C. P. Ramaswami Iyer

Sachivottama Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer KCSI KCIE
Portrait of Ramaswami Iyer, The Hindu (1939)
8th Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University
In office 1 July 1954 – 2 July 1956
Appointed by	Rajendra Prasad
Preceded by	Acharya Narendra Dev
Succeeded by	Veni Shankar Jha
Diwan of Travancore
In office 8 October 1936 – 19 August 1947
Monarch	Sri Chithira Thirunal of Travancore
Preceded by	Muhammad Habibullah
Succeeded by	P. G. N. Unnithan
Viceroy's Executive Council (member)
In office 1931–1936
Monarchs	George V of the United Kingdom, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Governor‑General	Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon
Law Member of the Executive Council of the Governor of Madras - Home Minister of the Madras Presidency
In office 1923 – 10 March 1928
Premier	Raja of Panagal, P. Subbarayan
Governor	Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, Sir Charles George Todhunter (acting), George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen
Succeeded by	T. R. Venkatarama Sastri
Advocate-General of Madras
In office 1920–1923
Governor	Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon
Preceded by	S. Srinivasa Iyengar
Succeeded by	C. Madhavan Nair
Vice-Chancellor of Annamalai University
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 January 1955
1st Vice-Chancellor of the University of Travancore
In office 1937–1947
Delegate to the League of Nations
In office 1926–1927
Personal details
Born	13 November 1879 Wandiwash, Madras, British India (present-day Vandavasi, Tiruvannamalai district, Tamil Nadu, India)
Died	26 September 1966(1966-09-26) (aged 86) London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British Indian (1879–1947) Indian (1947–1966)
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Lady Sitamma Calamur Viravalli
Relations	C. V. Sundara Sastri (father-in-law) C. V. Kumaraswami Sastri (brother-in-law) C. V. Viswanatha Sastri (brother-in-law) C. V. Runganada Sastri (grandfather-in-law) C. Aryama Sundaram (grandson) C. V. Seshadri (grandson) C. V. Karthik Narayanan (grandson) M. R. Srinivasan (grandson-in-law) Sharada Srinivasan (great-granddaughter) Nanditha Krishna (great-granddaughter) Bharati Krishna Tirtha (cousin-in-law)
Children	C. R. Pattabhiraman C. R. Venkata Subban C. R. Sundaram
Parent	C. R. Pattabhirama Iyer
Residence(s)	The Grove, Madras Bhakti Vilas, Trivandrum
Alma mater	Presidency College, Madras
Occupation	Lawyer
Profession	Attorney-General, Statesman
Signature

Dewan Bahadur Sachivottama Sir Chetput Pattabhiraman Ramaswami Iyer KCSI KCIE LL.D. D.Litt. (12 November 1879 – 26 September 1966), popularly known as Sir C. P., was an Indian lawyer, administrator and statesman, acknowledged as the most powerful man in the Madras Presidency in the decades immediately prior to Indian Independence.

Ramaswami Iyer was born in 1879 in Madras city and studied at Wesley College High School and Presidency College, Madras before qualifying as a lawyer from the Madras Law College. He joined the Madras Bar in 1903.

By 1910, he was the undisputed leader of the Madras Bar, head of the Mylapore clique, the most highly remunerated lawyer in India, and president of the All India Lawyers' Conference, famous as counsel and constitutional advisor to the Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, the Nawab of Bhopal, and the Maharajas of Jammu & Kashmir (for whom he formulated Kashmir's first constitution in 1934), Patiala, Indore, Gwalior, Bikaner, Travancore, and Cochin. C.P's public renown was further magnified by his role as victorious counsel in a string of high-profile cases, including the Ashe murder trial, Besant v. Narayaniah, the incarceration of poet Mahakavi C. Subramania Bharathiyar, the case of shipping magnate V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, and Pandit Motilal Nehru's defamation suit against C.S. Ranga Iyer.

Despite having just deprived Annie Besant of custody of Jiddu Krishnamurti as opposing counsel, he nonetheless awed her such that she recruited him as a central figure in the Indian Home Rule movement; from 1917, he would serve jointly with Jawaharlal Nehru as General Secretary of Indian National Congress, personally superintending the Congress delegation to the British Parliament; later, represented British India twice at the League of Nations in Geneva, at the First, Second, and Third Round Table Conferences, and at the 1933 World Economic Conference in London, additionally drawing attention with his testimony before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament charged with deliberating Indian reforms.

In 1920, after declining elevation to the High Court of Madras as a puisne justice, where he would have joined his brothers-in-law Sir C.V. Kumaraswami and Viswanatha Sastriar, he was appointed by Lord Willingdon as the youngest-ever Advocate-General of Madras, in which capacity he XYZ, before joining Willingdon's Executive Council as Home Minister, overseeing Law, Police, Irrigation and Ports, the judiciary and legislature, labor, companies, elections, and infrastructure. He began the electrification of South India, established the Pallivasal Hydroelectric Project and Pechiparai Hydroelectric Scheme, and built the Mettur and Pykara Dams, while also laying the groundwork for the Tungabhadra Dam and creating the public park reserve today known as Periyar National Park.

Rising to Vice-President of the Executive Council and chief advisor to the Governor, from 1924 onward he was widely seen as the most powerful man in Madras, with the newly arrived British Governor, Viscount Goschen, consulting or deferring to him in most matters, and consequently ridiculed as his stooge, to the extent that the Justice Party sought to have Goschen recalled to London on those grounds in 1926, at which time they alleged that C.P. had personally suppressed their electoral success. Widespread prurient speculation about the true relationship between C.P. and the Vicereine-elect, Lady Willingdon was inescapable at this time; similarly attached to CP in the court of public rumor were Maharani Indira Devi of Cooch Behar, and the Junior Maharani of Travancore.

In 1931, he was elevated to the Viceroy's Executive Council, tasked now with imperial, pan-Indian strategy and policymaking as minister for Law and Commerce, and (from 1942) Information; at the Viceroy's request, he concurrently became legal and constitutional adviser to the monarchy of Travancore. - a relationship which rapidly transmuted into C.P. exercising total autocracy over the kingdom, in the name of the regent Maharani and then her roi fainéant son, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, who formally appointed C.P. Dewan of Travancore in 1936.

A young Sir. C.P. during his delegate phase

During his tenure as Diwan, he radically and forcefully transformed Travancore wholesale: industrially, economically, culturally, and socially.

His first act was the issuance of the Temple Entry Proclamation, opening all Travancore temples to all worshippers, whatever their caste; he would proceed to institute mandatory universal education for children, extend universal suffrage, and abolish capital punishment, each of which was a first for an Indian princely state. Kerala’s first modern university emerged with his founding the University of Travancore — later the University of Kerala — in 1937, where he would additionally act as Vice-Chancellor.

He created and launched the State Bank of Travancore, the Travancore Titanium Company, FACT, Indian Rare Earths, Travancore Ceramics Ltd. and other multiple other major concerns with state support, aggressively developing industrial enterprises manufacturing and/or processing glass, aluminum, plywood, rayons, sugar, hardwood, lime, cement, salt, cotton textiles, ceramics, rubber, and coir. He inaugurated the Travancore State Transport Department, today the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, and further introduced scheduled air transport to the realm, as well as instituting a dedicated Travancore State Civil Service, and installing Travancore's first telephone system. In tandem, fiscally, he abolished land revenue taxation, instead instituting a gradated agricultural income tax. His programs of modernization and industrialization in aggregate quadrupled the economic revenue of Travancore in just eleven years, despite tailwinds from the collapse of Marumakkathayam and fragmentation of the tharavads.

He took charge of the matter of the devadāya offered at Padmanabhaswamy Temple, for the Maharaja merely to safekeep, by instituting the system of autonomous trusts encapsulating the devadāya committed in the Padmanabhaswamy vaults that even today control assets worth >$20bn US.

C.P.'s American Model contrasted with the heavy-handed Dirigisme of administration,

All was not well, however; World War II disruption of supply lines of rice from Burma to a nation already running a 60% food deficit saw some (estimated) 90,000 Travancorean deaths from starvation, malnutrition, or disease. Wartime exodus in Tranvancore atypically consisted in mass flight from urbanized areas into local forests and wilderness. Public awareness of the situation was carefully titrated by C.P.'s unusually autarchic, repressive press controls, and his enacted Defense of Travancore act, which even exceeded the Rowlatt Act in its invasiveness of civil rights. Dissent within Travancore was ruthlessly suppressed, most infamously in the matter of the Punnapra-Vayalar revolt, where two or three thousand communist-assigned workers rebelled against the throne and regime, to be met by instantaneous military aid to the civil power. At least 1,000 insurrectionists were killed by state forces.

and his controversial stand in favour of an independent Travancore.

Following a failed assassination attempt in 1947, he deliberately chose to resign and withdraw to London, rebuffing a blank cheque to rule Indore as its first Prime Minister.

Ancestry and origins

C.P. Ramaswami Iyer belonged to the Vadadeśathu Vadama whose seat was the town of Chetput in the North Arcot district of Madras, which they were ancestrally granted along with the villages of Adayapalayam, and Morakkaniyur as a reward for piety and scholarship. The family traces their lineage to Dikshitar Brahmins of the collateral line of famous Advaitist savant Appayya Dikshita, and his brother Achan, and further back to Deshastha Brahmins who migrated from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to the town of Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, from where they migrated to the northern part of Tamil Nadu in the 16th century AD. Through extensive intermarriage typical of caste endogamy, the Chetput lines merged with the family of C. V. Runganada Sastri, with the resulting clan co-dominating the Mylapore clique in tandem with the Vembaukum family.

C.P.'s grandfather, Chetput Ramaswami Iyer served the British East India Company as Tehsildar of Kumbakonam. His family was deeply attached to the Sringeri mutt.

Early life and education

Chetpet Pattabhiraman Ramaswami Iyer was born on Deepavali day (13 November) 1879, to C.R. Pattabhirama Iyer (1857–1903), a leader of the Tanjore bar who relocated to Madras in the wake of his close friend being elevated to the High Court, and soon established himself as one of the leading figures even in the rarefied and cutthroat echelons of the Original Side of the High Court, with a practice ranked in the same tier as that of V. Bhashyam Aiyangar.

who had , and his wife, Seethalakshmi Ammal (also called Rangammal) in the town of Wandiwash, North Arcot. C.P. had his schooling at the Wesley College High School in Madras. He had an extremely strict upbringing as a result of a prediction that the child would not pass a single exam in his life, and was fostered in the family of C. V. Runganada Sastri, whose granddaughter Seethamal he married on completion of his schooling, whereupon he also enrolled at the Presidency College, Madras.

In college, C.P. won prizes in English, Sanskrit and Mathematics and the Elphinstone Prize for his paper on the Nebular theory. C.P. passed his degree with a gold medal and graduated with distinction from the Madras Law College.

C.P. had always desired to become an English professor. However, his father, Pattabhirama Iyer wished that his son become a lawyer and accordingly, C.P. chose a career in law. He spent his college vacations in the Mysore kingdom with the Diwan, Sir K. Seshadri Iyer whom he reportedly always claimed as his inspiration.

As a lawyer

In 1903, C.P. joined V. Krishnaswamy Iyer as an apprentice. Just before the death of Pattabhirama Iyer the same year, he arranged for C.P.'s admission as a junior to Sir V. Bhashyam Aiyangar but the latter was not able to accommodate him owing to hishveing been elevated to the bench. Sir C.V. Kumaraswami Sastri, his elder brother-in-law and universally acknowledged successor to Bhashyam Iyengar as leader of the bar, instead served as his master, and C.V. Viswanatha Sastri, who had themselves been recently elevated to justices of the High Court. He fought and won over 300 cases, rapidly building a reputation for himself as India's foremost and highest-remunerated litigator. By 1910 his meteoric rise has led to his being acknowledged as the undisputed leader of the original bar at the Madras High Court, shortly after which he was selected as the President of the First All Indian Lawyers Conference held at Allahabad. Forty-two minutes, my Lord, he once announced to a judge who asked him how much time he would need to finish a case; the next several years saw him win spectaculator victories in some of the highest-profile cases of the time, including the Ashe murder trial and the Besant Narayaniah case., as well as representing the Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar and the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, rapidly earning a considerable private fortune, and rising to become the most powerful man in the Madras presidency for decades., having cultured intimately close, even inappropriate friendships with Lord and Lady Willingdon.

In 1920, then-Governor Lord Willingdon appointed him he the youngest-ever Advocate-General of Madras, during which tenure his income rose to an unprecedented 4,000 rupees, and in which capacity he would serve as premier state prosecutor for four years, until his subsequent promotion to the Governor's Executive Law Council, and, subsequently, the Viceregal Imperial War Council.

Sir. C.P. stint on the Executive Law Council was marked by an intense commitment to industrialization and lowering the levelized post of power, with C.P. championing initiatives ranging from the introduction of hydroelectricity to the Mettur, Pykara and Bhavani projects and for the development of the Cochin, Tuticorin and Vishakhapatanam ports. His superintending the completion of the hydreoelectric project at the high-altitude Pykara in until three years to completion, at an expenditure of less than 6.75 crores was particularly heralded. The more-expensive Mettur initiative, inccuring capital outlays of 385 lakh rupees, nonetheless rendered over 328,396 acres in Tanjore District fully irrigated, with excess electric power being made available downstream.

In 1920, C.P was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly from the Tanjore-Trichinopoly constituency in the vacancy caused by the resignation of A. Rangaswamy Iyenga. On 10 July 1930, which was the first meeting of the Assembly that C.P attended, the House was debating the Simon Commission Report on a cut motion. In 1928, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and later to the Council of Imperial State State; further immediate distinctions followed in the form of further appointments of honour during this period included as the Indian envoy to the first and second League of Nations, and to the Third Round Table Conference.

Formal decorations rapidly followed: Sir C.P. was made a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire in 1926, and a Knight Commander of the Star of India in 1941, continually buoyed by powerful support from the likes of the Willingdons and the Junior Maharani of Travancore. Sir C.P., at the request of his old friend the Junior Maharani of Travancore, also acceded to take on a further portfolio as the underage Maharaja's constitutional and legal adviser - a sum for which he was now earning 72,000 rupees a year.

Travancore

Indian Independence Movement

In his early days, C.P. was an admirer of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and desired to join the Servants of India society in Poona. In 1912, he fought on behalf of Jiddu Narayaniah against Annie Besant for the custody of his sons J. Krishnamurti and Nityananda in the famous Besant Narayaniah trial and won. Besant, however, later got the verdict annulled by appealing to the Privy Council in England. C.P. developed an admiration for Annie Besant and collaborated with her in organising the Home Rule League and served as its vice-president. In 1917, he became the Secretary of the Indian National Congress. He edited Besant's newspaper, New India, during her incarceration. at the same time, campaigning vigorously for her release. C.P. later distanced himself from the Indian Independence after disagreeing with Mahatma Gandhi over the Swadeshi and Non-Cooperation movements.

As a member of the Executive Council of the Governor of Madras

In 1920, C.P. was nominated as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency. He was responsible for the introduction of the City Municipalities Act and the Madras Local Boards Act. In 1923, he was nominated to the executive council of the Governor of Madras and was charged with the portfolios of law and order, police, Public Works Department, irrigation, ports and electricity.

As a member of the executive council, C. P. laid the foundation of the Pykara Dam which was constructed between 1929 and 1932 at a cost of Rs. 67.5 million. He also started the construction of Mettur Dam over the Cauvery river. While the Pykara Hydro-electric project triggered the rapid industrialization of Coimbatore, the Mettur project was used to irrigate vast areas of Tanjore and Trichy districts. As the member in charge of ports, C.P. was also responsible for the improvement of Cochin, Visakhapatnam and Tuticorin ports.

As law member, C.P. was instrumental in passing the Devadasi Abolition Bill proposed by Muthulakshmi Reddy. However, owing to strong protests from devadasis across Madras Presidency, C.P. suggested that the bill be introduced only as a private bill and not a government measure.

Between 1926 and 1927, he was the Indian Delegate at the League of Nations in Geneva. By 1931, he was a Law Member of the Government of India and, in 1932, attended the Third Round Table Conference at London.

In 1933, he was the sole Indian delegate to the World Economic Conference and the next year he drafted a constitution for the state of Kashmir.

Diwan of Travancore

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  Kowdiar Palace - official residence of the Junior Maharani and her son, the underage monarch, as well as a frequent site for the Diwan to personally counsel the Maharani
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  Bhakti Vilas, traditionally the secondary official residence of the Diwans of Travancore, used by Sir C.P. for ministerial purposes.
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  Another view of Bhakti Vilas.
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  The Kanakakunnu Palace, Sir C.P.'s official residence.
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  Another view of the Kanakakunnu Palace.
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  Padma Vilas, the initial official residence of the Diwans of Travancore, within the Fort complex.
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  The gates of Padma Vilas.

The Travancore royal family and Sir C.P. receiving the Viceroy, Lord Goschen.

In 1931, when Chithira Thirunal was barred from succeeding his deceased uncle as the Maharaja of Travancore, C.P. spoke on his behalf to the Viceroy of India. The Viceroy agreed to crown Chithira Thirunal but only on the condition that C.P. should function as adviser to the young monarch. C.P. agreed and served as Legal and Constitutional adviser and Regent to the prince from 1931 to 1936, drawing compensation of 72,000 rupees a year for his direct services. In 1936, Maharajah Chithira Thirunal personally requested C.P. to be the Diwan of Travancore. C.P. accepted the offer and served as Diwan for a period of ten years.

Temple Entry Proclamation

See also: Temple Entry Proclamation

CP + the Maharaja

On 12 November 1936, Maharajah Chithira Thirunal issued the revolutionary Temple Entry Proclamation which gave Hindus of all castes and classes, including Dalits or untouchables, the right to enter Hindu temples in the state. This was bitterly opposed by conservative, yet influential upper-caste Hindus who posed a grave-threat to the life of the Diwan. This proclamation earned for the Maharajah and his Diwan the praise of Mahatma Gandhi and other reformers.

Economic and industrial reforms

Master Builder

"He was builder of dams, canals, hydroelectric works, fertilizer plants, member of Viceroy's executive council, vice-chancellor of three universities, delegate at third round table conference and much more"

~ Khushwant Singh, Master Builder, 17 July 1999

During C.P.'s tenure as Diwan, Travancore made rapid strides in industrial development. The Indian Aluminium Company was invited to set up a factory in the town of Aluva. The first fertiliser plant in India, the Fertilizers and Chemicals of Travancore Ltd. (FACT) was established by C. P. to manufacture ammonium sulphate. This was established with American collaboration in open defiance to the hostility of the Viceroy of India. C.P. also established a plant to manufacture cement and another to manufacture titanium dioxide. The Travancore plywood factory at Punalur The Travancore Rayons Limited was established in 1946 with a plant at Perumbavoor. The first plant to manufacture aluminium cables was opened at Kundara.

By the time, C.P. stepped down as Diwan in 1947, the revenues of the state had increased fourfold from the time he had assumed charge.

Irrigation works

C.P. wished to establish a hydroelectric power project on the Periyar river. However, his efforts were opposed by the Government of Madras. C.P. argued as a lawyer on behalf of Travancore and won. As a result, the Pallivasal hydro-electric power project was established on the Periyar river. He initiated the Pechipara Hydro-electric Scheme (later, the Kodayar Hydroelectric Power Project in Kanyakumari District), the Periyar Game Sanctuary, and other irrigation projects.

Other reforms

C.P. carried out a great deal of pioneering work for the Vivekananda Rock at Cape Comorin and built guest-houses at Kanyakumari. He renovated the Padmanabhapuram Palace of Marthanda Varma's days (in present-day Kanyakumari District) and expanded the Trivandrum Art Gallery.

In 1937, C.P. started the University of Travancore with the Maharajah as Chancellor and himself as Vice Chancellor. In 1939, he was awarded an honorary L.L.D. Degree by the University of Travancore In 1940 under his Dewanship Travancore became the first state to nationalise road transport in India.

The first cement highway in India was constructed between the capital Trivandrum and Kanniyakumari covering a distance of 88 kilometres. The same year capital punishment was abolished and adult franchise introduced. He was also the first to appoint a lady as District Judge (Mrs. Anna Chandy later became the first Indian woman High Court Judge). Iyer introduced for the first time the midday meal scheme to prompt poor children to attend school.

In 1941, the British conferred on him the title of Knight Commander of the Star of India (KCSI). When Indian Independence came into view Travancore and other Princely States were given two options of either staying independent or merging with the dominions of India or Pakistan.

Punnapra-Vayalar revolt

See also: Punnapra-Vayalar uprising

A mass uprising broke out in the Alleppey region in October 1946. On 24 October Travancore police killed near about 200 people in Punnapra and the government ordered martial law in Alleppey and Cherthala. CP's police and army moved to Alleppey and on 27 October, Vayalar witnessed another mass uprising and 150 people were killed on the spot. On the same day, 130 people were killed in different locations of Alleppey in police shoot-outs. According to Prof. A Shreedhara Menon's Kerala History, about 1,000 people died in the Punnapra Vayalar Agitation. Even though the agitation was a short-lived failure, it resulted in better administration of Travancore.

Declaration of independence

When, on 3 June 1947, the United Kingdom accepted demands for a partition and announced its intention to quit India within a short period, the Maharaja of Travancore desired to declare himself independent. Supported by the Diwan, C.P., Chithira Thirunal issued a declaration of independence on 18 June 1947. As Travancore's declaration of independence was unacceptable to India, negotiations were started with the Diwan by the Government of India. Family sources indicate that C.P. himself was not in favour of independence but only greater autonomy, and that a favourable agreement had been reached between C.P. and the Indian representatives by 23 July 1947 but accession to the Indian Union could not be carried out only because it was pending approval by the Raja.

On the other hand, noted historian Ramachandra Guha has written about how C.P., egged on by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had established secret ties with senior Ministers of the British Government, who encouraged him in the hope that he would give them privileged access to monazite, a material Travancore was rich in and which could give the British a lead in the nuclear arms race.

Nevertheless, an assassination attempt was made on C.P. on 25 July 1947 during a concert commemorating the anniversary of Swati Thirunal. C.P. survived with multiple stab wounds and hastened the accession of Travancore state to the Indian Union soon after his recovery.

Later years

After he resigned his Dewanship of Travancore, C. P. left for London. In the same year, he visited Brazil on the invitation of the Government of Brazil and Argentina, Peru and Mexico as a tourist. He also visited the United States, where he gave talks at the University of California, Berkeley, and had discussions with important bank executives, journalists and US President Harry S. Truman.

In 1949–50, he visited the United States again as a visiting professor of the American Academy of Asian Studies at California. In 1952, he toured Australia and New Zealand as a guest of the respective governments and visited the United States again in 1953 on a lecture tour.

From 1 July 1954 to 2 July 1956, he served as the Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University. From 26 January 1955, C.P. also served as a Vice Chancellor of Annamalai University, thereby becoming the first Indian to function as Vice Chancellor of two universities at the same time.

In 1953, C.P. was appointed member of the Press Council of India. Two years later, C.P. toured China as the leader of an Indian universities delegation. C.P. served as a member of the University Grants Commission (1955), the Punjab Commission (1961), the National Integration Council, the Chairman of the Hindu Religious Endowments Commission from 1960 to 1962, and President of the Inter-University board of India and Ceylon (1965).

Death

In September 1966, C.P. left for England to conduct research on a planned book titled "A History of My Times" at the India Office library. At about 11:30 am, on 26 September 1966, he was in the National Liberal Club (where he had been a member for over 50 years), when he suddenly slumped on his armchair while speaking to a reporter and died instantly. The following day, The Times carried the news of his death:

Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, jurist, scholar, statesman and wit, who died suddenly in London yesterday, was one of the outstanding Indians of his day

Condolences were also offered by C. Rajagopalachari, Zakir Husain (then-President of India), The Hindu, The Times of India, Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, and K. Kamaraj.

Legacy

C.P. was acknowledged for his talent as a lawyer, administrator and visionary. Edwin Samuel Montagu, who served as the Secretary of State for India from 1917 to 1922, described him as "one of the cleverest men in India". He is credited with having transformed Kanyakumari district into the rice-bowl of Travancore and is acclaimed for being the first person to envisage the industrialisation of Madras Presidency. He is also regarded as an egalitarian and the first caste Hindu lawyer to admit a Dalit, N. Sivaraj as his junior.

Under his leadership, Travancore became the first princely state to abolish capital punishment, first to introduce free and compulsory education and the first princely state to be connected to the rest of India by air. M. G. Ramachandran, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu recollected at C.P.'s birth centenary celebrations in 1979 that C.P. was the first to introduce the midday meal scheme in the form of the Vanchi Poor Fund in Travancore. C. N. Annadurai remarked at a speech in 1967 that C. P. was the first person in India to suggest a plan for interlinking the nation's rivers.

However, his greatest achievement is believed to be the Temple Entry Proclamation which for the first time, permitted Dalits to enter Hindu temples which he introduced despite a severe threat to his life.

C.P. was known for his philanthropic activities and the institutions he helped establish. After his death, The C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation was established in his memory in order to promote traditional arts and crafts.

While serving as a law member of the executive council of the Governor of Madras, Ramaswami Iyer's agenda for social reform and opening the doors of Hindu temples for Dalits and low-caste Hindus were praised by C. Natesa Mudaliar, one of the founders of the South Indian Liberation Federation. C. P. was a patron of arts and music and was member of experts committee consisting of some of the leading musicians and scholars to advise the Madras Music Academy.

C. P. was a friend of the English writer Somerset Maugham who had a prolonged discussion with while on a visit to Trivandrum. Later, Maugham supplied a eulogy for the book, C.P. by his Contemporaries:

He had the geniality of the politician who for years has gone out of his way to be cordial with everyone he meets. He talked very good English, fluently, with a copious choice of words, and he put what he had to say plainly, and with logical sequence. He had a resonant voice and an easy manner. He did not agree with a good deal that I said and corrected me with decision, but with courtesy that took it for granted I was too intelligent to be affronted by contradiction

Indian civil servant C. S. Venkatachar wrote that the Kashmir issue might have been resolved in favour of India had Jawaharlal Nehru chosen C. P. instead of Gopalaswami Ayyangar to present India's case at the United Nations. The same view was also shared by Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar. While chairing the Indian Committee on National Integration, C.P. introduced the clause making it mandatory that newly elected member of Parliament and state assemblies should take an allegiance to the Indian Union. It is believed that the introduction of this clause compelled the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to give up its goal of secession from the Indian Union.

C.P. was an active freemason and served as a member of the Carnatic Lodge.

Criticism

Sir CP Ramaswami Iyer with Directors of Travancore National and quilon bank which includes C.P. Matthen (MD), K. C. Mammen Mappillai, M. O. Thomas Vakkel Modisseril(Director) and Barrister VT Thomas.

While being hailed as a modernising reformer by many, C. P. is also criticised as a capitalist, authoritarian, imperialist, anti-Christian and anti-Communist by some. C. P. has been sharply criticized for failing to rescue the deteriorating Travancore National and Quilon Bank and for cracking down on the bank and its managing director, C. P. Mathen. It is believed that C.P., allegedly an anti-Christian framed the downfall of Quilon Bank, using his influence. In 1946, Communist dissent over C. P.'s policies erupted in the form of the Punnapra-Vayalar revolt which was crushed with a brutal hand by Travancore army and navy. Communist hatred over C. P.'s policies finally culminated in an assassination attempt upon the Diwan. However, despite deep antagonism between C. P. and Communists, he opposed the dismissal of the Communist government of Kerala headed by E. M. S. Namboodiripad in 1959 by the Jawaharlal Nehru government as "unconstitutional". C. P. was also labelled as a "secessionist" due to his initial reluctance in merging Travancore with the Indian Union. Jawaharlal Nehru said of his attitude towards imperialism:

There is little now in common between us except our nationality. He is today a full-blooded apologist of British rule in India, especially during the last few years; an admirer of dictatorship in India and elsewhere, and himself a shining ornament of autocracy in an Indian state.

His attempt to negotiate a trade agreement with Pakistan on behalf of Travancore was viewed as a betrayal by most Indians.

Family

In 1895, at the age of 16, C. P. was married to nine-year-old Seethamma (1886–1930), granddaughter of Indian polyglot and judge C. V. Runganada Sastri and sister to High Court justices Dewan Bahadur Sir C. V. Kumaraswami Sastri and Dewan Bahadur C.V. Viswanatha Sastri, as well as cousin to Shankaracharya Bharati Krishna Tirtha Maharaj, pontiff of the Dwaraka Math, and later supreme pontiff of Smarta Hinduism at the Govardhan Math, and to the Finance Secretary of the Madras Presidency and former Tehsildar Dewan Bahadur V.S. Viswanatha Rao. She died in March 1930 leaving behind three sons, C. R. Pattabhiraman, C. R. Venkata Subban and C. R. Sundaram. Pattabhiraman participated in the Indian Independence Movement and was active in the Indian National Congress even after C. P.'s resignation from the party. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kumbakonam in 1957 and 1962 and served as Deputy Minister and later, Minister of Industries from 1966 to 1967, and then Minister for Law. Pattabhiraman was also one of the founders of the Madras Cricket Club along with P. Subbarayan. C.P.'s nephew would later go on to marry the niece and heiress to V.K. Krishna Menon.

In popular culture

• Somerset Maugham named a character in his 1932 novel The Narrow Corner "Ramaswami Iyer" after C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, who he had met on a visit to India.
• Vaikom Muhammad Basheer wrote a collection of essays titled Dharmarajyam against the policies of C. P. Ramaswami Iyer. The book was banned and it is said that Basheer himself got these essays printed and sold them at local shops and households, going on foot. Basheer was arrested and jailed for two years later.
• Veteran Tamil film actor Nassar played the role of C. P. Ramaswami Iyer in the 1998 Malayalam movie Rakthasakshikal Sindabad.

Works

• C. P. Ramaswami Iyer (1966). Gokhale: the man and his mission: Gopal Krishna Gokhale birth centenary lectures. Servants of India Society.
• C. P. Ramaswami Iyer (1968). Biographical vistas: sketches of some eminent Indians. Asia Publishing House.

References

• Shakunthala Jagannathan (1999). Sir C. P. Remembered. Vakils, Feffer and Simmons Ltd. ISBN 81-87111-27-5.
• "C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer". Some Madras Leaders. 1922. pp. 76–81.
• Lapierre, Dominique; Larry Collins (1997). Freedom at midnight. Vikas Publishing House. ISBN 81-259-0480-8.
• Balasubramaniam, K. M. (1934). South Indian Celebrities Vol 1. Madras: Solden & Co. pp. 36–54.
• "Biography and timeline at the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation website". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
• Sreedhara Menon. Sir C.P. Thiruvithamcore Charithrathil (in Malayalam).

Further reading

• Saroja Sundarrajan (2002). Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, a biography. Allied Publishers. ISBN 978-81-7764-326-8.
• K. Swaminathan (1959). "C. P.," by his contemporaries: being a commemoration volume issued on the occasion of the eighty-first birthday of Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar. C.P.'s Eighty-First Birthday Celebration Committee.
• K. C. George (1975). Immortal Punnapra-Vayalar. Communist Party of India.
• P. G. Sahasranama Iyer (1945). Selections from the writings and speeches of Sachivottama Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, Dewan of Travancore. Government Press.
• K. R. Venkataraman (1927). A glimpse of Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer Kt. at Trichinopoly. St. Joseph's Industrial School Press.
• Speeches of Sachivottama Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar ... Dewan of Travancore. Government Press. 1942.
• Triumph and Tragedy in Travancore: Annals of Sir C.P.'s Sixteen years by A. Sreedhara Menon. Current Books, Kottayam.