Racing Back in Time : National Movement Revisited

The South

We then came back to 1857 Delhi to halt for the night and had a nice time interacting with fellow time travellers at the inn. The next day, we checked out of the inn after breakfast and set out to Bombay dated 28th December 1885 and went to Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College.

"Advik and Pranit", I said, "this is the place where Indian National Congress or INC was founded. You can see Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, W.C. Bonnerji, Surendranath Banerjee, Romesh Chandra Dutt, S. Subramanya Iyer, A.O. Hume and 72 other prominent personalities from across the country".

"But A.O. Hume was British right?", asked Pranit.

"Yes. But unlike others, he made great efforts to improve the lives of common people in India and even questioned the British policies in India. Moreover, he was retired when he founded INC", I said.

We then set out to Seringapatam dated 4th May 1799.

"Why did the British fight with Tipu Sultan?" asked Advik.

"In 1785, Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through his ports. He also disallowed local merchants from trading with the British. He was an ally of the French too. The British were furious and hence this war. Actually, four wars were fought with Mysore. Only in the last war, that is, the Battle of Seringapatam, the British won a victory. We are here to witness the last day of the war where the British would siege the fort of Seringapatam and kill Tipu Sultan", I said.

We followed the trail of the British troops to find Tipu Sultan. We fled the scene before he was about to be killed.

"Tipu Sultan was a brave ruler indeed", said Pratik.

"Yes. It is believed that he fought a tiger single handed and unarmed. That is why he is known as the Tiger of Mysore", I said.

Soon after, we set out to Tamil Nadu. We reached the coral mill in Thoothukudi dated 23rd February 1908.

"Looks like there is a strike going on in here", said Pranit.

"Yes, this strike is led by V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Subramanya Shiva. They are protesting against the low wages and harsh working conditions of the workers", I said. "You should definitely know about V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. He is popularly known as 'Kappalottiya Thamizhan' because he launched the first indigenous Indian shipping enterprise called the 'Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company' thus challenging the British. He was also a member of the Indian National Congress".