Dheeran Chinnamalai opposed British rule and joined as a Commander for Tipu Sultan with thousands of well-trained soldiers from Kongunadu.
When India enters the 77th year of independence on August 15, 2023. the nation will be celebrating the occasion with pomp and gaiety. The day will be marked by events like hoisting a tri-colour flag, speeches by political leaders, dances and songs by school children, and so on. The celebration will be more meaningful if a recollection of the lives of certain freedom fighters is shared.
History merely states that Coimbatore came under British rule after the killing of Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan in 1799. Nonetheless, the victory of the English was still incomplete until another hero Dheeran Chinnamalai was captured and hanged to death. As Dheeran was known for his courage, valor, and warfare, the British troops could not defeat him in war but captured him using their conspiracy.
Born in 1756 at Melapalayam near Erode of the then Coimbatore District, Dheeran attended the palace school and studied Tamil showing a great flair for war poetry. As his teacher described the valour of ancient Tamils from Sangam Literature, an inspired Dheeran mastered the traditional martial arts like Silambattam, Valchandai and Marpor.
Dheeran opposed British rule and joined as a commander for Tipu Sultan with thousands of well-trained soldiers from Kongunadu. The army commanded by Dheeran made possible Tipu’s victory over British in several wars. Named as “Kongu army” Dheeran’s troops drove away over forty thousand British soldiers in the battle held at Malavalli. As his soldiers were well trained in killing the adversaries using their subtle art in Silambam, the British soldiers were afraid to encounter them.
The British troops killed Tipu in the fourth Mysore War in 1799. However, Dheeran was in preparation for further wars against the English.He rode to several places in Coimbatore and told all the “Palayakarars “to be united against the British.
“The victory of the British is incomplete, though they captured Mysore” Dheeran said to the Palayakarars.
In 1803, a powerful cavalry led by British commander Col Harris, advanced towards Dheeran’s territory Odanilai, a few miles away from Chennimalai. Dheeran galloped on his swift horse and fired a shot from his pistol. It pierced into the British commander’s horse, which fled the battlefield in pain, making all other horses follow it.
Later, Dheeran had to leave Odanilai after he received a tip-off that a canon-armed British troop from Calicut was advancing to Odanilai. Dheeran and two of his brothers escaped to Karumalai, one of the mountain ranges in Palani. However, their cook Nallappan later betrayed the trio to the British, who captured and put them behind bars in Sankari Fort.
On the day of execution, an English commander told Dheeran that the government would pardon him if he accepted the position of commander in the British army.
But Dheeran, whose name has, sadly, become the identification of a particular caste in the Kongu region, said:
“My wish is not to attain a position in your government, but to drive you, the British, out of my country “
Dheeran was hanged to death at Sankari Fort in 1805.