Chola Nadu · Eastern Coastal Plains
The delta's anti-colonial history is late, organised and almost entirely non-violent, and this is worth stating plainly rather than dressing up. There was no rising here in 1857; when the Thanjavur kingdom lapsed in 1855 the response was petition and litigation, not revolt. The region's one large mass action is the salt march to Vedaranyam in April 1930, which was chosen precisely because the coast here is a natural salt flat. Beyond it, the delta's contribution to the national movement ran through print, law and Congress organisation rather than through armed resistance — and through emigrants, since the labour that left this coast for Ceylon, Malaya, Burma and Natal carried the politics with it.
Risings and revolts
On the death of Shivaji Bhonsle without a male heir in 1855 the East India Company applied the Doctrine of Lapse and ended the Thanjavur kingdom. The family's claims were pursued by memorial and litigation in Madras and London rather than by revolt, and the delta stayed quiet through 1857–58.
Outcome: The kingdom was not restored. The palace, the library and the family's personal property remained with the line.
C. Rajagopalachari led about a hundred selected volunteers on foot from Tiruchirappalli through Kumbakonam, Needamangalam and Thiruthuraipoondi to the salt swamps at Vedaranyam, some 150 miles, to break the salt law on the coast. Vedaranyam had been proposed by Sardar Vedaratnam Pillai, who arranged the route and the halts.
Outcome: Rajagopalachari was arrested at the Edanthevar salt swamp on 28 April and sentenced to six months; Rukmini Lakshmipathi, arrested at Vedaranyam, became the first woman imprisoned in the salt satyagraha; K. Kamaraj received two years. About 375 people were arrested across the district. Prisoners were released after the Gandhi–Irwin Pact of March 1931.
People
| Name | Years | Movement | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| C. RajagopalachariSalem; the march to Vedaranyam | 1878–1972 | Civil Disobedience | Led the salt march from Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranyam in April 1930 and directed the campaign on the delta coast.Arrested at Edanthevar on 28 April 1930 and sentenced to six months. |
| Sardar Vedaratnam PillaiVedaranyam | 1897–1961 | Civil Disobedience; khadi | Proposed Vedaranyam as the site for the Tamil salt satyagraha, organised the route, halts and supplies, and ran khadi and constructive work in the district; secretary of the Thanjavur District Congress Committee for ten years.Given the title Sardar in 1931 for his part in the march. |
| Rukmini LakshmipathiVedaranyam | 1892–1951 | Civil Disobedience | Took part in the Vedaranyam salt satyagraha and was the first woman imprisoned in the salt campaign.Sentenced to one year's imprisonment in 1930. |
| ValliammaiFamily from Thillaiyadi, on the delta coast; active in the Transvaal | c. 1898–1914 | Satyagraha in South Africa, 1913 | Took part as a teenager in the 1913 satyagraha against the immigration and marriage laws of the Transvaal, among the Tamil emigrant families of the delta and the Coromandel who made up much of that movement's rank and file.Imprisoned at Maritzburg and died in 1914 shortly after release; a memorial stands at Thillaiyadi. |
| Kalki R. KrishnamurthyPuttamangalam, Thanjavur district | 1899–1954 | Non-cooperation; Civil Disobedience | Left school in 1922 for the Non-cooperation movement and worked afterwards as a Tamil journalist and editor; imprisoned twice before independence. His later historical novels are the main reason the Chola period is common knowledge in Tamil.Imprisoned in 1930 and again in 1941. |
People from Chola Nadu who resisted colonial rule, and the regional risings and revolts that shaped that resistance. (7)