Recollections of C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar

Formative years

In 1913 I appeared for my Intermediate Examination and put Triplicane as my Examination Centre. My brother lived just opposite to C. Subbiah Chetty & Co., Booksellers. Next to his house on the north lived Narayanaiah, father of J. Krishnamurti and his brother. The case by the father for return of his two sons had been instituted against Annie Besant in the High Court of Madras. Dr. C. Nanjunda Rao was the moving spirit and almost every evening he used to come in his car accompanied by C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, the dashing young advocate who conducted the  case against Besant and had lept into fame by his brilliant qualities. The case was thrown out by the Privy Council on a technical point of jurisdiction. Otherwise, it would have led to far-reaching consequences. Even as it was, it had some remarkable results, one of which was the genuine admiration felt by Annie Besant for her opposing counsel and vice versa. Before the case was over finally, the two had become fast friends. Like Gandhi, like every great leader, Annie Besant was a moulder of men and ere long she sent two outstanding personalities into the world, C. P. and S. Satyamurti. The latter hailed from Pudukkottai and was a favourite student of my father who instilled a love for English in him. Between 1915 and 1917 Annie Besant, with her tremendous energy and resources, had constructed the Y. M. I. A. and placed it under the charge of Ranganatha Mudaliar. Daily Besant used to drive from Adyar to the Y. M. I. A. in her flashing Rolls Royce, partake of her tea and lunch and spend the evening till nine. A mock parliament was held on week-ends in the spacious hall upstairs with Mudaliar as the Speaker. C. P. represented the Government and Satyamurti was the leader of the Opposition. It was nomock parliament. Numerous bills on Elementary Education, Social Reform and Dominion Status for India, etc., were brought forward and discussed threadbare. We, students of the Law College who were encouraged to attend, formed an interested and critical audience. Before we left Madras in 1917 two finished speakers had been trained and sent out in the persons of C. P. and Satyamurti.

A Prince among men

The Jeevaka Chintamani, Tamil epic, states that a good personality is the result of past meritorious act. C. P. was an example of it. The most striking thing about him was his appearance. Some men are born of the blood royal and bear the authentic Rajachakram on their palms. Among a crowd of persons, he was the cynosure of eyes and persons would single him out and say: “Lo! here comes a prince among men.” He had the natural and easy manners of one born and bred to exalted rank. He never asserted himself, never boasted; there was no need to. His lot and duties cast him into the princely order and the highest dignitaries among whom he moved as an equal. He had an aura of personal magnetism and charm. Apart from my knowledge of him, I have heard details about him from S. Satyamurti and Nilakantha Aiyar, his Secretary. He was a hard worker. He was a Karma Yogin and led a simple and disciplined life. He did not like the pomp and paraphernalia of his office. During the train journeys, he preferred his usual South Indian food from the Railway catering with an additional cup of ghee and curds. He used to get the latest books and was a voracious reader. He was a far-seeing and constructive statesman, a nation-builder who has left his marks indelibly on India. He was a member of the Madras Government, and the Mettur Dam on the Cauvery was his gift to that State. He was Dewan of Travancore and he led that tradition-bound feudal State into the modern age of temple entry for Harijans and rendered the formation of a Kerala State natural and inevitable. Satyamurti came to Pudukkottai after having been the guest of C. P. and he told me the following details: “If I spent a few happy days in the company of C. P. He is a real prince among men. He is a perfect host, always solicitous about his guest, which is almost religious according to the traditions of India. He is a hard-headed realist, a born administrator, an unerring judge of men and things Like Annie Besant, he does not see eye to eye with Gandhi and does not approve of the many of the ideals and means of his. He is no visionary and has his first firm on earth. He does not approve of civil disobedience. He does not approve of communism either. He wants strong and effective Government and that the laws should be obeyed. And then regarding his fineness, he told me of an interesting factor: Besant had advised him to insure heavily as a provision for the family and to spend the balance on charities completely. “I am following that advice with the result that towards the end of every month I am literally hard up for money.”

Literature and Religion

C. P. was a staunch Hindu. He was descendant of the family of the great Apparya Dikshitar who was considered as an Avatar of Siva and was a polymath of learning. C. P. knew three languages well and loved them all equally–Tamil, Sanskrit and English–and his writings, speeches and private talk conveyed an alarming literary relish. At the time of his death C. P. was engaged in working his autobiography. There had been two predecessors, that of Gandhi and Nehru, both classical, but we were looking forward to the third which would have been a worthy complement, but that was not to be. Those who knew C P. feel personally that India has not recognized his services due to a combination of circumstances. But his dreams for India were no less glorious than those of those two. One grandiose scheme of his which he was never tired of waging in his later days, which he adopted from Arthur Cotton who built the dam across the mighty dam at Dowleswaram across the turbulent Godavari, was the interlinking of all the rivers in India and the banishment of flooding and draught from this land. The very idea has daunted the Governments up-to-date. C. P. held itpracticable and necessary. On the day when this becomes a fait accompli, India will bless this son of hers and raise a monument to him in her heart which will last so long as the rivers continue to flow.

A Fine Public Worker

“It is well that, at the close of a case so bitterly contested one is able to salute one’s opponent with raised rapier, as chivalry demands. But I would rather have Mr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar on my side than against me. I have not seen his equal, so far in the High Court, for readiness of answer and clever presentment of a case, making much of its strong points and covering its weak ones; he also knows what he wants and the way of obtaining it. It is not wonderful that he is overwhelmed with cases. In addition to his legal work, he is constantly engaged in making himself useful to good public causes, and his name is ever seen in connexion with these. India will have a fine public worker in him, if he fulfils the promise of the present.”
–DR. ANNIE BESANT