[As the Congress approached its annual session in Madras in December 1914, Bharati wrote a balanced assessment of G. Subramania Iyer, patriot, social reformer and one of the founders of The Hindu and later of Swadesamitran. Prior to the session, Mr. Iyer wrote a curtain raiser in New India, a daily run by Annie Besant. Bharati responded to that piece with this letter.] To the Editor of The Hindu Sir, — There is hope for Madras. For she has still some veteran leaders of the calibre of Mr G. Subramania Iyer. Mr Iyer is a patriot of the orthodox type- that prosaic, yet noble type, midway between the fanatic and the funk. For the last three decades and more, this man has been unceasingly thinking and writing about his country, her wrongs and her hopes. The dazzling brilliancy of genius, Mr Iyer certainly has not. The Gods have certainly not bestowed on him any of those of shining, semi-divine mental gifts. But they have mercifully withheld from his composition the cheap and deceitful flashes, so painfully common amongst us in these latter days- the spurious, multi-coloured and short-lived flames of the political dilettante and charlatan. He is not a star, nor a meteor, nor ignis fatuus. He is the unfailing sacrificial fire. A modest beacon-light over the troubled waters of Indian politics. The Gods have given him plenty of suffering, as they give to every mortal on earth. Perhaps, the Gods decree more suffering to men who wish to help human evolution than to others. But to G. Subramania Iyer, they have granted the strength to bear all the burden and heat of the day, never complaining, never despairing. This man can endure; he can therefore build. He can suffer; he can therefore elevate. Unaided, he has made Tamil Journalism a fact of the world, in spite of his very imperfect early training in Tamil literature. Learn, says the Tamil aphorist, while you are yet young. In Mr G. Subramania Iyer’s youth he had wholly neglected his mother-tongue like most people in this country who claim to have been educated in English Schools. But his mature patriotism had to realise, later on, that for the elevation of the Tamil race, the Tamil language would be not only the most rational but the indispensable medium. ‘Il faut de l’audace; encore de l’audace; toujours de l’audace.’ They win, who dare. Mr Iyer dared and he has succeeded in establishing a daily Tamil journal which, with all its faults, is the most useful newspaper in the Tamil country. His whole political gospel can be summed up in these words: ‘Peaceful, but tireless and unceasing effort.’ Let us sweat ourselves into swaraj, he would seem to say. Indian, Madrasi and Brahman. Mr Iyer is naturally averse to all troubles and vexing complications. When strong winds are about, his policy is to bend. He bends, but he is not a reed. He is the bending oak tree, the Suppliant Bhima. His recent contribution to the New India on the National Congress is vigorous, manly, sage and eminently useful. His chief suggestions are: 1. That we unite all parties and make the Congress a real council of the people. 2. That the Congress be made less spectacular and more business-like. 3. That we demand a definite pledge from British Statesmen on the question of Indian Autonomy. He has made other suggestions also but these three are the fundamental ones. I wish Mr Iyer had dwelt at greater length on his idea of a permanent location for the Congress. Nor am I quite sure that his restriction of the number of delegates to a maximum of 500 will be to our advantage at present. He might also have written more fully about the methods of election that he would like to see adopted. The election of delegates is one of the most urgent problems demanding the attention of our Congressmen and I am sorry to see that none of us has clear ideas on the subject. We want our best men for Congress work and we want that every Indian should feel that the Congressmen are his true representatives. The ways and means for achieving this double object will, I hope be fully discussed by our patriots at the ensuing sessions of the Congress. But our greatest and most sacred work of the hour has been indicated by Mr Iyer in the concluding sentence of his remarkable article. The people does not realise its own strength and we must make it do so. This is the clarion call of the veteran patriot. May young India think with an affirmative response. C. SUBRAMANIA BHARATI Pondicherry, December 2
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 08:07:43 +0000
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