The Hindu Business Line : Recalling a historic legislative battle

Subrahmanya Bharathi's birthday (December 11) has been going unnoticed year after year, but for some odd meetings here and there. Hardly is there an instance of political parties, cultural associations, prominent institutions or the media celebrating his memory. Even his birthplace, Ettayapuram, has come to wear a deserted look.

There has been a sign of a heart-warming change this year. A largely attended public function held under the auspices of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), in which its chief, Vaiko, participated, amply compensated for the indifference that has been the rule. And it is just as well.

Subrahmanya Bharathi (1882-1921) was a poet of world standing, whose name is inextricably intertwined with the course of the freedom struggle in the erstwhile Madras Province. He gave expression to his intense love for the motherland and fierce opposition to foreign rule in songs of such patriotic and nationalist fervour that they stir deep emotions even today. He fired his prose and poetry with his reformist zeal, boldly raising his voice in favour of a caste-free, classless society, in which both men and women had equal rights and status. Remember, this was the beginning of the 20th century when propagating such ideas required tremendous courage.

Until Bhrathi's time, Tamil poetry was characterised by pedantic archaisms, making it unintelligible as well as uninviting. He revolutionised both its content and style, keeping the diction simple and appealing without sacrificing elegance, and thereby making it an inspiring mode of rousing the people to become enthusiastic participants in furtherance of progressive causes. He has truly been the progenitor of a new age in Tamil.

His strident call to throw off alien yoke made the then Madras Government in 1927 issue orders proscribing his songs and to seize and shred them wherever found. S. Satyamurti, the indomitable freedom fighter and formidable parliamentarian, who was also a powerful orator both in Tamil and English, waged a heroic battle against the order in the Madras Legislative Council on October 8-9, 1927 by means of an Adjournment Motion. He electrified the Council with his spirited and impassioned exposition of Bharathi's genius and a subject nation's birth right to freedom, so much so the Motion secured 76 votes, as against 12 opposing it, with 15 abstaining. What is more, he very cleverly read a number of the banned poems into the official verbatim record of the Council while seeking to establish their high ideals and unexcelled quality!

Here is an excerpt from his speech which deserves to leave an indelible imprint in the history of literature:

"..the late Subrahmanya Bharathi was a man on whose tongue...the Goddess Saraswathi can honestly be believed to have danced the dance of patriotism. If he had been born in any free country, why, in any country of the world except India, that man would have been made the Poet Laureate of that country and...would have lived and died among the most honoured of the nation...So long as the Tamil language lasts, you may confiscate all the copies which exist...so long as a single Tamilian lives, these songs will remain the priceless heritage of the Tamil race. (The Government's action) is a challenge to the literary genius of the Tamil race; it is a challenge to the self-respect of those whose mother-tongue is Tamil. It is a challenge to all those patriotic citizens here and elsewhere who value intellectual freedom and value patriotism..."

Will anyone in the free India of today display equal daring in attacking the mindless actions of powers-that-be?

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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