Chilakamarthi – Trend Setting Nationalist

– Professor P. RAMALAKSHMI, Dept. of History & Archaeology, Nagarjuna University

Chilakamarthi Lakshmi Narasimham the blind bard of Rajahmundry, was a true symbol of the latter half of 19^th Century. His literary accompliments and zeal for social reform involved him in various movements, aimed at improving social life. He was a sympathizer of Brahmo ideals, took active part in spreading literacy especially for girls and downtrodden encouraged widow marriages, condemned nautch parties, fought against the contemporary superstitions, worked for the upliftment of Harijans etc., in all these activities, he continued the work of Veeresalingam and Venkataratnam Naidu. But by championing the cause of freedom movement, he overcome their limitations and became a trendsetter as the poet turned nationalist. He mobilized public towards freedom movement through effective speeches and writings. He responded equally to almost all the phases of national struggle. These services dominate his services in literary and social spheres and contradict the usual reference to him merely as a literary figure and reformer.

C.L.Narasimham was a student of Veeresalingam in School education and a disciple in social reform, it is interesting to find that while Veeresalingam’s literary writings were aimed at social reform alone, those of Narasimham advanced in mobilizing public towards nationalist movement. Besides experimenting with different forms of literature like poetry, prose, novel, drama and humorous skits (Prahasanas) he conscientized the people about the contemporary situation through his monthly magazine “Manorama” and weekly “Desamatha”.

ENTRY INTO POLITICS:

It is supposed that only from the visit of Bipin Chandra Pal to Rajahmundry in 1907 Narasimham began his association with freedom struggle. It was not such a sudden switchover but consistent involvement in the day to day things that made him a prominent figure during Pal’s visit.

LOYALTY TO THE BRITISH RAJ:

As a true disciple of Veeresalingam, Narasimham expressed his loyalty to Queen Victoria in the meetings that were held in 1887 in connection with the golden jubilee celebrations of her coronation. Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Vaddadi Subbarayudu, Vavilala Vasudeva Sastri and Susarla Ananta Rao composed peoms. Narasimham too wrote nine poems but were read in the name of his friend.

A meeting was again held in Rajahmundry in 1897 under the presidentship of the District Collector Brodie in connection with the diamond jubilee celebrations. Nyapathi Subba Rao, Madireddi Venkata Ratnam Naidu and Veeresalingam praised her rule. Narasimham read poems listing out the benefits of British rule like protection to lives and property, improvement in communications, and public works, increasing literacy due to the establishments of schools etc., He concluded with a benediction saying that the queen should rule over this country for thousand more years¹. These were published in the Telugu Journal Chintamani.

From loyalty to the British Raj, he slowly moved towards patriotism and this he overtook Veeresalingam.

COGRESS MEMBER:

Narasimham attended the meetings of National Congress with patriotic zeal. His attendance at the All India National Congress Sessions in 1894, 1898 and 1903 made him an advocate of the ideals of the congress as popularized by Surendranath Benerji, Lal Mohan Ghosh and Firoz Mehta. He became a strong supporter to the cause of swadesi, swaraj and national education

GODAVARI DISTRICT CONFERENCES:

Narasimham participated in almost all the sessions of Godavari District conferences. In the first Godavari District conference, held in Kakinada in June 1895, he composed 14 poems on the plight of the peasants. They reflect the moderate view of reforms within the British rule. ² Still he presented the dissatisfaction of the people with the British Raj by referring to various taxes like land tax, water tax, water cess, municipal taxes, stamp duties and even salt tax. He gave expression to the aim of the conference also by saying that it should bring the rulers and ruled closer by improving on the limitations of the British rule. ³

He was a support to the successive assemblies. He attended the second in Rajahmundry in 1896, third in Eluru in 1897 and the fourth at Pasalpudi in 1898. There he concluded his poems, written exclusively for this through a more powerful and effective tone.⁴ Though he did not attend the sixth assembly at penumantra in 1903. He helped in its conduct by sending the needed furniture. Then there was a gap due to the lack of hosts. The Godavari District Conferences were received in 1913 at Kakinada, subsequently followed by that of Rajahmundry in 1914 and the next one took place in Pithapuram in April 1919. Narasimham attended all the three.

OTHER REGIONAL CONFERENCES:

Apart from participating in national and Godavari District conferences, he participated in other regional conferences too like the first Krishna District conference in Guntur in 1896, Visakhapatnam District conference in Vizianagaram in 1911, Madras provincial congress meet at Kakinada in June 1902. Krishna District political conference at Tenali in May 1908 etc., Narasimham’s literary and social activities on the one hand and his attendance at the national and regional conferences on the other exerted consistent influence on his increasing patriotic fervor.

ROLE IN VANDEMATARAM MOVEMENT:

On 16^th October 1905, Bengal was partitioned against the wishes of the people. With swaraj as a goal and swadesi and national education as the means, Vandemataram movement started gaining momentum. Among the various places in Andhra that came under its grip, Rajahmundry alone provides the example of one with organizational base.

Swadesi meetings

Narasimham participated in all the meetings that were held in the town to protest against the partition of Bengal and the arrest of Surendranath Benerji during 1905–06. On 25^th October 1905, a meeting was held under the presidentship of Mr. Bhaskara Ramaiah to encourage love for swadesi goods. This meeting took place when the Parsee merchants from Bombay were trying to sell their foreign cloth in Rajahmundry. Narasimham spoke in Telugu. The meeting resolved to appoint a committee to take practical stpeps to encourage, local and indigenous arts and industries through the establishment of “Rajahmundry Industrial Institute”. Rajahmundry Industrial Association also conducted frequent meetings. At one of which Narasimham presided and Kowtha Srirama Sastry spoke.

Bala Bharathi Samithi:

Narasimham was closely associated with Balabharathi samithi formed in February 1907. He became its Vice–President while G.Lakshmanna was its President. It consisted of the Youth of the town – students and prominent figures. They tried to educated the people and to conscientise the public about the present state of things and political development.

On Sivarathri day in February 1907, Balabharatha Samithi organized an hnprecedented, procession to Kotilingala at the banks of the river Godavari, singing patriotic songs and wearing Vandemataram badges. Leading men like G. Lakshmanna and Narasimham were in the front – ranks, followed by the crowd of students. Gadhicherla Hari Sarvottama Rao, student of Training college apprised the crowd about swadesi and boycott. Thus places of socio–religious importance became the nucleus of political awakening as was done in other parts of India.

Pal’s addresses in Rajahmundry April 19–24, 1907:

Bipin Chandra Pal visityed Andhra at the invitation of Mutnuri Krishna Rao, the editor of Krishna Patrika. He arrived in Rajahmundry on April 19, 1907. A rousing welcome was given to him by the Rajahmundry public 900 platform tickets were sold on that day besides a huge crowd waiting outside the station. It took two hours for Pal to reach the bunglow from station.

Pal spoke for five days, condemning the British policies. Narasimham who was knownm for his effective style of expression and photographic memory, translated all these five lectures at the end of each into Telugu and conveyed the message in the same emotion. In the last lecture on national education, Pal stated that college discipline was to be super – seeded when it clashes with duty to one’s own country. On the last day of the meeting, Narasimham composed a poem depicting the picture of India. Though India is a milch cow, its milk is being robbed away by the British cowherds while the Indian calves are crying for it. This became narasimham as the President of the Dramatic Association, presented Rs.150/– to Bipin Chandra Pal, money derived from the performance of drama ‘Veni Samharam’ to support the cause of swaraj. Thus he strengthened the movement both morally and materially.

It is interesting to note the difference in attitude of Narasimham and Veeresalingam towards the rusticated students of Rajahmundry colleges. There was open defiance by the students of arts and Training college to principal mark Hunter in 1907. Students shouted the slogan of barred 130 students. While Veeresalingam looked at these rusticated students with disfavour, charging them as indisciplined, Narasimham had admiration for them for taking up the bold step of risking their careers. Veeresalingam though agreed earlier to give sundaramma, and educated widow to Kamaraju Hanumanth Rao, imposed conditions later, since he disliked the idea of giving her to an indisciplined one. Narasimham and others could succeed finally in getting the marriage performed after great difficulty.

Narasimham was sympathetic to Ravuri Rama Krishnayya, another rusticated student who sold khadi for several months in the mofussil and introduced swadesi loom priced at Rs.7/–.

Writings:

Narasimham was a prolific writer and mobilized public towards national movement, the poems that he composed condemning Lala Lajpati Roy’s arrest reveal his understanding of the situation. He stated that India itself was a prison with Indians as captives and hence the political arrests were nothing but shifting the captives from one prison to another.

Narasimham along with Attili suryanarayana contributed a number of articles to Satyavolu Gunneswara Rao’s weekly “Andhra Kesari” which was full of news regarding swadesi, boycott of foreign goods, swaraj and national education.

Publisher and editor:

Besides being a contributor, Narasimham founded “Manorama”, a monthly magazine in January 1906 and a weekly paper “Desamatha” “Manorama magazine conscientised its readers about the contemporary developments and instilled in them sense of responsibility and service to the nation. It encouraged the swadesi spirit in two ways: a) by focusing attention on those who came up in lives through self–effort by giving biographies of Indians like Sir Jemshadji Tata, thus transmitting the idea that independent profession was preferable to the official one and b) publishing information on indigeneous crafts. In this context, the poems of Achanta Suryavanarayana Raju on the crafts exhibhition at Narasapur deserve mention. In one of them the poet presented the contemporary plight of the loss of skills in manufacturing articles, paving the way for the drain of Indian wealth. He asked the crafts – men to rebegin their work and revive the old glory.

‘Manorama’ also published articles on the reasons for Indian poverty and thus conscientised the people on the drain of Indian wealth. Attili Suryanarayana traced Indian poverty to the advent of the British. This article was highly educative since it was based on the writings of Naoroji, William Digby, Ramesh Chandra Dutt and Subrahmanya lyer.

‘Manorama’ familiarized its readers about the social reformers and nationalists by serializing the biographical sketches of personalities like Ram Mohan Roy, Ewara Chandra Vidyasagar, Kesavachandra Sen, Rama Krishna Paramahamsa, Bamkimchandra chetterji etc., Sketches of Bengali leaders ended with the 12^th volume and those of the Marathas started.

Book – Reviews published in Manorama editions were informative and inspiring. Gadicherla Harisarvottama Rao’s “Abraham Lincoln” was reviewed in vol. II No.3 with the message that he was against the concept of racial inequality;” “Upanyasa Manjari” consisting of Telugu Translations of the speeches of nationalist leaders like Naojoji, Gokhale, Surendranath Banerji, Tilak etc., was reviewed in May – June 1907. Mangipudi Venkatasarma’s “Vandemataram”, presenting the old glory and contemporary plight was reviewed in the same book. K.V.Lakshmana Rao’s “Hindu Desa Katha Samgraham” was reviewed in Vol. II, October 1907. Unnava Lakshminarayana and J. Gurunatham’s book” India Rajya Tantram” containing British policies, diplomacy, different forms of drain of wealth, famines, native organizations etc. was also reviewed.

It is no wonder that Manorama, even during the first year itself could get four patrons and roughly 450 subscribers.

C. L.Narasimham started “Desamatha”, weekly paper, in 1910. Though the paper continued only for a very short period i.e. till 1919, it did focus on the regional issues and contribute to the growing Nationalism. The tough attitude of the European lady teacher Peddy in the Girls Training school became object of criticism and the lady was transferred as a consequence. Rajahmundry Municipality was also criticized.

From July 1911, complaints had gone to the District Collector than the paper Desamatha was bent on publishing anit–British articles alone. Narasimham displayed his adherence to the patriotic ideals by not compromising them with personal benefits. He refused to make his Desamatha into a subsidized one since one of the conditions of subsidy was to publish articles always in support of the government. He believed that taking subsidy meant nothing but selling one’s own soul to the British. He wished to run the paper independently, even at a higher cost, so as to have the liberty to criticiese the government the government whenever necessary.

There were other instances where he was prepared to forego the positions and privilies whenever they clashed with those of national interests.

1) He resigned his membership in the governing body of the Hitakarini High school when he was told that his membership was coming in the way of the school getting government grants. It was due to his association with the Vandemataram movement. In fact, the school was the same Hindu, Lower secondary school started by Narasimham and taken over by Veerasalingam. Still his love for the school did not obstruct his adherence to nationalism.

2) He refused to write Telugu Readers for Forms IV and V to the English company on the ground that the profits would go to the foreigners. His argument was interesting: he said that the British were keen not to leave the profits from even Telugu books to the natives. He finally stated that he would give the books to a native company if such offer comes or he would publish them himself. He firmly stated that he would not allow the foreign company to take away the profits on the publication of Telugu books atleast.

Narasimham’s exemplary nature was revealed from the following incident also: when Mrs. Besant was interned in 1917, several meetings took place. The Godavari District collector Beckett warned him not to canvass for national movement since he was known to be an effective speaker and writer and was known for mobilizing public. He warned him to be cautious in his speeches and writings. The reaction for this was that Narasimham spoke in as much emotion as possible at a meeting on the same day. Even during the non – co – operation movement, Narasimham spoke several times exhorting the people to do their best. He lamented that his blindness came in the way of courting arrests.

Thus, Chilakamrthi Lakshmi Narasimham was not merely an ordinary literacy figure or a mere social reformer. Even as a literary figure, he was the trend setter in Telugu nationalist writings. From being an ordinary supporter of British Raj, he moved towards nationalism and became its strong advocate. Through exemplary life, he displayed how national interests cold have precedence over personal interests. He was one of the earliest advocates of economic nationalism and therefore, deserves a premier position among nationalists too. Though he was shot into prominence during Pal’s visit as translator of hi 5 day speeches, he was closely associated with the movement even before and after his visit. He had all the qualities necessary to become a national leader – commitment, self sacrificing nature, association with leaders, ability to converse with non–Telugus (Command of English) etc. Yet he remained a Regional Nationalist Leader mainly because of his physical handicap – blindness which made him a dependent on others even for routine things.