Chettur Sankaran Nair, the lone Malayali AICC president. (Supplied)
Not many people will have heard of Chettur Sankaran Nair (11 July, 1857-24 April, 1934), unless they have read Karan Johar’s tweet on a proposed biopic on him.
Even then, their idea of who or what Nair was would likely be sketchy, for Johar didn’t say much beyond announcing that he would produce a film on “a historic man”.
“Extremely excited and honoured to be bringing the untold story of C. Sankaran Nair, a historic man to the big screens,” the tweet said.
Most people will also likely not know that if Shashi Tharoor does win the Congress party’s presidential polls, he won’t be the first Malayali to hold the post: It is Nair who holds that distinction.
In fact, so little is known about Nair that despite being the only Malayali to be the Congress chief — he was chosen at its Amaravathi conference in 1897 — his legacy remains little known even within the Kerala unit of the party.
Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, the only Malayali to become Congress president. (Supplied)
Precious little has been done anywhere in the country to honour Nair’s memory, save for scattered efforts in Kerala: A memorial at his place of birth in Palakkad, the same district where Tharoor has deep roots, and an Ottapalam-based non-profit named after him, the Chettur Sankaran Nair Foundation for Historical Research and Cultural Studies.
Perhaps needless to say, the memorial — at Mankada village, close to Ottapalam town in Palakkad — is today in a shambles.
But even if not much is known about Nair, or about his contributions to the betterment of Indian society, that will hopefully soon change, thanks to the Hindi film industry.
Filmmaker Karan Johar will co-produce a biopic on Nair; titled The Untold Story of C Sankaran Nair, it reportedly revolves around the courtroom battle around the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
A press statement from Johar’s production house says a little more than his cryptic tweet: “This film unravels the legendary courtroom battle that Sankaran Nair fought against the British Raj to uncover the truth about the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Sankaran Nair’s bravery ignited the freedom struggle across the country and is a testament to the power of fighting for the truth.”
The build-up around the film has been muted so far, though some media reports say it will be an adaptation of the book ‘The Case That Shook the Empire’, written jointly by Nair’s great-grandson Raghu Palat and his wife Pushpa.
Reports emanating from the industry also say the film will star Akshay Kumar as Nair, and Ananya Pandey as a junior lawyer.
So, who is Chettur Sankaran Nair, the “historic man” who attracts Bollywood A-listers?
Nair was born in an aristocratic Hindu family in what is today Palakkad district in Kerala, and home-schooled in his early years before going to regular schools in Malabar when he was older.
After graduating with an Arts degree from Presidency College, Madras, in 1877, Nair earned his law degree two years later from Madras Law College. He began practising in the Madras High Court the following year.
Autobiography of C. Sankaran Nair.
So impressive was his track record in the courtrooms that, in 1884, the Madras government included him in a committee enquiring into affairs in Malabar district.
But even as his legal career flourished, his reformist traits seeped through often. In 1890, he was appointed to the Madras Legislative Council, where he initiated the legislation leading to the enactment of the Malabar Marriage Act of 1896, which marked the beginning of the end of the Sambandham system that prevailed in the Nair community of Kerala of the time.
A decade later, in 1907, Nair became the first Indian to be appointed advocate general of the Madras government; he was elevated to judgeship in the high court later that year.
When he was appointed member for education in the Viceroy’s Executive Council in 1915, Nair had reached the highest position in the government of British India that an Indian of his day could aspire to. The position gave him administrative control over more than 30 departments, all headed by Englishmen.
He was knighted the same year.
As member of the Viceroy’s Council, Nair pointed out the various defects of British rule in India – inconceivable for an Indian – and thereby played a pivotal role in the framing of the Reforms Act of 1919.
Most of reforms Nair suggested were accepted, and recommended by Secretary of State for India Edwin Montagu and the Viceroy Lord Chelmsford. The Act embodied the recommendations, and expanded the participation of Indians by introducing diarchy in the provinces.
This was not the only time that Nair criticised the British rulers for their lapses even while working within the system.
As the sole Indian on the Viceroy’s Executive Council, he resigned in protest after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April, 1919.
Even early in his legal career while rising up the ladder, Nair was not shy of being critical of the British.
In his address as the Congress president at the party Amaravati conference, he had scathingly attacked the administration for its highhandedness, and called for reforms, including self-government for Indians with dominion status.
The postal stamp issued in memory of C. Sankaran Nair.
But whether in or out of office, Nair strove to bring about social reforms, including ending polygamy and infant marriages.
He also stood for equality for women, abolition of the caste system, common marriage law, compulsory and free primary education for the disadvantaged, and higher education in science.
Going by Nair’s biography C. Sankaran Nair, penned by his son-in-law, the illustrious diplomat KPS Menon, he was also against mixing religion and politics, and extremism in words and deeds. To him, exaggerated nationalism was a curse.
As opposed to this, Nair was a constitutionalist and had faith only in constitutional agitation and social reforms.
So much so, Nair even made his opposition to the Gandhian concepts of non-cooperation clear in his much-contested book Gandhi and Anarchy, published in 1922.
And it was this that brought him in conflict with the Congress and Gandhi.
“Non-cooperation, as advocated by Mr Gandhi, may be a weapon to be used when constitutional methods have failed to achieve our purpose,” Nair wrote in the book.
“Non-violence and passive suffering will lead to bloodshed or be unfruitful of satisfactory results.”
Cover of ‘Gandhi and Anarchy’ by C. Sankaran Nair.
His fears came true the same year; a demonstration against the British rule in Chauri Chaura in today’s Uttar Pradesh –in response to Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement call – turned violent, and ended in 23 policemen being killed.
Appalled, Gandhi suspended the movement, but by then, Nair’s criticism of him had already cast a shadow on his political career. The Congress started drifting away, and the rift has not been bridged till this day.
Palakkad-based writer Boban Mattumantha says the foundation named after Nair regularly conducts memorial meetings, distributes awards in his name, and organises competitions as a mark of respect for him.
“But the district and state units of Congress have never commemorated the man because of his differences with Gandhi,” he says.
“Nair’s criticism on Gandhi made him unpopular in Kerala, especially among Congress workers. So his memories have faded into oblivion and the district and state units of the Congress never thought to recall his contributions. The wider acceptance of nonviolence as a means of dissent across the world has also impacted the legacy of Nair,” said Boban.
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