Gandhi's Impact on the Tamil Psyche
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HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHI 10 hindustantimes THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 YEARS ON In the south 1869 - 2019 N O T E S FROM THE FIELD ' binary of Ambedkar/Periyar before I came Commemorative stamps starting with to Madurai. In the course of my doctoral the- India Post’s 2018 set, and those issued sis on Iyothee Dasa Pandithar [also spelt around the globe over the years Thass; he was a 19th and early 20th century Tamil Dalit social reformer who converted to Buddhism], I realised the contribution of Gandhi and Gandhians in changing Tamil society. Irrespective of what Dravidian par- ties would have you believe, without Gandhi there would have been little social justice or reform in Tamil Nadu that the state prides itself on,” says Stalin Rajangam, a Dalit scholar and researcher who teaches Tamil literature in Madurai’s American College. MADURAI’S GANDHI MEMORY The Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai is one of six national Gandhi monuments in India and the only one in south India. It is housed in a magnificent palace built in 1700 1 by the brave Madurai regent queen, Rani Mangammal. To add to the tourist attrac- tions, there is a giant model of the Tyranno- saurus Rex in the campus. The museum, inaugurated in 1959, is in custody of the bloodstained shawl and loincloth worn by Gandhi when he was shot by Nathuram Godse in 1948. It is kept in display in an alcove with walls painted in black. 2 However, there are other pieces of Gan- dhi’s legacy scattered in the south. Some 70 kilometres away from Madurai, near the town of Dindigul, is Gandhigram, a rural community to revive village industries and provide skilled livelihoods to people from backward communities. It was founded in 1947 by TS Soundram, a doctor and the n Gandhi with C daughter of TV Sundaram Iyengar (founder Rajagopalachari of TVS Group) and her Dalit Gandhian hus- NATIONAL GANDHI band from Kerala, G Ramachandran. MUSEUM The campus and the college, Gandhigram Rural Institute, which the trust founded (now under the management of the central government) were built on lands donated by zamindars who viewed Gandhi as an avatar 4 of Hindu gods. The scarcity of good centrally funded colleges now draws students from GANDHI’S IMPACT ON around the country to the university. 3 The railway crossing that separates the university from the ashram bears a small concrete plaque. “This is where Mahatma Gandhi’s feet touched the ground,” it reads. It bears a Khadi garland around it that no one THE TAMIL PSYCHE has bothered to replace for months. The man- aging trustee of the Gandhigram Trust, K Shivakumar, a man in his seventies with a 6 lected. It was during that trip that he agreed chipped-tooth smile, wants to spread the 5 SPECIAL BOND Not only did Tamil and Telugu speakers to visit the iconic Meenakshiamman temple message about Gandhi’s gram swarajya — form a big part of MK Gandhi’s support base in South Africa, in Madurai after the Dalits and lower castes the idea of villages as decentralised, self-suf- had been allowed entry after many decades ficient governing units with the freedom of but both the Madras Presidency and the princely state of of struggles. deciding the affairs of the locality — as the Though it was only in the 1930s that Gan- only viable alternative to problems posed by Travancore were central to his anti-untouchability agenda dhi, drawing upon his favourite 15th century modern life, globalisation and Big Capital. Gujarati bhakti poet, Narsinh Mehta, began But even at the khadi outlet near Mela Masi to use the term Harijan (children of God) to Street in Madurai, where Gandhi renounced describe the lower castes and Dalits, his his regular attire, most customers walk in impact was such that southern India turned looking for ayurvedic pills made by the ash- into an important centre of the anti-untouch- ram, for gastric troubles. 7 ability movements, long before this. The Gandhian Khadi ashram set up by n Beginning in the 1920s, caste Hindu Gan- Rajaji in 1925 in the bone-dry hamlet of Pud- 1. Miniature dhians such as A Vaidyanatha Iyer started upalayam in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchengode sheet of circular TR Vivek even tried his hand at learning Tamil and fighting for temple entry rights for Dalits. district to employ “untouchable” women stamps issued by India Post in n [email protected] Urdu. The stories of Gandhi as the champion The 1924 satyagraha in Kerala’s Vaikom — weavers and spinners from the region is now of oppressed Tamil and Telugu speakers in led by TK Madhavan, a journalist and sup- a central government-owned khadi and vil- October 2018. y successfully transferring in South Africa were instrumental some years porter of social reformer, Narayana Guru, lage industries unit. Rajaji built the experi- 2. First day 1894 the indenture of Balasunda- later in the inroads the Congress made in the and Gandhian Congressman, KP Kesava mental ashram on a four-acre piece of of issue, ram, a labourer, from a violent Madras Presidency. Menon, for Dalits to enter the town’s Shiva parched land donated by Ratnasabhapathy Washington, European master who had bro- temple — followed Gandhi’s methodology of Gounder, a local landlord whose father had USA, 1961. 8 ken his teeth, Mohandas Karam- THE MENDICANT OF MADURAI protesting through non violence, fasting and been a friend and client during Rajaji’s days 3. First day of B issue, Tanzania, chand Gandhi became a saviour But the most profound Gandhian impact on courting arrest, and inspired many in nearby as a successful lawyer in Salem. in the eyes of thousands of other Indian the Tamil psyche was to come several dec- regions, including Madurai. The Pudupalayam ashram was meant to 1998. labourers in Natal, South Africa. Thereafter, ades later. On September 22, 1921, while in In 1938, one of the first Harijan student be the site for “penance” that Gandhi wanted 4. Pretoria, indentured labourers from the Madras Presi- Madurai, Gandhi traded his simple attire of hostels in the Madras Presidency called Sev- his closest acolytes to perform. The thatched South Africa, dency not only joined the Natal Indian Con- khadi kurta and dhoti for a more frugal loin- alayam came up in Madurai. huts once occupied by Rajaji and his accom- 1995. gress in huge numbers, but also became a pil- cloth made of barely a yard of khadi cloth that Gandhi’s core political team during the plices now have red-tiled roofs. The place has 5. London, UK, lar of strength for Gandhi’s satyagraha in earned him the pejorative Churchillian Independence movement comprised Chak- a charming fragrance from the agarbatti fac- centenary year, South Africa. Tamils, both in South Africa sobriquet of “half-naked fakir”. For the Tam- ravarthi Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) alongside tory it runs. The administrators (all in their 1969. and Balasundaram’s homeland in India, ils, the fact that Gandhi turned a “fakir” in Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai fifties) are thrilled by the unusual sight of 6. Centenary began to regard Gandhi as one of their own. Madurai had special symbolism. “Madurai Patel, Rajendra Prasad and Maulana Abul tourists. They lovingly hand over the visi- year, Republic of Thanks to his Tamil clerk in South Africa, was the city of the great Manickavasagar [a Kalam Azad. As early as 1916, Rajaji had writ- tor’s book that is a collection of a few plastic Mauritius. Vincent Lazarus, and the workers he repre- ninth century Tamil poet who composed the ten a long essay in Indian Review outlining files containing crumbing handwritten 7. Republic of sented, Gandhi was able to access the vast iconic Shaivite bhakti hymns called Tiruva- Gandhi’s message to India, which referred to accounts of those who have visited the place Tajikistan, 1999. 9 wisdom of an ancient Tamil literary text, sakam] who described Shiva as the lord of the emphasis on Hindu-Muslim unity, non (Gandhi, Kasturba, Rajendra Prasad, other 8. First day of such as Tirukkural and incorporate its aram beggars. It was only fitting that he adopted violence, and self-reliance. Of the five, Rajaji presidents, governors, and foreign dignita- issue, Tehran, (dharma) in his own non-violent struggles. the attire of a mendicant in Madurai, as a rep- was among the last to meet Gandhi, in 1919. ries). Today, there is an air of palpable jaded- Iran, 1969. While the more affluent Gujarati traders resentative of the poorest of poor in India,” But such was the impact that Rajaji, a lawyer ness at the ashram. There is no one under the 9. Centenary in South Africa chose to support Gandhi wrote A Ramasamy in the 1969 book, Tam- from Salem, had on Gandhi that he soon age of 50 in the vicinity; visitors are few; and year, Grenada. while staying in the background for fear of izhnattil Gandhi (Gandhi in Tami Nadu). became not just the Mahatma’s “southern they possess the air of relics from the past. 10. Centenary losing business, it was the poor Tamil and Not surprisingly, Madurai turned into a general” but “conscience-keeper” as well. The library that Rajaji once kept and the vol- year, Malta. Telugu-speaking labourer who formed part major centre of Gandhian activism. umes of the pro-prohibition journal he INDIA POST; COLLECTIONS OF of the front ranks of satyagraha. Gandhi KM Natarajan, the president of Tamil GANDHI AND PERIYAR founded from here, Vimochanam, lie in tat- NATIONAL GANDHI acknowledged their contribution in his 1896 Nadu Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and a long-time Today, many pit Gandhi against the combine ters.