Current Affairs: Passage of the Day - 17 April 2025 | Current Affairs & General Knowledge - CLAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday recalled the nationalist and jurist Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, who fought a legendary courtroom battle against a senior official of the Raj who had sued Sir Sankaran for holding him responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
“Yesterday…marked the 106th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre,” the PM said. “There is another aspect to it… This aspect is manavta ke saath, desh ke saath khade hone ka buland jazbe ka. Is jazbe ka naam hai Sankaran Nair… Inspired by Jallianwala Bagh, he raised his voice against British atrocities… He was from Kerala and the incident took place in Punjab. He fought on his own,” Modi said.
Nair is the subject of an upcoming film called Kesari Chapter 2. The film is an adaptation of the 2019 book, The Case That Shook the Empire: One Man’s Fight for the Truth about the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, by Nair’s great grandson Raghu Palat and his wife Pushpa Palat.
Nair was born in 1857 in an aristocratic family of Mankara village in Malabar’s Palakkad district. After Nair graduated from Presidency College in Madras and got a degree in law, he was hired by Sir Horatio Shepherd who later became Chief Justice of Madras High Court.
Since his early days as a lawyer, Nair came to be known for an uncompromising commitment to what he believed, irrespective of the strength of the opposition he faced. This earned him the ire of the British and made him unpopular among his colleagues and peers; he was also despised by the Brahmins of Madras.
Edwin Montague, the Secretary of State for India, once described Nair as an “impossible person” who “shouts at the top of his voice and refuses to listen to anything when one argues, and is absolutely uncompromising” (cited in The Case That Shook the Empire).
Nair was a lawyer of stellar capabilities and a social reformer of formidable credentials. In 1897, he became the youngest president of the Indian National Congress. By 1908, he had been appointed as a permanent judge of Madras High Court. His best-known judgements indicated his commitment to social reforms — in Budasna v Fatima (1914), he ruled that those who converted to Hinduism could not be treated as outcastes, and in a few other cases, he upheld inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.
Nair believed in India’s right to self-government. In 1919, he played an important role in the expansion of provisions in the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms which introduced a system of dyarchy in the provinces and increased participation of Indians in the administration. Following the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh, he resigned from the Viceroy’s Council in protest.
In 1922, Nair published Gandhi and Anarchy, a book in which he spelt out his critique of Gandhi’s methods of non-violence, civil disobedience, and non-cooperation. He also accused Michael O’Dwyer, who was Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time of the massacre, of following policies that led to the deaths.
O’Dwyer sued Nair for defamation in England, expecting the English court to side with him. The trial before the King’s Bench in London went on for five and a half weeks. It was the longest-running civil case at the time.
The 12-member all-English jury was presided over by Justice Henry McCardie, who made no attempt to hide his bias toward O’Dwyer. The jury sided with O’Dwyer by a majority of 11 against 1, the lone dissent coming from the Marxist political theorist Harold Laski.
Nair was ordered to pay £500 and the expenses of the trial to the plaintiff. O’Dwyer said he would forgo the penalty if Nair apologised. Nair refused.
The trial had a resounding impact on the British empire in India. At a time when the nationalist movement was gaining momentum, Indians saw in the judgement the clear bias of the British against them and an effort to shield their own.
Nair passed away in 1934 at the age of 77.
[Excerpt from Indian Express "Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair" Dated 17/04/25]

Q1: Where was Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair born?
(a) Madras
(b) Mankara, Kerala
(c) Amraoti, Maharashtra
(d) Delhi

View Answer  

Ans: (b)
Sol: Nair was born in 1857 in Mankara village, Kerala.

Q2: Why did Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair resign from the Viceroy’s Executive Council in 1919?
(a) In support of Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement
(b) In protest against the Simon Commission
(c) In protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
(d) Due to health issues

View Answer  

Ans: (c)
Sol: He resigned in 1919 in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, demonstrating his moral courage and opposition to British colonial brutality.

Q3: What was the title of the book written by Nair between 1922 and 1924, critiquing both British rule and Gandhi’s methods?
(a) India Unbound
(b) Gandhi and Anarchy
(c) Freedom at Midnight
(d) The Discovery of India

View Answer  

Ans: (b)
Sol: Nair authored “Gandhi and Anarchy”, in which he criticised British policies as well as Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement.

Q4: Which of the following was NOT one of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair’s contributions?
(a) Presiding over the Indian National Congress session in 1897
(b) Founding and editing the Madras Law Journal
(c) Launching the Salt Satyagraha
(d) Ruling in favour of religious conversion without caste loss

View Answer  

Ans: (c)
Sol: Nair did not launch the Salt Satyagraha — it was led by Mahatma Gandhi. Nair’s contributions were more legal and reform-focused.

Q5: What key legal principle did Nair establish in the Budasna v Fatima (1914) case?
(a) Protection of minority rights
(b) Equal pay for equal work
(c) Right to convert to Hinduism without losing caste status
(d) Abolition of untouchability

View Answer  

Ans: (c)
Sol: In the Budasna v Fatima case, Nair ruled that conversion to Hinduism did not automatically lead to the loss of one’s caste status — a progressive judgment for its time.