Illustration by V Vijayakumar
Sir Chetpat Pattabhirama Ramaswami Iyer, (1879-1966), was a lawyer, administrator and politician par excellence of twentieth century India. He served as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency from 1920 to 1923, Law member of the Executive Council of the Governor of Madras from 1923 to 1928, Law member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India from 1931 to 1936 and finally the Dewan of Travancore from 1936 to 1947.
Born on the 12th of November, 1879 as the only son of Judge C R Pattabhirama Iyer and Seetha Lakshmi Ammal, “CP’ went to school at the Wesley College High School, Madras, did his B.A. from the Presidency College, Madras, and later took a degree from the Madras Law College.
CP was born on the day of Deepavali; his admirers ascribed his great successes and achievements in life to that auspicious beginning. In his grown years, CP was the cynosure of all eyes and had an aura of personal magnetism and charm. He was the eighth descendant of Appayya Dikshitar, a celebrated polymath.
CP’s student days were of strict regimentation and discipline, helping him to blossom into brilliant manhood. It helped him develop self-confidence, energy, perseverance and industry. Right from his childhood he was made to speak and think in English. Apart from poems of C P Ramaswami Iyerof Shelley, Coleridge and Wordsworth, CP also memorized passages from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. He was acquainted with the theories of Darwin and Huxley. He mastered the Bible when he was a student of the Wesley College High School and won the Peter Cator Prize for Bible studies and a scholarship. He earned a double promotion and passed his matriculation exams at 14.
CP joined the Presidency College, Madras, in 1894 for his intermediate and while doing this course he married Seetammal.
After joining the graduate course, CP began intensive study of Sanskrit and Vedanta, at the same time evincing a keen interest in extra academic activities. He joined the Madras University union and overcame stagefright thanks to the persuasive powers of G A Natesan, his senior in college. CP always acknowledged that this laid the foundation of that forthright readiness to speak on all sorts of occasions on a variety of subjects. CP was also a connoisseur of the arts.
Completing BA in Mathematics and securing the first rank in 1898, CP late took a degree in English and became a double graduate. He was nominated by his college Principal for the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, but CP’s father vetoed the proposal. Wanting to teach English, the young man applied for the post of an Assistant Professor, again to be overruled by his father. The dutiful son joined law college to fulfil the wish of his father in 1899 and completed the course in 1901. His father passed away in 1902 while CP was still an apprentice-at-law.
CP was enrolled as a lawyer in 1903 and rose rapidly to prominence. He made an exhaustive study of every case, devoting time to read all the literature available on the subject. His phenomenal success at the Bar in Madras brought him a fabulous income of Rs 25000 per month. He was perhaps the first Indian lawyer to own a motorcar - a Hudson. In 1912, he was elected to the Senate of the University of Madras.
CP’s clientele included some of the Princely States. Travancore was the first state in India to seek his services. The royal family and Sri Mulam Tirunal were immensely impressed by CP’s handling of the Ashe assassination case. The help he extended to the labourers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills at the request of BP Wadia was another milestone in CP’s legal career. His arguments on behalf of Mrs Annie Besant—when, under the Press Act of 1910, the chief presidency magistrate imposed restrictions on her newspaper New India, were of great interest. To CP goes the credit of continuing the glorious task of capturing the original side of the Madras High Court from the monopolistic grip of English barristers and solicitors.
CP advocated the scrupulous cultivation of the following qualities to become a lawyer of repute.
“Courage, independence, dignity, courtesy, patience, good physique and a sense of humour, the ability to laugh at yourself, to find out exactly how far you will fall below your own expectations is a wonderful requisite and attribute both of the bench and the Bar”.
Ramaswami Iyer was elected secretary of the Indian National Congress in 1917. Earlier, between 1903 and 1916 he practised law in Madras, winning several popular cases succeeding S Srinivasa Iyengar as the Advocate-General of the
Madras Presidency. Between 1921 and 1923 several Acts, such as the City Municipalities Act, and the Madras Local Boards Act were passed. Between 1923 and 1928 he served as Law Member of the Executive Council, Government of Madras, first during Lord Willingdon’s and later during Lord Goschen’s rule as governor; in-charge of Law, Police, Irrigation and Ports, and Electricity. The title of Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) was bestowed upon him in 1926.
Sir CP was the Indian delegate at the League of Nations in Geneva in 1926-27. The same year he became a member of the Executive Council, Government of Madras. By 1931 he was a Law Member of the Government of India and in 1932 attended the Third Round Table Conference at London.
For the next four years, Sir CP was the constitutional advisor to the Maharajah of Travancore, Sri Chithira Tirunal. The sole Indian delegate to the World Economic Conference in 1936, Sir CP later drafted a Constitution for the state of Kashmir. From 1936 to 1947 he was the Dewan of Travancore, introducing such social and administrative reforms as the Temple Entry Proclamation (1936), a worthy achievement, as it allowed entry of temples to dalits for the first time. G A Natesan remarked that this one reform alone raised Chithira Tirunal to the rank of one of the greatest of Hindu reformers, Ramanujacharya. After announcing the proclamation, the Maharaja conferred the title Sachivottama as a token of his warm appreciation of Sir CP’s loyalty and devotion to his person.
Sir CP was hailed for abolition of capital punishment, universal adult franchise and the mid-day meal scheme in Travancore state. He was responsible for the establishment of numerous hydro-electric power projects and the creation of Kerala University. Among his other achievements was his representation of India as a delegate at the League of Nations held at Geneva in 1926 and Commonwealth Universities Conference. He also helped in setting up the Swati Tirunal Academy at Thiruvananthapuram.
CP is also remembered for the ruthless suppression of the Punnapra-Vayalar revolt organised by Communists and his controversial stand in favour of an independent Travancore. Ramaswami Iyer served in numerous international organisations and on the boards of several Indian universities. Ramaswami Iyer died in 1966 at the age of 86 while on a visit to the United Kingdom.