Vasantha Vilas - the abode of Spring. What a lovely name, with all its connotations of hope, optimism and cheer! That is the name Vembakkam Rajagopalacharlu gave to the house on South Mada Street, Mylapore. He built it to provide employment to agricultural workers, whose livelihood had been affected by severe drought. True to its name, Vasantha Vilas was the place where his descendants blossomed and made a mark in their chosen fields. But for Rajagopalacharlu himself, life was soon to end in tragedy.
Rajagopalacharlu was a crack shot. One day he was playfully threatening to shoot his brother-in-law with his rifle, not knowing that it was loaded. The rifle went off, killing his brother in law instantly. A horrified Rajagopalacharlu ran all the way from Vembakkam village to Chinglepet, and surrendered to the District Collector. Enquiries revealed Rajagopalacharlu’s innocence, and he was let off. But he lost the will to live, and in six months, was dead.
Vembakkam sent many brilliant men to the Bar, and Rajagopalacharlu and his elder brother Sadagopacharlu were leading lawyers, even before the passing of the Indian High Courts Act, 1861. It is fascinating to hear the story of the family from V.C. Srikumar, a scion of the family.
Sadagopacharlu was the first Indian in South India to be nominated to the Legislative Council. The very second case reported in the first volume of the Madras High Court Reports, is one in which Sadagopacharlu was the lawyer for one side, and on the other side was the formidable authority on Hindu Law - John D. Mayne. Sadagopacharlu wrote a book on Muslim Law, which was used as a reference book in the Sudder Courts and the High Court.
When Rajagopalacharlu’s life was cut short by the tragedy, his wife and two sons - V.C. Desikachari and V.C. Seshachari - moved to Vasantha Vilas. In course of time the sons became lawyers and were apprenticed to V. Bhashyam Iyengar, who became Advocate General and Judge of the Madras High Court.
Desikachari was one of the earliest members of the Indian National Congress, and in the congress held in Madras in 1903, he was both secretary and treasurer. He invested Rs. 60,000 belonging to the Congress Party in Arbuthnot Bank. When he realised that all was not well with the bank, he persuaded Sir George Arbuthnot to return the party’s money.
A few days later, Arbuthnot bank collapsed. Desikachari himself lost a significant sum of money, but he was glad that he had saved the Congress’s funds. He collected money from the rich, many of whom had also burnt their fingers by investing in Arbuthnot Bank, and distributed it among those who had lost their entire life savings.
P. Rajagopalachariar, the first Registrar of Co-operative Societies, had already mooted the idea of co-operative credit societies, and in 1905 Desikachari gave shape to the idea, and started the Madras Central Urban Bank. He roped in 16 others, including his brother Seshachari, Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur, N. Subba Rao Pantulu, V. Ramesam, Justice S. Subramania Iyer, Sir P. Tyagaraja Chettiar, to name a few. The office of the bank was the verandah of Desikachari’s house.
In the first year the profit of the bank was Rs. 20. Desikachari was Honorary Secretary of the bank for six years, and when he stepped down, the profit of the bank was close to Rs. 29,000 rupees, and the working capital was about Rs. 16 lakhs!
In 1910, the Registrar of Co-operative Societies wrote: “When the history of the co-operative movement in the Presidency is written, the person of Sir V.C. Desikachariar as the chief pioneer must figure therein prominently.” The Madras Central Urban Bank later became TNSC bank. Desikachari’s financial acumen was such that his services were availed of by many institutions - the Madras Agri-Horticulture Society, the Victoria Technical Institute, the Madras Cosmopolitan Club, etc.
When Desikachari was knighted by the Prince of Wales (later George V), he refused to kneel before him, citing religious reasons. He was allowed to bow and receive the honour. The roads known as Desikachari Road and Lady Desikachari Road have been so named because Desikachari owned the area.
Desikachari’s brother Seshachari was a fearless lawyer with a fiery temper, and his temper was evident when Justice Collins passed away. Arthur Collins had been Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, and he had refused to discriminate between vakils, attorneys and barristers. He had also allowed Indian lawyers to wear dhotis to court. All this had endeared him to the Indian lawyers. But when Collins died in 1899, the then Chief Justice of the Madras High Court did not convene a condolence meeting of all the judges of the court, as was the custom. Angered by this, the Indian lawyers convened a meeting of the Vakils’ Association, and eminent lawyer J.L. Rosario and others spoke on the occasion. Seshachari was at his acrimonious best. He criticised the then Chief Justice for the “scant courtesy” shown to the tradition of the Bar. He contrasted this with the attitude of Justice Collins towards the Bar. “To Justice Collins, the high tradition of the Bar was as important as the high tradition of the Bench,” he observed.
In 1914, Seshachari started the Madras Law Weekly. Law reporting had already begun in 1876, and there was a private law journal too, started by V. Krishnaswamy Iyer in 1890. And yet there was room for more legal reporting, because legislation relating to agriculture and agriculturists was still evolving, and so the problems mofussil lawyers had to handle were multi-dimensional. There was a need to collect judgments in these matters, which would serve as precedents for lawyers practising in District Courts.
Upon Seshachari’s death in 1936, his son V.C. Vasudevan, took over management of the journal, and he retained the same editorial committee, with V.V. Srinivasa Iyengar as the editor. Vasudevan would travel to all the 27 districts of the Madras Presidency, which then included parts of Orissa too, and collect matter for publication. He would ask lawyers in these districts what kind of decisions, which, if reported, would be of use to them. In 1966, shortly before his death, Vasudevan launched the Law Weekly (Criminal). Two other journals - Statutes (Central and Tamil Nadu) and the Writ Law Reporter, are also being published by Vasudevan’s family.
