By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Dec 5, 2021: The birthplace of a Catholic woman freedom fighter whom Mahatma Gandhi labeled “the Jhansi Rani of Travancore” is among 80 Indian villages where culture mapping in now underway.
The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts has selected Kanjirapally in Kerala’s Kottayam district, the birthplace of Accamma Cherian, and other villages for that have links with the Independence struggle or have their own art practices.
Culture Ministry officials say the mapping was assigned to IGNCA as a pilot project in September this year. It is expected to complete by March 31, 2022.
“The aim is to create a huge database related to our villages and the culture, customs and traditions there,” Sachidanand Joshi, member-secretary of IGNCA, told The Hindu in early December.
Federal Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy told the Rajya Sabha on December 2 that the project would lead to a “national register and interactive database of artists and art practices from the villages of India.” Each artist would be given a unique ID and an e-commerce platform set up.
Accamma Cherian, popularly known as Accamma, was born on February 14, 1909 as the second daughter of Thomman Cherian and Annamma Karippaparambil in Kanjirapally. She was educated at the local Government Girls High School and St. Joseph’s High School, Changanacherry. She did BA in History from St. Teresa’s College, Ernakulam.
After completing her education in 1931, she taught at St. Mary’s English Medium School, Edakkara, for six years. She plunged into the freedom struggle when the prime minister of Travancore kingdom C P Ramaswami Aiyar banned the Congress party, that was leading India’s independence struggle, and jailed its members.
Accamma led a rally to the Kowdiar Palace of Travancore kings to demand the revocation of the ban and dismissal of Aiyar, who faced several charges of repression.
The British police chief ordered his men to fire on the rally of more than 20,000 people. Accamma Cherian cried, “I am the leader; shoot me first before you kill others.” Her daring act forced the police authorities to withdraw their orders. On hearing the news Gandhi hailed her as “The Jhansi Rani of Travancore.”
Accamma was credited with organizing women in Kerala under the Desasevika Sangh (Female Volunteer Group.)
The first annual conference of the Congress in Travancore was held in December 1939, ignoring the ban orders. Accamma and her sister Rosamma Punnose were among the Congress leaders arrested and imprisoned on December 24, 1939.
After her release from jail, she became a full-time worker of the Congress in Travancore. In 1942, she became its acting president. In her presidential address, she welcomed the Quit India Resolution passed at the historic Bombay session of the Indian National Congress in 1942. She was arrested and given one year imprisonment.
In 1946, she was arrested and imprisoned for six months for violating ban orders. In 1947, she was again arrested as she protested Aiyar’s move to turn Travancore an independent nation.
After Indian independence in 1947, Accamma was elected unopposed to the Travancore Legislative Assembly from Kanjirapally. In 1951, she married V V Varkey Mannamplackal, a freedom fighter and a member of Travancore Cochin Legislative Assembly. They had one son, George V. Varkey, an engineer.
In the early 1950s, she resigned from the Congress Party after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket and in 1952 she unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary election from Muvattupuzha as an independent. She quit politics in early 1950s.
Accamma died on May 5, 1982. A statue was erected in her memory in Vellayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram.
Other villages selected include Sempore or Pandrenthan in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir that is associated with 14th century mystic Lal Ded or Lalleshwari.
From Ladakh, the pilot project included Choglamsar and Wanla villages, known for wood carving. Khatkar Kalan village in Punjab, which has a memorial of Bhagat Singh; Reni village of Uttarakhand, where the Chipko movement started; and Kathputli Colony in Delhi, known for the “migrant kathputli artists.”
While the Culture Ministry had launched the culture mapping mission in 2017, the project had been slow to take off, before it was handed over to the IGNCA this year.