C. SANKARAN NAIR

About:

• Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair (1857 – 1934) was an acclaimed lawyer and judge in the Madras High Court. He wrote Gandhi and Anarchy (1922).
  
  
• He served as a President of the Indian National Congress in 1897 at the meeting held at Amravati.
  
  
• In 1902 Lord Curzon appointed him a member of the Raleigh University Commission. In 1904 he was appointed as Companion of the Indian Empire by the King-Emperor and in 1912 he was knighted. In 1915 he became part of the Viceroy’s Council, put in charge of the education portfolio.
  
  
• Nair was known for being a passionate advocate for social reforms. In Budasna v Fatima (1914), he passed a radical judgement when he ruled that those who converted to Hinduism cannot be treated as outcastes.
  
  
• But what really stood out in his long glorious career is a courtroom battle he fought against the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer.
  
  
• Nair had accused O’Dwyer in his book, ‘Gandhi and anarchy’ for being responsible for the atrocities at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Consequently, he was fighting against an Englishman, in an English court that was presided over by an English jury.