On the part played by Tamilagam in India’s freedom struggle, today marks an important day. In March 1908, thousands of protesters gathered at Tuticorin to protest against the arrest of Bipin Chandra Pal. Both V.O.Chidambaram Pillai & Subramanya Siva spoke against the atrocities 
of British government. It must be noted that British Govt. banned all public meetings during this time. These protests continued even in Tirunelveli despite the ban and another meeting was conducted in "Thai Poosa Mandapam". Infuriated with this, Collector Wynch ordered both
VOC and Siva to meet him on March 12th 1908. During the meeting he asked both of them to apologise for disobeying the govt. order, stop these protest meetings & stop asking everyone to say "Vande Mataram". Both of them refused to do so. Immediately both Siva & VOC were arrested
Angered by their arrests, protesters gathered in large numbers on March 13, 1908 in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin. They set fire to Tirunelveli Municipal Corporation office. As things went out of hand, sub collector Ashe directly got into action. A boy was killed by him
as he shot him with a revolver. Three others were also killed in the police shootout. Many were arrested. This is known as the Tirunelveli uprising in the annals of history. A fallout of this is that both V.O.C and Siva were convicted for abetting the uprising.
Two life sentences (40 years) were imposed on V.O.C. Siva was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company started by V.O.C was wrecked by his imprisonment & eventually closed down. Siva got leprosy during the imprisonment & has to suffer
due to that for rest of his life. It’s time to remember these great patriots on this important day in our freedom movement.
#AmritMahotsav #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav
#AmritMahotsav #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav
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