Bharathi's letter of apology to Lord P
Kathiravan
OM SAKTHI
District Jail, Cuddalore
28 November-1918.
To
His Excellency Lord Pentland
Governor,
Fort St. George
The Humble petition of C. Subramania Bharathi.
May it please your excellency.
It has been more than a week now since I was
arrested at Cuddalore on my way from Pondicheery
to Tinnevelly which is my native district. After
many loyal assurances on my part as your Execellency
may well remember the Dy. I. G. (CID) was sent by your
Excellency's Government a few months back to
interview me at Pondicherry. The Dy. I G after being
thoroughly satisfied with my attitude towards the
Government asked me if I would be willing to be
kept interned purely as a war measure. in any two
districts of the Madras Presidency during the war..
I could not consent to that proposal, because having
absolutley renounced politics I see no reason why
any restraint should be placed on my movement
even while the war lasted.
Now that the war is over and with such signal
success to the Allies, I ventured to leave Pondicherry.,
honestly believing that there would be absolutely no
difficulty whatsoever in the way of my settling
in Bristish India as a peaceful citizen.. Contrary
to m y expectations however I have been detained and
placed in Cuddalore District Jail under conditions
which I will not weary your Excellency by describing
here at any length BUT which are altogether diasgreeable
to a man of my birth and status and full of dangerous
possibilities to m y health.
I once again assure your Execellency that I have
renounced every form of politics, I shall ever
be loyal to british Government and law abiding.
I therefore beg of your Excellency to order
my immediate release. May God grant your Excellency
a long and happy life.
I beg to remain
Your Excellency's
most obedient servant.
C. Subramania Bharathi
Sankara Narayanan
Kathiravan wrote:
>
> OM SAKTHI
>
> District Jail, Cuddalore
> 28 November-1918.
>
> To
> His Excellency Lord Pentland
> Governor,
> Fort St. George
>
> The Humble petition of C. Subramania Bharathi.
snip --------------------------
>
> I once again assure your Execellency that I have
> renounced every form of politics, I shall ever
> be loyal to british Government and law abiding.
>
> I therefore beg of your Excellency to order
> my immediate release. May God grant your Excellency
> a long and happy life.
>
> I beg to remain
> Your Excellency's
> most obedient servant.
> C. Subramania Bharathi
>
>
Dear Kathiravan,
Could you please give your source for this posting?? Is this
the exact reproduction of the so-called letter?
Was it written in English ... or in Tamil ???
I'm seriuosly interested in knowing this ...I've done quite
a bit of study on Bharathi's life and his works, but had never
heard of such a letter.
anbudan,
-Sankara Narayanan
Bart Simpson
Kathiravan wrote:
>
Thanks for the information Sir.
Bart.
Sankara Narayanan
Sankara Narayanan wrote:
>
> Kathiravan wrote:
> >
> > OM SAKTHI
> >
> > District Jail, Cuddalore
> > 28 November-1918.
> >
> > To
> > His Excellency Lord Pentland
> > Governor,
> > Fort St. George
> >
>
> Dear Kathiravan,
>
> Could you please give your source for this posting?? Is this
> the exact reproduction of the so-called letter?
>
> Was it written in English ... or in Tamil ???
>
> I'm seriuosly interested in knowing this ...I've done quite
> a bit of study on Bharathi's life and his works, but had never
> heard of such a letter.
>
> anbudan,
>
> -Sankara Narayanan
On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, kathiravan (k.) krishnamurthi wrote:
Dear Sankara Narayanan!
I have a series of articles on Bharathi authored
by Valaja Vallavan. The reference he quotes is Number
33.
-----------------------------------------------
33. pA. iRaiarasan. ithazhaalar pArathi, NCBH.
-----------------------------------------------
VV also traces Bharathi's politics with references.
and also Bharathi's writings after this letter. Many other
of Bharathi's own statements and letters to friends confirm
his quitting of politics. If I find time I shall post them.
Regards
Kathiravan
:ps Please post this for me. The server has hung up
on me.
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
I've posted :-)))
-Sankara Narayanan
--------------------------------------------------------------
Discalimer : My opinions do not involve my employer ;->
--------------------------------------------------------------
Meenaradchagan Vishnu
In article <555pnb$n...@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca>, Kathiravan <kkri...@bnr.ca> wrote:
>
> OM SAKTHI
>
> District Jail, Cuddalore
> 28 November-1918.
>
>To
>His Excellency Lord Pentland
>Governor,
>Fort St. George
>
>
>renounced every form of politics, I shall ever
>be loyal to british Government and law abiding.
>
> I therefore beg of your Excellency to order
>my immediate release. May God grant your Excellency
>a long and happy life.
>
> I beg to remain
> Your Excellency's
> most obedient servant.
> C. Subramania Bharathi
>
What a contrast from some of his Tamil poems?
Meenan Vishnu
PS: mElum keezum kOdukaL pOdu... athuthaan Oviyam
nee sonnaal..kaaviyam.
I think Bharathi was blown out of proportion by the brahmanical media.
Kumar Soundrapandian
Meenaradchagan Vishnu wrote:
> What a contrast from some of his Tamil poems?
>
> Meenan Vishnu
>
> PS: mElum keezum kOdukaL pOdu... athuthaan Oviyam
> nee sonnaal..kaaviyam.
>
> I think Bharathi was blown out of proportion by the brahmanical media.
Before jumping to conclusion, why dont you really THINK and ask yourself
some simple questions, that any RATIONAL person will do. Let me know if
you need any assistance.
S.V.Kumar
Sankaran, Sam
In <32767C...@vnet.ibm.com> san...@vnet.ibm.com writes:
> Kathiravan wrote:
> >
> Dear Kathiravan,
>
>
> Could you please give your source for this posting?? Is this
> the exact reproduction of the so-called letter?
>
>
> Was it written in English ... or in Tamil ???
>
> I'm seriuosly interested in knowing this ...I've done quite
> a bit of study on Bharathi's life and his works, but had never
> heard of such a letter.
>
>
> anbudan,
>
> -Sankara Narayanan
I am not kathiravan, as must be obvious:-)
bArathi did write a letter like this to the governor. Whether the exact
wording was the same as produced by kk or not, I cannot say. I do not have
all my bArathi books with me in Canada. So, I cannot vouch for the
wording. The meaning and intent are as conveyed in KK's posting. This si
the kind of letter that all patriots languishing in jail or having an
arrest waraant pending in jail had to write if they wantd to live
"freely" in British India. After gAn^dhi and his satyAgrahA movement
of course, everything changed.
NOT opinionated, but just having and expressing opinions
for which I am solely responsible.
Swaminathan SANKARAN
Telephone: (306) 585-4988
FAX: (306) 585-4805
Sudhakar Chandrasekharan
Kathiravan wrote:
> OM SAKTHI
> District Jail, Cuddalore
> 28 November-1918.
> To
> His Excellency Lord Pentland
> Governor,
> Fort St. George
>
> The Humble petition of C. Subramania Bharathi.
>
> May it please your excellency.
>
> It has been more than a week now since I was
> arrested at Cuddalore on my way from Pondicheery
> to Tinnevelly which is my native district. After
> many loyal assurances on my part as your Execellency
> may well remember the Dy. I. G. (CID) was sent by your
<snip> <snip> <snip>
> I beg to remain
> Your Excellency's
> most obedient servant.
> C. Subramania Bharathi
>
>
Would Kathir "aNNa" please quote the source of the above "letter".
And would he also underline the exact lines in the "letter" with
which he has problems. And explain why he leaped to the conclusion
he has expressed in this forum before.
Thaths
Venkata Subramonyam
mvi...@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca (Meenaradchagan Vishnu) writes:
>In article <555pnb$n...@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca>, Kathiravan <kkri...@bnr.ca> wrote:
>>
>> OM SAKTHI
>>To
>>His Excellency Lord Pentland
>>Governor,
>>Fort St. George
>>
>>The Humble petition of C. Subramania Bharathi.
>>
>What a contrast from some of his Tamil poems?
>Meenan Vishnu
>I think Bharathi was blown out of proportion by the brahmanical media.
Good show dude :-) May be you should consider posting
a top-ten list of people blown out of proportion by the brahmanical media.
btw, was bharathidasan a brahmin too?
and whats the reason for your obsession with brahmins anyways? :-)
venkat.
Sankaran, Sam
In <E03Dq...@novice.uwaterloo.ca> mvi...@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca writes:
> In article <555pnb$n...@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca>, Kathiravan <kkri...@bnr.ca> wrote:
> >
[kk's post deleted]
> >
>
> What a contrast from some of his Tamil poems?
>
> Meenan Vishnu
>
> PS: mElum keezum kOdukaL pOdu... athuthaan Oviyam
> nee sonnaal..kaaviyam.
>
> I think Bharathi was blown out of proportion by the brahmanical media.
^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Probabaly makAkavi, kailAsapathy, pa. jIvAnan^dham, dha. jeyakAn^than,
thi. jAnakirAman, bArathidhAsan etc., can answer whether it has been
blown at all, let alone "out of proportion."
However, mr. vishNu's propensity to blame the brahmanical media for
everything including the weather (good or bad weather is of no concern
to him) only goes to show that his blind hatred is only exceeded by
his blind ignorance. rAjAji and many of the brahmanical "dhEsabakthA"
crowd around him actually tried to belittle him by saying
that he was no great poet, but his fame was entirely due to the
patriotic songs he wrote! It was the non-brahmanical bArathidhAsan
(a DK supporter and excoriator and scourge of things brahmin and brahmanical),
pa. jIvAnan^dham who began as a DK and later became a Marxist, parali su.
n^ellaiyappap piLLai ( the name speaks for itself), the Christian cakkaraic cettiyAr,
A.V. meyyappac cettiyAr, the Justice Party leader and first Vice-Chancellor of
Andhra University, Dr. C.R. Reddy, dha. jeyakAn^than (a saivap piLLai by birth),
va. rA. (a Sri vaishNavite brahmin), kA. su. vENGkataramaNi (a saivite brahmin),
va. u. ci, kanakaliNggam(?) ( a harijan/dalit who was given brammOpadhEsam by bArathi),
subbiramaNiya sivA (another brahmin friend of va. u. ci and bArathi), thirilOka
sIthArAm (brahmin AIR announcer from thirucci) etc., etc., who were bArathi's
most ardent admirers, promoters and also his best critics. Some brahminical media
and some blowing out of proportion, indeed!
Thathachari
Meenaradchagan Vishnu wrote:
<Kathir's "letter by Bharathi" deleted>
> What a contrast from some of his Tamil poems?
> PS: mElum keezum kOdukaL pOdu... athuthaan Oviyam
> nee sonnaal..kaaviyam.
> I think Bharathi was blown out of proportion by the brahmanical media.
Surprises me that Mean'nVicious does not even ask "aNNa" Kathir for the
refernces. Or maybe it does not surprise me after all.
Mean'n seems to be more interested in his soapbox than finding out the
truth begind this affair.
There is nothing wrong in you having your opinions Mean'n. But when
"evidence" is presented one should not accept it or reject it based on
whether the evidence supports or opposes our beliefs. One should try to
find out the authenticity of the evidence being presented.
Thaths
Thathachari
Meenaradchagan Vishnu wrote:
> What a contrast from some of his Tamil poems?
> PS: mElum keezum kOdukaL pOdu... athuthaan Oviyam
> nee sonnaal..kaaviyam.
> I think Bharathi was blown out of proportion by the brahmanical media.
Ah! Why a second followup to Mean'n's post? Found a gem written by
Selva in another thread that could be a reply to Mean'n's poetical
reference.
Selva writes in message ID <E03Dq...@novice.uwaterloo.ca> -
'epporuL yaar yaar vaayk kEtpinum, apporuL meyppporuL'
kaaNa vENduvathu kadamai
Thaths
C.R. Selvakumar
In article <557q0k$h...@sue.cc.uregina.ca>,
Sankaran, Sam <SANK...@Meena.CC.URegina.CA> wrote:
>In <32767C...@vnet.ibm.com> san...@vnet.ibm.com writes:
>
>> Kathiravan wrote:
>> >
>
>> Dear Kathiravan,
>>
>>
>> Could you please give your source for this posting?? Is this
>> the exact reproduction of the so-called letter?
>>
>>
>> Was it written in English ... or in Tamil ???
>>
>> I'm seriuosly interested in knowing this ...I've done quite
>> a bit of study on Bharathi's life and his works, but had never
>> heard of such a letter.
>>
>>
>> anbudan,
>>
>> -Sankara Narayanan
>
> I am not kathiravan, as must be obvious:-)
>
> bArathi did write a letter like this to the governor. Whether the exact
> wording was the same as produced by kk or not, I cannot say. I do not have
> all my bArathi books with me in Canada. So, I cannot vouch for the
> wording. The meaning and intent are as conveyed in KK's posting. This si
> the kind of letter that all patriots languishing in jail or having an
> arrest waraant pending in jail had to write if they wantd to live
> "freely" in British India. After gAn^dhi and his satyAgrahA movement
> of course, everything changed.
There are two things in the letter apart from the fact that such a
letter was submitted and apparently his subsequent renounciation
of politics which Kathiravan and several others might have
found disturbing. One is the tone of the letter and how
it was signed as 'most obedient servant etc.' and the other is his
reference to his high birth ( when Paarathiyaar talks about 'saathigaL
illaiyadi paappaa). Before people jump to the conclusion that
the words 'most obedient servant' reflect 'adimaiththanam' etc., they have
to compare letters written by White subordinates to their superiors and
how they were signed in those days ( I don't know well about this).
Today the word 'servent' and 'obedient' sound
demeaning in some way, but the practice and meaning/perception then
were different. Here in west, in 90s we talk of 'Service' Industry.
Government Servant only means Government Employee. Obedient meant, one
who is subordinate ( who takes work-related orders from his superior).
The reference to his high birth and status can not be washed easily,
though he might have merely meant 'we are honourable people'.
The context in which he used this seems still troubling.
One thing, not about this letter, that I'm curious is -
did Paarathiyaar write severely criticizing his community
for 'ostracizing' him while he was in Kadyam ?
( about which you talked about in a previous posting). Why could he
have not accepted food and shelter from others defiantly and
went on with his life and not worryng about those mean people
who imposed all those things merely
because Paarathiyaar ate in a Saiva PiLLaimaar's (??) residence.
Paarathiyaar should have eaten right thenand there with
celebration in PaRayar or PaLLar or ThEvar or whatever community
that lived in Kadayam, asking them to serve vegetarian food in fresh
chattis if need be and must have recorded in his poetry ( all this
izhi n^ilai). In any case, he should have said something
severely critical and dismissive of those 'ostracizing' actions
and if he had not done any of those, probably that would be far
more damaging to his reputation than this letter in my opinion.
The young people who sacrifice their beautiful dear lives for the
Tamil Eezham are mean-mindedly criticized by many who adore
Paarathiyaar ! Let not somebody think I'm bringing in here a
'different' issue. No, Paarathiyaar has to be viewed as a poet
and he is a great one at that without doubt ( considering all the topics he
dealt with and the quality of his treatment of them), but he was also
known much more popularly as a person of social conciousness
and a patriot. The reputation of the latter are in danger of
being tarnished. But careful and responsible considerations
have to be given before making severly critical comments.
selvaa
Rajkumar Subramaniam
thats Sar;(sorry it was my habbit to call b*** people like that in TN)
Even he posted the reference, you can't accept your side. what you
wanted to do is to even defend your mistakes. Even kathiravan aNNa produce
the original source, you will certainly say that is also forgering documents..
> > District Jail, Cuddalore
> > 28 November-1918.
> > To
> > His Excellency Lord Pentland
> > Governor,
> > Fort St. George
> >
> > The Humble petition of C. Subramania Bharathi.
> >
> > May it please your excellency.
> >
> > It has been more than a week now since I was
> > arrested at Cuddalore on my way from Pondicheery
> > to Tinnevelly which is my native district. After
> > many loyal assurances on my part as your Execellency
> > may well remember the Dy. I. G. (CID) was sent by your
> <snip> <snip> <snip>
> > I beg to remain
> > Your Excellency's
> > most obedient servant.
> > C. Subramania Bharathi
> >
> >
> Would Kathir "aNNa" please quote the source of the above "letter".
> And would he also underline the exact lines in the "letter" with
> which he has problems. And explain why he leaped to the conclusion
> he has expressed in this forum before.
> Thaths
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
body for tamil land, life for tamil and soul for tamils
udampu thamizh maNNukku, ujir thamizikku, AthmA thamzhanukku
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
||||| ./\. ||||| Rajkumar Subramaniam
||||| _|\||||/|_ ||||| Email: (rsubrama@chat | raj@engsoc).carleton.ca
||||| \||||||||/ ||||| TE's Ftp site: ftp.tamil-eelam.org & /pub/tamil-eelam
||||| >||||||< ||||| Tamil Eelam WWW:http://www.tamil-eelam.org
||||| || ||||| My WWW:http://chat.carleton.ca/~rsubrama/index.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
********* A coward dies hundread times, tamilzhan once. *********
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shyamala Parameswaran
In article <E07CJ...@novice.uwaterloo.ca>, selv...@valluvar.uwaterloo.ca (C.R. Selvakumar) says:
>
> found disturbing. One is the tone of the letter and how
> it was signed as 'most obedient servant etc.' and the other is his
> reference to his high birth ( when Paarathiyaar talks about 'saathigaL
> illaiyadi paappaa). Before people jump to the conclusion that
> the words 'most obedient servant' reflect 'adimaiththanam' etc., they have
> to compare letters written by White subordinates to their superiors and
> how they were signed in those days ( I don't know well about this).
Natives often signed as most obedient servants. An old Wren
and Martin book which was a standard English guide taught
this as a correct way to end letters to superiors (of course,
white superiors). The Subaltern group in India use many such
letters from natives in their studies indicating that such
an ending was not only contemporaneous of those times, it was
considered professional etiquette and appropriate in tone.
In his extreme humility, Srila Prabhupada signed all his
letters, in as recent as 1966-1777, as "Your servant." The
movement has taught this humility by example and people
in the movement today, even as spiritual masters, sign off this
way.
Shyamala
Sundar
[I made a silly typo in my last article under the same
subject heading, I corrected which here. Sorry - Sundar]
Bharati was progressive in his days and it is not fair
to judge him by 90s' standards. Bharati, one understands,
was forced by circumstances to write such letters of apology,
whereas Maraimalaiyadikal, Naayar, Periyar etc. supported the
British rule (unconditionally) all the time.
With regard to Bharati and castes, there is an excellent
book 'Paratiyum catikalum' by Ta. Pantiyan (Arunkumar Patippakam,
1981, 151p) which probes the question whether Bharati was a
casteist and answers in the negative, that Bharati was not a
casteist, with lucid references and evidences. This book also
brings out some limitations of Bharati, but it is done in a
very objective way.
Thanks to Sam for translating excerpts from Nufmaan's
'Kaalachchuvadu' article related to the Bharati talk in the net.
- Sundar
Sundar
Bharati was progressive in his days and it is not fair
to judge him by 90s' standards. Bharati, one understands,
was forced by circumstances to write such letters of apology,
whereas Maraimalaiyadikal, Naayar, Periyar etc. supported the
British rule (unconditionally) all the time.
With regard to Bharati and castes, there is an excellent
book 'Paratiyum catikalum' by Ta. Pantiyan (Arunkumar Patippakam,
1981, 151p) which probes the question whether Brahmin was a