In India, around the time of independence, a trend emerged among people who had advocated the removal of statues or memorials that they viewed as despicable relics of Britain’s past. However, what is not discussed much is that even about 100 years ago – also when the British Raj was flourishing – Madras (Chennai) witnessed an intense agitation to remove the statue of a British military officer, James George Smith Neil.
Located at what is now called the Spencer’s junction – the junction of Mount Road (now Anna Salai) and Binny Road, the statue had served as a major landmark of Madras for over 75 years in the latter part of the 19th century.e Century CE and early 20th centurye Century CE.
Who was James George Smith Neil?
During the Great Rebellion of 1857, Neil, who was attached to the Madras Fusiliers, played a role in brutally putting down the rebels but died in service. To the Indians, however, he was the ‘butcher of Allahabad’ [now known as Praygraj].” A bronze statue made in Scotland was installed in his memory in August 1861, the cost (₹18,953) of which was largely borne by the British.
For over 55 years, the city of Madras did not protest ‘Neil’s presence’. But by the end of the 1920s, patriotic fervor was reviving after a period of inertia. Yet the nationalists were divided into two camps: the Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi, and the Swarajists had adopted conflicting lines of thought with the former boycotting legislature and the latter remaining members. Younger generations of people in India, like their counterparts in many other countries, increasingly came under the influence of Karl Marx. The demand for complete freedom from British rule became louder and louder.
In response to the formation of an all-white committee, headed by John Simon, to propose constitutional changes in India and to the continued refrain of the then Minister of India, Lord Birkenhead, about the inability of Indians to formulate a concrete constitutional plan, the Congress decided to draft a ‘Swaraj’ Constitution during the Chennai session in December 1927. The result of this step was the Nehru Report which was essentially written by Motilal Nehru, after a series of meetings with other parties.
The beginning of the opposition
It was against this backdrop that the agitation against the Neil statue began in August 1927. On the morning of August 10, 1927, two youths from Madurai – Mohammed Saliah and Subbarayulu Naidu – were dressed in Khadi and wearing Gandhi caps, he came across the statue of Neil with a hanging sword at the Spencer junction. Both were members of the Tamil Nadu Volunteer Corps. While they were “reminded” of Neil’s action [in 1857]according to a report from The Hindu The next day the two, armed with an axe, a chisel and a ladder, “determined to cut off the sword and damage the statue.”
A few days later the force held a meeting in Madurai under the chairmanship of Srinivasavarada Iyengar and ‘a large meeting’ was gathered, this newspaper reported on August 16, 1927. Iyengar sought people’s support and sympathy for the ‘movement of Satyagraha’, which the volunteers hoped to initiate soon. Gradually the issue started to gain steam.
At the Madras Corporation Council meeting on August 17, M. Singaravelu Chettiar, who belonged to the fishing community, wanted to raise the issue but was not allowed. Chettiar became known as ‘South India’s first communist’ because he had chaired the first conference of communists in Kanpur in 1925. When two members of the Satyagraha Committee, Angachi Ammal and Lokaiah Naidu, were arrested for their agitation, it was Chettiar who, single-handedly, appeared in a court on their behalf and defended them, according to a biography written by K. Murugesan and CS Subramanyam on Chettiar.
Gandhi’s opinion
Meanwhile, twenty representatives of the Satyagraha panel met twice with Mahatma Gandhi, who was in Chennai in September 1927, and sought his support. On September 10, The Hindu published an extensive report detailing the observation, “with the approval of Mahatma Gandhi.” The members had a free-flowing discussion and Gandhi made it bluntly clear to them that he should not expect public associations, including the Congress, to guide them. He explained to them why the organization would not be able to support them.
Gandhi called the agitation ‘sectional’, which he clarified and did not mean communally, but said: ‘If the Congress is called upon to help such movements, it will cut a sorry figure. Congress has a status and a reputation to lose. Therefore, it is much better for you young men not to expect that Congress or other public bodies will immediately support your movement.” At the same time, he told the young people that he would support them “as long as I find you on the right path.”
Mahatma Gandhi. File | Photo credit: Getty Images
In the fourth week of the month, Chettiar had again raised the issue of removal of the statue at the Madras Corporation Council meeting and wanted the local body to pass a resolution, which was “merely a request to the government to remove the statue from the place”, said The Hindu on September 24, 1927.
Chettiar told the Council that the issue “attracted the attention of all India and had the tendency to create a major crisis” in the city. This time too G. Narayanaswami Chetti, the President of the Corporation [which was how the post of Mayor was called then]did not allow the motion to be filed. One of the points that emerged in the public debate was that the statue was a “stumbling block” to traffic.
In November that year, when the Legislative Council saw a motion on the same issue defeated, Gandhi noted that “the innocent resolution calling for the removal of the offending statue was lost by an overwhelming majority.” Pointing out that almost all Indian members, “except the loyal ones”, were against the resolution, he stated that “this vote and debate is a further demonstration of the fact that Swaraj is being delayed not so much by the stubbornness of the English rulers as by our own refusal to recognize and work for our status,” he said. The Hindu on November 7, 1927.
Police protection
As the years passed, the statue issue did not disappear. Whenever public protests against the statue were organized, authorities had deployed police to guard it. The Madras Corporation informed the British government about the relocation of the statue from Mount Road in May 1937. This was revealed by Mayor K. Sriramulu Naidu at a Council meeting on July 6, 1937 in response to a question from veteran Congress leader and a Councilor, S. Satyamurti.
The removal
On July 14, the Congress regime, led by C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji or CR), took over. Four months later came the official announcement that “in deference to public sentiment as expressed from time to time”, the removal of Neil’s statue from its current location had been ordered and that the statue would be retained in the Government Museum. [in Egmore]reported The Hindu on November 15, 1937.
C. Rajagopalachari. File | Photo credit: The Hindu Archives
On the night of November 21, the removal of the statue was carried out by a number of workmen under the supervision of a Rijkswaterstaat official. The entire operation took almost five hours. The statue was placed on a four-wheeled cart and taken to the museum, which was reached at 3 o’clock in the morning,” said this newspaper on November 22, 1937.
The issue reaches the British Parliament
The statue’s removal was even debated in the British Parliament and there were suggestions from citizens of the Western country that the statue be sent to London. Reacting to the development, Rajaji, during his visit to Visakhapatnam on December 3, explained to journalists why his government wanted to preserve the statue, not necessarily for public display.
He explained that there was “no contradiction” in his government’s attitude when they did not want it as “a continuing series of irritations, but claim that they hold it and intend to hold it with care.” He added that “the statue that belonged to us in Madras should be preserved. We had become, even more than ever before, responsible for its preservation and cannot consent to the statue being sent anywhere as it would then become a permanent focus of misrepresentation of our stance on this matter.”
Where is the statue now?
Ten days later, the government had announced that the statue would be kept in the veranda next to the museum’s armory gallery. A report published by this newspaper on November 24, 1940, stated that the statue “stands in the archaeological section of the museum, between the Connemara Library and the Museum Theater.”
The statue, which once aroused strong public feelings, has been a “constant resident” of a small space in the museum for almost 90 years.
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