Chettiar and The Congress
When Gandhi launched non-cooperation movement starting from September 1920 to February 1922 Chettiar accepted Gandhi's leadership and became one of the influential leaders of the Presidency Congress Party. He set fire to his lawyer's gown at a public meeting on May 1921 as symbolic of boycotting the British courts. In May 1921, he wrote a letter to Mahatma Gandhi explaining his action, "I have given up my profession as a lawyer today. I shall follow you as you strive for the people of this country."
An important event of the period was the visit of Prince of Wales and his consort to India. When they came to Madras, Chettiar organized the boycott of the delegation through an unprecedented hartal or complete shutdown of shops and establishments of the town. The shutdown was complete, but there were instances of compusion.
Gandhi in an article in Young India, dated 9 February 1922 criticized the hartal and Chettiar for not imbibing the true spirit of non-cooperation movement. He quoted a letter from one of his disciples, Dr. Rajan:
Just two days ago, Mr. Singaravelu Chettiar, President Madras District Congress Council, held a public meeting on the Madras beach. The first resolution congratulated the citizens of Madras on their successful hartal and the second resolution condemned the excesses committed that day.
I wired to Mr. Singaravelu not to have this ugly meeting but evidently no notice seems to have been taken of it
Gandhi's comment on the passage was,
The confession, therefore, that Dr. Rajan has made is an invigorating process. It strengthens him and the cause for which he stands. Non-co-operation is a vicious and corrupt doctrine, truly an “ugly” word, if it does not mean down-right self-purification. Stubborn and implacable resistance against internal corruption is enough resistance against the Government.
Read more about this topic: Malayapuram Singaravelu Chettiar
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