Freedom Movement in Delhi 1930-31

 

T. S. Swaminathan (1909-2007)

Today, June 25^th, is my Father’s birthday. For me every day is Father’s Day. I miss him today more than ever. Chocolates and cashew nuts were the only gifts he would accept. Endowed with super encyclopaedical memory he could quote from Sanskrit, Tamil and English literature.  He dedicated his youth to his country and later to his work. A devout follower of Sanatana dharma, his day began with chanting Vishnu Sahasranamam. Our summer holidays were road trips to Thanjavur, museums and temples. In his younger days, he mastered chess and photography. He built a dark room in our bungalow for his equipment to develop film.

One of the first Actuaries in India, he was instrumental in establishing Life Insurance Corporation in 1955, and later after retirement was re-commissioned as Chief Custodian for the formation of General Insurance Corporation. After he retired for the second time, he was employed for 28 years in a company which had overseas dealings. He studied the U.S. Law as their Legal and Financial Advisor. He was 95 years old when he stopped working at this 9 to 5 job.

But what his colleagues and officers will remember about him is his strong incorruptible character and as a fearless votary of Truth. I found among my papers this interesting jotting describing in his own words, his involvement in the freedom movement.

Freedom Movement in Delhi 1930-1931

Delhi in 1929, was surcharged with nationalist sentiment. I was in Delhi in June that year in search of temporary employment. I was preparing for the ICS competitive examinations two years later. Bhagat Singh and his friends were in the Lahore Borstal jail. The sensational news of the uprising was constantly in the newspapers and with the launching of the Salt Satyagraha movement in 1930, it became impossible for me to complete a career as a government servant. I gave up the goal of becoming an ICS Officer. I also felt that one could not keep oneself away from this movement. Failure to participate in the national struggle cannot be explained away. I became a part of the national movement but without any official position therein. As soon as the Salt Satyagraha was announced, boycott of foreign cloth, became an important part of the programme. Delhi at that time was one of the most important cloth markets of Northern India, the other centres being Amritsar and Kanpur. At Delhi I was having my residence in the New Cloth Market on the Queen’s Road near the railway station-and more important, close to the Company Bagh, where all political meetings were being held. The boycott was very systematically organised in Delhi. We knew all the places- Katra, Kusha and godowns where there were stocks of foreign cloth. Volunteer guards were posted at all such places; any attempt to move the cloth out of Katra or godowns resulted in slogan shouting by the volunteers and the resulting crowd of Congress sympathizers effectively prevented any movement.

The volunteers were there day and night. Unofficially, I used to take one or two rounds every night to all these centres- all in Chandni Chowk. I was just brushed aside and left with a bleeding injured foot. This attracted the attention of the Press and the local leaders.

My nocturnal rounds to the Katra and godowns became generally known. This system was so effective that for nearly four or five months there was no movement of foreign cloth.

The Delhi merchants became desperate and some decided to brave the odium of the shouts of “toady bachcha hai hai” and defy the boycott. One fine morning in October 1930 there was a truck standing right in front of my residence in the cloth market loading cloth from the opposite shop. I started shouting and tried to stop the truck; the police took me into custody and charged me under the picketing ordinance. The effect of my arrest on my immediate circle of friends was electric. Two of my friends followed me into the jail by attending and trying to address a banned public meeting.  Others were meeting us daily at the jail gate and giving us news.

 

I was sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment placed in ‘B’ Class and transferred to the new Central Jail in Multan (now in Pakistan). In those days all state level leaders were in Multan and the rest in Attock. At Multan the “B” class prisoners consisted of representatives of all districts of Punjab.

From Lyallpur and Sargodha Montgomery to Hissar and Rohtak, as well as had been transferred with me from Delhi.

Life in Multan in winter was bearable because of the company. The ‘B’ Class prisoners formed a jolly good group as they were allowed rations and convict servants to cook food. There was no real hardship. We held a mock round table conference in the barrack.

However, I was attracted by the idea of further sacrifice when I found that a very respected leader Sardar Amar Singh Jhalbal and one Dandi marcher Krishnan Nair were in ‘C’ class in the same jail.  I obtained a voluntary transfer to ‘C’ class. Here, life was more tough; very rough blankets and shirts and bad food. No vegetables except radish and turnip. I sustained myself on bad rotis and gur in lieu of cigarettes as remuneration from the work done in the jail. But I had good company and I was able to improve my knowledge of Urdu by having Premchand’s short stories (some volumes were in circulation in the barracks) read out and explained to me. I formed some friendships which continued even after the release from the jail.  Amongst those in the jail were Batukeshwar Dutt -a co-accused with Bhagat Singh in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, Chaudhary Sher Jung -a scion of the princely house of Nahan (Sirmaurr)-turned-revolutionary and Kharag Bahadur Singh, a Nepali inmate of Sabarmati Ashram who was a Dandi marcher.

The release from jail in March 1931, was a wonderful experience. We were welcomed everywhere. I was travelling to Delhi with Kharag Bahadur Singh who was travelling to Rohtak (about thirty miles from Delhi).

The local public insisted that I too must get down at Rohtak. We were then taken in procession through the streets of Rohtak.

After his release from Multan Jail, one of my friends visited me in Delhi and we spent a few days together discussing the future course of action. Revolutionary activity was not excluded. Unfortunately, this was not to be. A bomb that he was carrying exploded killing my friend Chand Singh instantly. The Police found my address in Delhi among his personal effects. A police constable arrived in my office at Chandni Chowk- about a hundred yards from the Kotwali- to summon me for interrogation. Word got round that I had been arrested and there was consternation in the office. My Gujarati boss sent me on a round tour of the branch offices in Gujarat and Andhra to escape from the unwelcome attention of the Police. I returned to the office in Delhi after five months.

 

 

E.Krishna Iyer- The Champion of the Arts

                                     E.Krishna Iyer Photo Courtesy Meenakshi Viswanathan

.               It was a strange coincidence that my father would meet a gentleman in his office who introduced himself, in the course of the conversation, as the son-in-law of E. Krishna Iyer. My father informed him about my training under Kalakshetra, work with Bhagavata mela and asked if he could arrange a meeting with his wife. That is how I met Meenakshi Viswanathan the daughter of E. Krishna Iyer. She was a trained dancer herself and accompanied him on his travels to assist in the lecture demonstrations he held. I was excited and happy that I could meet someone who was part of our cultural history. Our meeting went on for over two hours and the end of it she handed over the souvenir released on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday and some photographs.  The souvenir had excellent information which I used as reference for this article. when I saw an obituary notice of her passing away. I immediately called on the contact number and spoke to her son Ram Kumar. When I launched my book “Bhagavata mela My Tryst with Tradition” I invited Shri Ram Kumar for the launch as I wanted him to receive the first copy. I was disappointed to know he that he will not be in town that day. On the day of the launch I was delight to open the door to his sister Uma Sundari and her husband who decided to drop in. I have paid a tribute to E. Krishna Iyer in my book as the pioneer revivalist of the arts in South India. The country owes him a great debt for his tireless efforts to successfully revive Bharata Natyam, Bhagavat Mela and folk arts. Although I wrote this a very long time ago, it remains unpublished. I am adding it to my blog only now.        Thunderous ovation greeted the end of the play “Malavika-Agnimitra” staged by Suguna Vilasa Sabha of Madras in 1924. The heroine, Malavika, had captured the hearts of the distinguished audience of artists and scholars. Among them was Melatur Natesa Iyer, a veteran artiste of the Bhagavata Mela tradition. He went in to meet the young man who in female disguise who had demonstrated such skill and talent in both music and dance and asked him if he would like to continue his training in art. Young Krishna  Iyer - for it was indeed he - declined, afraid that it would distract his practice and study of law. Finally, Natesa Iyer persuaded him, and at the young age of 27 came a turning point in Krishna Iyer’s life and he was set at the threshold of a great new world and a great mission in life. For over 30 years from then he was to dedicate his life to the revival of Bharata Natyam and the upliftment of artistes.   E. Krishna Iyer was born on August 9, 1879, in Kallidaikurichi, a village near Tirunelveli district. His parents were Kailasa Iyer and Ananthalakshmi. As was the custom in those days he was married to Parvathi Ammal when he was still in school. After high school in Ambasamudram, which had a reputation of high standards and discipline  he graduated from Madras Christian College before joining the Law college in Trivandrum. He had two sons Kailasa Eswaran and Seetharaman and a daughter Meena. His grand-children Ram Kumar, Kannan, Shekhar, Uma Sundari and Krishna are in various professions.   As a young boy, he had a passion for history and developed great interest in the English language. In 1918,  he took his Bachelor’s and was soon caught up in the feverish political activity in the country. He was a native member of the Home Rule Movement under Annie Besant and the Students Convention under  G.S. Arundale. He studied law and was called to the Bar in 1922. He entered serious politics in 1926.  He toured all over the south frequently engaging in political propaganda rousing the people with the high spirited patriotic songs of the poet Subramanya Bharati. He went willingly to jail twice for the  cause of national freedom. Krishna Iyer became a member of the Madras Corporation Council and for over a decade, he distinguished himself as a model City Father.   In 1943 he took to journalism and was Associate-Editor of “Free Press” a daily from Madras. He was the first editor of the “New Age”, a monthly magazine He also wrote as art critic for Kalki, Indian Express, Dinamani and the Mail.   Born with natural talent in music, Krishna Iyer developed a deep knowledge in music even in his youth. He had a splendid voice which brought him kudos when he once played the role of Ratnangi in a play called Sarangdhara. He acquired an insight into the essentials of the art and its purpose, and developed a critical sense to appraise concert music. After his meeting with Melatur Natesa Iyer, he trained himself in Bharata Natyam under him and later under the famous Devadasi Madurantakam Thangambal. He was so inspired by the art that he determined to launch an efective propaganda to revive and rescue it from near extinction. Due to the biased propaganda by the Anti-Nautch movement initiated by one Miss Tenant, the public mixed up the art with the evil. At every step, misguided social reformers looked with contempt at his efforts to revive an art which was connected with the low and the lewd. Krishna Iyer  was accused of bringing ruin to respectable family life by encouraging devadasis to perform in public. It required great courage and unshakeable faith in his mission to do what he did. Undaunted by such alarming accusations, Krishna Iyer preached that the spiritual quality can be brought out if  girls from  respectable families would take to it. He dressed himself in a saree when he performed and lectured in public. The most famous items in his recitals was the Cosmic dance. He began this item by dancing  on a plate of water. With a concluding Thirmanam, he jumped on  to a big clay pot.  He then executed  a complete intricate Thillana on the pot. This was no mere gimmickry but required tremendous skill, practice and control of the body. A man of great courage and conviction, E. Krishna Iyer boldly broke the spell of social stigma against Bharata Natyam by presenting it to the scholars and experts on the Music Academy platform during the decade long Secretaryship of the prestigious association. This enraged the followers of the Anti-Nautch movement and there began the historic press controversy over the advisability of reviving dance in decent society. This controversy which  can well be called an important milestone in the history of our dance, was begun by Muthu Lakshmi Reddi. This aroused public interest considerably and the end of the heated dialogue gained  a significant victory for E. Krishna Iyer. He discovered several outstanding devadasi dancers of whom Sabharanjitam, Nagaratnam, Mylapore Gouri Amma and Balasaraswati are well-known.  He also sent out a call, requesting girls from respectable families to take to the art. In fact, it was after witnessing a performance by Rajalakshmi and Jeevaratnam, two devadasis that Smt. Rukmini  Devi was so impressed that she decided to learn the art herself. Kalanidhi, a young Brahmin girl was the first to perform in public. In 1934, Krishna Iyer was invited to an All-India Music Conference in Benaras. He took young Balasaraswati with him and together with his comprehensive commentary  opened the eyes art lovers assembled there. Rabindranath Tagore, who was present among the august audience was highly impressed by Bala’s peerless art.   A man of inexhaustible enthusiasm, E. Krishna Iyer did not rest on his laurels and one mission successful he promptly set himself another task. He now turned his attention to the dance-drama form of Bhagvad Mela Natakam. It was due to his pioneering efforts, relentless research, and scholarly  persuasions that the art of the forgotten villages of Melattur and Soolamangalam was brought to the urban stage, He spent seven years on this mission and brought several modifications and improvements in its presentation to suit a city audience.   The triumphs of Krishna Iyer in every field he took up, made him search for fresh pastures to work on. Finding the classical had gained sufficient value and importance, he switched his interest to discover  and reform folk music and dance. As the first honorary secretary to the Madras State Sangeeta Nataka Academy, he toured extensively and organized an All-Madras Folk-Dance Festival at Tanjore in 1956. He brought to the notice of the public, dances like Poikkal Kudarai Attam (dummy horse dance) and Bommalattam (Puppetry). Krishna Iyer was convinced of the greatness of the folk arts and their place in the cultural heritage of the country. With a view to educate public opinion and to improve their tastes and standards in the arts, Iyer wrote numerous articles on the subject in both English and Tamil papers. He also became a regular reviewer and critic for all art programmes conducted  in the city.   Mr. Krishna Iyer’s reviews of dance programmes made criticism into the art. He was just, impartial  and would never fear to write what he felt was the correct judgement. At the same time, he never praised a dancer to the skies nor did he drop her to wallow in misery and self-depreciation. He steered a middle path between the extremes and only an exceptionally good dancer could get an ecstatic review from him. His words were worth its weight in gold and many a promising young dancer has been helped and encouraged in her career by this great connoisseur. Having been through the discipline of training himself and having faced the bitterness of failure and joy of success himself, he was naturally sympathetic to the aspiring artiste.   Thus, Krishna Iyer’s fame as an artiste, writer and public worker spread and he was invited to give lectures on Bharata Natyam and dances of Tamil Nadu. On many occasions he was accompanied by  another graceful dancer, Saroja Khokar. Talking to Meena, one gets a picture of the sincerity and  greatness of her father’s nature. Meena is the only daughter in a family of three. Meena has trained under Guru Muthu Kumarappa Pillai and accompanied her father for lecture-demonstrations. She reminisced, “He never had time for family problems, but involved all of us in whatever work he was doing. So much so, the problems of the nation were the problems of our family.” In 1957 a grateful gathering of dancers, musicians, scholars and art lovers, held a public reception to felicitate him on his sixtieth birthday. Many expressed their personal gratitude to him and hailed him as the foremost pioneer to whom the country owes the retrieval of our rich heritage from the murky depths of ignorance and prejudice. His single-handed championship of the arts deserves special mention in the history of dance and music.   If Krishna Iyer was fortunate to see the fulfilment of his mission in his own lifetime, he also saw how  art could be exploited in the hands of money-making gurus and over enthusiastic parents. He lamented the fact that young children of 7 or 8 should be presented on the stage, when they could hardly understand  what they were doing. Again, short term crash courses of 6 months or one year will surely destroy, he felt, the highly skillful technique which is the very essence of Bharata Natyam.   E. Krishna Iyer cherished a great desire to establish a central college for Bharata Natyam. He felt that gurus specialised in one or more facets of Bharata Natyam. The central college should engage the services of these specialists so that the student could avail of the experience and knowledge of these experts under one roof. Rukmini Devi’s Kalakshetra is a dream come true as the ideal school for training in the traditional Pandanallur style.   Keywords: E.Krishna Iyer, Rukmini ,  Bharata Natyam,  Bhagavata mela,   Melattur Natesa Iyer