Nilakanta Bramachari - the 'Guru' for Vanchi Nathan
The arrest of the nationalist leaders, harsh punishment for the nationalist leaders inside the prison and the collapse of the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company led to the formation of a revolutionary organization in Tamil Nadu called the Bharathamatha Association. Nilakanta Bramachari played a vital role in it. One of the followers of this association Vanchi Nathan shot dead the notorious British official Robert William Ashe at Maniyatchi junction on 17 June 1911 in front of his wife.
Nilakanta (Neelaganda Brahmachari) toured places like Tenkasi and conducted meetings in secret, exhorting people to drive the English out. During such meetings he met and made friends with Vanchi. The meetings in secret had all the characteristics of an esoteric secret society with its own rituals and rites. Arumugham Pillai described a meeting thus: “There was a picture of Goddess Kali. There were red powder (kumkum), sacred ash (vibhuthi), and flowers. On the floor sat four or five people in a line. Nilakanta sat a little away and wrote on sheets of paper. We put the red powder into water and made a solution of it and each of us applied it on the paper. Now it was the white man’s blood... on the top of the paper ‘Vande Matharam’ was written... We should kill all white men… We must sacrifice our lives, person and property for this society. But whoever reveals the affairs of this society, he shall go to hell and he will be killed... As we drank the red powder solution, now to us it was the white man’s blood....”. (http://madrasmusings.com/Vol%2019%20No%208/The_Ashe_murder_case.html)
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