Remembering Mahakavi Bharathiyar: The forgotten warrior poet from Tamil Nadu
Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu wrote in an essay on Bharathi: “He applied the knowledge of the illustrious past to contemporary realities and dreamt of shaping a new brighter future, he was a man with extraordinary vision, passion and erudition.” He wasn’t off target. The occasion was him awarding DR Karthikeyan the Bharathi award for his contributions to the nation on Bharathi’s birth anniversary.
In the state, Bharathi’s birthday is overshadowed by Rajinikanth’s birthday, which the youth of the state prefer to celebrate. Historically, his contributions were marginalised in the state thanks to his caste due to which he was sidelined in favour of other poets. At the national level, unlike Rabindranath Tagore who could not be brushed aside thanks to his Nobel prize and the fact that his poem is the national anthem though he was a regional poet, Bharathi had little to show for outside his run as a journalist, poet, freedom fighter, social reformer, scholar and, above all, a patriot who dreamt for the future of the country.
Born as Subbaiah Pillai to a patriotic father who wanted his son to become an engineer, who could challenge the might of the technical knowledge of the British, Bharathi was more interested in songs and poetry. He got the title Bharathi (someone blessed by Saraswati) from Ettayapuram Maharaja when he was 11 years old. He had immense love for languages. His stay in Varanasi opened his mind to spirituality and nationalism. He also took up social reformation upon seeing the plight of the people of “lower castes”. He left his Hindu Brahmin identity in Varanasi and it cost him dearly in his lifetime — it ostracised him from his community and caused him to be alienated by others as well. To Brahmins, he wasn’t one of their own, to non-Brahmins, he was a Brahmin; to people in general, Bharathi was uncategorised.
His meeting with Sister Nivedita, Swami Vivekananda’s disciple, added women’s rights to his already wide repertoire of social issues from caste to Independence to spiritualism. He took up the symbolism of Shakthi as the image of modern women; powerful, strong, independent and equal partners to men.
He started working as a journalist and started publishing his writings in the form of prose and poetry on a regular basis, as well as addressing public meetings to garner support for the Independence moment — gaining a following and respect in the process. He is said to have met Gandhi, who invited him as a guest speaker. When the dates didn’t tally, unlike the norm then where they moved the dates, he refused saying that people are more important and they must not be disappointed with the postponement of the meeting. Gandhi is said to have asked to protect this man who stood for what’s right rather than the who’s who.
Having realised that being in prison would not be much help in his mission, he escaped to Pondicherry, which was the underground destination for freedom fighters, and continued to work from there. His Panchali Sabatham (The vow of Draupadi) is an iconic work that pictures India as Draupadi, the British, the Kauravas and the freedom fighters as Pandavas. Through Draupadi’s struggle, he euphemised the struggle of mother India under British rule.
His poetry was, however, not limited to just nationalism or women’s emancipation but also covered a wide spectrum, including romance, devotion, environment, untouchability and the future of India. He dreamt of an India where all the states loved their language while cherishing other languages and cultures. Interest in Bharathi and his poetry was kept alive thanks to the latter’s use as songs in Tamil movies. The poet-freedom fighter himself was revived thanks to the National Award-winning film Bharathi by Gnana Rajasekaran, starring Sayaji Shinde.
It was a travesty that only 14 people attended his funeral, fearing repercussion from the British and caste ostracisation. The bigger travesty was him getting sidelined with the advent of the Dravidian moment in the state which was founded on the basis of Anti-Brahminism. The biggest travesty, however, was the overlooking of the contributions of numerous regional freedom fighters across the states in favour of a select few to suit the narrative of political parties.