No document on contribution of Tamils to freedom struggle
There is a welcome announcement by Chief Minister M K Stalin in his first Independence Day speech from Fort St George: he promised to document the contributions of Tamils to the freedom struggle.
IE has often referred to the absence of any mention of the contribution of a leader from the south to the freedom struggle. Not just the national textbooks that refer to Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Subash Chandra Bose and seldom to any from Tamil Nadu like Subramania Bharathi, V O Chidambaram, Sardar Vedaratnam, Sathyamurthy, Rajaji… and there have been plenty such.
There have been very few historians who wrote in depth on the history of the Tamils. The result: the spread of knowledge on history has been left to novelists and writers of fiction like Kalki, M P Sivagnanam, Karunanidhi, Sandilyan, Vikraman, Vairamuthu… Caste-based political parties also revelled in glorifying the contribution of leaders belonging to their castes, almost to the neglect of the contributions of leaders from other castes (just look at the plethora of statues dotting Tamil Nadu of caste leaders).
M P Sivagnanam (Ma Po Si), is one of the renowned Tamil scholars and freedom fighters. He was instrumental in getting Tamil Nadu Tiruttani and Kanyakumari by effectively presenting the claims when the Madras Presidency was divided on language. An ardent nationalist and a close associate of Rajaji, he was thoroughly knowledgeable on the freedom movement and the contribution of Tamils. I quote a report on my conversation with him on this subject.
“Dr S Radhakrishnan, requested each state chief minister to write on the contribution of his state to the freedom movement. When a draft of such a work was discussed with Kamaraj, he was not impressed and just set aside the work. Thus, we had a strange record: while most other states had authentic, state-sponsored accounts of the contribution of their leaders to the freedom struggle, Tamil Nadu did not have one.
Thus, one shouldn’t be surprised over the absence of any mention of any serious contribution from the south even in Richard Attenburough’s Gandhi. While the entire West Bengal demanded and got attention to the contribution of Subash Chandra Bose, Maharashtra to B R Ambedkar or Gujarat to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Tamil Nadu failed to recognise the monumental contributions of Rajaji as a social reformer, as one who campaigned vigorously against the evil of liquor (in the Twenties and Thirties) and his historical march to Vedaranyam.
“Politicians have the right to interpret history as they like, but the task of writing history should better be left to a panel of historians who have impeccable credentials for objectivity.” (from IE September 1997).
I am, therefore, happy over the announcement of Chief Minister Stalin to document the role of Tamils in the freedom struggle.
