Sir C P Ramaswami Aiyar – A Biography

Title: Sir C P Ramaswami Aiyar – A Biography
Author: Saroja Sundararajan
Publisher: Allied Publishers, 2002 (First)
ISBN: 8177643266
Pages: 778

‘Diwan’ was the official title of the prominent minister of a king in an Indian state before all of them were folded down in the 1950s. If you ask a person from Kerala to name a Diwan he can think of, it is absolutely certain that the first or even the only name that comes to his mind will be that of Sir Chetpat Pattabhirama Ramaswami Aiyar (1877 – 1966), commonly known as Sir CP. He was well known for his keenness, intelligence and extraordinary charm. As in this book, ‘he was very intelligent and could not be hoodwinked; he was incorruptible and could not be purchased; he was superhumanly courageous and could not be blackmailed’. Sir CP founded many industries in Travancore and his visionary outlook in developing the state’s infrastructure is legendary. However, you won’t see a picture or bust of him in any public place in Kerala which has erased him from public view. He had the misfortune to cap his long association with the state with a severe calling out on the repressive measures he initiated to suppress the democratic aspirations of the people. He successfully contained a communist uprising in Punnapra-Vayalar, but then turned against the national movement too by advocating independence for Travancore when the British left. This was the proverbial last straw. An assassination attempt on his life took place, after which he resigned from his position as Diwan and left Travancore. This book sums up in around 700 pages the tumultuous life of this great scholar-intellectual who was once known to the British as ‘the cleverest man in India’. Saroja Sundararajan is a distinguished administrator and researcher from Tamil Nadu. She served as the principal of several colleges for 26 years. She has several books of a biographical nature to her credit.

This book provides a good overview of CP’s childhood, education and law study without delving into too much detail. His latter day fame as an authoritarian seems to have been moulded from his student days when he was under the control of his strict, disciplinarian father. To prevent the boy from dozing off while studying, a special lectern was made in which he had to stand all the while he was reading. However, he was mindful of serving the society. He joined the Servants of India Society run by Gokhale after graduation. A short while later, he abandoned it and returned to legal profession as per his father’s persuasion. CP joined the Indian National Congress in 1904, two years after becoming a lawyer. He attended the 1907 Surat conference and many such meetings in the following years. He drafted the Lucknow Pact of 1916 which reconciled the Congress with the Muslim League. He was one of the general secretaries of Congress along with Jawaharlal Nehru. CP associated with Annie Besant and engaged in nationalistic work letting go of a lucrative legal practice. Anyhow, it must be stressed that his social work was not full time and he found enough opportunities to engage in legal work commissioned by very prominent clients.

The author does not say so plainly, but CP was disillusioned with Congress following the ascent of Gandhi and his agitation based on mass participation which invariably ended up in violence even though professing lofty platitudes on ahimsa. Sundararajan notes that ‘by the turn of 1918, CP dissociated himself from Congress owing to various factors’ (p.55). These ‘factors’ are not clearly elucidated. It’s a puzzle that the author is reticent to disclose them even after the lapse of a hundred years. Congress had demanded immediate provincial self-rule at that time which was in stark contradiction of its resolve taken a few months back contemplating a gradual takeover. Hardening of such a nationalistic line made several eminent moderate men to leave the party. This was the time when the non-Brahmin movement was gaining momentum in Tamil Nadu. They targeted CP for being Brahmin – or rather, a successful Brahmin – and subjected him to ridicule and criticism. This bordered on intimidation and physical violence that he started carrying a gun with him in 1920. The non-Brahmin movement is not to be confused with Dalit activism. This was an association of non-Brahmin castes of Hinduism, many of them upper castes themselves, who treated the untouchables with equal or perhaps a little more contempt than the Brahmins. CP then turned to government work and was elected to the provincial legislative council in 1920. In the 1923-28 period, he was appointed the advocate general of Madras and later the Law Member of the Governor’s Executive Council. This is equivalent to a ministership in today’s Indian states. At this point, he was instrumental in clearing the Mettur and Paikara dam projects of their legal hurdles. As a kind of promotion, he was elevated to the Viceroy’s Executive Council as Law Member in 1931 which is equivalent to a union cabinet minister today. CP was a close associate and friend of Lord Willingdon when he was the Madras Governor and later as Viceroy. When India was taken out of the fiduciary gold standard and the economic problems developed, Willingdon was on the verge of resigning his post in protest. It was CP who persuaded him to stay on. Even after he left for England, Willingdon closely followed CP’s work in the press with keen interest and provided feedback occasionally. CP was transferred to the Railways and Commerce portfolio in 1932. He was the first lawyer deemed fit to fill that post. The entire British administration evaluated him as ‘the ablest man in India’.

CP had confessed that there was an autocrat in him. This autocrat had his most fulfilling incarnation as the Diwan of Travancore. This job appealed to CP’s heart who returned to it many times after temporary assignments elsewhere. However, Travancore proved to be his nemesis. Had it not been for Travancore, CP would have had a glorious career in post-independent India. CP was fiercely loyal to Maharaja Sree Chithira Thirunal and his adamant upholding of independence for Travancore as per the Maharaja’s wish cost him the goodwill of eminent statesmen who came to power in Delhi after the British left. This book presents a true picture of CP’s involvement with Travancore. Even before his elevation as Diwan, CP intervened with Viceroy Willingdon and high officials in Delhi in advancing the investiture of Chithira Thirunal by as much as ten months, ending the regency of the Maharaja’s aunt. (More stories on the palace intrigues can be obtained from Manu S. Pillai’s ‘The Ivory Throne’ reviewed in December 2019 and ‘History Liberated: The Sree Chithra Saga’ by Princess Aswathi Thirunal reviewed in July 2024). As Diwan, CP instituted many reforms in the social, political, industrial and commercial frameworks of the princely state, the most important being the Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936 permitting entry of untouchable Hindus inside temples. It was the Maharaja’s initiative as well, but some caste Hindus blockaded CP’s house in protest. His granddaughter, a baby of three years, sustained a fracture on her elbow at that time by falling into a pit in the backyard. The crowd prevented her from being taken to hospital chanting ‘let the granddaughter of untouchable CP die’ (chandalante pothi marikkatte, p.317). The child suffered a permanent deformity on the elbow which she later jokingly referred to as her ‘temple entry elbow’.

The book aptly describes the very strong antipathy of Travancore’s Christian community against CP who tried to curtail the unbridled proselytization and mass conversions in the state. Schools run by the Church received aid from the state but imparted Christian religious education to all children with an eye to ‘catch them young’. The percentage of Christians in the population of Travancore made a quantum jump from 20.6% in 1891 to 31.5% in 1931 and that of Hindus dwindled from 73.2% to 61.6% in the same interval. In 1936, the government forbade schools to be held in churches, places of worship or prayer houses. While instituting compulsory primary education, the 1945 educational reforms withdrew grant-in-aid to schools which taught religion. Churches came out strongly against it but CP stood his ground. The Temple Entry Proclamation closed the tap which supplied converts to Christianity. Piqued by the Proclamation, the Christians of Mankompu desecrated a bust of Chithira Thirunal. CP built a police station there and took strict action (p.324). The inveterate hatred of Travancore State Congress (TSC) towards CP was said to be fed by some Christian leaders in the top rung. The Church used British dignitaries also to their aid. Emily Kinnaird, an English lady and MP, freely indulged in a false but vicious propaganda against CP and Travancore itself by accusing them as anti-Christian. Questions were raised in British parliament on ‘persecution’ of Christians in Travancore. The book includes a long chapter on the liquidation of the Travancore National and Quilon Bank and the imprisonment of its Christian proprietors after a long court battle. They had attacked CP through their newspaper ‘Malayala Manorama’. The author claims that CP had no role in the bank’s unravelling and that the law had merely taken its course. But it is likely that CP was the brain behind the initial run on the bank and its eventual collapse.

Sir CP’s descent to disaster began in 1939 when public demands for responsible government became louder and more strident. Confrontations with TSC on the streets upset the tranquillity of the state. CP tried to downplay popular sentiment as roused by Christians on a communal agenda. The author also follows this line, but it seems not true. All sections of the society came out in support for the agitation. CP gagged several newspapers for reporting on the struggle or criticising him. The trait of authoritarianism was becoming clearly visible. There was also a spat with Gandhi around this time. In 1939, Gandhi advised CP to resign as Diwan as he had ‘heard disparaging remarks about his private character from reliable sources’ (p.377). CP began sounding out on the constitutional changes required in Travancore in view of India’s impending independence. Right from the beginning, he was very vocal against the British model having an executive responsible to the elected legislature. He favoured an irremovable executive with no dependence on legislature modelled on the US Constitution.

The ten months from October 1946 to July 1947 were epoch-making in Kerala history for the lightning pace at which far-reaching transformations took place. It began with the armed Punnapra-Vayalar insurrection and ended with the assassination attempt on CP’s life which injured his spirit more than the body. It all began with a communist-orchestrated militant labour movement in Alappuzha. Coir workers demanded bonus irrespective of profit of the company. CP took a pro-labour attitude and persuaded the company owners to grant four per cent bonus as deferred wages. This was before any labour leader had opened his mouth in the conciliation meeting. Having realized their demand for a song, the workers immediately asked for the end of monarchy and replacement of the Diwan. The government could not countenance such purely political demands coming from labour unions. Armed fighting took place between labour unionists and police. The disturbed areas were put under martial law and CP was made the lieutenant general of the army. The fighters in Vayalar were made to believe that they could effortlessly overwhelm the state forces whose weapons were claimed to be not loaded with ammunition! A brutal carnage then ensued and the number of people killed in the encounters is still not indisputably settled. CP felt singled out in this episode. The neighbouring Cochin state abetted in the uprising by taking no steps to prevent its soil from being used as a base for organizing subversive acts in Travancore. This was alleged to be in a bid for gaining popularity for the Cochin ruler. As independence neared, CP was further isolated from the national mainstream as he was not ready to concede paramountcy to the new regime that will be replacing British power. By April 1947, Baroda, Gwalior, Patiala, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Rewa and Cochin joined the constituent assembly, further cutting Travancore off from the tide. The tug of war continued till CP was taken out of the arena by the stroke of a would-be assassin’s sword. The author insists that the attempt on CP’s life had no relation to Travancore’s decision to finally accede to India. Sundararajan again certifies that the decision on Travancore’s status was the prerogative of the Maharaja and CP’s role in it was only advisory in nature. CP had confirmed it by saying that ‘by temperament and training, I am unfit for compromise, being autocratic and over-decisive’. However, CP was pained at his perceived abandonment by the royal family after he resigned as Diwan. The book narrates CP’s life for the next two decades, till his death in 1966. Though he worked as the vice chancellor of BHU and Annamalai universities, no worthwhile job which taxed his considerable talent in law and administration came his way.

A major shortcoming of the book is that it is written in a reporting style of what the subject said and did and not of what he thought. The author is never in touch with CP’s mind. Even though an extensive collection of his writings and speeches are meticulously maintained by the charitable foundation named after him, there is no mention of any diaries in which he recorded his most intimate thoughts. Did CP keep a diary? We may never know. He started writing a book on his ‘times’ towards the final years of his life, but it did not go anywhere. May be this constrained the author from making any analysis or review of her own rather than reproducing, and probably editing too, of what she had gathered from other sources. A touch of humour always attended his demeanour. This is natural in a person who was bandied about as a ‘Ladies’ man’ by his detractors even though the author stoutly rejects this accusation. When he was offered the post of judge early on in his legal career, CP declined saying that he ‘preferred talking nonsense for a few hours a day’ to ‘listening to nonsense every day and all day long’. Through the biography, Sundararajan also provides a broad outline of the progress of constitutional development in India under British rule. CP was closely associated with numerous reform committees in a substantial way. The book does not mention when CP was knighted and for what services he rendered. Another surprising drawback of the book is the total lack of information on CP’s private life. Even though the names of his wife and three children are mentioned, there is no chapter on how the family fared in the face of turbulent opposition engendered by CP’s official work as the Diwan. This is strange, especially from a woman author. The book includes a lot of monochrome pictures depicting various important occasions of his official life, but their reproduction is low-resolution and of poor quality. Considering their historical significance, readers can only hope that the originals are scrupulously preserved.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star