Salem C. Vijiaraghavachariar: the freedom fighter who fought against Kala Paani

Andamans, notoriously called ‘Kala Paani’ (black water) during colonial rule, served as a penal settlement from the second half of the 19th Century, even before the construction of the Cellular Jail during 1896-1906. Many freedom fighters, including Vaman Rao Joshi, Sohan Singh, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Bhai Parmanand, and Nand Gopal had been kept at the jail. What is less known is a prominent Congress leader from Tamil Nadu, Salem C. Vijiaraghavachariar (1852-1944), was ordered to be transported there to serve a 10-year imprisonment. He got it legally rescinded. He was implicated in a case concerning the Salem Hindu-Muslim riots in August 1882 and convicted three months later.

“Though thirty and facing many privations, Mr. Vijiaraghavachariar was not daunted by the sentence. He appealed to the High Court of Madras and succeeded in getting his conviction quashed on January 9, 1883, much to the chagrin of the local bureaucrats who had counted on silencing the independent young lawyer,” wrote The Hindu in its obituary on him on April 21, 1944. The report said, “He did not rest with vindicating himself gloriously, but fought for the next two years to get the other accused also released.”