Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan 18

Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
18

Chellammal noted a significant change in Bharathi. There was a sense of ‘jubilation that his countrymen were now conscious of the shackled state and willingness to challenge the British colonisation’. This change ‘lent him a voice that was determinedly more assertive and prouder’.

It was this pivot to a ‘fiercer mindset’ of Bharathi that poured out as

என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்
என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்
என்று மடியும் எங்கள் அடிமையின் மோகம்
என்று மடியும் எங்கள் அடிமையின் மோகம்
என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்

என்று எமது அன்னை கை விலங்குகள் போகும்
என்று எமது அன்னை கை விலங்குகள் போகும்
என்று எமது இன்னல்கள் தீர்ந்து பொய்யாகும்
என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்
என்று மடியும் எங்கள் அடிமையின் மோகம்
என்று மடியும் எங்கள் அடிமையின் மோகம்
என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்

பஞ்சமும் நோயும் நின் மெய்யடியார்க்கோ
பாரினில் மேன்மைகள் வேரிநியார்க்கோ
பஞ்சமும் நோயும் நின் மெய்யடியார்க்கோ
பாரினில் மேன்மைகள் வேரிநியார்க்கோ
தஞ்சம் அடைந்த பின் கை விடலாமோ
தஞ்சம் அடைந்த பின் கை விடலாமோ
தாய் உந்தன் குழந்தையை தள்ளிடபோமோ
தாய் உந்தன் குழந்தையை தள்ளிடபோமோ
என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்
என்று மடியும் எங்கள் அடிமையின் மோகம்
என்று மடியும் எங்கள் அடிமையின் மோகம்
என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்

When will this thirst for freedom be quenched?

When will the desire of a slave die?

When will this shackles on our hand go away?

When will our sufferings would get exhausted?

Oh God, who came to make the country of Bharatha then,

Oh God , who supports the life of an Arya (gentleman)

Is not the support given by victory , your grace?

Is it proper for these true slaves to fade further?

Is this famine and disease meant for your true devotees?

To whom do the greatness in this world truly belong?

After one surrenders , should one leave out the support?

Would a mother push away her little baby?
Does not she have the duty to say, “Fear not”?

Oh Gentleman did you also forget your dharma?

Oh greatly valorous king of Aaryas,
Will we leave out the asuras who do cruel actions?

said Chellamnal. She was surely a ‘thinking’ person. Worthy of being the loving wife of the inimitable Bharathi.

Chellamma mused, for a change, “ Bharathi went lyrical with his anguish. Bharathi’s yearning to have his own newspaper enhanced day by day. He had no money. We had no money. But the urge was undying. It was then that ‘time’ changed for the better, even if it was by a wee bit. Never did our financial position change enough, beyond a hand mouth existence or not face the monthly ignominy of the landlord reminding us of our rental dues. And it was humiliating for me to go with a begging bowl for rice and cereals to keep the family fed to the basic levels. Nothing mattered to Milord Chinnaswamy Swamy Bharathi. He wore his dress neat and well. Always walked erect. Never disclosed the pathetic financial situation.Yet, his desire yo start a newspaper never ceased”.

It was then that news filtered in that a few ‘Vaishnavite friends’ in Triplicane were desirous and exploring the idea of mouthpiece to air our concerns over lack of freedom. Providentially, Sri Thirunalachariar who was running a Hindu religious magazine in ‘Brahmavadjogal’ found it an unsatisfactory platform to go political. He wanted a Tamil newspaper exclusively devoted to the cause of India’s independence and methodically sent about assembling the printing equipment . Contemporaneously, he was hunting for an able hand to pilot the editorial faculties.

Bharathi came as a godsend to Sri Thirumalachariar. The entire editorial responsibility was entrusted to Bharathi who was ready, willing and able to shoulder the responsibility not as a burden but as a gift from his Lord Parthasarathi. Thus was born ‘India’ the magical journal that has recorded for posterity many a stellar article and vision of Bharathi. His editorial instincts were spot on to catch the ‘freedom fever as a viral pandemic’ and his tirade against the Britishers furled huge public response.

Chellamma, “ Bharathi’s thoughts from his innermost recesses just flowed out with raw passion and emotion in Tamil of simple words, never before experienced. It was song in prose. And prose in song. Poetry was sidelined for a while. But the music he let loose was stinging those who were sucking up to the colonists. Bharathi ruthlessly exposed their pusillanimity and deference to the authors to ‘make a living and ends meet forgetting and ignoring the anguished cries of Bharat Mata. Bharathi hit them and their masters, the Britishers, where it hurt them most viz self-esteem.

Bharathi did not stop with his sharp,pungent,satirical and incisive writings. He held ‘conferences’ on the Triplicane Beach. They attracted large audience and Bharathi’s inspirational speeches ‘irritated the Britishers and their henchmen who came from ourselves’ as Chellamma too commented. Bipin Chandra Pal reception, the Lala Lahpatrai’s extermination, the Surat Congress deliberations impact, the treason litigation proceedings against V O Chidambaram Pillai did not escape the mighty ken and pen of Bharathi. He was always engaged in writing. Day and night did not matter as his flow as if the Ganges was in full flow.

Chellamma alluded to the facility of radio broadcasts and the rousing responses from the assemblage on the sands of the Triplicane beach. There is a beautiful construct put by Chellamnal on Bharathi’s speeches from the platform. “ Bharathi was a thin person. He literally looked emaciated as if not had his earlier meal and not likely to get his next too. Yet, when he took the platform, his utterances were thundering. He was rarely rotted. I had always wondered where his energies came from, despite his frail frame, as if he may slip and fall all the time. Where from? I would like everyone to bear this mind.

“ These days every other person gets on stage and claims to be an orator. Those days were different. Not every one could get on stage. You needed to be credible and have a talent beyond the ordinary. Only the very best had the right to hold the stage. Bharathi was not among the very best. He was possible the very best. I am not saying so because he was dear husband. I have seen and experienced his speeches. On occasions, even when others held the stage, going ahead of him, the audience got restless and demanded that Bharathi spoke.

I particularly recall the Bipinchabdra Pal reception. It made a huge impression on the assembled. Not only the gathering was bigger than before even the audience reaction was different. The Britishers took notice…”

As an aside- Bipin Chandra Pal, Bengali-
7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was a secular Indian nationalist writer, orator, social reformer and Indian Independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “Lal,Bal,Pal” triumvirate.Pal was one of the main architects of the Swadeshi movement along with Sri Aurobindo He also opposed the partition of Bengal ordered by the British colonial government.

Bipin Chandra Pal started his life as a teacher, and worked in places as far apart as Bangalore and Lahore. He shot into limelight in 1907 because of his spellbinding speeches as a member of the Brahmo Samaj. The same year he was tried for refusing to testify against Sri Aurobindo Ghose, when the latter was charged with sedition. Rather than betray a freedom fighter and friend, Pal chose voluntary exile.
A first class writer, his association with the press was enduring. For a while he was editor of The Tribune when it was being published from Lahore He was also associated with The New India, Bande Mataram, The Swaraj, The Independent, The Democrat, and The Bengalee. Reiterating the importance of total freedom and exhorting Indians to not depend on the British for salvation, he said that we “cannot any longer suffer ourselves to be guided by them in our attempts at political progress and emancipation. Their point of view is not ours. The desire to make the Government of India popular without ceasing, in any sense, to be essentially British; we desire to make it autonomous and absolutely free of British control”.
Bipin Chandra Pal believed that the national movement of India should essentially be spiritual, and to regard it as merely economic or political was to miss the point altogether What is the use of liberating the body if the soul is still in chains. In his book The Rise of New Patriotism, he says that protest is always demoralising, unless it it followed by appropriate action.
Soon Bipin Chandra Pal’s fame spread like wildfire all over India.You had to just mention his name and people would come in hordes to listen to his inspiring speeches. In the days before the arrival of loudspeakers, he could sway the masses with his faultless oratory and thundering voice. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, himself a great orator, once recalled: “Oratory had never dreamt of such triumphs in India. The power of the spoken word had never been demonstrated on such a scale.” Commenting on Pal’s evocative writing, Lord Aetland, Secretary of State for India, observed:”His pen played no inconsiderable part in the social and political ferment that has stirred the waters of Indian life.” Sri Aurobindo regarded him as one of the mightiest prophets of nationalism.
When everything was going right for him he made a fatal move by opposing the Non-cooperation Movement. His risked popularity by saying Gandhi had magic not logic. Unfortunately for him, Gandhi’s popularity was at its zenith, and this forced Pal into the backwaters of the Freedom Struggle. In the dusk of his life, he was a sad figure, eking out a living writing articles for newspapers and magazines.

Despite such impeccable credentials, Bipinchabdra Pal went into exile.

( Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)