There is a scene in Kappalotiya Tamilan, the film portraying the life of freedom figther V.O. Chidambaram Pillai (VOC), in which an advocate would refuse to engage a barber because he raised the slogan Vande Mataram. But in reality, it was the barber, who stopped the work in the middle and the pro-British lawyer had to be escorted out of the district to complete his shaving.
“It happened [in Tirunelveli] 114 years ago in March 1908 after VOC was arrested for eulogising freedom fighter Bipin Chandra and calling upon people to boycott foreign goods. The incident exemplifies how society as a whole threw itself in the struggle against British rule,” said A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS).
It was a spontaneous uprising. People cutting across class, caste and religion plunged into it. Even, butchers stopped selling meat to their European customers and they were forced to import meat from Colombo.
