With the debate over whether or not capital punishment should be abolished in India still raging on, it is interesting to recall that capital punishment was dropped from the rule books by the princely State of Travancore three years before India became independent.

However, the death by the noose returned to Travancore after the princely State’s integration with the Indian Union in 1947 and eventual formation of the State of Kerala.

Travancore had then followed the model of some progressive nations in the West when its last ruler, Chithira Tirunal Balarama Varma, decreed abolition of death by hanging.

Travancore, comprising most of the southern districts of the present Kerala, is perhaps the only place in the world where the death penalty returned as the harshest form of punishment, though awarded only in the rarest of the rare cases.

Archival material says it was on November 11, 1944 that Chithira Tirunal, a visionary ruler, abolished capital punishment in his State.

Before that radical step, he had already earned a reputation for progressive decisions such as the Temple Entry Proclamation, which opened Hindu temples to all castes.

Diwan's role

Historians says it was C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, who was the powerful Diwan (Prime Minister) of Travancore in a tumultuous phase in its history, who persuaded Chithira Tirunal to ban the death penalty, citing examples of European States such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland and many states in the U.S.

K. Rameshan Nair, police historian who has made extensive studies on the policing and legal system of Kerala, said executioners of Travancore hailed from a family in Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, which was earlier part of Travancore.

Records say the family was entrusted with the responsibility of executing the capital punishment during the time of Chithira Tirunal.

Later, a person from Malappuram donned the garb of executioner in the State, Mr. Nair said.

When a person was being awarded death sentence in Travancore, the king would send a ‘Villu Vandi,’ a special vehicle, to the executioner’s home to bring him to the central prison here to carry out the hanging. Royal guards would make a public announcement about the execution of the convict by going around beating the drums.

During those days, the executioner’s job had some ritualistic aspects about it. Days before the hanging, he would observe penance or ‘Vratha.’

The rope for hanging the guilty would be provided by the government and a new rope was used for each hanging.

The executioner’s job also had a stigma associated with it. The executioners were considered representatives of Yama (god of death) on the earth and ordinary people, especially women and children, kept away from them as far as possible.

Shadow kill

The agony and isolation of an executioner in Travancore was the theme of the renowned director Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s 2002 film, Nizhalkuthu (Shadow Kill).

The film revolves around the mental struggle of Kaliyappan, the official executioner of the kingdom of Travancore in the 1940s, brilliantly portrayed by the late Oduvil Unnikrishnan.

The film subtly portrayed the realities confronted by the executioner, such as eagerness of the authorities to keep the ‘death man’ away from their immediate environs, neighbours’ contempt and his recurring hallucinations.

In Kerala

Alexander Jacob, Additional Director General of Police (Prisons), says the last executions in Kerala were done in 1993 when Muthukkutty Chandran, alias Ripper Chandran, and one Balakrishan were hanged to death in separate cases.

Nearly 50 people had been executed in Kerala in the post-Independence period and 14 others are now on the death row in various jails, he said.

“After the retirement of the last ‘Aarachar’ (executioner) in 1983, other prison employees had carried out the hanging as nobody, including the last executioner’s successors, has shown any interest in the ‘killing job,’” Mr. Jacob says. — PTI

Travancore had followed the model of some progressive nations in the West.