On June 17, 1911, at a nondescript station Maniyachi (in Tuticorin district), Robert Ashe, the acting collector and magistrate of Tirunelveli district during British Raj was shot dead by a 25 yr old Indian named Vanchinathan. A 15 min window between switching trains, one shot fired from point blank range by Vanchi and Robert Ashe died in his wife, Mary’s arms. Vanchi locked himself up in the station’s lavatory and shot himself in his mouth thereafter. Robert Ashe’s carefully timed assassination before the coronation of George V in England sent shock waves amongst British despots in India and abroad.
Stuart Blackburn’s The Boy from Shenkottai, a work of historical fiction, traces the life journey of Vanchi and Robert Ashe culminating in the above event & its immediate aftermath. Born in Shenkottai (Travancore district) in a Brahmin family, every trip away from home gets Vanchi firmly involved in the self rule movement - his college term in Trivandrum, listening to VOC Pillai speak in Tuticorin. Ashe earns the ire of Indians when he gets popular freedom fighter VOC Pillai arrested on sedition charges, quells riots post the arrest and crushes Pillai’s Swadeshi steam navigation company.
A well structured narrative with never a slack in pace and a map of the region at the start, the book is an engaging read. While most of us know the 1927 John Saunders’ killing by Bhagat Singh & Rajguru to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai’s death, Vanchi’s killing of Robert Ashe barely finds mention. The Boy from Shenkottai attempts to fill gaps in our knowledge of the Indian independence movement left by a threadbare school curriculum but has its flaws.
By giving a lot of headroom to Ashe’s wife Mary’s thoughts & conversations between them, the author sympathizes with Ashe painting Vanchi as a murderer, a young lad misled by VVS Aiyar. This clearly leaves a distaste. Also, VVS Aiyar’s equations with Subramania Bharathi and Vanchi feel distorted with the author’s personal bias.
I have to admit that reading a line on VVS Aiyar training Vanchinathan in firearms in Pondicherry in The Thinnai by Ari Gautier made me keen on reading The Boy from Shenkottai. Pondicherry, under French rule, outside the ambit of British sedition laws, served as a safe haven for many self styled Indian revolutionaries and their activities. They printed and published works here to make people aware of their rights, to build fervor in them to end British rule, boycott British goods and demand self rule. This aspect is dealt with in good detail in the book.
Also, reading how VOC Pillai single handedly challenged the British monopoly on Colombo-Tuticorin sea route, floated his own Swadeshi steam navigation company, offered financial assistance and legal aid to protesting cotton mill workers in Tuticorin reminded me of the old Tamil movie Kappalottiya Thamizhan, one I saw at an age when I was more familiar with the actors than the characters they played, I really need to watch it again.
A 2019 controversy on the anniversary of Robert Ashe’s murder mentioned at the book’s end demanded more reading. That this book pushed me to read and research further definitely made it wholesome and worthwhile.
"No, Thatha. Our past is what makes us. We must defend it as we would our lives." - as written in the final chapter, what Vanchi tells his grandfather.
Keeping the line above in mind, The Boy from Shenkottai deserves to be read despite its shortcomings for in its core lies a significant historical event and names of many unsung Indian heroes, details of which matter more than the fictional scaffolding that surrounds it.
