Poona to London

In the spring of 1897 the plague committee sent soldiers through Pune's homes, and by June two brothers had shot its chairman. This chapter follows the line from Ganeshkhind Road to a hostel in Highgate, a flag at Stuttgart, an oil press in Coimbatore jail, a theatre in Nashik, and a railway junction in Tirunelveli where the book's last shot was fired on 17 June 1911.

Lessons in this chapter

• The Plague Search Parties — Pune, 1897: Rand's plague committee, the anger in Tilak's Kesari, and the board from the Deccan to London
• Ganeshkhind Road — The Chapekar brothers and 22 June 1897: the plague search parties, the wrong carriage, and the two years that hanged all three
• India House — Shyamji Krishna Varma, the Sanskrit scholar who bought young Indians out of the civil service and opened a house in Highgate in 1905
• The Flag at Stuttgart — Madame Bhikaji Cama at Stuttgart, 22 August 1907: the first flag of a free India raised abroad, and the apology she refused for thirty years
• The Oil Press at Coimbatore — V.O. Chidambaram Pillai took two ships against the British India Steam Navigation Company, and was made to turn an oil press in Coimbatore jail
• The Manual from Paris — A student in Paris copied a bomb manual in 1907, and the farmers of Mulshi made him a commander in 1921
• The Imperial Institute — Madan Lal Dhingra, 1 July 1909: an engineering student fires at the Imperial Institute, and his statement outlives the trial
• Nashik, 21 December 1909 — Anant Kanhere, seventeen, shoots Collector Jackson at a farewell play, and the Nasik case traces the pistol back to Highgate
• The Teacher at Pondicherry — From a room in Highgate to a garden in French Pondicherry, where he translated the Kural and trained the man who went to Maniyachi
• Maniyachi Junction — Vanchinathan, 17 June 1911: a forest clerk shot Collector Ashe at a railway junction, and the letter in his pocket said why

Back to Kranti Veer: The Rising and the Underground (1857-1911)