Subramanya Bharathi

One of the highly underrated poets of India, Bharathi was born to Chinnaswamy Iyer and Lakshmi Ammal on the 11th of December 1882. Known all over Tamil Nadu as Bharathiar, he spent his childhood days in the village Ettayapuram where he was born. He was very fond of music and started learning carnatic music at the age of 11. As a child, he lost his mother and shortly after that, he lost his father also. After his early marriage to his cousin Chellama at the age of fourteen, the restless Bharathi left home to travel the country. He pursued his spiritual education in the holy city of Benares. On his way back to South India, he met and was influenced by Sister Nivedita, the disciple of Swami Vivekananda in 1905. It was Sister Nivedita who spoke to him passionately about the upliftment of women in India. She was the flame that lit the fire of revolution in Bharathi. He also attended the All India Congress meeting in Calcutta in 1906. He was very much for the idea of Swaraj, or self rule, the phrase which was coined at this meeting.

In his days as assistant editor of Swadeshimitram, he wrote fiercely against the British and even published cartoons and caricatures, making him the first Indian to do so. He also started the Tamil weekly India and the English newspaper Bala Bharatham. In his papers, he published a lot of his poems, and articles which were mostly on poverty, upliftment of lower castes, against the British rule, on religious topics, and on the Russian and the French Revolutions.

He was a fierce revolutionary who desired a progressive, forward thinking society without the shackles of caste and creed. He was also an advocate of women's rights. He was ostacized by his community for his attitude towards the caste system. He would dine frequently with his low caste servants at their quarters and this would enrage the Brahmins to no end. Once, he hugged a donkey on the street, in full public view. He conducted mass upanayanams or thread ceremony for the non Brahmins which would irk his community. All his rebellions cost him much within the community and he was thrown out of the Brahmin fold. It did little to deter him and he continued his activities as before. He always spoke highly about the respect due to the Woman and treated this concept by referring to women as the Shakthi or power. His verse on women "We will destroy the idiocy Of denigrating Womanhood" speaks volumes on his thoughts about the issue. He has brought out his thoughts on women in his famous poem, Panchali Sapatham, in which he has portrayed Mother India as Draupadi.

His literary prowess has been proved time and again through his works. Kannan Pattu, a poem on Lord Krishna, and Kuyil Paatu, on the koel bird are among his better known poems. Kannan Pattu describes the life of Krishna as a child, a youth, and as an adult. Bharathi has portrayed himself as the Lord's lover in this poem. He was very fond of his mother tongue, Tamil and said that it was the sweetest of all the languages he had known. He was well versed in many languages including Kutchi, Bengali, French, Sanskrit, Hindi and English. He has used his poems on patriotism to encourage people to join the Freedom Struggle. He has spoken of Mother India in glowing terms in his work Paarukkulle Nalla Naadu.

Apart from being a literary wizard, he was also well versed in Carnatic music. He has composed almost a 1000 songs about politics,religion and patriotism. Every Tamil student of Carnatic music would have heard of his kriti Theeratha Vilayaatu Pillai. He was critical about singers who would sing the compositions in Sanskrit or Telugu without actually knowing their meaning. All his songs are in simple language making it easy to follow. He speaks of his love for his beloved in the song Suttrum Vizhi Chudare. In Bharathi Deviyin Thiru Dasangam, he has used ten different ragas. He has also pioneered a new style of Tamil poetry. Sadly, some of his compositions have been lost to us forever.

Bharathi also took part in the Freedom Movement. He attended the historic Surat session of Congress in 1907 which led to the split of the party over differences between the Extremists and the Moderates. He took up his position with the Extremists who were for an armed struggle against the British. In 1908, he gave evidence against the British, which led to the possibilty of an arrest. So, Bharathi fled to Pondicherry, which was under the French. While in Pondicherry, he met with many freedom fighters, including the legendary Aurobindo Ghosh. In 1918, he entered Cuddalore, which was British territory, and was arrested and was in prison for a period of three weeks. The cell where he was confined has become something of a shrine now, and a museum to his memory has come up in Pondicherry. While in Pondycherry, a group of patriots including Bharathiar, Aurobindo, and VVS Iyer would meet frequently. They called themselves the Swadeshis.

The imprisonment had eroded Bharathi's health to a great extent and he was a sunken man when he left prison. He resumed his editorial duties at the Swadeshimtram in 1920. He also met with Mahatma Gandhi. In 1921, he was struck by an elephant who was regularly fed by him, as he tried to feed a banana to it. He was saved from under the foot of the animal, but it was only a matter of time before his end came. On the 11th of September, the Mahakavi Bharathi breathed his last. He was just 39 years of age. He is believed to have suffered from a bout of dysentry. Ironically, his funeral was attended by only a handful of people. As he had enraged his community, there was no attendance from that quarter. The memory of a great man, who has left his footprints in the sands of time, is sufficient to guide us through perilous times. Even after nearly eighty years of his death, Bharathi is respected and revered all over.