India@75: Barrister George Joseph, the 'Rosapoo Durai' of Kallar community

A person from Kerala was fondly called Rosapoo Durai by the people of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. He was Barrister George Joseph. Acclaimed freedom fighter. Famed Barrister. Eminent Editor. Gandhi's dear comrade. Joseph was born in 1887 in Chengannur, Kerala. While he was a law student in England, he came into contact with Indian nationalists like Madam Cama, Krishna Varma, V D Savarkar and so on

On his return to India, George Joseph started practising as a Barrister, first in Chennai and then in Madurai. He was also active in the Home Rule movement. While in Madurai, he took up the cause of the Piramalai Kallar tribe. The tribe was fighting against the British government's Criminal tribes Act, which criminalised the entire Piramalai Kallar community. 

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The struggle witnessed a police firing that killed 17 members of the Kallar tribe when they resisted the attempts to record their fingerprints by the police forcibly. Hundreds of people were chained to hands and legs and made to walk miles through the road to the local court. Torture and arrests became common. George Joseph fought for the tribe in courts and outside, leading a struggle against the British criminal Act. 

So on, Joseph came to be the darling of the tribe who called him Rosappoo Durai. Many children born in the community are still christened Rosappoo in Joseph's fond memory. Joseph founded one of India's earliest trade unions in Madurai of mill workers. Once while travelling to London on the invitation of Home Rule Movement leader Annie Besant, Joseph was taken into custody at  Gibraltar and deported back to India. 

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Joseph met Gandhiji in 1919 and became more active in the national movement. He gave up his lucrative practice to join the non-cooperation movement. He hosted many nationalist leaders at his home, including Gandhiji and Rajaji. Subramanya Bharati is known to have penned his famed Viduthalai poem while staying at Joseph's home.

Motilal Nehru appointed Joseph as the editor of his nationalist newspaper, The Independent. Joseph was arrested on charges of sedition for writing articles against British rule. Later he succeeded Rajaji as the editor of Gandhiji's Young India. Joseph and his wife Susan became the inmates at Sabarmati ashram. In 1924, Joseph was arrested for participating in the Vaikom Satyagraha in Kerala. He was a vocal votary of women's rights and inter-faith marriages. Joseph passed away at 50 in 1938 in Madurai. Eminent journalist Pothen Joseph was George Joseph's brother.

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