Musings on Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan 40

Musings on Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
40

Why should we fight shy or run away from alluding to ‘tales/stories or gossip lines’ to this day, on characters who may belong here. We are only on the anecdotal and episodal retinue. Surely not turning out a dissertation on the truth and veracity of them all. Or whether they were the products of fertile minds to spice it up. We are not judging. We stop on the reporting plane.

It is undeniable that the ‘community’ to which Bharathi, Vanchinathan,Subramania Siva, V V S Iyer et al belonged, may have kept them unsung during their times. But was their meat in the grouse that the ‘community’ did contribute by their ‘ways’. Let us share this Vanchinathan-Collector Ashe connect. Was there a ‘communal angle’ to the bravery and martyrdom of Vanchi and his gang of fourteen. Let us leave the authenticity verification to better qualified as we go anecdotal.

Ashe’s wife Mary was a social worker. One day during her visit to Shencottai, along with her husband, spotted a Dalit (socially marginalized) women suffering in labor pain. She arranged a bullock-cart for this dalit lady and the bullock-cart carried her through the Agraharam (street where Brahmins alone can reside), the shortest route to the hospital. The Brahmins demanded an apology from Ashe for supporting his wife in sending the dalit woman in a bullock-cart through the Agraharam and the Brahmins believed that the act of Mrs Ashe brought sacrilege to them. Ashe refused to apology and justified the act of his wife. This infuriated the Brahmins and led to the plan to assassinate Ashe.

Vanchinathan was peeved by the collector’s interference in the local affairs. Ashe expressed his dismay over people of a dominant caste refusing to let a pregnant woman, belonging to a lower caste, being taken through their street for medical treatment, said Josephine Jeyashanthi, Professor in the Department of Tamil, Loyola College.

Was that what Sir CP went to investigate at Shenkottai? What was his report? Nothing is known about the trip, all we know that it was a sensitive and secret issue being investigated by the High court. It is unlikely that the above angle warranted it, but then again, they may have wanted to crush the Swadeshi movement and get rid of minor issues like caste rivalry. Anyway we do know that Sir CP was instrumental in getting Bharatiyar quickly released from a British jail.

R.A. Padmanabhan writes in his biography of V.V.S.Aiyar:

“It has been said that the all round revival of the Tamil country in the first two decades of the century owes much to three brilliant sons of Tamil Nadu, Poet C.Subramania Bharathix Scholar-Revolutionary V.V.S.Iyer and Swadeshi Steamship Hero V so Chidamabaram Pillai.
They were all dedicated patriots working with a passion, each in his chosen field for the liberation of Bharatmata. All the three were imbued with a strong love of the Tamil language and the culture of the Tamil people. Each contributed his own quota to boost the self-esteem of tamils. Whilst the names of Bharathi and Chidambaram Pillai are familiar to present day India, it cannot be said that it is equally familiar with the name of V.V.S.Aiyar.”
Subramaniam passed the Pleader’s Examination in Madras in the First Grade in 1902 and thereafter practised as a Pleader in the District Court of Tiruchi. In 1906, he went to Rangoon, and practised as a junior in the Chambers of an English Barrister whose clientele included a number of Tamil businessmen who were resident in Burma. From Rangoon, he left for London in 1907, enrolled in Lincoln’s Inn with a view to becoming a Barrister at Law. It was in London, that V.V.S.Aiyar together with Vinayak Damodar Sarvakar, began to take an active role in the militant struggle for Indian independence.

In 1910, Aiyar resigned his membership of Lincoln’s Inn. A warrant was issued by the British for his arrest and Aiyar escaped to Paris. But he had no wish to remain in Paris as a political exile. He returned to India, albeit to French Pondicherry, and there met with both. Subramania Bharathi and Aurobindo. He remained in Pondicherry for ten years until after the end of the first World War. It was during this period that he translated the whole of the Thirukural into English. In his Preface to the Second Edition of his ‘Maxims of Thiruvalluvar’, Aiyar declares the reasons that led him to write::
“When, soon after the Great War broke out, the (German battleship) Emden was scouring the Bay of Bengal, some members of the secret police force stationed by the British Indian Government at Pondicherry to watch the movements of the Indian refugees thought it a golden opportunity to rise in the service by connecting the latter with the activities of the Emden. It is said that as a result of their plot, the Madras Government desired the then Governor of Pondicherry to banish the Indian political refugees to Africa. Anyway, the French police brought several charges against these refugees among whom was Shriman Aiyar. These cases, however, failed ignominiously. In spite of that, the then Governor of Pondicherry wished to deport them to Algeria. He however, wanted that it should not appear that he forced them to leave Pondicherry. He, therefore sent messengers to them who threatened them unofficially with all sorts of dire consequences if they did not voluntarily leave for Algiers. The negotiation lasted for about four or five months. As soon as the negotiation started, Shriman Aiyar thought that the French Government might any day force him out of Pondicherry, and wanted to leave something behind him which might keep his memory green among his countrymen even though his body should be removed by force out of the Tamil land which he loved so dearly.
He therefore set about to think as to what would be the best thing for him to do under these circumstances, taking into consideration the very short and precarious period of time at his disposal. It did not take him long to decide that if he could translate into English the shortest and at the same time the most perfect of the ancient Tamil classics, he could claim a small corner in the memory of his countrymen. He therefore set to work at it at top speed.
It was about the 1st of November, 1914 that he put pen on paper. Day after day he pounded away at the translation, every evening thinking that the next morning he might receive a peremptory order to leave Pondicherry. This sword of Damocles ever hanging above his head only made him determined to work at white heat, so that in case he had to leave India he might leave as large a number as possible of the maxims worthily translated. He went on with his translation with so much ardour that even while his house was being searched by the French police for discovering if he had concealed in his house a fugitive from justice, he put his hand to the translation the moment the police left his study to search the other parts of his house. He was a happy man when on the 1st of March 1915 the last lines of the preface were fair copied and the whole book was ready for the press…”

Bharathi’s tenure in Pondicherry was undeniably his most fruitful. Yes, Chellamma may be waiting. But we have quite a bit of intellectual pursuit of at least the peripheral kind to attend to. Let us go there, before Chellammaspeak can resume.

( Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)