The experiences bestowed by Kanchi-Mahaswami — Part 16 : Fear, Indifference, Depression, Excitement
(A humble translation of the original article by Sri S.Gurumurthy , as it had appeared in Thuglak Tamil Magazine) —
https://www.thuglak.com/thuglak/main.php?x=curissue/ninaithu_paarkiraen_16_12_2020.php
In the struggle against the state of emergency, Tamilnadu & Gujarat were the two islands of democracy. In those two state, non-congress parties were ruling the state — DMK in TN & Janata-Jana sangh alliance in Gujarat. In the rest of the states, the emergency excesses started from Day 1. TN govt was dismissed on 31st Jan, 1976 and Gujarat govt was dismissed on 13th Mar, 1976 by Indira Gandhi. Till then (7–8 months), the respective states were providing operating space for the anti-fascists forces. Since there was a clamp down on the print media, they were not able to report the actual happenings. Secret printing presses were set up in the two places , truthful info were printed in all Indian languages and distributed. In the beginning, leaders of the underground movement were meeting in those two states. RSS& Jana sangh combination had the responsibility of managing the underground movement. RSS presence was widespread in Gujarat and scattered in TN. It was a huge responsibility on the shoulders of RSS in TN.
Secret/Underground Committee
In the resistance against state of emergency, thousands of people across the country participated secretly. Like now, the underground movement was not made of terrorists & extremists. There is a sea of difference between that movement and today’s secret movements. Today’s secret movements are anarchist ones, who want to thwart the Indian constitution and destroy democracy. The secret movements during the emergency were fighting against the govt that destroyed the Indian constitution and democracy. It prepared the people (during the election time) to fight against authoritarian regime. As part of the large tasks, we were divided into small groups with responsibilities. Myself, RSS pracharak C.Gopalan & Vivekananda college professor K.V.Varadarajan were part of a small team.
Our first duty was to meet Entrepreneurs, important personalities and noble people; Explain the emergency excesses to them; Gather funds to support the resistance related activities and support the families of members who are imprisoned. As an audit manager, I was part of Gowrikanthan’s audit firm that was conducing the audit of Indian Express accounts. I asked my senior Gowrikanthan 6 months leave of absence to work in the movement against emergency. He granted the same with 6 months of pay and told me to be careful, since I was newly married at that time. If he had not given the pay in advance, our joint family would have struggled. I met in the sannidhi of Kanchi Mahaswami and got a job in his audit firm. I have mentioned before about the relationship with Goenka that started from there.
Will we be tortured?
People at all levels were terrified. If we would talk about the authoritarianism with anyone, either they may chase us out or hand over to the police or any other action was possible. I can share an example to illustrate the state of terrified people and it surprised us too. V.Saminatha Sharma was a popular Tamil writer, since 1920s. In 1930s, when the whole world was praising Hitler, he had the premonition to write , “Hitler is a dictator and capable of bringing threat to Germany & the world”. Since, he had condemned Hitler’s authoritarian rule, we thought that he might condemn Indira too. He was aged 82 and staying at Kalakshetra, supported by Rukmini Arundale. We went to Kalakshetra and knocked his door for 30 minutes. Then, his helper boy appeared and told that he was suffering from hearing troubles. He started banging the door with a big stick. Finally, the door was opened by Sharma himself.
He was having the hearing-aid device and prompted us to speak. We shouted at the top of our voice and it did not help. Then, he told us to write it on a slate-board. When we wrote about the purpose of our visit, he was frightened. Then he started begging that he did not write anything wrong about Hitler. He was afraid that Indira might harass him over that issue.We were able to see the pathetic condition of that old person, who was in a state of fear. We were attracted by his writings and told him that no harm would happen to him. Then, he got relaxed a bit. Then, finally he had uttered. “Indira would apply needles in his nail-joints”. It highlighted the mood of the common people. Then, we prostrated to him and moved out. This meeting left a deep impact on us. Many would refuse to accept the secret newspapers that would carry the actual happenings. We had met different sets of people — those who would tremble at the sight of such newspapers, those who would plead not to trouble them, chase us away in anger.
“We need military rule”, “Gavaskar, four, four”
We were accompanied by old freedom fighter N.S.Varadachariar in our meeting with few people. Since he was bare-upper-bodied all the time, he was called as “No shirt” Varadachariar. Everyday, he would chant the 18 chapters of Srimad Bhagavad Geetha. We had gone to meet an entrepreneur with him. When we explained the reason behind the meeting, the entrepreneur yelled at us on top voice, “Our country does not deserve democracy or authoritarian rule also. What we need is the military rule. Look at the discipline. No strikes, Trains are running on time and our economy is growing”. Directly, he did not ask us to get lost. Then, he gained his composure and apologized to Varadachariar and did not give a single paisa. (The rants of those entrepreneur are eerily similar to shenanigans who are praising democracy-less China, today).
At some places, the crickets fans were listening to the cricket commentary in their transistor and would scream in excitement, “Wow, Gavaskar, four, four!”. For them, Gavaskar’s boundary was more important than the imprisonment of thousands of their fellow citizens. Our arrival was interrupting their cricketing pleasure. After listening to our explanation about the situation in the country, some were indifferent and mention that they cannot do anything about that; some were expressing their pity on us (Goenka mentioned due to such happenings, he lost interest in cricket; for a cricket fan, even if there is an Indo-pak war, only sixers, wickets were important for them).
A malayali shipping agent promised us Rs.1001. It was a big sum at that time. Due to the fear mongering created by some, we could not get a single rupee from him, despite our repeated approach. We don’t know what happened to those who were calling themselves legendary-fighters. From our experience, we had figured out the different modes of slavery, despite gaining political independence. We were wondering, for what cause or which people, many got us Independence by going to prison, died due to hanging or shoot outs? We remembered the words of Mahakavi Bharathiar’s words — “slaves who continue to serve”.
Young intelligent Man, why do you want to get into trouble?
One the key personalities that we met was Brhammaiya, who was the owner of a famous audit firm. He welcomed and patiently listened to us. Finally, he had advised me, “Young man, you are a very intelligent person. You have a bright future in the audit field. Why do you want such troubles”? We lost our hopes, after meeting many. And, we had some brave hearts like Auditor G.Narayanaswamy, Advocate Sampathkumar were helping us. RSS leadership helped us to maintain the morale. We were further encouraged by stalwarts like Cho, ira.Chezhian, (RSS leaders) Ramagopalan, Suryanarayana rao, Sivaram Jokalekar, who were fighting the emergency tooth & nail. The common people accepted our view point and were pivotal in Indira’s defeat in 1977.
From Nov 1975 onwards, RSS conducted nationwide Satyagraha against Indira’s govt.My brother went to prison during that time. On the last day of the Satyagraha struggle (26th Jan, 1976), myself & Gopalan had gone to Marina beach to witness the program. Gopalan was identified and arrested by the secret police. Since, I was with my wife, it was my good fortune that I was not identified by them and escaped from imprisonment. Gopalan got released in April. Then, we continue to meet more people and included the advocates Sankaranaryanan, Muthukrishnan, Rajendran et al. We organized a conference on fundamental rights and it gave a major boost to our morale. Supreme court justice K.S.Hegde, Cho, Ira.Chezhian spoke in that conference
Post script: How did I go incognito
In 1976, after the dismissal of DMK govt, the police was searching for me. Our joint family was living in a house called “Sadhu Gruham” at a locality in chennai. Our residing quarters was in the back and not visible from the front yard. When the police came in search of him, our house owner had told no one by that name lives here. A particular happening in 1976 helped me to escape from the clutches of secret police. Freedom fighter V.R.Radhakrishnan was also in the search list and happened to my friend. We used to meet frequently. He had an hearing problem. When I had gone to meet him, the local Intelligence bureau official was also coming to meet him. He was taking care of the intelligence network in chennai. When he had approached Radhakrishnan, I said, “Sir, if Gurumurthy comes to meet you, please tell him that I am not in town for a week” and moved away immediately.
Radhakrishnan did not get my message. But it went into that official’s mind that Gurumurthy & I are different. From that day, Gurumurthy had absconded. Without revealing our original identity, I continued to perform my work. I got a new name — Nachiketa. (When I started writing in Thuglak, Cho gave me that nickname. After the emergency, I went to the residence of IB official , gave him sweet and revealed my identity. Then he told me that he believed what I said on that day and had a hip-roaring laugther.
