Chempakaraman Pillai

Chempakaraman Pillai (alias Venkidi; 15 September 1891 – 26 May 1934) was an Indian-born independence activist and revolutionary. Born in Thiruvananthapuram, he left for Europe as a youth, where he spent the rest of his active life as an Indian nationalist and revolutionary.

Although his life was mired in controversies, including a squabble with Adolf Hitler, information on his life in Europe was sketchy in the immediate years after his death. More information has come out in recent years. in the pre-independence days of India. The slogan is still widely used in India.

Pillai, who started the Indian National Voluntary Corps on 31 July 1914, was instrumental in inspiring Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to start the Indian National Army (INA). family in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the erstwhile Kingdom of Travancore in the modern state of Kerala. His parents, Chinnaswami Pillai and Nagammal, hailed from Nanjinad (Then Travancore, present-day Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu).

In Europe Pillai attended ETH Zurich from October 1910 until 1914, pursuing a diploma in Engineering. After the outbreak of the First World War, he founded the International Pro-India Committee and based its headquarters in Zürich, appointing himself president in September 1914. He also published a magazine under the name Pro India. Lala Har Dayal was also persuaded to join the movement. Both of them cooperated with the German Intelligence Bureau for the East and helped creating German propaganda directed at Indian PoWs in German camps, particularly the Halbmondlager. In Berlin, he delivered anti-British lectures before large audiences, and collaborated with the Berlin-India Committee in efforts to raise an Indian Nationalist Army Corps from among prisoners of war and Indian residents in Mesopotamia, Turkey and Syria.

From his position in charge of the Committee's contacts with the outside world through Holland, Pillai devised a plan to revive Indian revolutionary activities in East Asia. He was acquainted with the Indonesian nationalist exile Dr. Daus Dekkar, who had come to Berlin from Zürich in early January 1915 at Barakatullah's request. Pillai first asked Daus Dekkar to arrange the distribution of propaganda leaflets through Holland; then in July 1915 he proposed that Daus Dekkar travel to Thailand to establish a centre of Indian propaganda and foster cooperation between Indian and Indonesian nationalists. After jointly discussing the plan with Wesendonck of the German Foreign Office, Daus Dekkar departed Rotterdam on 8 September 1915, travelling via the United States, where he met Ramchandra at San Francisco, and then on to Tokyo and Bangkok. However, he was arrested at Hong Kong and confessed everything. Coming on the heels of earlier setbacks, the failure of this mission effectively ended Indian revolutionary efforts in South-East Asia.

SMS Emden bombing of British Madras

On 22 September 1914, The , a German warship commanded by Captain Karl von Muller entered the waters off the coast of Madras, and bombed the facilities near the Madras harbour and slipped back into the ocean. The British were taken aback in this sudden attack. His family stated that Pillai coordinated the German attack with his personal presence in the SMS Emden, though this is not the official view. In any case, it is widely believed that Pillai and some Indian revolutionaries had a hand in the SMS Emden bombing of Madras.

Post-war activism in Germany In 1919, Pillai formed the German-Indian League to continue his political activities in support of Indian independence. which was adopted as a slogan of the Indian National Army in the 1940s at the suggestion of Abid Hasan. After India's independence, it emerged as a national slogan.

Marriage and death In 1931, Pillai married Lakshmi Bai of Manipur, whom he had met in Berlin. Unfortunately they had a short life together, as Pillai soon fell ill. There were symptoms of slow poisoning and he went to Italy for treatment.

Pillai died in Berlin on 28 May 1934. Lakshmibai brought his ashes to British India in 1935 where they were later ceremonially immersed in Kanyakumari with full state honours. It was Pillai's final wish that his ashes be sprinkled in Nanjinad (Kanyakumari), his family's native place.