu Sultan were shifted to Calcutta, the capital of British then. The subsequent generations of the Tipu Sultans had undergone very bad days, and 15/20 years back, they were running roadside eateries on the streets of Kolkata for their survival.

 

                    How the mischief mongers were taken care off.?

 

                    While the childrens of Tipu were merely shifted to Calcutta, but the telegraphic office staff at XYZ went through a hell of a time. In all, 11 members of the mischief mongers directly and indirectly associated with, were caught and killed and then their bodies were hanged in the Public Squares upside down, to instill the fears in the minds of the locals. The same modus operandi was followed in the 1857 revolt as well at Kanpur, called Cownpur during the British regime.

 

                    British didn't stop at that, but even the telegraphic office in the village XYZ was closed down, and then onwards, the locals were deprived of any developments with respect to the communication infrastructure. Surprisingly, this harassment continued even after independence. As late as in 1990, more than 40 years after the independence, the place was not provided with modern telecommunication facilities. 

 

                    While working as a Vendor Development manager in Fouress engineering, a Valve manufacturing organization from Mumbai, we were having one vendor for the castings namely Samco Metals at Kaniyambadi on the outskirts of Vellore.  The foundry was having excellent quality control facilities and around 40% of their castings were being exported to developed countries like the USA and many countries from Europe.

 

                    The plant  was having only 2phone numbers namely 21 & 22. In the span of 4 years, I was interacting with Samco, I was never able to establish the telephonic contacts from Mumbai.. The Quality control standards manual copy enclosed  displays, the plant numbers in two digits.

 

 

 

 

 

                    For the updates of our orders, we have to get in touch with Samco Madras office, or at times depute staff from our Madras office for the follow up at the plant level. I have also visited Samco metals a couple of times, and was highly impressed with their facilities, and the dedication of the workmen. Work is a worship was their guiding principle, and they were having excellent product quality on account of the devotion of their workmen. 

 

                    Dr.Uday Shankar, was a Technical Director of Samco, and with the combination of the highest level of Technology backup & Dedicated workman-ship, Samco was doing very well on the export front, and with the overall improvement in the quality standards and the manufacturing culture, the ripple effects were also seen in the quality of the castings supplied to the domestic customers, and my organization  was a beneficiary of that.

 

                    I made an inquiry with Samco about the location of the Telegraphic office but was informed that the building was demolished since that was reminding the locals of the treachery committed by their Ancestors.  This is nothing but a slave mindset, which was exploited by the British, to rule India for the 200 years. In my opinion, that building would have been a national monument today, but the locals thought it as a sign of treachery, which is a travesty of the situation.

 

                    In today's modern world, communication [Infrastructure] plays a very important role in the business sustainability, but in spite of the handicap of the communication, Samco was doing very well in the business on account of their quality only. We ourselves [Fouress engineering] were undergoing a lot of hardships for the timely procurement of the supplies, but we tolerated all the problems, on account of virtually zero rejection after the Machining & Hydro-testing, with equally excellent traceability of the Documents, a pre-condition for the export.

 

                    Deliberate Disruption of the contacts with the personal visits, or even with the telephonic means, was a policy adopted by the British to destabilize the communications amongst the freedom fighters, and this objective was achieved by imprisoning of the accused at distance locations, and i quote the following examples for the same.

 

                    Freedom fighters in exile, during the British regime.

 

                    01] Bahadur Shah Jaffar, the last Mugal emperor of India was imprisoned at Rangoon in Burma where he breathed his last. He also wrote a landmark poem " 

न किसी की आँख का नूर हूँ

  ." while in exile.

                    02] Lokmanya Tilak was also imprisoned at Mandalay in Burma.

 

                    03] The King of Burma, was imprisoned at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, and his residence was known as a Thibba palace. Since he was cut off with the fellow Burmese nationals, he came in contact with the locals, and his daughter [Princess of Burma] married a local Cobbler, and after the demise of her husband, the princess of Burma was practicing the profession of her husband for her survival. 

 

                    She was staying in a hut, adjacent to the entrance of the palace. In 1982, i was in Ratnagiri for 4 days, and i went to the Thibba point, to have a panoramic view of the Ratnagiri harbour, and saw her hut, but could not muster the courage to pip in and have a look at the princess. This is the way, British ruthlessly dealt with anybody who crossed their path, when they were ruling the colonies.

 

                    04] Some time in the 1840s, the British exploited the infighting amongst Afgan tribes, and conquered Afghanistan, but were not able to quell the infighting amongst the tribal Chieftains. One of them was brought to India, and rehabilitated in Dehradun in Uttarakhand. While coming, he brought with him the Afgan rice varieties and commenced the farming and that variety is known as  Basmati Rice now.

 

                    The above are some of the examples as to how the British kept the freedom fighters in exile and disrupted the communication amongst them for independence, but that doesn't deter the Indians, to evict the British from India. On the above background, the Vellore revolt was one of them. In 1947, British left India not on their own, but it was only the series of the mini revolts which were responsible for their departure.

 

                    What triggered the Departure of British from India.?

 

                    It is nothing but the series of mini revolts. That apart, a well trained Indian Army, who fought the 2nd World-war with the British, and the British  were afraid that the Army may revolt and that made them take a decision to leave India. That apart, Subhash Chandra Bose has organized a Indian National Army [INA} and INA was to enter India from our North-Eastern states assisted by the Japanese Army. 

 

                    British were certain that, if the INA was able to defeat the British at Kohima, then the entire India would have been a cake walk for the Japanese & INA Army. Plz note that, the fearest battle in the 2nd World war has taken place amongst British & Japanese and INA Army at Kohima in today's Nagaland. 

 

                    So for all practical purposes, the Vellore revolt laid the foundation for the Departure of the British from India. On the above backdrop, we should remember those revolts, and pay our respects to the freedom fighters, who laid down their lives, to evict the occupying forces from the country. But today Vellore, has many other credentials apart from the revolt, as follows,

 

                    Some exclusive credentials of the Vellorites.

 

                    01] Golden Temple [Lakshmi-Narayani] of Hindus, with a beautiful Garden in the background.

                    02] Christen Medical College [CMC} where the first By-Pass surgery of India was conducted.

                    03] Vellore Institute of Technology [VIT] a youngest but still the leading engineering college in India.

 

                    Bottom line. :

 

                    Excellence in the chosen field, appears to be a DNA of the Vellorites.

 

                    Madhav Kapdi.
                     [9860081951]