A fortnight after India became a Republic, Madras State witnessed a sensational prison massacre that left 22 Communists dead. Around 12.35 p.m. on February 11, 1950, Communist prisoners started rioting in the Salem Central Jail Annexe. In the firing by prison officials that followed, apart from the fatalities, 102 prisoners and 21 jail staff members were injured. Among the dead were 19 Malayalis, two Tamils, and a Telugu. The Communist Party of India was then a banned organisation. Its leaders, including those of its farmers’ wing from the Malabar region, were lodged in different prisons in the State.
“Rioting took place in the Jail Annexe, situated opposite the main premises of the jail on the other side of the road. The Communist prisoners who were reported to have been armed with window panels, frames, sticks, etc., disobeyed the jailor’s orders when he came there at about 12-35 p.m. to-day. The warders were mobilised and a clash took place between the warders and the Communist prisoners,” reads a report in The Hindu dated February 12, 1950.
17 killed on the spot
District Magistrate Sivasankaran Pillai told journalists that the Head Warder had directed the Communists — 222 of them — to go to their workshop with their caps and “press tickets” (also referred as ‘breast tickets’) on. The prisoners refused to proceed despite persuasion by Reserve Deputy Jailor Aiya Pillai (elsewhere Ayyavu Pillai), Warder Raju Naidu, and Jailor Krishna Naidu, “who were all belaboured”. Ammunition was ordered to be taken from the main premises of the jail and after alarm, firing was ordered which resulted in 17 Communist convicts being killed on the spot. The rest succumbed at hospital.
The following day, Abdul Salam, a legislator from Guntur (then in Madras State), moved an adjournment motion in the Assembly to discuss the failure of the government in saving the lives of the jail inmates. Speaker J Sivashanmugham Pillai, however, disallowed the motion. He said the members had an opportunity of discussing the firing during the debate on the Governor’s Address.
In the meantime, the government came out with an “official account” of the incident. It said that when the prisoners refused to wear uniforms, the Reserve Deputy Jailor, who happened to pass that way, advised them to be more reasonable and abide by jail discipline. “The prisoners were in no mood to listen and were found to be taking up a defiant attitude. One of the convicts pulled the shirt of the Deputy Jailor and assaulted him. Finding that the whole gathering was becoming restive and was assuming a hostile attitude, Warder No. 94 Raju Naidu raised an alarm when he saw that the Deputy Jailor was attacked. This warder also became the target for attack. Many of the convicts by now had armed themselves with stones, brick-bats, and wooden poles taken from the handlooms in the workshops and started advancing towards the Deputy Jailor and other warders,” said the government.
Finding the situation completely out of control the Jailor, Krishnan Nair, shouted to the warders to get arms and ammunition. “Twelve warders came with fire-arms and finding the Jailor and the warders being mercilessly beaten and the Jailor and the Deputy Jailor falling down unconscious, fire was opened under instructions from Head Warder No. 21 Ramaswami. In all, five rounds were fired by each of the 12 warders to bring the situation under control,” it said.
Lt. Col. C. S. Gill, the then Inspector-General of Prisons, Madras, told The Hindu that these Communist prisoners were being periodically “instigated” to create disturbances in order that their “presence” might not be forgotten by the public. The government appointed a committee headed by Justice K.P. Lakshmana Rao, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, to conduct an inquiry into the firing. N. Gopala Menon, an advocate, and P. V. Subba Rao, a former Collector, were its members. In June, the government announced it had accepted the findings of the committee. But it did not propose to publish the report or the accepted findings as it could be prejudicial to the trial of the criminal case against some of the Communists involved in the incident.
In November 1952, the report was tabled in the Assembly. Subba Rao and Gopala Menon had opined, “The jail staff had justification for opening fire, but not for continuing it till they exhausted their ammunition…it can be held that excessive force was employed and that it was possible to exercise more restraint.” At the same time, they said the “warders deserve great credit for their initiative and sense of duty. If they had not shown initiative in opening fire and using force, the Communist prisoners might have gone out of control and broken loose and the habitual criminals might have caught the infection.”
However, Justice Rao disagreed: “There was ample justification for firing the first and second rounds… The Rifle Party had to deal with a mob of desperate and dangerous Communist prisoners of whom many were armed with heavy weapons… Casualties are bound to be numerous in such cases and on the evidence before the Committee it cannot be said that the firing of the third, fourth and fifth rounds was not justified or that excessive force was used or that it was possible to exercise any more restraint.”
Govt. accepts findings: Law Minister
On March 11, 1953, Law Minister K.P. Kuttikrishnan Nair told the Assembly that the government had accepted the findings of the Chairman that the jail staff had adequate justification for opening fire. Hence, there was no question of any action against the warders. “That the warders did only what they should have done under the circumstances would also be seen from the observations of the members of the Committee that the warders deserved great credit for their initiative and sense of duty,” he said.
Now, 75 years after the massacre, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has announced the construction of a memorial for the 22 Communists. A 45-cent land near the Salem District Court has been identified for the purpose.
Tailpiece: On February 11, 1952, E.M. Sankaran Namboodiripad (EMS, who later became Kerala Chief Minister), a member of the CPI Politburo, was arrested in Kozhikode when he came to the Town Hall to observe the Martyrs’ Day in memory of the 22 comrades. A warrant was pending against him and he had gone underground for four years.
Published – October 24, 2025 05:30 am IST
