He took on the whole British Empire and literally told them to get out of our country!
Though crowned a Knight, he preferred to be an Bharatiya!
That is the amazing story of Sir Sankaran Nair.
An amazing lawyer and well read too who started small and down south in Madras way back in 1880. Till 1908, he was the Advocate-General to the Government and an Acting Judge from time to time. In 1908, he became a permanent Judge in the High Court of Madras and held the post till 1915.
In his best-known judgment, he upheld conversion to Hinduism and ruled that such converts were not outcasts. He founded and edited the Madras Review and the Madras Law Journal!
In the meantime, in 1902, the Viceroy Lord Curzon appointed him Secretary to the Raleigh University Commission. In recognition of his services, he was appointed a Companion of the Indian Empire by the King-Emperor in 1904 and in 1912 he was knighted!
All was going well till one inhuman act by the British changed it all forever!
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre is one of the biggest crimes committed by the British Empire when this Major and General shot at a meeting of unarmed people including women and children.
Sankaran resigned from the Viceroy’s Council in the aftermath of Jallianwalla Bagh massacre on 13 April 1919.
Sankaran believed in India’s right to self-government. In 1919, he played an important role in the expansion of provisions in the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms which introduced a system of dyarchy in the provinces and increased participation of Indians in the administration. Following the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh, he resigned from the Viceroy’s Council in protest.
In 1922, Sankaran published Gandhi and Anarchy, a book in which he spelt out his critique of Gandhi’s methods of non-violence, civil disobedience, and non-cooperation.
He also accused Michael O’Dwyer, who was Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time of the massacre, of following policies that led to the deaths.
O’Dwyer sued Sankaran for defamation in England, expecting the English court to side with him. The trial before the King’s Bench in London went on for five and a half weeks. It was the longest-running civil case at the time.
The 12-member all-English jury was presided over by Justice Henry McCardie, who made no attempt to hide his bias toward O’Dwyer. The jury sided with O’Dwyer by a majority of 11 against 1, the lone dissent coming from the Marxist political theorist Harold Laski.
Sankaran was ordered to pay £500 and the expenses of the trial to the plaintiff. O’Dwyer said he would forgo the penalty if Nair apologised. Sankaran the nationalist who was not scared refused it on his face which was like a slap to the real criminal!
The trial had a resounding impact on the British empire in India. At a time when the nationalist movement was gaining momentum, Indians saw in the judgement the clear bias of the British against them and an effort to shield their own!
The trial and the massacre made the country united and made them realise that our country is only for Indians! The British Empire would always put themselves first!
The freedom we achieved is thus a collective of all these great nationalists, many who were not even mentioned in our textbooks!
Then again everyone knows the first man to climb Mt Everest! The other one was also very much the first! Tenzing Norgay!
Praying for the poor souls martyred in Pahalgam…
Heartfelt condolences…
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