To put down trade unionism with an iron hand, the proprietor of the mill, hand in glove with the police, forged a 'dying declaration’ of Ponnaan and sent Venkatachalam, Ramayya, Chinnayyan, and Rangannan to prison. The case, which went up to London Privy Council, was finally closed with the judgment that all the four accused shall be hanged to death.
The point of time - 5 A.M, January 8, 1946, still smells the death of justice in the ‘glorious’ history of Coimbatore, for “all great Neptune’s ocean’ will not wash the thick bloodstain on one of its pages.
The city, which we call the Manchester of the South, was rich in cotton cultivation and availability of tireless laborers. Utilizing the facility, Robert Stanes, an Englishman established the first textile mill here as CS & W mills. Following this, many other capitalists founded similar firms in the dawn of the twentieth century.
The capitalists targeted good profit margins by mercilessly exploiting the laborers. The laborers, who toiled hard from 6 am to 6 pm, also had to tolerate untold atrocities of mill supervisors and gatekeepers. It is in this context, a trade union was founded by 'Barrister’ Ramasamy Iyengar, a famous lawyer of Coimbatore, who took legal measures against the mill owners and made possible a hike in the mill workers' salary at least by Re1.
As activities of the trade union were gaining momentum, the four laborers Venkatachalam, Ramayya, Chinnayyan, and Rangannan of Rangavilas mill at Poolaimedu stood for the rights of their co-workers and circulated a journal by name ' Munnani' which was secretly published in their village Chinniampalayam.
Since atrocities by mill supervisors were frequent, workers were treated no less than slaves, and women workers were subjected even to sexual abuse. In one such incident, the gatekeeper Ponnaan and his aides reportedly outraged the modesty of a woman worker ' Poolaimedu' Rajee. With the incident sending shock waves among the mill workers, a team of mill workers including women led by the four trade unionists encountered Ponnaan and his aides. The incident which turned into a skirmish on the day led to the death of Ponnaan.
To put down trade unionism with an iron hand, the proprietor of the mill, hand in glove with the police, forged a 'dying declaration’ of Ponnaan and sent Venkatachalam, Ramayya, Chinnayyan, and Rangannan to prison. The case, which went up to London Privy Council, was finally closed with the judgment that all the four accused shall be hanged to death.
At 5 am on January 8, 1946, the four were executed in Coimbatore Central Prison and their bodies were brought to Chinniampalayam.
Fulfilling their last wish, the mill workers carried their bodies in a mammoth rally and buried all the four in one grave at Chinniampalayam.
The city, which we call the Manchester of the South, was rich in cotton cultivation and availability of tireless laborers. Utilizing the facility, Robert Stanes, an Englishman established the first textile mill here as CS & W mills. Following this, many other capitalists founded similar firms in the dawn of the twentieth century.
The capitalists targeted good profit margins by mercilessly exploiting the laborers. The laborers, who toiled hard from 6 am to 6 pm, also had to tolerate untold atrocities of mill supervisors and gatekeepers. It is in this context, a trade union was founded by 'Barrister’ Ramasamy Iyengar, a famous lawyer of Coimbatore, who took legal measures against the mill owners and made possible a hike in the mill workers' salary at least by Re1.
As activities of the trade union were gaining momentum, the four laborers Venkatachalam, Ramayya, Chinnayyan, and Rangannan of Rangavilas mill at Poolaimedu stood for the rights of their co-workers and circulated a journal by name ' Munnani' which was secretly published in their village Chinniampalayam.
Since atrocities by mill supervisors were frequent, workers were treated no less than slaves, and women workers were subjected even to sexual abuse. In one such incident, the gatekeeper Ponnaan and his aides reportedly outraged the modesty of a woman worker ' Poolaimedu' Rajee. With the incident sending shock waves among the mill workers, a team of mill workers including women led by the four trade unionists encountered Ponnaan and his aides. The incident which turned into a skirmish on the day led to the death of Ponnaan.
To put down trade unionism with an iron hand, the proprietor of the mill, hand in glove with the police, forged a 'dying declaration’ of Ponnaan and sent Venkatachalam, Ramayya, Chinnayyan, and Rangannan to prison. The case, which went up to London Privy Council, was finally closed with the judgment that all the four accused shall be hanged to death.
At 5 am on January 8, 1946, the four were executed in Coimbatore Central Prison and their bodies were brought to Chinniampalayam.
Fulfilling their last wish, the mill workers carried their bodies in a mammoth rally and buried all the four in one grave at Chinniampalayam.