On 12 November C.R. received Richard Wood, Minister for Overseas Development in the UK and, more important for C.R., son of Lord Irwin, the Viceroy who had signed the famous pact with the Mahatma. Wood would prove to be the last in the long line of C.R.’s foreign callers.
Came the 94th birthday. In a short para for Dear Reader, the statesman said he ‘prized’ the ‘good wishes from many friends’ and added:
My call to all people is that there should be a summit meeting as soon as possible . . . to take the Simla accord to its true fulfilment (Swarajya, 9.12.72).
This plea for Indo-Pak reconciliation would be his last Swarajya piece.
On a morning in early December Namagiri noticed stains on her father’s pillow: his mouth had dripped blood during the night. A few days later he shouted from the bathroom. Those rushing in found him seated on a stool and unable to return to his bed. ‘I am afraid,’ he told Lakshmi later that day.
On 17 December, his illness described as uraemia and dehydration, an ambulance took him away to General Hospital, where he was put on the drip. He seemed to be trying to finger with his free hand the passage for glucose made on his left arm, and a grandson asked him not to. ‘Yes, yes,’ the man of words replied, ‘Let not the right hand know what the left is doing,’ adding, after a pause, ‘Or is it the other way around.’22
‘I have been brought here to die,’ he said shortly afterwards. Karunanidhi and his ministerial colleagues turned up. Taking the Chief Minister’s palm in one hand, with the other the sage stroked Karunanidhi’s head and face in blessing, saying, in Tamil, ‘I will never withdraw my friendship.’ Then he took Nedunchezhian’s hand, addressed him by name, and blessed him.
Next morning a grin formed on the aged face when Rajaji was told that he had made the front page again by entering hospital. Informed the following day that the newspapers had reported ‘satisfactory progress’ by him, he smiled and said, ‘I don’t trust such unreliable news.’
His curiosity and culture were intact. ‘Where are you from?’ he asked a young house surgeon. ‘Madras,’ the doctor replied. ‘Which part of Madras?’ ‘Chromepet, sir.’ Weak as he was, he offered his hand to all the doctors who went up to him If their questions were not clear, he would gently ask, ‘I beg your pardon?’ Once, noticing two nurses, he whispered to a grandson sitting next to his bed, ‘Am I properly dressed?’
Telegrams from far and near built a mound. Life was painstakingly defended at General Hospital by doctors and nurses and the former head of state had a room to himself, but the care he was receiving was not private. The people of Madras — whom he had loved and tried to serve — thronged the hospital’s corridors and verandas.
On the night of 22 December, C.R. replied, his eyes closed, ‘I am happy,’ when asked how he felt. At 3.00 a.m., however, he was found to be unconscious and put on oxygen.
A heaving chest was now the only sign of life. As had been done with his father, his father’s father and ancestors all the way back to Nallan Chakravarti and beyond, water from the holy Ganga was introduced into his mouth with a copper spoon. Again in accordance with ancient custom, a Vaishnavite priest and Narasimhan (Krishnaswami was too ill to have a part) pronounced into C.R.’s ear the verse of surrender: ‘I take refuge in Narayana.’
President Giri, Periyar E.V.R. in his wheelchair, Chief Minister Karunanidhi, a red-eyed Kamaraj, M.G.R. with his jaunty cap, T.T. Krishnamachari, Masani, Ranga and other figures of Indian politics filled the patient’s room. In the world outside, other important persons phoned or wired their concern and pondered the tributes they should offer.
‘Rajaji Critically Ill,’ the Indian Express banner headline said the next morning. But the subject had not lost his unpredictability, nor the warrior his fight. He rallied and mouthed some words. Rallying, he stole an additional headline. On the following day, the lead story in the Express began, ‘Frail old Rajaji staged a remarkable rally yesterday . . .’
After word of deterioration spread on Saturday the 23rd, vast numbers had penetrated General Hospital; they returned on Sunday on hearing that the old sage was, astonishingly, improving. But by Monday morning he was again in a coma. That afternoon, surrounded by loved ones, doctors and nurses, by several of the nation’s and Tamil Nadu’s leaders and by a segment of the great, winding throng that pressed past his hospital room, the air over him thick with the petition of several choking men and women commending the fleeing soul to God, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari breathed his last. The time was 5.44 p.m., the date, 25 December, Christmas Day. It was also, by the Hindu calendar, the day of the death of the Vaishnava saint, Nammalwar.
Notes
PREFACE
1. Letter from Lionel Fielden to C.R., 14.8.62, Rajagopalachari Papers.
2. See Chapter 4.
3. Illustrated Weekly, 13.8.61.
4. Swarajya, 25.4.70.
1. MANGA
1. Sir Verney Lovett, A History of the Indian Nationalist Movement, John Murray, London, 1921, Ch.1.
2. Ibid.
3. Though C.R.’s birthday was at times observed on 8 December, research by T. Sadasivam, who was helped by C.R.’s daughter Namagiri, seemed to establish 10 December as the correct date.
4. Le Fanu, A Manual of Salem District, Government Press, Madras, 1883, pp. 128-9.
5. C.R. in Swarajya, 17.6.61.
6. C.R. in Swarajya, 24.2.68.
7. C.R. in Swarajya, 17.12.60.
8. Wenlock to Lord Hamilton; letter 6.2.1896, Wenlock Papers, India Office Library (IOL), London.
9. To the author, in Madras.
10. The father did not wholly dismiss the astrologer’s word. Hearing of a prediction that the son of an acquaintance would become a Dewan (Premier of a principality), Iyengar commented: ‘That is nothing. My son will become Viceroy.’
11. See Monica Felton, I Meet Rajaji, Macmillan, London, 1962, p. 24.
12. Rajaji 93, p. 69.
13. Krishna Iyer to author and in Kalki, 8.12.57.
14. C.R., Chats Behind Bars, Ganesan, Madras, 1931, pp. 46-8.
15. Krishna Iyer in Kalki, 8.12.57.
16. C.R., Chats Behind Bars, p. 48.
17. Quoted by Masti Venkatesa Iyengar in Rajaji 93, pp. 113-4.
18. Rama Rao in Kalki, 8.12.57.
19. C.S. Bhasker, Bar-at-law, to author, Bangalore, 1973.
20. S. Vijiaraghavachariar, Salem advocate, to C.R. Narasimhan and K. Vedamurthy, 1973.
21. R. Sundaram, Bhavan’s Journal, Bombay, 21.12.75.
22. S. Vijiaraghavachariar to Narasimhan and Vedamurthy.
23. T.V. Lakshminarayana Rao, Salem advocate, and C.S. Bhasker, Bar-at-law, to C.R. Narasimhan, 1973.
24. K.S. Ramaswami Sastri, Rajaji 93, p. 266.
25. Krishna Iyer to author, Madras, 1973.
26. C.R. in Young India, 5. 7. 23; P.T. Venkatachar, advocate, to author, 1973.
27. C.S. Bhasker to Narasimhan and to author.
28. K.N. Sundararajan, son of Narasimha Iyengar, to Narasimhan and Vedamurthy.
29. V.P. Raman in Rajaji 93, p. 220A.
30. Diary extracts in Rajaji, Hindustan Publications, Madras, 1949.
31. Based on accounts provided to author by C.R., C.R. Krishnaswami, Namagiri, and C. Samachar, and on article by Khasa Subba Rau in Swarajya, 5.11.60.
2. HOPE
1. C.R. to Devadas Gandhi, 4.2.20, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
2. C.R. quoted by Khasa Subba Rau, Swarajya, 5.11.60.
3. Krishna Iyer in Kalki, 8.12.57.
4. Paper by C.R. read before the Salem Literary Society and reproduced in Indian Review, Madras, May 1916.
5. Brecher, M., Nehru, Oxford, London, 1959, p. 60.
6. Geoffery Ashe, Gandhi: A Study in Revolution, Asia, Bombay, 1968. p. 146.
7. Letter of 8.12.49 in Durga Das (ed.), Sardar Patel’s Correspondence, Navajivan, Ahmedabad, vol.8, pp. 220-2.
8. The Hindu, 25.5.17.
9. The Hindu, 1.6.17.
10. Station incident describ
ed to author by C. Samachar, who was present.
11. From The Hindu, 12.5.18 & 16.5.18, and K.S. Venkataraman in Rajaji, Hindustan Publications, 1949.
12. The Hindu, 2.8.18.
13. See K.S. Venkataraman in Rajaji, Hindustan, 1949.
14. The Hindu, 14.8.18.
15. Report of 17.7.19 in File 2000M of 1919, Tamil Nadu Archives.
16. E.S. Balasubramania Iyer, the clerk in question, recalling the remark to C.R. Narasimhan and K.Vedamurthy, Salem, 1973.
17. The Hindu, July 1918; and C.R., Chats Behind Bars, p. 72.
18. Kamaraj in Rajaji 93, p. 105.
19. Legh’s comment of 17.6.18 and Graham’s of 2.8.18 in File 1301M of 1918, Tamil Nadu Archives.
20. File 2000M of 1919, Tamil Nadu Archives.
21. Trial quotes from The Hindu, 11.10.18, 10-13.12.18, and 17.1.19.
22. Trichy speech in The Hindu, 16.1.19.
23. Young India, 8.11.28.
24. Gandhi in Young India, 8.11.28.
25. Report of 25.3.19 in Secret File 222 of 1919, Tamil Nadu Archives.
26. Moore’s report in Secret File 271 of 1919, Tamil Nadu Archives.
27. C.R. in Secret File 271 of 1919, Tamil Nadu Archives.
3. BATTLE
1. Gandhi to C.R., 3.7.19, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG).
2. Phrases in leaflet dated 5.5.19 published by C.R. and contained in Secret File 271 of 1919, Tamil Nadu Archives.
3. Willingdon to Montagu, 9.6.19, in Willingdon Papers, India Office Library, London.
4. Cable dated 19.9.19 in Home (Pol.) B Series, National Archives, New Delhi.
5. Geoffrey Ashe, Gandhi: A Study in Revolution, Asia, Bombay, 1968, p. 189.
6. Quoted in Pattabhi Sitaramayya, History of the Indian National Congress, AICC, Allahabad, 1935, pp. 319-20.
7. C.R. in Young India, 5.4.23.
8. In File 14 of Nov. 1919, Home (Pol.) Deposit, National Archives.
9. Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.1, p. 329.
10. C.R. to Devadas Gandhi, 28.2.20, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
11. In Files 106 and 97 of July 1920, Home (Pol.) Deposit, National Archives.
12. File 97, Home (Pol.) Deposit, National Archives.
13. Tait-C.R. discussion recalled by C.R. in Report of College Day Celebrations, Central College Old Boys’ Association, Bangalore, 1937.
14. C.R.Narasimhan, Rajaji 93, p. 243; and Namagiri to author.
15. Communication of 4.9.20 from the Government of India, in Public and Judicial Records, 1920, India Office Library, London.
16. Quoted in Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol. 2, p. 38.
17. C.R. to Devadas, Nov. 1920, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
18. See Knapp, Chief Secretary, Madras, to O’Donnell, Officiating Home Secretary, Govt. of India, 1.2.21, File 43 of 1921, and Marjoribanks, Chief Secretary, Madras, to Home Secretary, Govt. of India, 28.8.21, File 18 of 1921, Home (Pol.) Deposit, National Archives.
19. See Krishnadas, Seven Months with Mahatma Gandhi, Ganesan, Madras, 1928.
20. Willingdon to Reading, Sept. 1921, Willingdon Papers, India Office Library, London.
21. Tendulkar, D.G., Mahatma, vol. 2, Bombay, 1951 p. 89.
22. C.R., Chats Behind Bars, Ganesan, Madras, 1931, p. 50.
23. C.R. to Devadas, 15.12.21, SN 23629, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
24. Telegram from Gandhi to C.R., Dec. 1921, in Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
25. C.R. to Devadas, 18.21.21, SN 23619, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
4. JAIL
1. C.R. to Gandhi, 21.12.21, in Young India, 12.1.22.
2. Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.2, p. 106.
3. Quoted in C.F. Andrews, ‘Heart Beats in India,’ Asia, March 1930, p. 198.
5. HERO
1. Report by Tasadduq Hussain, Intelligence Officer, File 900/III of 1922, Home (Pol.), National Archives.
2. M. Nehru to S. Satyamurti, 27.11.22, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), New Delhi.
3. Rainy to Govt. of India, 7.1.23, File 18 of 1922, Home (Pol.), National Archives.
4. Subhas Bose, The Indian Struggle, Asia, Bombay, 1964, p. 82.
5. P.C. Ghosh, From Nagpur to Lahore, Abhoy Ashram, Comilla.
6. Prasad in Swarajya, Madras, 8.12.62.
7. Reading to Peel, 6.12.23, File 280 of 1923, Home (Pol.), National Archives.
8. Foregoing account from Young India issues of Sept.20 & 27, Oct. 4, and Nov. 22, 1923.
9. See article by P.C. Ray in Rajaji 93, p. 96.
10. C.R. to Devadas, SN 8155, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
11. Mahadev Desai, Diary, vol.4, pp. 19-20.
12. Gandhi to C.R., SN 8566A, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
13. Gandhi to C.R., SN 8571, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
14. C.R. to Devadas, 29.3.24, SN 8629, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
15. C.R. to Devadas, 12.5.24, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
16. C.R. to Devadas, 29.3.24, SN 8629, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
17. Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.2, p. 172; and Gandhi to C.R., 6.9.24, in Desai, Diary, vol.4, p. 175.
18. C.R. to Gandhi, 24.7.25, SN 8999, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
19. C.R. to Devadas, 26.9.24, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
20. C.R. to Devadas, 6.10.24, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
21. Wire from C.R. to Gandhi, Nov. 1924, SN 15941, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
22. Gandhi to C.R., 14.11.24 in Desai, Diary, vol.5, p. 22.
23. C.R. to Devadas, 15.1.25, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
24. A.K. Venkatesan in Rajaji 93, p. 236A.
25. Ibid.
26. Mahadev Desai, Diary, vol.6, pp. 134-41.
27. C.R. to Devadas, 19.7.25, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
28. Mahadev Desai, Diary, vol.7, p. 125.
29. C.R. to Devadas, July 1925, Devadas Gandhi Papers.
30. See C.R. to Devadas, 24.12.25, and Desai, Diary, vol.8, p. 28.
31. Young India, 14.1.26.
6. ASHRAM
1. C.R. to Gandhi, January 1926, SN 10684, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
2. C.R. to Desai, 20.1.26, SN 10687, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
3. Account of Morris College meeting from Desai, Diary, vol. 8, p.356.
4. Srinivasa Iyengar to C.R., 4.10.26, SN 11334, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
5. C.R.’s comment related to author in 1973 by Nittoor Srinivasa Rau, who was present.
6. C.R. to Desai, 10.4.27, SN 13274, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
7. See CWMG, 35:32.
8. Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.2, p. 385 & pp.396-7.
9. C.R. quoted in Mahadev Desai. The Story of Bardoli, Navajivan, Ahmedabad, 1929, p.266.
10. C.R. to Gandhi, 13.1.28, SN 13050, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
11. Gandhi to C.R., 27.5.28, SN 13232; C.R. to Gandhi, 31.5.28, SN 13398, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
12. C.R. to Gandhi, 26.5.28, SN 13391, Rajghat Sangrahalaya; & Gandhi to C.R., 3.7.28, Rajagopalachari Papers.
13. In Desai, Diary, vol.7, p.39.
14. Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.2, p.441.
15. C.R. to Gandhi, 18.8.28, SN 15479, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
16. Gandhi to C.R., 18.10.29, SN 15683, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
17. Gandhi to C.R., 23.2.29, Rajagopalachari Papers.
18. Marjorie Sykes in Rajaji 93, p.75.
19. V. Balasubramanian in Rajaji 93, p.219.
20. In his foreword to Indian Prohibition Manual, AICC, 1931.
21. Postscript to ‘Simplified Marriage,’ short story by C.R, in Ashram File, ‘Press: 1929-31,’ Rajagopalachari Papers.
7. VEDARANYAM
1. From reports of speeches in Ashram File, ‘Press: 1929-31,’ Rajagopalachari Papers.
2. Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.3, pp.6-7.
3. From reports of speeches in Ashram File, ‘Press: 1929-31,’ Rajagopalachari Papers.
4. Geoffrey Ashe, Gandhi, p.284.
5. SN 16659, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
6. Ashe, Gandhi, p.287.
7. Cotton, Additional Chief Secretary, Madras, to Haig, Home Secretary, Government of India, 4.3.30, File 18
of 1930, National Archives.
8. Thorne to Cotton, Chief Secretary, Madras, 3.4.30, in USS File 687 of 1930, Tamil Nadu Archives.
9. Note by Cotton, Chief Secretary, ibid.
10. To Narasimhan and Lakshmi, 14.4. & 16.4.30, Narasimhan Papers.
11. USS File 687 of 1930, Tamil Nadu Archives.
12. From ‘The Congress Fight’ by C.R. in File ‘AICC: 1935,’ Rajagopalachari Papers.
13. From article by C.R., ‘The Congress Fight,’ File ‘AICC: 1935,’ Rajagopalachari Papers.
14. C.R. to Lakshmi, 30.4.30, C.R. Narasimhan Papers.
15. Confidential Report on the Civil Disobedience Movement (Madras) 1930-1, quoted in B.S. Baliga, Tanjore District Handbook, Government of Madras, 1957.
16. Irwin quoted in Brecher, Nehru, p.153.
17. Alan Campbell-Johnson, Viscount Halifax, p.268.
18. From letter from C.R. dated 24.6.30 in File GO 2617 of 1930, Tamil Nadu Archives.
19. All quotes from Chats Behind Bars.
20. Statements by C.R. in Ashram File ‘Press 1929-31’, Rajagopalachari Papers.
21. Note dated 28.10.30 signed ‘G.F.S.’ in USS File 699G of 1930, Tamil Nadu Archives.
22. Gandhi to Narandas Gandhi, 16-21.10.30, CWMG 44:240.
23. G. Ramachandran, quoting his diary, in Rajaji 93, pp. 148-9.
24. C.R. to Anderson, 25.12.30, in Ashram File ‘Prohibition,’ Rajagopalachari Papers.
25. Irwin quoted in Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.3, pp.60-2.
8. STIGMA
1. Recalled by C.R. in Swarajya, 1.6.57.
2. Shiva Rao, India’s Freedom Movement, Longman, 1972, p.238.
3. Ian Stephens, Monsoon Morning, Ernest Benn, London, 1966, p.75.
4. Churchill quoted in Madhu Limaye, Prime Movers, Radiant, New Delhi, 1985, p.34.
5. Sitaramayya, History of Congress, p.786.
6. Tendulkar, Mahatma, vol.3, pp.81-2.
7. See CWMG 45:379-80.
8. Letter of 24.9.31, SN 17838, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
9. Letter of 9.5.31, Rajagopalachari Papers.
10. Letter of 24.9.31, SN 17838, Rajghat Sangrahalaya.
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