Gazulu Lakshmi Narasu Chetty, India’s 1st politician

CHENNAI: It was a decade before the Sepoy Mutiny. There were no elections in sight and no political activity worth its name. In fact, the East India Company was ruling Madras. When the very word ‘politician’ wasn’t in vogue and elections were almost a century away; the first political activist lived in Madras.

Gazulu Lakshmi Narasu Chetty was an investigative journalist, a lobbyist, a founder of India’s first political organisation, a self-proclaimed protector of his Hindu religion (and thus a forerunner of Hindutva), supporter of the oppressed taxpayer all in a time when none of these was an organised profession or force.

Lakshminarasu had an eventful life. Starting as the owner of a large textile and dye business he died pennilessly but made some landmark achievements in between. In the first half of the 1800s, Lakshmi Narasu was born as an heir to a large indigo dye and cloth business in Periamet, just outside the fort. Periamet was a prosperous industrial hub close to the Narimedu (hogs hill) which was the only hill in madras. It was levelled to fill the ditches of black town

Though not formally educated, Lakshminarasu was well in touch with the happenings in the Presidency. His father had become the first Indian member of the all-British Madras Chamber of Commerce when native merchants of the Presidency enrolled among its members at the suggestion of the governor.

There was an intense rivalry in the international textile trade and wars swung international cotton prices from bottom to top and there was plenty of money to be made by speculators. Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty built his fortune in this turbulent time. But his heart lay elsewhere.

The printing press had come to Madras a century earlier but there were very few takers because literacy was low. Lakshminarasu would start the first periodical as early as 1844. He brought out the first issue of the Crescent (after buying out a defunct magazine and press) whose stated aim was ‘the betterment of the condition of the Hindus’. Edward Harley, an Englishman who was an ex-naval officer whom Chetty considered a friend of Indians, became the editor of Crescent.

The magazine was brought out three times a month in three languages: Tamil, English and Telugu. It had established a wide grid of reporters which made it a pioneer in investigative journalism. The East India Company suspected Chetty had planted a mole in their offices, for so accurate was his reporting. Marquis of Tweeddale who was governor of madras was very angry at Chetty whom he considered seditious when he printed in verbatim one of these confidential memos. There was a commission to enquire into the leakage of the documents and a few company employees were suspended. On the orders of the Governor the company stopped giving advertisements and snuffed the paper’s breath.

Crescent had reached a circulation of 11,000 copies through the Madras general post office alone in 1846 and had fallen to 4,794 in 1853. Eventually, when it dropped down to 150 in subsequent years, with no monetary means to endure, Chetty had to stop the magazine.

Setting the tone for Hindutva politics, Chetty also had a continuous wrangle going on with missionaries. The East India company had given word that they would not encourage inter-religious conversions. But individual officers did not stick to that promise. At one point when the company betrayed religious neutrality and almost made reading the Bible an essential part of school education, Gazulu fought it tooth and nail.

Madras Hindu Literary Society (MHLS) was perhaps the first organisation under Indian management. Though it did not go beyond literary discussions, the concept of collective discussion was fostered. When it went defunct Lakshminarasu tried to revive it but failed. Instead, he started the Indian native association. He would lobby with British members of parliament and ensure a commission to be set by the British government to enquire about the stringent collection methods of taxes in Madras. The commission was called the torture commission.

Lakshminarasu managed to launch a petition with 14,000 signatories demanding direct governance of India by the Crown. This was highly irritable to the Company which held the reins of the city. Considering him a seditious person the company watched his writings and lectures minutely. His movements were also watched by the police.

After 1857 with Queen Victoria in charge, there was a change. The British decided to darn fences with him. He was awarded the Companion Order of the Star of India in 1861. In 1863 he was made a member of the Madras Legislative Council.

But all was not well on the personal front. Being obsessed with political activity, Lakshminarasu frittered away his inheritance. Badly managed businesses also took their toll.

The Madras Native Association which was the forerunner of every political organization in this country was soon disbanded. But memories of organised political activity were fresh and soon, the Madras Mahajana Sabha would be formed. This in turn would have a notable cross-membership with the Indian National Congress which also had its roots in theosophy and Madras.

— The writer is a historian and an author