Person · revolutionary assassin
Vanchi Iyer
Also known as Vanchi
Vanchinathan 'Vanchi' Iyer (1886 - 17 June 1911), the Tamil revolutionary who assassinated the British District Collector Robert Ashe of Tirunelveli on 17 June 1911 at Maniyachi Railway Station as revenge for Ashe's role in crushing the 1908 Thoothukudi Swadeshi strike led by V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. Born at Shencottah village in Tirunelveli district, Vanchi was a 25-year-old forest department clerk at Punalur when he carried out the assassination on the Shencottah-Madras Mail train. After shooting Ashe, Vanchi locked himself in the station toilet and committed suicide. His 1911 letter justifying the assassination was published in Tamil nationalist pamphlets. The 2008 Tirunelveli Vanchi Statue and the Maniyachi Junction renaming (2008 Vanchi Maniyachi Junction) honour his legacy.
- Date
- 1886–1911
- Function
- Social reform & movement
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (1)
- Court associationV.O. Chidambaram Pillai
Vanchi Iyer's 17 June 1911 assassination of District Collector Robert Ashe at Maniyachi Railway Station was explicitly in revenge for Ashe's 1908 role in crushing the Thoothukudi Swadeshi strike led by V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. The Vanchi-Ashe-Pillai-Thoothukudi connection ties the three major Tamil Swadeshi-era figures together across the 1908-1911 South Indian anti-colonial crisis.
Sources
Standard biography; regional historiography.
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