AKKAMMA CHERIAN

AKKAMMA CHERIAN(അക്കാമ്മ ചെറിയാൻ) 

        Akkamma Cherian was an Indian freedom fighter from the erstwhile Travancore (Kerala), India. She was popularly known as the Jhansi Rani of TravancoreShe was born on 14 February 1909 in a Catholic  family at Kanjirapally, Travancore, as the second daughter of Thomman Cherian and Annamma Karippaparambil. She was educated at Government Girls High School, Kanjirapally and St. Joseph's High School, Changanacherry. She earned a B.A. in History from St. Teresa's College, Ernakulam. After completing her education in 1931, she worked as a teacher at St. Mary's English Medium School, Kanjirapally), where she later became head mistress. She worked in this institution for about six years, and during this period she also did her L. T. degree from Trivandrum Training College.

   In February 1938, the Travancore State Congress was formed and Accamma gave up her teaching career in order to join the struggle for liberty.Under the State Congress, the people of Travancore started an agitation for a responsible government. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, the Dewan of Travancore, decided to suppress the agitation. On 26 August 1938, he banned the State Congress which then organized a civil disobedience movement. Prominent State Congress leaders including its President Pattom A. Thanu Pillai were arrested and put behind bars.[6] The State Congress then decided to change its method of agitation. Its working committee was dissolved and the president was given dictatorial powers and the right to nominate his successor. Eleven ‘dictators’ (Presidents) of the State Congress were arrested one by one. Kuttanad Ramakrishna Pillai, the eleventh dictator, before his arrest nominated Accamma Cherian as the twelfth dictator.

 Accamma Cherian led a mass rally from Thampanoor to the Kowdiar Palace of the Maharaja Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma to revoke a ban on State Congress.[4] The agitating mob also demanded the dismissal of the Dewan, C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, against whom the State Congress leaders had leveled several charges. The British police chief ordered his men to fire on the rally of over 20,000 people . Accamma Cherian cried, "I am the leader; shoot me first before you kill others". Her courageous words forced the police authorities to withdraw their orders. On hearing the news M. K. Gandhi hailed her as ‘The Jhansi Rani of Travancore’. She was arrested and convicted for violating prohibitory orders in 1939In October 1938, the working committee of the State Congress directed Accamma Cherian to organize the Desasevika Sangh (Female Volunteer Crops). She toured various centers and appealed to the women to join as members of the Desasevika Sangh.The first annual conference of the State Congress was held at Vattiyoorkavu on 22 and 23 December 1938 in spite of the ban orders. Almost all leaders of the State Congress were arrested and imprisoned. Accamma, along with her sister Rosamma Punnose (also a freedom fighter, M.L.A., and a C.P.I. leader from 1948), was arrested and jailed on 24 December 1939. They were sentenced to a year's imprisonment. They were insulted and threatened in the jail. Due to the instruction given by the jail authorities, some prisoners used abusing and vulgar words against them. This matter was brought to the notice of M.K. Gandhi by Pattom A. Thanu Pillai.[8][9] C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, however, denied it. Accamma’s brother, K. P. Varkey, also took part in freedom movement.

            Accamma, after her release from jail, became a full-time worker of the State Congress. In 1942, she became its Acting President. In her presidential address, she welcomed the Quit India Resolution passed at the historic Bombay session of the Indian National Congress on 8 August 1942. She was arrested and awarded one year imprisonment. In 1946, she was arrested and imprisoned for six months for violating ban orders. In 1947, she was again arrested as she raised her voice against C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar’s desire for an independent Travancore.

                 In 1947, after independence, Accamma was elected unopposed to the Travancore Legislative Assembly from Kanjirapally. In 1951, she married V.V. Varkey, a freedom fighter and a member of Travancore Cochin Legislative Assembly. They had one son, George V. Varkey, an engineer. In the early 1950s, she resigned from the Congress Party after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket and in 1952, she unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary election from Muvattupuzha constituency as an independent. In the early 1950s, when the parties ideologies were changing, she quit politics.[4] Her husband V. V. Varkey Mannamplackal, Chirakkadavu. Served as an MLA in the Kerala Legislative Assembly from 1952–54. In 1967, she contested the Assembly election from Kanjirapally as a Congress candidate but was defeated by the Communist Party's candidate. Later, she served as a member of the Freedom Fighters’ Pension Advisory Board.Death and commemorationAccamma Cherian died on May 5, 1982. A statue was erected in her memory in Vellayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram.

Prof. John Kurakar