Yet another question

By chenthil
July 24th, 2006 @ 7:10 PM History

There has been a lot of activity about installing or reinstalling statues in the past few months. So here is a question for you, for removal of whose statue was a committee formed and agitations held in Madras during 1920s?

3 Comments so far

  1. Nandhu (unregistered) on July 25th, 2006 @ 12:58 am

    i guess that is a tough cookie


  2. sowmya (unregistered) on July 25th, 2006 @ 4:03 am

    I didn’t know the answer, but was interested enought to google. here is what i foud
    http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/01/01/stories/2002010101960200.htm

    “Chennai had seen some spirited moments for the removal of one statue. This happened not in the recent past but eight decades ago. That statue was General Neill at the Spencer’s Junction. Neill had suppressed the 1857 uprising with great savagery. A monument in his honour came to be considered an insult to people of the country when the freedom struggle was reaching a crucial stage.

    The Congress party, in late 1920s, organised a series of agitations to remove the statue which were described Neill Statue Satyagraha. However, the Madras Government did not oblige. After a gap of 10 years, the statue was removed and this happened in November 1937 when Rajaji was the Premier of the Madras Presidency. It was taken to the place where Kannagi proceeded – Chennai Government Museum in Egmore. “


  3. Chenthil (unregistered) on July 25th, 2006 @ 12:29 pm

    Sowmya, three cheers to your googling powers. Yes, it was General Neill’s statue in the Spencer’s Junction. Sathiyamoorthy was the leader of the agitation to remove the statue. It is now in Egmore Museum.

    Neill was instrumental in the butchering that followed the collapse of the Sepoy Mutiny. Reading about that makes you wonder what can make humans act like that. Ofcourse, his justification was it was a revenge for what happened to the British women and children in Bibigar in Kanpur (for googling, use Cawnpore, the spelling of those days).



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