The flagstaff and the freedom fighter<\/p>\n
SRIRAM V.<\/p>\n
standing tallThe steel replica of the flagstaff at Fort St. George<\/p>\n
Fort St. George turned 375 last week. My favourite anecdote about the place has to do with a small but significant event connecting its<\/p>\n
flagstaff to our freedom struggle.<\/p>\n
Today it is a steel replica, but until 1994, what stood here was a teak beam. Rising to a height of 148 feet, it was considered the tallest flag post<\/p>\n
in the country. Salvaged from a shipwreck in 1687, it was used by Governor Elihu Yale for unfurling the Union Jack the subsequent year. The<\/p>\n
Indian tricolour was hoisted on it on August 15, 1947.<\/p>\n
But that was not the first time the flagstaff had sported the Indian flag. It had done so for a brief while on January 26, 1932, thanks to \u2018Arya\u2019<\/p>\n
K. Bhashyam, a freedom fighter. This may not be a well-recognised name today, but in his time he was a livewire, organising flash stirs against<\/p>\n
foreign rule and burning foreign goods in public. In her biography<\/p>\n
\n
Naan Kanda Bharatham <\/span><\/span><\/i>, S. Ambujammal writes that Bhashyam had a<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Madras but had become a freedom activist from 1920 or so.<\/p>\n Bhashyam\u2019s activities were not to the liking of his aristocratic family. His uncle was Sir N. Gopalaswami Aiyangar, of the Madras Civil Service,<\/p>\n later Dewan of Kashmir, and still later, the Railway Minister of free India. Bhashyam\u2019s brother Sadagopan was a senior officer in the South<\/p>\n Indian Railway. Their displeasure, however, had no effect, and on January 26, 1932, he committed an act of unparalleled daring. When it was<\/p>\n still dark, Bhashyam climbed the ramparts of Fort St. George, and having shinned his way up the riggings of the flagstaff, managed to reach<\/p>\n 04\/05\/2015 The flagstaff and the freedom fighter – The Hindu<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-features\/tp-metroplus\/the-flagstaff-and-the-freedom-fighter\/article7162684.ece 2\/2<\/p>\n the top. There, he unfurled the Indian tricolour that he had brought along.<\/p>\n All this activity had not passed unnoticed and a considerable police force had assembled at the base waiting for his descent. Bhashyam made<\/p>\n his way down and halfway through, jumped on the policemen thereby injuring a few. In the ensuing scuffle, he also managed to thrash a few of<\/p>\n them before being arrested. In court, Bhashyam refused to tender any apology and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment. It was not the<\/p>\n first and it would definitely not be his last tenure as a guest of the State.<\/p>\n Post independence, Bhashyam refused the pension to which he was entitled as a freedom fighter. He eked out a living painting portraits of his<\/p>\n idols \u2014 Subramania Bharati and Mahatma Gandhi, all of which he signed as Arya. The best-known depiction of the poet, with handlebar<\/p>\n moustache and turban, is his. He also sculpted busts and statues of Gandhi and one of these is present at Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya. His statue<\/p>\n of S. Satyamurti stands at Ripon Buildings.<\/p>\n Bhashyam passed away in 1999 at the age of 93. If we had any sense of history, we would have a plaque in his honour next to the flagstaff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flagstaff and the freedom fighter SRIRAM V. standing tallThe steel replica of the flagstaff… more