Dr Champakaraman Pillai (1891-1934) was a great patriot. Born in an average middle class family, Champakaraman Pillai could not pursue his education in a good educational institution which his budding talent needed. His meeting with Earl of Strickland, an eminent British philanthropist and biologist, proved to a truing point in his life.
Impressed by the extraordinary intelligence of Champakaraman Pillai, Earl of Strickland offered to pay for his studies in Europe. Champakaraman Pillai took maximum advantage of the education facilities and mastered about a dozen of foreign languages. Further, he continued his studies in Switzerland, France and Germany, and earned two doctorates.
Dr Champakaraman Pillai set up an organization called International Pro-India Committee at Zurich before the outbreak of the World War I. During the war Dr Champakaraman Pillai intensified his revolutionary activities. In 1933, Dr Champakaraman Pillai met Subhash Chandra Bose, and they jointly conceived the idea of Azad Hind Fauz. In 1924, Dr Champakaraman Pillai organized the first exhibition of Indian Swadeshi goods at the international fair held at Liepzeg.
After the world war when Hitler came to power, Dr Champakaraman Pillai developed a friendly relationship with Hitler with a hope of getting military assistance to end the British rule in India. Though he had a friendly relation with Hitler, he could not tolerate a derogatory remark made by the latter against India. This led to a discordance between them and an enraged Hitler ordered the confiscation of Champakaraman Pillai’s property. This incident hurt him deeply and it turned out to be the cause of his death on May 13, 1934.
