Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty – The 19th century anti-colonial pioneer, anti-conversion activist, publisher, industrialist and philanthropist.

Chennai based author Sri B. Jagannath, senior journalist and author Sri Raka Sudhakar Rao, and Sri Kasturi Rangan, treasurer and trustee of CSIS were the honored guests on the occasion of the book launch.

CSIS is the knowledge-partner in the well-researched book on Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty, a 19^th century pioneer; it is a highly referenced work with original archival material from the TN Govt Archives. The book is published by Samvit Prakashan in three languages- English, Telugu and Tamil. The painstaking research work is conducted by the author Sri B. Jagannath.

The chief guest Sri K. Raka Sudhakar Rao in his informative and invigorating keynote address stated that Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty was instrumental in collecting hundreds of signatures and took it to the British parliament to stop the attempts at proselytization of Hindu masses in Madras presidency. Remarkably, there’s no mention of the Dravidian theories in this book, the fake theory didn’t even take root then.

Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty was among the greatest of philanthropists.  He mobilized activists and conducted various activities among the native people, he fought against religious conversions which were being pushed by the British in Madras Presidency.  Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty himself published magazines in Telugu, English and Tamil. He documented every torture, every atrocity committed against Hindus during conversions, interestingly he called it `Vibhuti movement’. He was the founding father of Madras Chamber of Commerce & Madras Native Association. He was also the founder trustee of Pachaiyyappa College in Madras as well as Madras Grantha upakarana sanstha. Sri Arumuga Navalar established the Saiva Prakasa Vidyasala.  Interestingly we see the wide use of all Sanskrit words like Grantham, Ganitham etc till the middle of 19<sup>th</sup> century, before the stranglehold of the `Dravidian ideologies’. How Sanskrit completely disappeared from Tamilnadu is a matter of wider study for researchers. The earlier pre-dravidian times of the Tamilnadu region of Madras Presidency as presented in the biography of Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty, needs to be widely studied and understood, it was a period when there was greater prevalence of Sanskrit and Hindu lore.

Sri Raka Sudhakar Rao spoke about several forgotten luminaries and pioneers whose work needs to be studied and understood by the present generations. Lala Jagat Seth funded Robert Clive to fight against Siraj ud daulah. Seth Bhimji Parekh in 1655 went to London and purchased the printing press. Dahagam Laxminarayana from Karimnagar went to central provinces, opened up all his treasury when famine struck Nagpur. Karri Basavareddy Jamindar of West Godavari, a great philanthropist offered food to every passenger who passed by the Samalkot railway station.

Sri Kruttiventi Perraju Pantulu, Sri Nyapati Subbarao Pantulu were among the great nationalists from Rajahmundry and were instrumental in setting up the Hindu newspaper. Bandar Hindu College was started by a tahsildar by collecting money from passersby by spreading his towel. Hindu Colleges of Guntur and Bandar came up as a reaction to the Christian colleges set up by British. Madras and Andhra Circar districts share the same unique culture. A Tulu speaking emperor Sri Krishna Devaraya established the greatest Vijayanagara empire and took it to the pinnacles of heights. Saraswati Mahal library in Thanjavur was set up by Maratha kings ruling the region.

Sri Padmarao Mudaliar, a minister in Nizam govt in Hyderabad started a boys’ school, Mahbub college and cleverly named it after one of the members of royalty. Similarly he started Keyes School for girls, in the name of a then British officer. In the southern region, there was always a confluence of various languages, and therefore we should not look at it from the lens of today’s linguistic states. Today’s geographical boundaries didn’t exist then.

Sri Munuswamy, an actual labourer became Swami Sahajananda, a dalit Swamiji, who represented Chidambaram constituency later. The great leader Sri MC Rajah famous for his Rajah- Moonje Pact was also a first generation leader. Sri Muthuramalingaswamy Thevar, was an associate of  Netaji Subhaschandra Bose. Sri Purnaiah, the Dewan of Mysore brought in many progressive reforms. Nyapati Raghavarao was also a Dewan of Mysore. Arcot Ramaswamy and Laxmanaswamy were instrumental in integrating Lakshadweep into India, on the instructions of Sardar Patel. Sri Darsi Chenchaiah from Prakasam district was among the founder-leaders of Gaddar Party. Champakraman Pillai from INA originally coined the slogan Jai Hind.  The stories of all these heroes must be widely told and should reach every nook and corner of the country.

Sri Kasturi Rangan, CA and trustee of CSIS, stated that it is unfortunate that this rich Hindu legacy has practically disappeared from Tamilnadu. The negative influence of the `Dravidian theories’ relegated the real contribution of Hindu warriors from Tamilnadu.

Author Sri B. Jagannath in his inspiring address thanked all the people who have helped him during the course of the painstaking research work and writing of the biography of the 19^th century pioneer Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty. Sri Chetty was the son of the big wealthy cotton merchant Sri Siddulu Chetty, founding member of Madras Chamber of Commerce; the story of this pioneer started in 1806.

In the 1833 Guntur famine, millions of people died, there was widespread poverty and people buckled down under the British pressure. Agriculture, cash crops, trade and commerce were destroyed by the British. To mitigate the ill-effects of the british religious conversions and administrative pressure, Sri Chetty mobilized 70000 signatures during those days when no technology was available; the scroll petition by Sri Chettty with the signatures is preserved in British library in London to this day. His petition demanded religious neutrality, and to respect the native Darma, culture and traditions. It is remarkable that Madras University itself was set up as a response to the scroll petition of Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty. Students from all over south and upto Ganjam district in today’s Odisha came to study in the Madras University. Sri Pachaiyyappa Mudaliyar started native education, the college was established later in his name, and Endowments were created for temples. Sri Gajula was a trustee of the Pachaiyyappa Charities and institutions. He set up the printing press, called the Hindu Press, which started printing the newspapers of the natives in our own languages. The then existing newspapers Madras Courier, Athenaeum, Spectator were all British papers. The British ensured that natives were banned from printing newspapers and magazines. `Madras Record’ functioned as a mouthpiece of the British.

Sri Gajula started a printing press in 1844, which became the first native voice against the British administration and its atrocities- it was called the Hindu Press’. He then started the Madras Crescent, called so after the Spear of the deity Sri Subhramanya Swamy. By 1848, there were more than 10700 subscribers, at 2rs per month subscription. The paper was in the forefront of investigative journalism, it was also analyzing the govt gazettes issued by the British Govt.

The Madras Crescent also did investigative news stories on how the Govt was planning to usurp and utilize the temple funds for public works; carefully the British government didn’t publish the gazette. However, Madras Crescent published this gazette and investigative analysis with the help of Sri Gajula’s longtime friend Sri Venkatacharyulu Naidu, a Telugu translator, who worked in the british department, and who made a copy of the gazette and passed it onto Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty.  Venkatacharyulu Naidu later helped set up the paper, The Rising Sun.

The atrocities of British education through which they were teaching christian religion and its God Jesus, and which were being massively propagated for religious conversions, was single-handedly exposed and was  effectively shot down by the efforts of the single-man army Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty.

Madras Native Association had wide membership upto Ganjam; the MNA members met week after week, prepared several memorandums regarding the inhuman Tortures that British were subjecting native Indians to, and also regarding the taxation that broke the peasantry and trading. This legend Sri Chetty singly got the Commission of Inquiry set up  by the then British Parliament called `Torture Commission’; when the eye-opener report was submitted and voted in the parliament, it resulted in a hung-vote with 62 votes each on both sides causing huge embarrassment to the British Government. The government was forced to set up the Torture Commission, which recommended that torture and harassment by the british administration in India to collect taxes is prohibited; in the reforms that ensued, revenue and police departments were separated; all the British and Indian officers who indulged in the torture of Indians were to be prosecuted. This one person Sri Gajula Laxminarasu Chetty was responsible for the change in policy, especially in the abolition of Torture. He later became the member of Madras Imperial Legislative Council in 1865 deserving of Gun-salute; this pioneer passed away in 1868.

The audience which attended the book-launch event braving the incessant rains in the city hugely appreciated the book.