Tamil Nadu's freedom fighters: From Veerapandiya Kattabomman to the Vellore Mutiny martyrs | India Independence Day 2026 special

From local rulers, military officers and soldiers to common folk, scores of men and women from present-day Tamil Nadu made the supreme sacrifice in resisting British rule and contributing to India's freedom from the colonial yoke. Many in the erstwhile Madras Presidency who fought the British were executed for armed resistance or related revolutionary actions. Besides being killed in battle or executed after capture for rebellion, many more died in prison or as a consequence of satyagraha (hunger strikes).

Early Polygar wars and uprisings of the mid-18th to early 19th century

Much of the early resistance to British rule and external influences was led by Palayakkarars or Polygars, who held or ruled a palayam, a territorial chieftaincy or estate. Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone is regarded as one of the earliest such resistors to colonial rule. The Polygar from the Thoothukudi region who revolted against the British presence and forces allied with them. He was captured in battle and executed in July 1759, with accounts stating that he and some of his soldiers were tied to the mouths of cannons and shot.

Puli Thevar is commemorated as another early leader of armed opposition. He was a Palayakkarar in the present-day Tenkasi district. He led prolonged resistance and formed confederacies against the British East India Company and its revenue demands in the 1750s and 1760s. Accounts of his final years differ: after the loss of his stronghold, he escaped, and the circumstances of his death remain uncertain.

Ondi Veeran Pagadai was a commander under Puli Thevar. He fought against the East India Company and is remembered for his bravery and sacrifice in the resistance.

The ruler and woman commander of Sivaganga

Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar was the ruler of Sivaganga. He was killed in battle against forces of the East India Company and the Nawab of Arcot at Kalaiyar Kovil in 1772.

Kuyili was a woman commander in the forces of Rani Velu Nachiyar of Sivaganga. During the campaign to recover the kingdom, she is said to have set herself alight and entered a British depot, destroying the ammunition and dying in the act.

Veerapandiya Kattabomman: The legendary chieftain of Tirunelveli

Veerapandiya Kattabomman was the Palayakkarar of Panchalankurichi in the Tirunelveli region. He resisted East India Company revenue demands and fought its forces at and around his fort. Kattabomman was captured in October 1799 with the assistance of a local ruler, and was publicly hanged at Kayathar on 16 October 1799.

Oomathurai, Kattabomman's speech-impaired younger brother, and several associates continued the resistance after 1799. After escaping from imprisonment and rebuilding the Panchalankurichi fort, Oomathurai joined the wider uprising led by the Maruthu brothers. He was eventually captured and hanged at Panchalankurichi on 16 November 1801.

Maruthu brothers: Valiant fighters in the Second Polygar war against the British

Periya Maruthu, also known as Vellai Maruthu, and Chinna Maruthu were the leading military figures and rulers of Sivaganga who had earlier supported Rani Velu Nachiyar. They led a major coordinated resistance known in British records as the Second Polygar War and more broadly as the South Indian Rebellion of 1800–1801. They issued a proclamation calling for wider unity against Company rule and fought using guerrilla tactics.

The Maruthu brothers were captured and hanged at Tirupputhur Fort on 24 October 1801. Many of their associates and members of their extended family were also executed, while others were transported into exile.

Dheeran: The braveheart who refused to surrender

Dheeran Chinnamalai was a chieftain from the Kongu region of present-day Erode and Tiruppur districts. He fought the British using guerrilla tactics and took part in the wider resistance in the Kongu region. He was betrayed, captured and hanged at Sankagiri Fort in 1805, along with two of his brothers. Many other Polygar-era figures and followers died fighting the British, including commanders and allies such as Gopala Nayak of Dindigul and numerous local chiefs. Many were executed during the mass suppression of the rebellions of 1799–1801. Others were banished. Ordinary soldiers, Kallar community members and other supporters also suffered deaths, imprisonment and harsh reprisals as the Company sought to suppress the uprisings.

Vellore Mutiny, ‘precursor’ to the 1857 uprising, in which hundreds of Tamils were killed

Hundreds of Indian sepoys of the Madras Army, many of them Tamils, mutinied at Vellore Fort on 10 July 1806 against British military regulations and policies, including controversial changes to dress and religiously sensitive practices. Several British officers and soldiers were killed. British forces under Colonel Robert Rollo Gillespie retook the fort, and about 350 Indian sepoys were killed in the suppression, although some British accounts give higher figures.

Dozens more were executed afterwards. Six mutineers were blown from the mouths of cannons, five were shot by firing squads, and eight were hanged following court-martial.

The Vellore Mutiny was an important large-scale sepoy uprising that preceded the Indian Rebellion of 1857 by half a century. It is sometimes described as a precursor to the 1857 rebellion. Those killed at Vellore included both ordinary sepoys and men who had taken leading roles in the mutiny.

From the assassin of a British collector to a weaver's son who held the flag while dying

Vanchinathan, also known as Vanchi, was a revolutionary from the Tenkasi region. He assassinated Robert William d'Escourt Ashe, the acting Collector and District Magistrate of Tirunelveli, at Maniyachi railway station on 17 June 1911. Ashe had been associated with the suppression of the Swadeshi movement, including the activities of VO Chidambaram Pillai and his Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company. After shooting Ashe, Vanchinathan went into the station's lavatory and shot himself to avoid capture.

Tiruppur Kumaran was the son of a weaver and the founder of the Desa Bandhu Youth Association. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and the nationalist movement, he took part in a protest march in Tiruppur on 11 January 1932. During the police lathi charge, he was fatally injured but continued to hold the nationalist flag. He died still clutching the flag, earning the title "Kodi Kaatha Kumaran" or Kumaran who protected the flag.

Mass executions by the British: We will never know all who died

This list cannot be complete or exhaustive because the British carried out mass executions and other severe reprisals after the Polygar wars and the Vellore Mutiny. Proper records are not kept for many of these atrocities.

Hundreds of common people, sepoys, local leaders and supporters are believed to have been killed or executed. Many of their individual stories have been lost. Records of the suppression of the South Indian Rebellion show that numerous named and unnamed rebels were executed or sent into exile.

Many Indian National Army (INA) personnel from Tamil Nadu also took part in the struggle against British rule during the Second World War, and some died in the conflict.

Scores of unnamed soldiers, villagers and other supporters died in these conflicts, paying with their lives in direct resistance to British rule.