Willingdon replaced by Kamaraj

Do you know Freeman Freeman-Thomas?

The name may not immediately sound familiar. Lord Willingdon probably does.

Freeman Freeman-Thomas was a British administrator who served as Governor of Madras from 1919 to 1924 and later as Viceroy and Governor-General of India from 1931 to 1936. He was eventually created the first Marquess of Willingdon.

Chennai once had a prominent statue of him.

What makes the story interesting is not merely that the statue disappeared. The same pedestal was later occupied by another political figure who represented a completely different India.

Willingdon Outside the Gymkhana Club

A bronze statue of Willingdon once stood prominently near the entrance of the Madras Gymkhana Club on the Island.

The statue was installed in 1930 and sculpted by M.S. Nagappa. Willingdon was shown in elaborate official dress, with one hand resting on his hip and one foot slightly forward.

The nearby bridge across the Cooum also carried his name for a period and was known as Willingdon Bridge. It is today the Periyar Bridge.

Even after India became independent in 1947, the Willingdon statue remained on its pedestal for another decade.

1957 – The Statue Comes Down

The situation changed in 1957.

India was then observing the centenary of the 1857 uprising, which had come to be commemorated as the First War of Independence. Across the country, colonial statues became the subject of renewed criticism.

In Madras, there were reports of a plan to damage the statues of Willingdon and Sir Thomas Munro.

The government decided not to take chances.

Willingdon was removed from his pedestal in August 1957 and shifted to the Fort Museum inside Fort St. George.

The bronze statue survives there even today.

The pedestal outside the Gymkhana Club, however, remained.

An Empty Pedestal

For the next few years, Willingdon's old pedestal stood without its colonial occupant.

Then came an interesting decision.

A statue would be erected there for K. Kamaraj.

The symbolism is difficult to miss.

A pedestal created to commemorate a British Governor would now honour an Indian freedom fighter and the serving Chief Minister of Madras State.

Kamaraj While Kamaraj Was Still Alive

There was another unusual aspect to the decision.

Kamaraj was alive.

More importantly, he was still Chief Minister when the statue was erected.

Today, we are accustomed to seeing statues of political leaders everywhere. In 1961, erecting a public statue for a living political leader was unusual enough to make Jawaharlal Nehru uncomfortable.

Nehru had generally opposed the practice of putting up statues of living people.

Yet, the Corporation of Madras invited him to unveil the Kamaraj statue.

Nehru Makes an Exception

On 9 October 1961, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru came to Madras and unveiled the statue.

He openly admitted his hesitation.

Nehru said that he had been carrying on what he called a personal campaign against statues being erected for living people. But in Kamaraj's case, he decided to make an exception because he regarded him as a dear colleague who deserved the honour.

His praise of Kamaraj went beyond the statue itself.

Nehru described him as a leader who had grown directly from ordinary people rather than from the English-educated political elite that had dominated Indian public life for many years.

That observation suited Kamaraj particularly well.

He had little formal education, spoke simply and had built his political career through organisational ability and direct contact with people.

Look at the Statue

Kamaraj is not shown in ceremonial dress.

He appears as people remember him: simple shirt, veshti and sandals.

One hand rests on his hip.

That detail becomes more interesting when we know what occupied the pedestal before him. Willingdon's statue had also been represented with one hand on his hip.

The similarities end there.

Willingdon appeared in the elaborate dress of the British establishment. Kamaraj stands in the simple clothes with which he became identified throughout his political life.

The pedestal remained.

The meaning changed completely.

From the Raj to Kamaraj

This is what makes the Kamaraj statue near the Gymkhana Club more interesting than many other political statues in Chennai.

The story is not only about Kamaraj.

It is about Willingdon too.

One man governed Madras as a representative of the British Empire. The other became Chief Minister through electoral politics in independent India.

One statue was removed while the country was reconsidering the place of colonial monuments in public spaces. Four years later, the same pedestal was used to honour an Indian leader who was still alive and in office.

Few pedestals in Chennai can claim to have witnessed such a neat change in political history.

Where Is Willingdon Now?

The story has an unusual ending because both statues still survive.

Kamaraj continues to stand near the Gymkhana Club.

Willingdon is not far away.

His bronze statue can be seen inside the Fort Museum at Fort St. George, where several objects associated with British Madras are preserved.

So, anyone interested enough can still see both men.

Visit Kamaraj first.

Then go to Fort St. George and find Willingdon.

The statues are now in different places, but their stories remain connected by one pedestal.

Happy travelling.