: Why This Forgotten Indian Hero Was Executed by The Nazis In Their Concentration Camp #IndiaNEWS #History Fort Mont-Valérien, a 19th century fort located in the Western subrubs of Paris, was used

Why This Forgotten Indian Hero Was Executed by The Nazis In Their Concentration Camp #IndiaNEWS #History
Fort Mont-Valérien, a 19th century fort located in the Western subrubs of Paris, was used by the Nazi Germany forces to execute fighters of the French resistance and other hostages during World War II. Among those killed there was a once forgotten 28-year-old university student from the town of Mahe off the Malabar Coast in Kerala (but part of the Puducherry Union Territory) called Mouchilotte (also spelt Michilotte) Madhavan.
(Above image of M Madhavan courtesy Jesse Fink Books)
An active member of the French Communist Party (PCF), he was deeply involved in the French resistance against the Nazi regime during the height of World War II. Arrested on 9 March 1942 by pro-Nazi special brigades, he was eventually handed over to the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, for his alleged role in a theatre bomb blast where two Nazi officers died. After suffering torture at the Fort de Romainville, a Nazi concentration camp, he was eventually executed by a firing squad on 21 September 1942. Despite his heroics, there have been neither memorials built in his name nor were there any programmes remembering his heroics in India.
So Who Was This Hero?
Born in 1914 in Mahe, a (former) French colony off the Malabar Coast, Madhavan was one of five siblings born to Coumarin and Madou Mouchilotte.
A member of Thiyya caste community, Madhavan completed his matriculation from a French school in Mahe, before proceeding to do his Bachelors in Pondicherry. Coming from a middle class family, Madhavan was first actively involved in the local politics of Mahe.
A turning point in Madhavans life came in 1934 when Mahatma Gandhi visited the French colony of Mahe. He had arrived there on a mission to uplift the Dalit community.
His trip inspired the creation of the Youth League in French Indian territories and set the scene for their own freedom struggle. Madhavan joined the Youth League in Mahe before moving to Pondicherry for higher studies. Here he joined the Harijan Sevak Sangh, an organisation Mahatma Gandhi had founded to help members of lower castes access education and temples.
A common practice in French colonies across the world back then was that the brightest students in universities were invited to study at the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris. Madhavan enrolled at the Sorbonne University in 1937, a few years before Nazi Germany invaded and occupied of France. Inspired by their spirit of resistance against the Nazis, Madhavan joined the French Communist Party and became a member himself.
According to noted British-Australian non-fiction author Jesse Fink:
“In 1937 he went to Paris to study mathematics [or engineering according to other accounts].

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