Author: K. Jeevabharathi
Translator: Derpitron
Next to Jackson, there was another officer named Lusington who became the collector of Tirunelveli. Then as usual, other Palayakkarars went and met Lusington. But Kattabomman didn’t meet him. Lusington, who was already upset about Kattabomman for not paying his taxes, became further irritated about his behaviour. Still he waited to see if Kattabomman ever visits him. Finally after two months, he wrote a letter to Kattabomman regarding tax money and also raised the issue of compensating the family of Clarke who was killed by Kattabomman at Ramanathapuram.
Kattabomman wrote a reply to that letter stating that he can’t talk about taxes for anytime soon moreover since there was no monsoon that year. He mentioned that two men from his side were also killed during the encounter at Ramanathapuram and several of their weapons had been confiscated. So Kattabomman said that if the Britishers were willing to compensate their losses and return their weapons, he would also consider compensation for Clarke’s family. Upon receiving such a reply, Lusington was very irked. He too wanted to subdue Kattabomman by all means. When he was thinking along these lines only then Jackson had come to his mind.
Lusington recalled how Jackson had used a strategy of framing charges against Kattabomman in order to arrest him. But Lusington decided that he had to separate Danapathi pillai from Kattabomman. Accordingly he came up with a plan. There were few British land owners at Srivaigundam. Using this Lusington had accused that Kattabomman’s minister Danapathi pillai had murdered their security guards and robbed away paddy from their fields. In order to discuss this issue, Lusington had issued a notice to Veerapandiya Kattabomman asking him to come and meet him at Kamuthi. He further said that Kattabomman shouldn’t bring more than 30 persons with him.
Kattabomman also decided to meet him at Kamuthi. However he went grandly with his entire army. Thus an upset Lusington sent a letter to Kattabomman that he had made a mistake by coming with his army and asked him to meet him within 5 hours of receiving the letter. Kattabomman replied that he had come like how a king would come and he made it clear that he agreed to meet Lusington only as a king and not as a common man. Without giving any reply to that, Lusington directly wrote the next message about his accusation against Danapathi pillai and asked Kattabomman to hand him over to the British. Kattabomman sent out his reply stating that Danapathi pillai wouldn’t do such a thing unless he ordered him to do so. So he decreed that he won’t turn in Danapathi pillai. Lusington was surprised by this response and wondered how Kattabomman was not falling for any of his tricks. So he finally insisted that even if Kattabomman didn’t meet him, Kattabomman had to hand over the tax money to the authorities. Upon receiving such a reply, Kattabomman became thoughtful. He discussed with his minister, brothers and commanders and finally wrote his reply to Lusington.
“As a friendly gesture I tried to oblige to your request and came from Panchalankurichi to meet you. But after coming here, it’s been eight days and you haven’t met me. I’ve also asked about my weapons confiscated during the ordeal with Jackson. There’s no reply to that yet. On the contrary, you’re falsely accusing my minister of a crime that never happened. And finally you’re keen on collecting the taxes. I’ve already made myself clear that I won’t pay any tax to the British since the Britishers don’t have any right to collect tax from us natives. I’ve to reiterate what I already told Alan. But what to do? Even if officers change, their mentality doesn’t change”
After writing such a reply Kattabomman decided to go to Panchalankurichi since he felt that there was no use in meeting Lusington. It is indeed peculiar that this meeting between Lusington and Kattabomman didn’t happen at all considering the fact that they stayed just three buildings away while they were at Kamuthi.