Bombardment of Madras

[Marxist]

The raid on Madras of 22 September 1914 was typical of the daring that made the Emden the most famous German commerce raider of the First World War. Having entered the Bay of Bengal in early September, she had sailed north along the shipping lane from Colombo to Calcutta, capturing seven steamers and forcing the British to close the shipping lane. She had then travelled east to Burma, but without success. Captain von Müller became aware that powerful British cruisers were beginning to enter the Bay of Bengal from the east, and were planning to patrol the mouth of the bay. Accordingly he decided to dash west across the bay, attack the port of Madras, and then escape to the south before the British cruisers had reached so far west.

The Emden arrived at Madras at 9.20pm on 22 September, after dark. Under cover of the dark she got close into shore, and opened fire on her target, the oil storage tanks of the Burmah Oil Company. Five tanks were hit. One was empty. On another the German shell entered the tank above the level of the oil, and no fire began. On a third a shell hit but exploded outside the tank. The final two tanks caught fire, and burnt until all 425,000 gallons of oil had burnt away.

The only other damage came while the Emden was getting her range – the steamer Chupra was damaged, and some shells fell in the town of Madras. Alerted by the gunfire, the coastal defence batteries of Madras then opened fire on the Emden. Von Müller turned away, and made his escape down the east coast of Sri Lanka. The Emdenwould then have a very successful period raiding off Colombo and the southern tip of India.

The raid on Madras had a massive impact on the trade of India. All along the coast traders fled into the hills. Much to the alarm of the British tea exports fell, and stayed low until the Emden had been sunk. Just as serious was a fall in the export of jute, a natural fibre used in hessian cloth and burlap. The shipping lanes in the Bay of Bengal, opened at 8 am on 22 September, had to be closed once again. The attack on Madras was an unusual act for a commerce raider, but played a big part in the success of the Emden.

photograph of the light cruiser SMS Emden.


Oil tanks on fire in the harbor of Madras (Chennai, India) following the bombardment by German light cruiser S.S. Emden on 22 September 1914

 

[Marxist]

Emden had a very strong Malayali/Tamil connection this anti imperialist attack was apparently directed by the Ship’s engineer Champakaraman Pillai, assisting the captain Helmut Von Mueller.
S Muthaiah states - Fanciful legends abound of his (Pillai) being Mueller's second-in-command, of his directing the firing on specific targets in and around Madras Harbour, and of his rowing ashore at Cochin to greet his family and admirers! Authentic records of the voyage of the Emden do not corroborate any of this, but they do speak of his work aboard the cruiser and his post-War attempts to gather in Germany an anti-British group of Indians, a forerunner to the Indian National Army. His volunteer force, another legend has it, was the inspiration for Netaji Subash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army.

 

[Marxist]

Champaka Raman Pillai – The forgotten freedom fighter

He was born on Sept 15th, 1891 in Trivandrum to police constable (One relative mentions that the father was the Travancore royal physician) Chinnaswamy Pillai and Nagammal of the Vellala community. Pillai was greatly influenced by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and his journal, Kesari, and when Tilak was arrested and sentenced to transportation, Pillai pledged lifelong dedication to the cause of India's liberation. It was at this time that Pillai came into contact with an Englishman, Strickland, and with the latter's help left India bound for Italy when he was seventeen years old. Even from his younger days there was spirit of revolution in his blood.
n the course of his short life abroad he was to meet many famous and infamous people, including Gandhiji, Nehru, ACN Nambiar, Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru, MN Roy, Chatto, NSC Bose, Kaiser, Hindenberg, Hitler and many others in the Nazi party. He even served aboard the Emden during its voyage and probably partook in its shelling of Madras living his last years in Germany, dying before the world war. All through this period he worked for India’s freedom, though ending up choosing the wrong route and some wrong friends in the process. Some even say that he was the inspiration behind NSC Bose.

 

[Marxist]

Anti British activities
As a student in Berlin, he formed the Aid India International Committee that campaigned for India’s liberation. When World War I (1914-1918) broke out, he established the Indian Independence Committee and the Indian Voluntary Corps. He also set up an army camp at Mesopotamia from where he established secret contacts with Indian nationalist leaders.

Dr Champakaraman Pillai then helped set up an organization called International Pro-India Committee at Zurich before the outbreak of the World War I. During the war Dr Champakaraman Pillai intensified his revolutionary activities. By 1914 Pillai had organized and created a revolution movement in Zurich (with the support of the German Counsel for his activities). The other members of his group were Chatto, Prabhakar & Hafiz, later joined by Har Dayal & Thara Chandar Das. All these people reached Berlin either through USA or Switzerland, two neutral states.

During the World War I in 1914, an organization was established in Germany, namely the Berlin Committee. After 1915, it was renamed the Indian Independence Committee. The organization was formed by Indian students and political activists who resided in the Germany. The organization was established with the aim to promote the cause of Indian Independence. In the beginning the organization was called the Berlin-Indian Committee. Later, this Berlin-Indian Committee played an instrumental part in the Hindu-German Conspiracy. Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, Champakaraman Pillai and Abinash Bhattacharya were the key members of the committee.

During the First World War, he is said to have printed & dropped pamphlets from airplanes among the Indian soldiers in France, exhorting them to turn against the English

Responding to “Fourteen Points” of the then President of the United States Woodrow Wilson, Chempakaraman came up with an Eight Point proposal for Indian independence. His proposal demanded the French and the Portuguese also to leave the country.

In 1919, he and American author Edwin Emerson established the League of the Oppressed People to fight for the right of every person to shape his own domestic institutions and determine their relations with others.

Chempakaraman launched Pro-India, a monthly published in German and English from Zurich, Switzerland, through which he highlighted the glorious past of India.

Another institution founded by him at Berlin was the “Orient Club.”

Post world war I
After the war, Champak became a Member of the nationalist party of Germany. Champakraman Pillai was not pro-Nazi as some said, but was apparently murdered (poisoned or beaten to death) by Hitler’s goons. In the Pan German Nationalist party, he was the only non-white man to have the honor and with his shiny black complexion, was proud of the distinction. Having met Kaiser Wilhelm and claming close friendship with two important Generals, Hindenberg and Ludendorf, he was considered something of a dandy with perfect drawing room manners. Pillai was then active in the German Fatherland Party. In later years in Berlin, where he died, he remained one of the very few Indians in Germany.

After the world war when Hitler came to power, Dr Champakaraman Pillai developed a working relationship with Hitler with a hope of getting military assistance to end the British rule in India. Though he had a friendly relation with Hitler, he could not tolerate a derogatory remark made by the latter against India. This led to discordance between them and an enraged Hitler ordered the confiscation of Champakaraman Pillai’s property. This incident hurt him deeply and it turned out to be the cause of his death on May 13, 1934.

By 1930’s he had become upset with Hitlers attitude about Indians, comments about color and other principles, especially those expressed in speeches and his book. Hitler had stated that Indians deserved to be ruled by the British and stated that they were not Aryans due to the color. Finally he chose to protest, in 1931, writing a complaint to him with a deadline for an answer. While many say the letter was addressed to the fuehrer, it was actually sent to the secretary. The reply of apology apparently came one day later than Pillai required. Pillai first wanted to send the letter dated 10/12/1931 to Hitler direct, after listening to his press conference words at otel Hotel Kaiserhof in Dec 1931, but then changed his mind and sent it to the Reich Chancellor

His secret name
Many of the Indians were on the English secret service watch lists, they were all entrusted with special tasks and Pillai worked under the assumed German East African name Abdullah Bin Manzur.

Swadeshi movement
In 1924, Dr Champakaraman Pillai organized the first exhibition of Indian Swadeshi goods at the international fair held at Leipzig.

Free government of India 1915
He had the privilege of being the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of India set up in Afghanistan in December 1915, with Raja Mahendra Pratap of Kabul as President. However, the defeat of the Germans in the war shattered the hopes of the revolutionaries. On the other hand, some documents list him actually as Foreign minister

Pillai and the INA
Pillai was the forerunner of Rash Behari Bose and Subhas Chandra Bose in organizing an Indian Army abroad to strike against the enemies at home. In 1933, Dr Champakaraman Pillai met Subhash Chandra Bose, and they jointly conceived the idea of Azad Hind

 

[Marxist]

salutation Jai Hind used in India in speeches and communications pertaining to or referring to patriotism towards India (also known as Hind). It means roughly "Victory to India"[1] or "Long live India".[2] The Indian revolutionary Champakaraman Pillai introduced the salutation.WE still use this term and forgotten the man who introduced that salutation

Jai Hind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia